Confucius Ziyun:
"He who believes has sight, but his eyes are not trustworthy, and his heart is not enough to be ashamed." Disciples remember that it is not easy to know people. ”
That is to say, it is difficult to judge a person's personality, because seeing is not necessarily true, and judging by feeling is not reliable. A gentleman with elegant manners may secretly be a despicable and shameless thief; a nun with a kind eyebrow and a good purpose, whose real identity is that of a wanted Jiang Yang thief; and a beggar who looks dirty and rude, but is actually a good person who is helpful.
French director Fabrice Joubert's animated short film "French Stir-fried Coffee" tells such a seemingly absurd but thought-provoking story in just 8 minutes. The film won the Best Animated Film Award at the 2009 Córdoba International Animated Film Festival in Argentina, and was nominated for the 82nd Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, with a Douban score of 7.8, and is a small short film full of philosophical speculation.
The film tells that in a café on the side of the road, a gentleman forgot to bring his wallet and could not pay the bill, and could only rely on constantly renewing cups to delay time, he decided to take the risk of stealing the money of an old nun next door, but accidentally found that this old lady was actually a Jiangyang thief wanted by the police! The scene is chaotic, and in the end, the exposed old lady rises away under the panicked gaze of the police, while the beggar, who was previously despised by the gentleman, pays for him and solves his urgent needs.
In fact, behind the grotesque story created by this French sense of humor, what is reflected in the real life experience? In the "grand theater" of society where everyone wears their own masks, disguise seems to be an essential skill for survival, so everyone carefully maintains their carefully crafted "human design" for fear of being seen through by others. But in fact, we can get rid of hypocrisy and live out our true selves in order to maintain a healthy mindset, personal growth, and a fulfilling sense of happiness.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="01" > a long-shot display of fixed scenes, cleverly using mirror reflections to explain the development of the plot, and preserving the integrity and authenticity of the space. </h1>
(1) Use long lenses to show fixed scenes with documentary style
"French Fried Coffee" is a piece, all using the long lens mode of fixed scenes, the camera is always facing one direction, only according to the needs of the plot to pan the camera back and forth or left and right, and the flow of time is reflected by the change of light and shade. This makes the whole film seem to be a documentary restoration, and the audience seems to be a cold-eyed bystander, clearly observing everything that happens in the café.
Although there is almost no dialogue in the whole film, from the appearance, movements and expressions of the characters, the audience can infer the identity status and inner activities of the characters. So the gentlemen who read the newspaper leisurely, the nuns with no chicken power, the scruffy and rude beggars, and the arrogant policemen are all seen by the audience, and look forward to the further development of the plot.
As the gentleman pulls out his mask from the nun's bag, the scene begins to be chaotic, and the audience is surprised to find that the gentleman is not elegant, the old lady is actually very tough, the police are timid and cowardly, and the most despised beggar is really a good person. Although the characters are still the characters of the past, the scene is still the scene of the previous one, but the audience's perception has undergone earth-shaking changes.
The unreserved long shots truly record everything that happens in the scene, and the audience suddenly switches from the "God perspective" of self-knowledge to the "limited perspective" that suddenly realizes after knowing the whole truth, which can trigger the audience to think deeply about the theme that the film wants to express.
(2) The mirror on the wall assumes the role of lens switching
In addition to the long shots, the director also cleverly used the reflection of the mirror on the wall to achieve the switching of the shots. Because the mirror is facing the floor-to-ceiling glass window and door, the viewer can clearly see the scene on the street outside the store and who has entered or left the door, even without switching the camera. It is not difficult to observe carefully, and it is not difficult to find that the beggar enters and exits the café three times, and the whole film is properly divided into three parts: prologue, development and epilogue.
The beggar enters the shop and begs, the gentleman buries his head in the newspaper and ignores it, the beggar turns away, and the gentleman finds that he does not have a wallet, which opens the whole story.
The beggar enters the shop again to beg, and the gentleman is nervous because he cannot pay the bill. The old lady in charge gave the beggar a little money and went into the bathroom. The beggar left again, and the gentleman began to think of stealing money, but was interrupted by the intruding policeman.
The third time the beggar entered the shop to beg, the gentleman had taken the mask out of the old lady's bag, and the panicked policeman fired a gun by mistake, and the scene was chaotic. Then the old lady grabbed the mask and flew away, and the gentleman finally cried in the face of the bill. At this time, the beggar handed over a note and left safely, and the whole play ended with a thoughtful expression on the gentleman's face.
It can be said that the mirror acts as a scene lens switch, to explain the plot development and the activities of the characters, so that the whole film is tight in the narrative rhythm and the transition is natural. This is also the reason why although the whole film is recorded in long shots, it is not at all lengthy and boring.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="02" > the strong contrast between the appearance and behavior of the characters, creating a three-dimensional and plump "round character", triggering the audience's comparison and reflection on the character image. </h1>
In "French Roasted Coffee", there are only five characters in total, and in addition to the waiter, the external image of the other four characters is in strong contrast with their behavior. This seemingly "absurd" character setting makes the image expressed by the characters in a short period of time three-dimensional and plump, and also highlights the theme of the film that "appearance is not a fact".
(1) Arrogant and elegant gentlemen and dirty and rude beggars
The gentleman is undoubtedly the protagonist and plot promoter of this film, he wears polite glasses, wears a neat and clean suit, smokes expensive cigars, and looks like an upper-class person with status and status. Yet it was such an elegant gentleman whose deeds were astonishing: he despised the beggars who came to beg. There is no money to pay the bill and die for face, relying on constantly renewing the cup to delay time. In the end, when you are desperate, you actually want to steal other people's money to pay for it.
The image of the beggar is set in exact contrast to that of a gentleman: wearing worn-out clothes like old sack pieces, with an explosive beard like an octopus, and a fly hovering on his head that always shows his strong body odor. He skillfully used hooks to clip waste paper, and rudely begged for money with a small change pot, completely disregarding the blank eyes and contempt of others. However, it is such an annoying character who finally lends a helping hand and generously donates the hard-won large ticket to solve the gentleman's urgent needs.
Under the contrast between the two and two, the gentleman is bright on the outside and dirty on the inside, the beggar is kind in heart and dirty on the outside, the strong contrast and contrast between the appearance and behavior of the two, good and evil are not high and low judgment, so that the audience can not help but sigh "people can not be disguised" at the same time, reflecting on why they are "bystanders" also unconsciously wear colored glasses, easily confused by appearances.
(2) A kind-eyed nun and a mighty policeman
In the film, another character with a strong gap is the old lady. When she appeared, she dressed as a nun with a kind eyebrow, trembling and crouching in a chair and snoozing. When the beggar came to beg, she not only did not blame the beggar for disturbing her dreams, but also generously handed the beggar a large ticket. However, after her identity was revealed, she was unable to open her bag just now, and she turned against the image of weakness, calmly grabbed the mask and flew away, leaving a group of stunned people.
On the contrary, Mr. Policeman, who is the defender of order, looks fat and healthy as a cow, and when he comes to post the wanted notice, he drinks five or six, and he is mighty, but he is drunk as mud. After discovering the wanted man, he panicked and opened fire, not only allowing the wanted man who was far away from him to openly escape, but also being dramatically stunned by a light bulb.
The true identity of the nun is a violent and murderous wanted criminal, while the policeman who should be strong and powerful is actually a timid and fearful instigator. This kind of character's different identities and personalities seem to be full of strong black humor, but in fact, under the cloak of absurdity, it highlights the complexity and changeability of human nature.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="03" > only by tearing off the mask and living out your true self can you maintain a healthy mindset, achieve personal growth, and a fulfilling sense of happiness. </h1>
In the entertainment industry, in recent years, there is a particularly hot word "human collapse", that is, the star who was originally defined by the public as "knowledgeable", "loyal dog husband", "pure jade girl" and other images, because its real behavior and behavior do not match the image it advertises, resulting in the collapse of the image.
In fact, in this society where personality is king, "human design" is not the patent of the star, for us ordinary people, "human design" is also a must-have, such as a variety of "literary and artistic youth", "loving couples", "model parents" and so on in the circle of friends. The entertainment industry pushes "human design" only because it is a selling point, while the general public needs "human design" because everyone needs a "personality mask".
The famous Western psychologist Jung proposed:
The so-called "personality mask" is a good image that people show to society through the disguise of their own personality.
So in the end, you desperately maintain the "human design", just to get social recognition. However, after living with a mask for a long time, people will be easily tired and even depressed, because the image you are trying to maintain is not the real self. Life is only a few decades, why bother to hide your true self in order to please others? Try to tear off the mask of hypocrisy and live out your true self in order to maintain a healthy mindset and achieve personal growth and a fulfilling sense of happiness.
(1) Try to accept your imperfect self
Everyone has their own characteristics, some of which are innate and some of which are acquired. In daily life, it is often seen that some originally generous and cheerful girls pretend to be reserved in order to attract the male gods they like, or some people who are not good at words pretend to be talkative in order to adapt to social life. Such behavior can't help but remind people of the allusion of "Xi Shi Gong", not only does not make others feel perfect, but it seems pretentious.
Accepting your imperfect self and showing your true side is your real charm. Just like the beggar in "French Fried Coffee", although he is ragged and rude, he has a kind and true heart, he does not care about the miserliness of a gentleman, nor does he please the generous old lady, and turns away after being charitable, how to live and how to live. In this way, he really lives freely and freely, and it is also sincerely admired.
Therefore, as an ordinary person, you can not be beautiful or handsome, you can have no money and no status, you can be dull and not funny, but you must be frank and real. Only by accepting the true self first can we be kind to the real self and show the true self. People like to approach people who are frank, even if such people are not so perfect, they are still full of charisma.
(2) Not being swayed by the evaluation of others
People who are always swayed by the evaluation of others have spent their lives on maintaining their own external image and adapting to the preferences of others, so that they have no spare energy to pursue the value of life they really want, which is very sad. Just like the gentleman of "French Stir-fried Coffee", the reason for delaying time by refilling cups is nothing more than fear of being looked down upon by the clerk because of the credit, affecting his identity and status, and the result is that the bill is higher and higher, and finally he can only take the risk to steal money.
In reality, people like gentlemen abound, they originally only made a little mistake, as long as they can make up for it frankly, but because they care too much about their own image and the evaluation of others, they can't accept that they have stains, so they cover up and bury in every way, and eventually cause a catastrophe and regret it for life.
Understand that life is only once, and you can't live forever in someone else's evaluation. The evaluation of others can be listened to with the ear, but it cannot be wandered with the heart. Because no one else can decide your life, only if you are strong enough, you can not care about the gossip of others, take the path you want to take, and do what you want to do.
(3) Always be sincere with others
The famous writer Sanmao once said:
The most important thing in dealing with people is sincerity, and it must come from the heart.
However, in the real society, there are several people who can treat everyone with a sincere heart like the beggars in "French Fried Coffee", even those who have despised themselves. Most people are blind or "hang high without concern", while those who complain with virtue are considered "white lotuses" or fools.
But the relationship between people is equal to each other, if you want to have deeper contact and contact, the best way is to treat each other sincerely. You can be honest and honest with others, even if you are not good at words, the other party can feel your sincerity, so as to establish a good emotional foundation with you. On the contrary, if you are always duplicitous and hypocritical, you will eventually be seen through by others, unable to make the other party feel reliable and trusted, and thus lose the sincerity of the other party.
Sincerity is not about forcing others to be equally sincere, but sincerity can be contagious. When others are successful, the blessing from the heart can make others feel your sincerity; when others make mistakes, objective and patient analysis can make others accept criticism with an open mind; when others ask for help, the help that can make others grateful for your efforts. In this flashy society, the precious sincerity is an invincible weapon in our interpersonal interactions.
Write at the end:
This 8-minute animated short film, under the shell of "French stir-fried coffee" with a romantic style, tells not a warm story, but the most real and complex human nature. The world is diverse, people are also multi-faceted, in real life, you and I may be hypocritical gentlemen, may also be kind beggars, or even masked old ladies or strong policemen.
We carefully maintain our own carefully crafted "human designs", and also evaluate other people's "human designs" with secular filters. However, seeing is not necessarily believing, and the more distinct the "human design", the easier it is to collapse. I hope that everyone can tear off the mask, live out their true selves, and be sincere to themselves and others. After all, happiness from the heart is more important than any important "human design".