At last year's Venice Film Festival, there were many masterpieces, and in the main competition unit, Zhao Ting and "Cohen Sister-in-law" Francis McDormand's "No Man's Land" won the Golden Lion Award.
"The Land of No One"
The special prize of the jury was the high-scoring Russian film "Dear Comrade". In addition, there are "Fragments of Women", "Children of the Sun", "Macaluso's Past" and other good films.
"Dear Comrade"
But there is also a film with its vivid form and technique of expression, "real" to the stomach, which won the Jury Prize, that is, "New Order" directed by Michel Frank, a new Mexican director.
The Venice Film Festival is inherently artistic and avant-garde. This film is somewhat different from the previous three major european international film festivals: "Berlin, Venice, Cannes" award-winning works.
Although the big theme is also to present and expose the dark side of human nature and society,
But "New Order" is not eclectic, not soft, not subtle,
It is not as delicate and long as the daughter's red, but as intense as a burning knife. Violently, intuitively, and truthfully, people in chaotic and extreme societies follow the laws of the forest unabashedly.
It brings to all viewers a sense of pure violence, a sense of discomfort that goes straight to the ugly human nature, and a sense of reality that makes people shudder.
At the same time, the rhythm is bright and full of tension, and every twist in the plot is unexpected and reasonable. The director is like a documentary, hidden behind the scenes, knocking in the depths of your soul.
(The following involves spoilers, if you want to watch this movie well, you can first order the collection, and then watch the article after watching the movie)
The film opens with a set of quick cuts, mixed with the heroine's wedding and a riot.
The camera immediately follows the lavish wedding of the bride Marianne, who is the descendant of the upper class of the country (Mexico).
At the wedding, the guests were full of doors, staggered, and sang and danced. Mexican celebrities were present. Victor, a senior government official, hugged him before and after, and personally came to the door to congratulate him. At the same time, he did not forget to explain that he had granted the land permit to daniel, the son of the rich family, and the brother of the bride.
This shows the degree of intimacy between the bride's family and the government officials.
In addition, the bride's family also invited the justice to witness the marriage of the couple, but at this time, the judge had not yet arrived because of the riots in the neighborhood near the rich man's house, so the young people at the wedding were happy to enjoy the happy body.
It also revealed that "the best drug dealers in Mexico are here."
At this time, the story unfolds in two lines:
One is the riot line, after the bride's mother discovered that the tap water was flowing green liquid for no reason, a pair of guests who appeared at the wedding also revealed that they had been splashed with paint by the mob on their way there.
Then, the female assistant of Victor, a senior government official, also learned that the riot was spreading, so she urged Victor to leave quickly.
The other is the female lead line, an old man who used to work in the hostess's house, Rolando, had no choice but to come to the door, because his wife Alyssa (who was also the maid of the heroine's house) was seriously ill and was driven out of the hospital because of the riots that caused many serious injuries. Transferred to a private hospital but told that the operation cost was 200,000 pesos, Rolando was desperate and had to ask the old owner for help.
At this time, the heroine's mother casually asked his husband and son to take some money, and after more than 30,000 pesos, they wanted to send Rolando away. On the surface, just talk about your heart.
But after the heroine learned of this, she decided to help to the end. When she returned to the house to withdraw the money, her brother Daniel found Rolando. Not only did he not think he should give money, but he also humiliated and expelled Rolando.
Everyone at the wedding advised the heroine not to worry about this idle matter, after all, what did an old maid's life and illness and death have to do with them?
But the heroine is kind and compassionate, or determined to help. It was only by the time she found her credit card to go out that Rolando had already left. The heroine had to let the driver brother who lived with Rolando lead the way through the rioting streets to Rolando's home in a civilian area.
At this point, the camera jumps back to the riot line, the heroine has just left, and the justice comes to her house. The wedding is about to take place, but the bride is playing missing, and everyone is in a hurry. Her mother even called to urge her to come back, but the hostess's vehicle was blocked by the riot crowd.
When they were panicking, a group of thugs climbed over the wall and entered the heroine's home, shooting directly without saying a word, and the heroine's father was shot on the spot. The security guards, housekeepers, and servants of the family also joined the mob and hijacked the guests at the banquet together, who turned out to be ghosts and planned to take advantage of the riot to carry out robbery.
After a while, the heroine's home was looted, the heroine's mother and sister-in-law both died tragically, all the guests were robbed of women, men robbed of money, and they were shot and killed, and the scene was extremely tragic and chaotic.
At this time, the heroine got rid of the riot crowd, successfully arrived at the Roland house in the civilian area, met Alyssa, and gave them the money. At this time, the audience will think that the kindness of the heroine saved her life.
However, the plot began to turn: after the riot subsided, the heroine's father was sent to the hospital for treatment, and the heroine also sent the driver's brother out to inquire about the news.
The driver's brother was found by the patrol military police, and after the patrol military police learned about the situation of the heroine, they decided to drive the heroine home.
But on the way, the female military police began to loot the property of the heroine, and most of the audience will find that things are not so simple.
Sure enough, the military police then arrested the heroine in a prison, which actually held many civilians who were arrested like her.
The military and police are busy scavenging and abusing these civilians, asking about their families, and filming videos of extortion.
All civilian prisoners were numbered, and young girls were used by the military police as a tool for sexual abuse. The heroine was not spared, and was written "No. 16" on her forehead... At the same time, he was forced to record a video and send it home, and the ransom was 10 million pesos....
On the other hand, the seriously injured father was transferred by his brother to the home of the heroine's husband. Victor, a prominent politician, introduced General Oliber to her husband and brother, saying that they would do their best to track down the heroine's whereabouts.
At the same time, the extortion and looting in the prison has been underway, everyone has been brutally abused, and the military police do not regard them as human beings at all, because they did not intend to let the hostages go out alive to speak, and once the hostages' families beat the ransom according to the demands, the hostages were quickly shot.
It is precisely because people are not regarded as human beings that some of the serious abuses and punishments of the military and police beyond human nature seem very uncomfortable, but this is a phenomenon that exists in reality.
Looking at the movie "The Road to Guantanamo", which tells the story of the U.S. military's mistreatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Prison, you will find that the actions of the military and police in "New Order" are real, and there are even more serious and more uncomfortable. It's just that the director doesn't dare or doesn't make it easy.
At a deeper level, the military police of these cruelly abused civilian prisoners also have upper echelons, and it can be seen from their chat that they are only given a small head, and a hostage is only one or two hundred thousand pesos, and most of the heads are taken by the upper echelons.
(There is probably Victor and General Oliber in this upper echelon, and the junta is the most powerful in a chaotic society anyway.)
The two military policemen who arrested the heroine learned that they only had 100,000 in their hands, so they went to the driver's brother's house privately and asked him to go to the heroine's family for a private transaction. Handing over 800,000, they promised to release the heroine.
However, after the driver's brother brought back 800,000 yuan, the military police still did not let people go and continued to ask for 1 million yuan. After all, they are just fishing for a few waves, and they really don't dare to let them go.
However, such continuous blackmail made the heroine's brother directly believe that the driver's family kidnapped the heroine. So he quickly called Victor and asked him to solve the problem.
General Oribe went straight to the two bootleg policemen, and found the prison and Marianne.
One of the more intriguing details is that General Oliber did not punish the military police in this prison, but only put the two private military police among civilian prisoners, shot them together and burned them.
It can be seen that General Oliber knew, supported, and even ordered the prison military police to plunder the rich people of this country in this way.
And this also foreshadows the final ending, after the heroine Mary ann gets into the general's vehicle, some viewers will think that the heroine who is kind-hearted but unprovoked and involved in hell, with her family's relationship, this time can always go home safely.
However, no, the general took her to the driver's brother's house, solved the two of them, and then disguised himself as the driver's brother as a blackmailer, completely burying the fact that the military police imprisoned extortion of civilians.
At the end of the story, the junta publicly hanged many rioters. Victor and General Oliber sat on the throne, and the heroine's father sat next to Victor, witnessed this scene that he thought was revenge, and presumably thanked Victor and General Oliber for avenging their daughter.
In the movie, the kind heroine Marianne and the driver brother and son have not won a good ending, and it can really be said that the good people have no good rewards, and the director's creation of a society of the weak and the strong (Mexico), the political metaphor and foreshadowing taste are self-evident.
The end of the easter egg, the title of the film "New Order", the letters at the end of the film are reversed, and the meaning is equally simple and rough.
It is not difficult for the audience to see that this is a "dystopian" film that exposes the divide between the rich and the poor and satirizes the dark corruption of the junta, reflecting the naked class antagonisms and human nature antagonisms of a less civilized and rule-of-law country.
The amazing thing about the film is that the civilization, morality, and order constructed by human society are lost in that world, and every plot twist is relentlessly pointed to the darkest side of human nature and will be placed to the maximum.
Although the world in the film is not equivalent to the current Mexico according to the director,
But he put together what is happening and what has happened around the world, in Mexico, a country that is racially divided, where the gap between rich and poor is severe, and where there are deep class contradictions. It is presented through the real "lens" like a documentary, giving people a huge shock.
So New Order is more like a drama disguised as a documentary. The darkest side of sin in the world is visually captured.
Of course, there are also some documentaries on the same subject that are more shocking, such as "Image of Silence" and "Killing Rendition" (especially known to Chinese) that reflect the Black May Riots (Indonesia).
"Killing Rendition"
After reading it, it will make people clench their fists, full of anger and lamentation, and understand what is the worst evil in the world.
"New Order" is still more popular and more dramatic than them.