In the spring of March, there seems to be no way to start school.
This is probably the longest time you spend with your child/parents outside of summer vacation.
Looking at each other's realm, not everyone can reach it.
Not to mention, to be the perfect parent in the eyes of your child.
For example, the movie "Beautiful Life".
Douban scored as high as 9.5 points, and just returned to the big screen with a 4K restored version.
Directed by Roberto Bernini, the work tells the story of a Jewish family during World War II in comedy form.
The male protagonist, Guido, may be the most perfect man and the most perfect father in the world.
The loving "Good Morning, Princess", the fairy tale made up in the concentration camp to appease her son, the grimace made before being shot...
See the tweet for details: "Douban Fengshen movie, after watching the world want to call him "Daddy".
When fairy tales and cruelty are juxtaposed, the pain will come more slowly, but it will also be longer and deeper.
But today I'm not going to talk about "A Beautiful Life", but another satirical comedy of the same type - "Jojo's Whimsical World".
The film was a big hit at last year's Toronto Film Festival and a big hit at this year's Oscars.
As a subject matter that has rarely been fixed in the mainland, although the withdrawal is expected, it is still very likely to return to the domestic big screen again.
The film's director is Taiga Viditti, who has directed films and television works such as Thor 3: Twilight of the Gods, The Hunt for barbarians, and Vampire Life.
He has also served as a voice, assistant director and screenwriter in Avengers 4, Doctor Strange, Ocean's Edge, and Supergod Animation Rick and Morty.
A glance at this list of films can be guessed that this is a director who is good at and keen on spoofing.
Of course, Jojo's Whimsical World is no exception.
The film uses a story in which "Jojo, a ten-year-old German boy, wants to become a fascist and even fantasizes about a funny version of Hitler as his best friend" as his main plot.
The director added all sorts of spoofs and absurd footage to depict that crazy Nazi period.
There are many Nazi-themed movies.
In addition to the above "Beautiful Life", there are also "Schindler's List", "Tiger's Mouth", "Night and Fog", "Hitler's Boy"...
It's not the first time something like spoofing Hitler has appeared in a movie.
In 1940, Chaplin created a comical image of Hitler in "The Great Dictator";
Disney then starred Donald Duck in the satirical animation "The Führer's Honor" in 1943.
Movie "The Great Dictator"
Unlike the above films, Jojo's Whimsical World is a war film in the eyes of children.
In fact, There are similar works in China, such as Zhang Jianya's "Sanmao From the Army", which is both a satirical comedy and a war film in the eyes of children.
Movie "Sanmao From the Army"
Overall, Jojo's Whimsical World is a pretty "good looking" movie.
Its bright tones are quite wes Anderson's feeling of "Moonrise Kingdom", cute like a little white rabbit Jojo, Scarlett Josson's mother played by Jojo, and Sam Crowell played by Colonel.
And, the director himself starred in a comical version of Hitler, which is very entertaining.
Through Jojo's perspective, the film shows a Germany at the end of World War II, and the defeat is just around the corner.
When Hitler's image still hung over the country like a huge shadow, people were all unwavering believers in the Nazi Party.
Jojo was no exception, he was a little Nazi fanatic.
His room was plastered with posters of Hitler and he wore the Nazi Youth Battalion uniform all day;
He believed that the Aryans had the noblest blood, and that the Jews were evil, terrifying beings with monster-like faces;
He had been depressed for three full weeks because his grandfather was not blonde;
He even fantasized about a best friend, Adolf Hitler.
His dream was to become Hitler's bodyguard so that he could stand by the Führer's side all day.
Hitler, played by the director himself, contributed a lot of jokes to the film.
He has a small mustache, a big belly, wears a military uniform, smokes when he is nervous, and even stuffs Jojo with cigarettes...
This silly version of the Nazi maniac will encourage the hesitant and shy Jojo to shout out "hail hitler!" ；
Will encourage Jojo when he is bullied, and even teach him to throw grenades, and finally blow himself up;
There will also be all kinds of bad ideas when Jojo doesn't know what to do...
This imaginary Hitler almost became Jojo's "father", or even the only father.
The war sent sons, husbands, and fathers to the battlefield, took the father from the children, and sent an ideological big man to fill the father's vacancy.
The sound of "hail hilter" is the embodiment of Lacan's "hysterical discourse", and the greater other interrogates the individual in an unquestioning tone.
Jojo's father was not heard from the battlefield, and Jojo was steadfast in hitler.
Just as Almodóvar often portrays fathers and men as ugly and incompetent in his films, he often kills his father in an attempt to build a matriarchal society.
Hitler is to Jojo's Whimsical World what franco's regime is to Almodóvar.
In this film, men are mostly belittled, while women are glorified.
Like Jojo's mother, she was beautiful, bright, cheerful, and wore a pair of gorgeous red leather shoes.
She would avenge her son when he was injured, encourage Jojo to get out of the house when he was disfigured, and put ash on his face pretending to be Jojo's father talking to him.
He would even tell him how love felt: like a butterfly fluttering in his stomach.
She would also pedal her bicycles to the wounded young soldiers on the side of the road on sunny afternoons and shout, "Go home and kiss your mother!" ”
The film depicts the mother's love for the child and the child's attachment to the mother so delicately and beautifully.
That's why it's so hard to accept when the traumatic moment comes—Jojo's mom ends up hanging in the square.
When a blue butterfly leads Jojo under the familiar pair of red shoes, the juxtaposition of fairy tales and cruelty is so vividly striking.
And when Jojo helped his dead mother tie his shoelaces, his childhood ended heartbreakingly in that second.
As Lin Haiyin wrote in "Old Things in Seongnam": Daddy's flowers have fallen, and I am no longer a child.
It was also at this time that Hitler died in Berlin, and his father and mother fell together.
But the fall of the father is a kind of sobriety, and the death of the mother is a kind of memory.
Please remember the good, and please do not turn your head to the ugly.
Another woman in the film is elsa, a Jewish girl.
Elsa is taken in by Jojo's mother and lives in the attic of the house.
This living Jew initially frightened Jojo, who was, after all, a staunch Nazi.
But she is undoubtedly also a positive image.
Elsa is not the image of a self-pitying persecuted person, she is brave, strong, optimistic, patient, and full of personality.
She gradually reverses Jojo's hostility toward the Jews, letting him know that the Jews are not horned monsters.
It was a human being like him, like all Germans.
Jojo understood that love was really like mom said, like a butterfly flying in the stomach.
It's just that the butterfly in Jojo's stomach is a Jewish girl.
Elsa said to him softly, "Jojo, you're not a Nazi, you're just a ten-year-old boy who loves to wear funny uniforms and wants to be a part of the club." ”
Elsa and Jojo's mother, the presence of these two women, transformed Jojo from a small nazi-brainwashed fanatic into a normal, kind, and brave ten-year-old boy.
Perhaps it is better to put it another way, to become a beautiful and upright person.
When the film uses funny methods to show the instructors in the youth training camp teaching boys how to kill, how to throw grenades, and how to teach girls how to get pregnant;
When the children shown in the slow motion on the screen, holding weapons in their hands, rush into the rain of bullets and bullets without expression;
When that imaginary Hitler brainwashed Jojo over and over again...
When all elements of comedy are discarded, we can see the absurd and the funny.
In From Caligari to Hitler, the film theorist Krakauer pointed out that The Film "Dr. Caligari's Cabin" had already heralded the arrival of the Nazis.
And Jojo's Whimsical World, through the eyes of a ten-year-old German boy, looks forward to a Germany and a world without Caligari and Hitler.
When Jojo opens the door for Elsa to welcome her free, when Jojo's friend Yorkie yells "Goodbye Jojo, I'm going home and kiss my mother!" ”。
We know that what awaits them, what awaits future generations, will surely be a better future.
"Jojo's Whimsical World" is a very smooth and emotional work.
In either respect, there are outstanding values: let go of prejudice and hatred and embrace freedom.
Reasons that may be limited to the child's perspective are less profound.
But this is not to blame, after all, the protagonist is only ten years old.
Finally, folks, go home and kiss your mom!