"The South" plot synopsis|appreciation|review
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Director: Victor Erice Photography: José Luis Alcaine Main actors: Omero Antonuti (played as Agustín) Sonsoles Alangulán Playing Estrella
The film won the "Golden Hugo Award" at the Chicago International Film Festival, the Critics Award at the Sao Paulo International Film Festival, and the Grand Prix at the Bordeaux International Film Festival.
Plot summary
A city in northern Spain from 1950 to 1957.
Estrella, an 8-year-old girl, lives with her father Agustín and mother Julia in a house called "Seagull" on the outskirts of the city.
Agustín is a doctor. He can read Feng Shui and can use the hanging to detect where there is water underground. Agustín was depressed and unhappy all his life, and he never talked about his past. Estrella loved her father very much. When his father was away, she would wait at the door of the house for him to come back. In Estrella's mind, her father is a mysterious figure, so she often asks her mother about her father's situation. Estrella learned from her mother that her father was from the south and that he was at odds with his grandfather. She knew that her father had a magical power that could make chains levitate in the air, which made Estrella worship her father very much. She often took out pictures of the southern city of Seville and looked at them carefully, wondering why her father left the south and never wanted to go back.
On the eve of Estrella’s first Holy Communion, her grandmother, Mrs. Rosario, and Agustin’s wet nurse, Milagros, came from the south to attend her Holy Communion. ceremony.
At night, Milagros’ wet nurse and Estrella slept in the same room. Estrella took this opportunity to keep asking about the south and her father. Milagros told She and her father Agustín used to live in the hot south. During the War Period and the Civil War, Agustin supported the peace faction, but Agustin's father supported Franco. After Franco came to power, Agustín was imprisoned. After Agustin was released from prison, he always quarreled with his father due to his different political opinions. Agustín could not get along with his father, so he ran away from home and settled in the north.
The day for Estrella to receive Holy Communion came. People put her in a beautiful white dress and a beautiful veil, dressing her up like a married bride. Estrella's biggest concern was whether her father would attend the important moment when she received communion. Because my father never went to church.
The church was full of people. Amidst the solemn music, the priest prayed for several children wearing white clothes and put the Holy Communion into their mouths. After receiving Holy Communion, children run to their parents. Estrella kissed her mother, grandmother and Milagros. She was pleasantly surprised to find her father standing behind the church, smiling and looking at her kindly. Estrella ran over excitedly Kiss dad.
That day, Estrella’s parents held a celebration for her. Agustin, who has always been very serious, danced with his daughter to the accompaniment of melodious music. Estrella looked at her smiling father and felt infinite happiness in her heart.
In the afternoon, Estrella's grandmother and Milagros returned to the south, but their images were deeply imprinted in Estrella's mind. From then on, she longed for the south even more.
One day, Estrella found a portrait of a woman labeled "Irene Rios" in her father's study. This portrait aroused her curiosity. So she subtly and covertly asked her mother if she knew a person named Irene Rios, but her mother said she didn't know him.
One afternoon two months later, Estrella came home from school and accidentally saw her father's motorcycle in front of the cinema in the city center.
She looked at the poster for the film "Flowers in the Dark" posted in the theater, and suddenly she found Irene Rios's name printed in a prominent position on the poster. Driven by curiosity, she asked the ticket seller for a program list and asked which actor was Irene Rios. Then she walked to the opposite side of the cinema and stood there waiting.
At this time, the movie theater was showing the ending of "Flowers in the Dark," in which the character played by Irene Rios is shot dead by her lover. Agustín sat in the theater and stared at the screen.
After the show, Agustín left the cinema and walked into a coffee shop silently. He sat at the table and wrote a letter to Laura, whose stage name was Irene Rios, with whom he had not contacted for many years. He wanted to know if Laura was still alive. At this time, Estrella, who had been following him, came to him.
Agustín looked forward to Laura’s reply, in which Laura confided in her loneliness and depression during the years of separation from Agustin. She did not understand why Agustín suddenly wrote to her after so many years of silence. She hoped that Agustin would stop writing to her in the future.
One night, Agustín ran away from home. When he arrived at the train station, he wanted to go south, but early the next morning he quietly returned home through the back door. Estrella discovered that from this moment on, her father seemed to be a different person, completely immersed in sorrow and despair. He was no longer close to his daughter and family, and the atmosphere at home was dull and depressing.
Time flies, and Estrella has grown into a 15-year-old girl. One day at noon, Agustin suddenly went to school to find Estrella, and then took her to a high-end restaurant for dinner. Father and daughter hadn't sat so close together in years. Estrella couldn't suppress her doubts and asked her father who Irene Rios was. However, Agustin said calmly that he did not know this person, but only knew someone who looked like her. Soon, Agustin committed suicide in the suburbs. Estrella discovered that her father had called the South before committing suicide, but she did not know who answered the call. When Estrella was sad and lonely, she received a letter from her grandmother and Milagros asking her to go south. With excitement, Estrella headed to the mysterious South that she had longed for.
Appreciation
It is difficult for movies to express the deep and secret emotions of characters. However, "South" filmed by Spanish film director Victor Erice has achieved amazing results. Convincing success. In this film, he used light, shadow, color, and sound to vividly express the loneliness, depressive environment and burden in the mind of the male protagonist Agustín. The film's soothing rhythm creates a strong emotional undercurrent, which has an impact on the audience.
The story narrated in "South" takes place between 1950 and 1957. The film does not directly describe Agustin's rough fate, but through Agustin's underage daughter Estrelli. Ya's memories objectively express his depression and misfortune with a child's eyes and thoughts. The film reveals in depth the social, family and personal reasons why Agustín went to self-destruction, creating a character that the audience will never forget.
At dawn, Estrella's bedroom was still shrouded in darkness, with only the window in front of the bed revealing a faint blue light. Estrella slowly woke up amidst the barking of dogs, panicked footsteps and heart-rending cries, with a faint light shining on her face. She sat on the edge of the bed and took out the pendant left to her by her father Agustín and looked at it lovingly, tears welling up in her eyes. She seemed to have known that her father had left her forever, leaving this world whose sorrow could never be solved. Facing the dangle in her hand, Estrella's thoughts flashed back to her childhood... The film begins its narrative with this melancholic tone.
The structure of "South" is divided into three parts, which express Agustin's emotional changes from shallow to deep. The first part highlights Estrella's love for her father, the emotional intimacy between father and daughter.
The third part, like the first two parts, still does not describe Agustin's emotional changes positively, and there is only one scene of Agustin's death lying dead in the countryside. But through Estrella's eyes, the audience can deeply feel the great pain in Agustín's heart, and his emotional burden hits the audience's hearts.
In "The South", neither the Spanish Civil War nor the autocratic rule of Franco's dictatorship is shown, but the political symbols of "The South" are extremely clear. Agustín used to live in Seville, a beautiful city in the south. When he was young, he was a left-wing Nazi and fell in love with the beautiful Laura (the actor Irene). After the civil war ended and Franco came to power, Agustín was imprisoned. After being released from prison, Agustín could not find a regular job, and he had different political views from his father, who supported Franco's regime. They often quarreled, and finally had to run away from home. Agustin could not marry his beloved Laura, so he married the docile and hard-working Julia, and took his wife and daughter around to find a regular job (at the beginning of the film, Agustín’s family was on the train (above), and finally settled in this small city in the north. The film attacks Francoism from the side, making the audience realize that Franco's dictatorship was the social cause of Agustín's melancholy death.
The artistic features of "The South" are highlighted in the use of color and light. The tone of the entire film is gloomy, with a lackluster earthy tone as the tone. The lighting in the picture is exquisite, the dark parts have rich color levels, and many shots are like intriguing oil paintings. The protagonist Agustín is often in the shadows, and the shapes of light and shadow enhance the artistic appeal of the film. The lighting of the two scenes in which Agustin teaches his daughter how to use draping and when Agustin is alone in the attic tapping the floor with his cane illustrates this point. The processing of colors also highlights a certain mysterious atmosphere.
"South" fully mobilizes the expressive power of sound and uses the audience's hearing to deepen the theme. For example: at the beginning of the film, there are the sounds of dogs barking, panicked footsteps, and the shrill shouts of Agustín’s wife, but the picture does not show dogs, running people, or Agustín’s wife. These sounds are enough to bring the audience into a panic and troubled state.
The sound in "The South" is not a simple counterpoint between sound and painting, but uses sound as an important means of creation, which gives the sound infinite expressive power.
"South" has a mysterious color. In addition to the above-mentioned mystery created by the use of light, color, and sound in the shape, the character Agustín created by the director is himself an incomprehensible figure. puzzle. Agustín is a doctor who treats illnesses and saves others, but he cannot cure his own heart disease. He has supernatural powers (can detect the secrets of nature, that is, find underground water with a pendant). In Estrella's mind, he is like a mythical figure, but he cannot control his own destiny.
This film, adapted from the novel of the same name, shows people's complex emotions through the eyes of children and ordinary daily life. The director made full use of the film language. There is little dialogue in the whole film and the composition of the picture is unique. There is a mysterious and melancholic atmosphere in the film. Due to financial problems, "South" only completed the content of the North, and the South did not appear on the screen.
Victor Erice, the director of this film, graduated from the Spanish Experimental School of Film Studies. He did not make many films, but he had a great influence. "The Spirit of the Beehive" (1973) directed by Erice showed the unpredictable real society through the eyes of a child. The film won the "Golden Shell Award" at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Ten years later, he directed "The South", still showing society and depicting human emotions through a child's eyes.