Chapter 6 Is there a problem with modernist living? : My Uncle, 1958

Is there a problem with modernist living? : My Uncle, 1958 Duras once said that she despises all living directors except Jacques Tati and Godard. 1. Scene from the movie In 1953, in "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday", Jacques Tati created a "tall, slightly hunched back, wearing a windbreaker and a pair of ill-fitting trousers, with a pipe in his mouth and wearing a A felt hat, with either a briefcase or an umbrella" Mr Hulleau.For this reason, André Bazin wrote a film review of "Mr. Hulot and Time" enthusiastically.Since then, Jacques Tati has always used this image in his works to replace his usual screen image of the postman. In 1958, Tati's third feature film "My Uncle" won the Special Jury Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and also achieved a huge box office in France.This success allowed Tati to complete "Play Time", which was called "one of the most arrogant and daring works after the war", but few people understood this prophetic film full of critiques of modernist architecture.

When I saw Jacques Tati's famous work "My Uncle", I was somewhat surprised.It turns out that half a century ago, Parisians had already begun to pursue the "modern lifestyle" we are pursuing now.Therefore, this film should be particularly friendly to Chinese audiences today: the home furnishings presented in it are exactly what is commonly displayed in shopping malls; the stair railing with only one steel pipe bent is exactly what fashion magazines promote; the kitchen The comprehensive electrification of the city is what we are increasingly pursuing; and the continuous demolition of the old city and the continuous construction of new residential areas are what we can see every day.Bazin once said that Jacques Tati was "beyond time". He may not have thought that in today's China, this work can still find its meaning.

A dilapidated wall repeatedly appears in the film, separating two completely different communities/worlds, old and new.On one side is the deserted, clean and modern "noble residential area"; on the other side is the noisy, noisy and chaotic old city.Throughout the film, switching repeatedly between these two areas and scenes, the contrast between rigidity and poetic life is naturally presented on the screen.Tati satirizes and criticizes the modern, civilized, and middle-class life wonderfully by using architecture, decoration, and environment.There is no basic plot, no meaningful dialogue in this movie, only the scene - Jacques Tati said "the scene is the star".When Deleuze talked about Tati's later blockbuster "Playtime", he said that it was "a film in which scenes replace situations, and coming and going replace actions", and in fact "My Uncle" can be regarded as such.

2. The Button Era The "I" in the title "My Uncle" is a child, but the film is not shown from the child's perspective. He is just an elf who communicates between the two blocks of "civilization" and "nature".On the one hand, he likes to be taken by his uncle to play in the bustling old town, where he sits with other children on a deserted playground overgrown with weeds and plays various prank games, often on adults.On the other hand, he will eventually be sent back to the civilized world located in an upscale community—the world of his parents. After entering the door, he is first required to clean himself.In a scene where the mother bathes "me," decorative metal railings are projected into the bathroom, making it look as if prisoners were forced to scrub their bodies in prison.

"My" father, Mr. Abbott, was a small business owner, a model of "modernist" life. Wherever he went-home, factory, and even roads-he was neat and tidy, and his every move was orderly, and he consciously abided by civilization. social norms.In Jacques Tati's previous work "Mr. Hulot's Holiday", this "norm" is not abrupt but comprehensively presented. In the eyes of those middle-class civilized people, vacation is also a kind of "norm" Normative etiquette, their holiday life is even more regular than usual.At the beginning of "My Uncle", Mr. Abbott was the first to appear on the stage. He and his wife demonstrated how they have lived a precise and rigid life for many years with a series of fixed and well-coordinated small movements.On the way to work, the formation of Mr. Abbott's and others' cars was as uniform as a march, following arrows, street signs, and lights.

Mr. and Mrs. Abbott are so pleased with the modernity and avant-garde taste of their home that they often show neighbors and friends around.When a friend gave an ambiguous admiration of "It's so empty", Mrs. Abbott hurriedly explained that it was inspired by "industrial design" and emphasized the overall sense of "modernism".With the expansion of Mr. Abbott's activity area, we found that there is no difference between his home and the office he visited - almost exactly the same minimalist desks and chairs and gray space environment. "There is no difference" means that there is no "personality". When Mr. Abbott stands with his business partners or friends in the same attire, we can hardly recognize who is who.Some people say that "in 1933, Chaplin used exaggerated huge factory machinery gears to involve workers to symbolize the disability of capital and machinery to people and humanity in modern society"; while Tati's "My Uncle" in 1958 used "The entry of machinery and new technology into various fields of home and life has become the center of gravity of Western civilization to show the price paid by society, culture, and even human nature." In the film, we were "surprised" to see a symbolic scene: The Abbotts, who had fully entered the "button era", were finally locked in their garage by the induction automatic door.

The Abbotts' open-air party in their "flowerless" garden became a "modernist disaster."In the garden made of stones and floor tiles, there are only pruned and deformed green plants.The flowers sent by friends were also plastic flowers, "this way they can be stored for a long time"; and the female neighbor was almost turned away because she was mistaken for a carpet seller because she was wrapped in a strange shawl.The party, made up of vague, uninteresting chatter, was finally destroyed by the fountain at Abbott's house.The fountain was the centerpiece of the garden, a favorite of the Abbotts, which was only open for a moment when guests came.Unexpectedly, the water pipe burst suddenly, and muddy water erupted everywhere in the garden. The host and guests picked up their seats to avoid it.However, the path in the garden is strangely paved, and the small floor tiles in an irregular layout are like plum blossom piles. People are jumping on the "modernist path" at a strange pace.

3. Poetic dwelling "My uncle" is Mr. Hulot, and he is out of season.He is almost completely unable to integrate into modern society. In "Mr. Hullo's Holiday", he tends to unintentionally break the order of the middle class; wandering around the "advanced" urban areas of the country.And in "My Uncle", he obviously couldn't accept the baptism of industrial civilization.Just look at Mr. Hullo's "adventures" in the kitchen of Abbott's house: in order to find a cup, he is in a state of confusion, and all the buttons are simply organs for him.

And Mr. Hu Luo rode his broken bicycle and returned to the busy small streets of the old city, looking calm and at ease.There, people gossiping, arguing, and doing nothing, together with melodious minor tunes and certain repetitive movements, constitute a rhythmic and musical scene of life.It is always like a playground, a market, and different little jokes are born every day.There is a sharp contrast between Mr. Hullo's apartment and Mr. Abbott's villa.Jacques Tati used a fixed lens to show the scene of Hulo going upstairs, suddenly going up, turning, passing the platform, going down again, turning left and right. After a long detour, Hulo finally arrived at his home. The plain and lengthy shots show a vivid and leisurely pace of life.We can also call Hu Luo "the poet of life".

Mr. Hullo lived in the old town, where the people looked rough and disheveled, where the dwellings were narrow and the streets were flooded.But Mr. Hullo is unusually humble and elegant: he knocked off half a broken brick on the ruined wall and put it back carefully; he adjusted his window to a certain angle every morning so that the life on the opposite side Birds under the eaves catch reflected sunlight.But a pure "poet" means someone who is powerless about life.Mr. Abbott decided to transform him into a "modern and civilized person". He first introduced him to a friend's company. As a result, during the interview, he was mistaken for leaving a string of footprints on the table when he was shining his shoes. He was rejected for juggling.Mr. Abbott had to arrange him in his own factory. As a result, he turned the standardized plastic leather tubes into weird shapes.However, in the clumsy Mr. Hulot, we see instead the stupidity, dullness and hypocrisy of those who have been transformed by industrial civilization.

4. The Last Sadness Mr. Abbott finally couldn't bear it anymore, and he was afraid that his son would be spoiled by his uncle, so he finally sent Mr. Hu Luo to work as a salesman in other provinces.The girl next door said regretfully, "Are you really leaving?" Hu Luo didn't seem to have any sadness on his face.At this time, the old neighborhood next door is still being demolished, and we can imagine that when he comes back, this place will also become a lifeless new-style residential area.Abbott and his son sent Mr. Hullo to the airport, and Hullo left in a hurry without even having time to say goodbye.However, because of an accidental prank between Mr. Abbott and his son, the relationship between father and son was bridged. We saw Abbott’s car driving straight out in the opposite direction of the arrow on the road. This may be Mr. Hu Luo’s resistance to “reform” small victory. "My Uncle" has almost no plots that directly generate jokes from body and language. The jokes come from the environment shown in the movie. This environment is the continuous improvement and expansion of the visual impression of the film from beginning to end.Jacques Tati became a unique "author-director", not only because he wrote, directed and acted, but more importantly, he was the creator of this environment.In Jacques Tati's movies, you don't expect to see slapstick-like episodes, you have to patiently observe the subtle, life-like, comedy actions of the characters that are easily overlooked.Sometimes you have to search the frame to "find" what's funny.This feeling is like sitting on a terrace cafe, smiling and watching the behavior of people on the street (you may not hear or only vaguely talk about them)-some old man's walk, a couple's quarrel, two or three A girl competing to show off her clothes, a few children playing - guessing the possibilities of their lives.Of course, in "My Uncle", this possibility only belongs to Mr. Hulo and the neighborhood where he lives. Mr. Abbott's "modern" life is impossible, and it can be seen through at a glance, because he is too regular and too order. The end of the film is a few empty shots. The street without Mr. Hu Luo looks so empty and lonely. The people playing and the noise of the construction site suddenly disappear.The beautiful words Bazin wrote for the great ending of "Mr. Hulot's Holiday" can still be applied in "My Uncle": "If you want to understand the faint sadness at the end of the film, the sense of loss Where do emotions come from, maybe you will find that this is the feeling that everything suddenly becomes silent." "Love and Murder Are the Same Thing": Vertigo, 1958 Vertigo, Vertigo, it happened again last night, and it's still so overwhelming.Vertigo, if you want to call it, is a labyrinthine film about love and sin.The film begins with a black-and-white close-up of the face and organs of an unknown woman in primary color, followed by a psychedelic, dizzying spiral.The spiral loops endlessly, with no beginning and no end.like a whirlpool.Or a black hole.Anxiety, trance.Then came the credits, spiraling out of a human eye.And that blond Kim Novak hairstyle, and the growth rings on the sections of mahogany trees that mark historical events.It's like a vortex.Or a black hole.It's an annual ring movie in itself.Kim Novak pointed to the outermost circle and said: I was born here and I died here. (Vertigo) is a retrospective, first of a history that is not false, and then of a crime, where we see love and fear rise from the coffin, come face to face, and finally fall all together in another into the abyss.Its first shot is one hand grabbing an iron pole -- then the camera pulls away and the other hand grabs a ladder -- and then the whole person emerges.And then there's James Stewart, looking down, a blinding shot, followed by a repeated shot of a height-phobic person in the tower's stairwell, shot by using the focal length of the lens to pull forward At the same time the camera moves back, the effect is amazing.Completely put the audience into the perspective of Stewart himself.Throughout the movie, people become the characters in it. Love and sin.At first, we follow Stewart's car on a dream ride: hot, empty, turbulent lust steaming through the air, and Bernard Herrmann's score erratic.When Kim Novak keeps turning left and right and left and right, it feels like a maze, and she ends up at Stewart's house.If you leave the truth aside, the first half of this: a police detective falls in love with a blonde who shouldn't be loved because she is the wife of an employer and a classmate, and because she is a "lost woman". Infatuation and guilt, involved in a vortex.In the end he committed a crime: his lover threw himself from the tower.In this erotic process, a mechanism of voyeurism and pursuit is presented. In the second half, from fanaticism and surprise (the kiss in the stormy sea) to sadness and doubt, Hitchcock presents in advance what the audience should get in the end, which completely influences the audience's psychology, from wondering "why " turned into wondering "how?".The sin here becomes that of Kim Novak, who cheated on her lover and committed murder.It was also the whirlpool of love that made her willing to be manipulated.Here the male presents an "indescribable borderline mental illness and fetishes, ritualized behavior and sadistic and masochistic tendencies".In the end, Kim Novak threw himself into the tower "again" to complete the cleansing of love and sin. It's like two movies at the same time, and it's amazing that it's complete again.It presents the richest possible meaning of a movie, and it is interpretable at all levels and fields. It will never be known, and it will never be possible to know all the things contained in it, so every time I watch it, I have an inexplicable pleasure.This includes the picture: Kim Wacker is standing under the Golden Gate Bridge, the iron bridge occupies half of the whole picture, and Novak looks particularly depressed and lonely; after she falls down the tower for the first time, an overhead shot, The tower occupies the center, impossibly abrupt and terrifying, and in the upper left corner, the priest of the manor climbs up to the roof to inspect the woman's body, while Stewart, reduced to a black dot, staggers out of the frame from the lower right corner. Truffaut once said: "The love scene and the murder scene are completely different, but in Hitchcock, they look so similar, I suddenly realized: love and murder are the same thing!" Probably so a movie.Love and sin are intertwined.