何塞

西班牙内战时期，人们为了逃离独裁统治而来到了法国。面对大量外来人口的突然涌入，法国当局将他们集中安置，然而生活区的条件十分艰苦。虽然有铁丝网的阻隔，画家何塞还是想尽办法与外界沟通，寻找他失散的伴侣，并且和一位守卫成为了好友。同时插画家出身的导演奥雷尔，最大程度地让何塞的画作重新散发光彩，将其流畅地融于影片之中，着重描绘在艰难逆境中艺术的力量和顽强抗争的精神，完美呼应了主人公之言：“美好的想法，如果不与美好的人相遇，就会消逝。”

Animation, as a visual art form, can detach itself from reality in the purest sense, those colorful, fanciful artifacts are able to escape any spatio-temporal, anthropocentric boundaries, therefore they are mostly apt for escapism, often designated to family fares. However, here are two exceptions, French cartoonist Aurel’s César Award winning feature debut JOSEP and Studio Ghibli’s enshrined classic GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, both associate themselves with the dreadful WWII and its harsh reality,

JOSEP’s title refers to Spanish painter/writer Josep Bartolí (1910-1995), and it centers on his harrowing experiences in a French internment camp as a refugee after fought in the Spanish civil war, the point in time is early 1939, months before the commencement of that blamed war, where he is befriended by a convivial gendarme Serge, camaraderie blossoms between them under the noxious conditions. Josep is subjected to taunts, humiliations and abuse from other mean-spirited, racist, anti-communist gendarmes, one of his fellow Spanish émigrés is beaten to death for defiance. To add injury to insult, Serge finds out Josep’s pregnant fiancée is severely injured, childless and in a disfigured, catatonic state.

Not shying away from the horrendous acts, scenarist Jean-Louis Milesi also tries to squeeze levity and sensuousness into this tale of woe, even conjures up Frida Kahlo into Josep’s fantasy, to whom he will be romantically linked years later in Mexico. But told in dribs and drabs, the narrative doesn’t amp up appreciable emotional impact, Bartolí is chummy, but no character for us to empathize with. And mingled with a frame story where an old Serge, on his deathbed, inculcates his modern-day grandson to carry on with his memory, JOSEP consciously wears its heart on its sleeve, but what is remarkable about it?

Fairly speaking, JOSEP possesses a distinctively western painting style, it looks primitive à la bande-dessinée, and unfurls in a frame-by-frame rigidity which dispenses with the function of cinematography, which renders the viewing experience rather different from most of its kind, it is retro, but not in a completely alluring way, you might be astounded by Aurel’s artistic flair, but for assimilation of what is presented on the screen, it could be a very different matter, even if you are compulsively ensorcelled by Sílvia Pérez Cruz’s exotic incidental music. A blue-ribbon artisan doesn’t necessarily make for a top-line filmmaker, which Japan’s Studio Ghibli knows absolutely the best.

Directed by the studio’s co-founder Isao Takahata, GRAVES OF THE FIREFLIES earns its prestige as a sure-fire tear-jerker for decades, and just when you fully gird yourself for the stimuli of your tear gland, bam! it shakes you up roundly in the off, a strategy pays dividends because by giving away the ending, it diminishes anxiety and prepares you to the inevitability with some semblance of resignation, it is not an artisanal decision, but from the mastermind of a competent filmmaker and astute storyteller.

The story takes place is the dog-end of WWII, Kobe is beset with air raids, two young siblings, Seita, a school-kid and his four-year-old sister Setsuko, have to live off their limited means after their mother perished (while their father is a navy officer in the line of duty) and a stint of staying with their aunt turns sour. Here the underbelly of realism sneaks in (the story is adapted from Akiyuki Nosaka’s semi-biographical novel), a majority of the adults aren’t sympathetic figures who, you might take it for granted, will show partiality towards parentless kids, no, not for those who husband their sustenance in a war-ridden city, where they are benumbed and desensitized by hardship and casualty. Warfare always brings out the worst of humanity, that is a given.

If the plot is a poverty porn of the highest water, viz. young kids suffer and wither in privation, Takahata magnificently tones down the tragedy with episodes of poetry and reminiscences, even happiness (however fleeting it is), using firefly as a metaphor for evanescent lives, the whole film suffuses with exceptionally tender moments and picturesque illustrations that have been scarcely rivaled ever since. That is the simplicity and beauty of cel animation, I would even prefer this to Hayao Miyazaki’s MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, released in the same year, not because of its technique, but of how Takahata leavens a lachrymose text with adroit considerations, especially those concerning Setsuko, her declining process is depicted with such insuperable felicity (a fruit drop can leave you feel pulverized), everything can be tactlessly fell into mawkishness or ickiness, but GRAVES OF THE FIREFLIES lends its feet victoriously in the end.

Smart, if over-smart, is Takahata’s stance on the warfare, by skipping a larger context, he evades a straight answer which may divide his audience, so you can read it as either anti-war or an anti-defeat, that doesn’t particularly of Takahata’s concern, his point seems to be, if I many conjecture, a country must always value and prioritize its citizen’s life above everything else, otherwise, war or no war, the failure is on all of us.

referential entries: Yoshifumi Kondô’s WHISPER OF THE HEART (1995, 8.2/10); Sylvain Chomet’s THE ILLUSIONIST (2010, 7.1/10); Hayao Miyazaki’s MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988, 8.0/10).

Title: Josep

Year: 2020

Country: France, Spain, Belgium

Language: French, Spanish, Catalan, English

Genre: Animation, Biography, Drama

Director: Aurel

Screenwriter: Jean-Louis Milesi

Music: Sílvia Pérez Cruz

Editing: Thomas Belair

Voice Cast:

Sergi López

Bruno Solo

François Morel

Gérard Hernandez

David Marsais

Valérie Lemercier

Alain Cauchi

Sílvia Pérez Cruz

Rating: 6.8/10

English Title: Grave of the Fireflies

Original Title: Hotaru no haka

Year: 1988

Country: Japan, USA

Language: Japanese

Genre: Animation, War, Drama

Director/Screenwriter: Isao Takahata

based on the novel by Akiyuki Nosaka

Music: Michio Mamiya

Cinematography: Nobuo Koyama

Editing: Takeshi Seyama

Voice Cast:

Tsutomu Tatsumi

Ayano Shiraishi

Akemi Tamaguchi

Rating: 8.4/10

西班牙内战时期，人们为了逃离独裁统治而来到了法国。面对大量外来人口的突然涌入，法国当局将他们集中安置，然而生活区的条件十分艰苦。虽然有铁丝网的阻隔，画家何塞还是想尽办法与外界沟通，寻找他失散的伴侣，并且和一位守卫成为了好友。同时插画家出身的导演奥雷尔，最大程度地让何塞的画作重新散发光彩，将其流畅地融于影片之中，着重描绘在艰难逆境中艺术的力量和顽强抗争的精神，完美呼应了主人公之言：“美好的想法，如果不与美好的人相遇，就会消逝。”

开场伴随着西班牙内战著名歌曲《到街垒去》，观众回到了1939年那个残酷的冬天。

西班牙内战的失败，使得共产主义者、社会主义者、安那其主义者、共和主义者不得不流亡海外。当难民们来到法国边境，迎接他们的是冷冰冰的训斥与一条通往难民营的道路。西班牙人从没有这样沮丧过——斯大林出卖了革命，与德国法西斯媾和。斯大林狗腿子西班牙共产党在战争危难时刻党同伐异，共和国的警察拥有先进的装备，却终日游荡在戒严的街道上。没有人想到革命的结局会是这样。

在最后一艘法国船只驶离海岸，绝望的人们陆续举起枪，其中不乏身材魁梧但面色忧郁的年轻人。

枪响过后，他们会上天堂吗？或许他们从来不相信天堂，但他们曾经相信正义、自由与理想。他们不远万里来到西班牙的前线。他们是工人、妇女、侍应生、作家、诗人、画家、雕塑家和勇敢的宣传者；他们是加拿大的医生，美利坚的小说家、智利的诗人、英国的同性恋者、匈牙利的摄影师；他们是白求恩、海明威、聂鲁达、奥登、卡帕......

他们是一切反对专制与暴政的勇者。

在这个普遍保守化的年代，每个人都应该有一点打破刻板印象的勇气。

愿革命者的热情永不消退。

片子里的塞内加尔雇佣兵有哲学家色彩。

1. 如果黑色不存在，您的咖啡就是牛奶。如果白色不存在，柯拉果就是煤炭。Si le noir n'existe pas, votre café serait du lait. Si le blanc n'existe pas, la kola serait du charbon. （这果子好苦！）(C'est amer!) 万事皆如此。如果苦味杀不死你，你就会习惯。再多嚼一会儿。慢慢嚼。Comme pour toutes choses. On s'y habitue si on n'en meurt pas. Il faut mâcher longtemps. Lentement.

2. 谢谢你们，女士们。C'est bien aimable à vous, mesdames.

说这话的时候他在编绳套，为后面剧情埋下伏笔。

3. 君子报仇十年不晚。Un jour tu tresses la corde, un autre tu pends le cochon, entre les deux ton corps fléchit (?).

这句话字面意思好像是从你开始编绳套那一天，到你把猪绞死那一天之间，你要卑躬屈膝。回应前面编绳套的情节，像猪一样的狱卒，以及后面的情节。

4. 我们要回营房了，德国佬那边的局势好像升温了。我们会打败他们。Dans notre caserne. Il semblait que ça commence à se chauffer là-haut des côtés des boches. On va les mettre à bâter (?).

原文意思好像是要让德国佬像驴一样驮着东西走。

5. 我没看到他走，我怎么开枪？Si je ne vois pas sortir, pourquoi je tirerai dessus? （我意识到他不会违抗命令，他只会睁一只眼闭一只眼。）(J'ai compris qu'il n'aurait pas désobéi aux ordres, mais simplement regardé ailleurs.)

西班牙内战时期，人们为了逃离独裁统治而来到了法国。面对大量外来人口的突然涌入，法国当局将他们集中安置，然而生活区的条件十分艰苦。虽然有铁丝网的阻隔，画家何塞还是想尽办法与外界沟通，寻找他失散的伴侣，并且和一位守卫成为了好友。同时插画家出身的导演奥雷尔，最大程度地让何塞的画作重新散发光彩，将其流畅地融于影片之中，着重描绘在艰难逆境中艺术的力量和顽强抗争的精神，完美呼应了主人公之言：“美好的想法，如果不与美好的人相遇，就会消逝。”