何塞

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.)

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。”

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。”

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。”

法国动画片向来与美国或日本有着截然不同的画风和表现空间，往往融入创作者狂野的想象力与浓烈的个人风格，从千禧年初的《疯狂约会美丽都》开始，五光十色的法国动画在主流动画之外找到独特繁茂的存活天地。《大坏狐狸的故事》、《迪丽丽的奇幻巴黎》、《我失去了身体》这些作品惊艳四座、让人过目难忘，而这部入围去年戛纳官方选择的《何塞》也同样不让人失望。

该片先后获得了欧洲电影奖最佳动画、法国“路易德·吕克”奖最佳处女作和法国电影凯撒奖最佳动画片，影片导演奥雷尔（Aurel）是法国《世界报》和周刊LE CANARD ENCHAÎNÉ的常驻插画家，《何塞》是他的第一部动画长片。故事讲述西班牙流亡画家Josep Bartolí在二战爆发前夕在难民营与一位法国宪兵的一段毕生难忘的经历。他在难民营期间饱受歧视和虐待，更失去与未婚妻的团聚机会，之后在宪兵的帮助下逃离难民营，前往墨西哥，最后在纽约安度晚年。

▲流亡画家与法国宪兵

导演没有采取常规的第一人称来叙述传奇画家的生平，而是采用当年他在难民营结识的法国宪兵的回忆视角展开叙事。残酷沉重的历史与五味杂陈的回忆相互纠缠，娓娓道出法国/西班牙边境上的浮生百态，不仅有难民和宪兵，还有黑人和共产主义者。导演更将矛头大胆指向弗朗哥独裁暴政、法国政府默许下的种族歧视和虐待女性及难民的卑劣行为。这些复杂的历史背景为这个人物传记提供强有力的表现角度，画家在逆境中坚持创作和顽强抗争的精神令人动容。在战乱和暴政的年代里，艺术或许微不足道，不能挽救生命，却能让画家与宪兵建立起矢志不渝的友情，唤醒出人性中的光辉，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。”

除了病榻上祖父回忆的视角，导演更颇有心思地建构出另一层观察视角，透过其孙子的倾听和询问，让祖父这段回忆时而中断，时而混入真假难辨的细节（从海里出现的女画家弗里达），令故事变得错落有致。更有深意的是，孙子这个同样热衷绘画的角色巧妙地将过去与现在连结起来，从年轻一代的角度去体验流亡画家的经历。在和平年代的年轻人疏于观察，在丰富的生活里找不着创作内容，而流亡画家在艰险的环境中，却能捕捉到颠沛流离的人生百态，两者形成强烈的对比。

▲何塞与弗里达

这部动画的手绘画风近乎简陋，给人一种不连贯的质感，却意外地呼应着历史的沉重感；人物迟缓的动作和凝滞的表情耐人寻味，像是让观众缓缓拨开隐藏于尘封历史的记忆屏障。导演更将流亡画家的作品融入到叙事情节里，画风随着画家的经历而变化，线条与色彩展现出他不同时期的风格，实则暗藏其本人内心世界的演变。他在难民营时期用铅笔画素描，没有上色，之后在墨西哥的创作才惊现浓墨重彩，却放弃了人物线条的勾勒。这种剧烈的转变无疑证明了何塞终于克服了战争和流亡的恐惧，彻底解开了内心的束缚，敢于面对不堪回首的过往。

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