Zhou Qingquan, deputy editor-in-chief of China's "Film Weekly", wrote in a film review sent back to China from the Berlin Film Festival:

""Life is Beautiful" directed by Li Yi.

It can be said that the first half and the second half of this movie are two different movies. How happy the first half is and how tragic the second half is.

I believe everyone remembers the scene where Guido chases Dora.

It is true that life is full of surprises, and every encounter is a carefully arranged romance!

But what about in reality?

What really made Dora fall madly in love with Guido, and what allowed Guido to pursue Dora was not only because he was smart, but more importantly, he regarded Dora as his princess.

Not only did he say that, he also did it.

Pursuing a girl you like, using all kinds of surprises and romances, in fact, in my opinion, is not Guido’s most unique charm. The most memorable thing is his consistent attitude, whether before marriage or during marriage.

Since then, Dora has been treated like a princess.

Usually when we are in love, many people say that we are a princess before we get married, a queen on the wedding day, a concubine when we are pregnant, and after giving birth, we become a maid!

But Guido always regarded Dora as his princess!

After getting married and having Joshua, he still will not forget this, giving his princess surprise and romance in his daily life.

It has truly been done so that she can be a princess at any time, and she can have surprises and romance at any time!

This is his most valuable thing!

He wrote "Good morning, princess" on the cake, took Dora away on horseback, laid a carpet for Dora, talked to her on the radio in the concentration camp, and played songs to her... These behaviors were all very romantic. It can be said that Guido loved Dora.

Dora's love is consistent and never changes.

Even in the last moments, the most touching thing is that Guido went to find Dora, only to be discovered and shot.

What's even more cruel is that the war ended the next day.

I think many people may have questions after watching the movie: If Guido had not gone to Dora, would their family have been reunited the next day? Was Guido's death meaningless?

But just because we think from the perspective of normal people, we think that the first thing to do is to ensure our own safety. Normal people will not risk being shot to find their wives like Guido, and they will not spend a lot of money.

Zhou Zhang would weave a white lie for his son, and he would not be like Dora who took the initiative to be sent to a concentration camp even though she was not a Jew...

Precisely because normal people would not do such things, the actions of Guido and Dora are even more touching, because they did things that people did not have the courage to do.

Dora is willing to go into a concentration camp to be with her family, and Guido is willing to risk his life to say "Good morning, princess" on the radio and play songs to her, which further illustrates their sincere relationship.

The movie does not directly use bloody and horrific scenes to reflect the tragedy of the concentration camp, but rather uses a straightforward narrative to show how their previous life was happier by comparing it with the happy life of Guido's family in the first half. I think this

The more it highlights how painful life in the concentration camps was.

The more humorous and interesting the tone of the film is, the more it highlights the sadness of the ending.

If there is no peace, how do you know how cruel war is?

Different people have different opinions on whether the movie "Life is Beautiful" is a tragedy or a comedy. But like most people, I still shed tears after watching this movie. No matter how comedic its shooting techniques are, I still shed tears.

I cried. Because of the game my father played with his son, because of my father’s performance when he finally walked past the box, and because of the tank that came slowly at the end.

Regarding "Life is Beautiful", the first reaction of many viewers is that the fatherly love in the film is very touching.

Indeed, father's love is one of the very important elements in the film, but it is not the main theme of the film.

In my opinion, father's love can only be regarded as the second major theme of the film. The real theme of the film is actually anti-war and anti-discrimination.

Guido's application to open a bookstore was unsuccessful because of Mussolini's racial discrimination policy, which made everything difficult for Jews.

In addition, the school principal tells the students that they are the noblest race in the world.

There are shops everywhere on the street that prohibit Jews from entering.

Of course, the most cruel thing is the massacre of the Jews. The movie does not directly show these heart-rending atrocities, but it shows the atrocities of the Holocaust in more horrific details.

The first one was the cat girl sitting next to Guido and his son when they were captured. When the cat appeared again, its owner was no longer there.

The movie did not show the tragedy by showing the girl being killed, but used some details to hint that she was killed.

Through dialogue, the audience is told that the government allowed the elderly and children to take a bath, but in fact they were allowed to enter the gas chamber.

In the second half, there is a scene where Dora has a conversation with a female prisoner.

Female prisoner: "This female soldier became evil as soon as she arrived. The female soldier at the door was quite nice when she first arrived, but later she became the most vicious."

Dora: "But at least she didn't let the old people and children work."

Female prisoner: "Those who don't have to work must die."

When I saw this, I got chills all over.

The piles of clothes of the victims and the cat all hinted at all this.

There are many details that are horrifying to consider.

In the concentration camp, the doctor told Guido that his veterinarian friend asked him a riddle: Fat, ugly, timid to the point of turning yellow. If you ask me what kind of guy I am, I will answer: Quack.

The doctor said he didn't know whether the answer was a duck or a platypus, and said the platypus' cry was not "quack, quack, quack."

Maybe people with different attitudes towards the doctor will have different interpretations, but through the previous foreshadowing, I am more willing to believe that he wants to save people.

So there is something in the doctor's words. He used the different sounds of a duck and a platypus to express the different languages ​​spoken by Italians and Germans.

At this point, in the restaurant, Joshua accidentally said "thank you" in Italian, which aroused the suspicion of the Germans. I thought he was echoing the doctor's riddle. Joshua could not guarantee that he would not speak, which made the doctor discover

Helping them escape was much harder than I thought.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! I prefer to believe that the doctor did think about helping Guido and his family escape before this, but in the end he gave up.

Guido was a very smart man. He understood the meaning of the doctor's riddle, so he left sadly.

In fact, the doctor also has his own difficulties. If he fails to help Guido and his family escape, he will not end well.

It's not that the doctor didn't want to help, but in the final analysis, the regime was too cruel. Not only would the Jews not be spared, but even those who had helped the Jews would die miserably.

Details, details, riddles appear several times in the film, but each time they are actually not random, but echo the theme of the entire film.

There is another clip that is also impressive.

In the gas chamber, the German female officer fell. Guido's uncle asked her with concern: Are you injured?

This detail is not very eye-catching, and may be ignored by many people, but in my opinion it is actually profound.

The female officer had just come out of the gas chamber. She had done this kind of thing many times. She knew what would happen to the people inside, so she became distracted and fell down while walking.

But the Jews were kept in the dark. They didn't know they were going to a gas chamber and thought they were just taking a shower.

Guido's uncle is a gangster in the hotel, so out of professional habit, he expressed concern to the female officer who had fallen. This was an ordinary concern with good moral character, but the female officer responded to him with an indifferent attitude.

eyes.

The director did not simply and crudely use bloody and horrific shots to show the horror of war. He did not shoot close-ups of the gas chambers or the tragic conditions of the victims. The entire film only had a fleeting shot of corpses everywhere, and even Guido was killed.

There is only sound and no picture when shooting.

Doing so will not weaken the power of the movie, but will better reflect the director's respect for life.

The film reflects the suffering experienced by the victims more through plots, details, and metaphors, which makes you empathize more than scaring you with scary and thrilling scenes.

So I think what the film wants to express is not just to praise father's love, but more importantly, to use Guido's sacrifice and the whole family's experience to make people understand the cruelty of war and the horror of genocide.

Guido used a beautiful lie to make his son in hell think that he was in heaven. This story is very touching.

But after watching this movie, we will hope for world peace, no more wars and discrimination, and fathers do not need to deceive their children with white lies, because they are already in heaven."

The many discussions caused by "Life is Beautiful" at the Berlin Film Festival are not deliberately hyping up a certain topic, or even comparable to the parade of female boxers.

Regarding the many riddles that appear in the movie and what the attitude of the German doctors is, fans and the media are also arguing endlessly.

Some people think that the German doctor's riddle contains profound meaning. He wanted to save Guido's family, but he couldn't, so he punched the table in anger.

Some people also think that this riddle is just a riddle and does not contain any metaphors. Because from the beginning to the end, the doctor has always been obsessed with riddles. In the hotel, he could stay up all night and forget to eat and sleep for a riddle, so that there was nothing in his thoughts.

There are things more important than his riddles, including the life and death of Guido's family.

There are many interpretations on this point.

"The answer to that riddle was obviously the duck, but the veterinarian told him that the answer was wrong. However, we and Guido both knew that the answer was the duck. Obviously the veterinarian lied to him, but the doctor could no longer tell whether the answer was right or wrong.

, he only believes in the answer given to him by the person who asked him the riddle. Then it’s like he judges whether ***’s racism is correct!”

"I think the riddle should be used to tell the male protagonist that although the platypus and the duck look very similar, their quacks are different, just like children who will be exposed when they talk, so the doctor wants to tell the male protagonist through the riddle that there is nothing he can do to help.

"

"I think the doctor is a satirical character, a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder tendencies, a symbol of insensitivity, self-centeredness, and a vicious circle of extreme rationality. He brings fleeting hope to the protagonist and the audience before falling into deeper despair and helplessness again.

There is no need to overestimate kindness and kindness. In such an environment, numbness is a safer choice than kindness. The dramatic reversal can make people feel the sadness."

In fact, from this aspect, "Life is Beautiful" has been successful, because only when movie fans really watch it and really go deep into the movie, can they make various interpretations of the details in the movie.

The Berlin International Film Festival special issue of "Daily Screen" specifically reported on "Life is Beautiful".

Alan Berg, the famous Hollywood film critic, interpreted and commented on the film based on several riddles of the film in the film festival special column of "Daily Screen".

"The first riddle: What is less visible the more you have it? -Darkness"

"Guido did not want to tell his son the truth and made him accept a miserable life prematurely. He set up the biggest scam and told his son that this was just a game, and the reward of the game was that whoever got 1,000 points first would get a brand new car.

tank.

In the following depressing and even cruel days, Guido was always optimistic and smiling in front of his son. He played hide-and-seek with his son, took his son to eat cookies with the German children, and regarded the various cruel methods of persecuting the Jews as the rules of the game.

Tell his son: moving things, doing coolies, poison gas baths, burning... All this cruelty and darkness were covered up by Guido's clever lies. The son has been growing up happily, never knowing what kind of world he is in.

Bad times.

What is more invisible the more it is? The answer is darkness. Cruelty, persecution, and death happen every day. According to statistics, during World War II, the Nazis killed about 6 million European Jews, including 1.5 million children. Throughout World War II,

Approximately 5.8 million European Jews were killed by the Nazis, accounting for two-thirds of the European Jewish population.

This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! What a huge data, what a shocking history. In Europe at that time, the darkness of the revolution shrouded everything. And because of his son, because of love, because of hope, greatness

His father cleverly turned all this darkness into games and into light. Man is great and justice is immortal. Schopenhauer said that the role of will is great, because with this will, we can overcome it.
To be continued...