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Un prophète (2009)
Obedience
This is the first movie I saw of 2016. I certainly hope that it's not prophetic. I think that movies depicting people being locked up in prison hold us in rapt attention because most of us have conscious and sub- conscious fears of being locked up. I certainly identified with the prisoner in this movie because of my fear of being locked up and my fear of people in authority. They're all copies of an authority figure which my father represented to me. Every scene shows the prisoner interacting with authority figures and throws him into deeper complications with authority. His first struggle against authority is striking a blow at a policeman. For this he is convicted to spend the next 6 years in prison. Here he encounter a worse authority figure than the policeman, who is a criminal authority figure, namely of the underworld who makes harsher demands on his obedience than the authority of the law. His obedience to underworld authority ends when he's ordered to murder a Moslem leader. This and the illness of his best friend, also a Mowlem bring him to a realization that there is, after all only one authority to whom he must show obedience and that is Allah. In fact this movie shows the path followed by a prophet according to the Koran: 'We hear, and we obey. We seek Thy forgiveness, Our Lord, and to Thee is the end of all journeys.'" (2:285) The message of the movie is obey and seeing that you must obey someone it might as well be Allah, otherwise you'll find yourself having to obey murderous commands given to you by law enforcement personnel or by criminals.
Cronaca di una morte annunciata (1987)
The Price of a woman's honor
Not having read the book I can't say how close this movie sticks to the story by the great author, Gabriel Garcia Marques. The scenes in this movie are works of art, joined together and put in a sequence that gradually reveals a multitude of plots all woven into one. Long after seeing the movie, the scenes, of their own accord come back into my mind, like a tune that once heard is never forgotten, demanding to be considered the main plot. A man, on the prow of a river boat looks at the approaching land. The scene, without words, only the thudding motor of the boat, feint sounds of voices coming from the land, the brilliant white of an elegant mansion, contrasting with the dark gold of the water and a glimpse of narrow alley ways opening on to a wide plaza, hints to us that dramatic events, now memories, are going to be revealed here. Even now, more than a week since seeing the movie, I ask myself, what I can learn from this tragic story. The town's folk have just celebrated a fairy tale marriage of a young woman. Immediately her prince like husband reveals her lost virginity on her marriage bed and returns her to her mother as spoiled property. The lesson I learned from this movie is that a woman whose honor has been taken away has the right to name the price for its recovery. Her price is the life of the most popular young man in town, full of the joy of life and hope in the future. It doesn't matter whether it really was he who had robbed her of her virginity. The fact is that a fallen woman is dangerous; she can name the price of her lost honor. She chooses him to be the sacrifice, because he is worthy. He is killed just like a sacrifice, stabbed to death in the town's main square, while all the people of the town, his friends look on. I wouldn't have come to this conclusion had I continued, like most viewers, I suppose, to dwell on the mystery of whether it was really he who had taken away her virginity. If it wasn't him, then who was the true defiler? Why didn't she give him up to be murdered? Was she protecting someone? Who was she protecting? Was it the doctor? Or was it someone in her immediate family? Maybe even her father or one of her brothers?
The Lobster (2015)
Identical mates
This movie shows, in very grotesque and shocking images that humans are determined to be identical in every way possible to a member of the opposite sex, so that they can realize the urge to mate and procreate the species. Re-education is necessary for people who don't understand the importance of mating with someone who is identical to us and for people who think that one can masturbate instead of mating. Re-education takes place in an institution like a holiday resort conducted under strictly controlled conditions. One of the many requirements, on entering the institution is choosing an animal that one wants to be changed into if all else fails. The movie drives this point home by presenting the hero arriving at the institution with a dog, a cocker spaniel, which is actually his brother who was changed into a dog because he apparently failed to find a matching mate. The woman shooting the cow at the beginning of the movie is obviously demonstrating the characteristic of being a heartless person, because the mate she desires is heartless. Heartlessness is the characteristic she sets for herself and the man who wants to mate with her tries to demonstrate heartlessness also but fails when she shoots his brother, the cocker spaniel. Eventually our hero adapts to a woman in very shocking act. One could also say that this movie points a finger of criticism at the romantic idea of chivalry, such as a man showing his love for a woman by laying down his life for her.
Il portiere di notte (1974)
Relating to Nazis who had mercy on their victims
This movie shows us that once a Nazi always a Nazi, but Nazis, like all humans make certain concessions to their lust for pleasure, especially the pleasure to be had from a woman, especially when she is at their mercy. From the woman's point of view her gratitude for the mercy the Nazi has shown her, knows no bounds and she is ready to place herself, once again, but this time voluntarily at his mercy, when she meets him after the war and she suffers the consequences. These actually could have been good, that is she could have ended up having a happy marriage with the Nazi who had rescued her. But loyal Nazis still thrived even after the war and a pure blood German living with a Jewess was intolerable in their scheme of things. Their pursuit of the couple creates the tension that makes this movie an excellent thriller. This added to raising the question of how we are to relate to Nazis who had mercy on their subjects, makes this movie great.