The Movie the Idiots and the Main Theme of the Story - Essay Example

? All About My Mother (Pedro Almodovar, 1999) and The Idiots (Lars Von Trier, 1998). Compare and contrast how these two movies represent national identity and the national past. Introduction Art just not take into its fold the deepest emotions but also narrates all kinds of feelings into the atmosphere, sometimes reflecting cultural pasts and identities. . When it comes to cinematic works of a nation, art play a vital role in depicting the past and the present scenarios. Film is a medium that can deliver emotions in a very loud and clear manner, Mostly it is due to the fact that people who are sensitive enough to see the society in the deep go through a major effort to make sure that all the ethics and emotions which identifies them as a nation can be put in such a manner that it leaves an everlasting impact. A film can depict what are the morals of the country and what is going on at the moment, and what cultural issues are being addressed by the common public of that nation. As Mohandas Gandhi has said “A nation's culture resides in the hearts and the soul of its people” (Wederspahn 32). Film is an appropriate medium to portray culture of a nation. Two movies from the European region have been chosen to be compared about how art can depict a nation’s culture, identity and past. First movie All About My Mother (1999) revolves around the norms of Spain where as the second one The Idiots (1998) revolves around the regions of Denmark and Scandinavia. As it is very important to first summarize the whole plot on which the two movies are based upon, a brief summary together with points that have been highlighted in these movies. All About My Mother (Pedro Almodovar, 1999) Summary The main actors in this film are Cecelia Roth and Penelope Cruz. The story starts with a woman named Manuela i.e. Cecelia Roth, who is a single parent and a “medical transplant coordinator”, taking care of his son who is 17 years old named Esteban. She takes him to attend a stage performance on "A Streetcar Named Desire." When the show ended Esbteban expressed the desire to meet his favorite actress, “Huma Rojo”`, so that he could get her autograph, but as he was going towards his favorite actress a terrible accident happens, Esteban gets hit by a car and is killed, this was the most devastating point of Manuela’s life. In bereavement, for placing her life back in order, Manuela wanted to do certain things which she should have done a long time ago, in which the first thing that she includes is a journey to Barcelona to enlighten the boy's unknowing father about the loss. Later the father, named Lola, was found to be an “HIV-positive transvestite”. As the story unfolds it is also shown that Manuela runs into an old acquaintance called Agrado, a transsexual who was unexpectedly appointed as Huma Rojo’s personal assistant; the star Esteban had always admired and helps administer her co-actor and lover Nina. Manuela also happened to meet Sister Maria, a young nun role performed by Penelope Cruz in the movie, who works in a nonprofit organization, that helps battered prostitutes, and intends to visit El Salvador, but soon discovers that she is pregnant. Sister Maria came to know that she has also been contaminated with AIDS; Cecilia makes a decision to help the nun by letting her stay in her home. Points About national identity and national past The points which have been highlighted in this movie, that depict the nature of the past and identity of Spain, are as follows (smith 28-30): anti-government strikes the celebration of democracy the spread of AIDS Manuela’s journey in search of herself identifies a great number of things which can be also identified as the national marks of Spain and at the deterritorialized frontier of national identity and sexuality. Manuela finds that a transvestite can bring a lot of things together because he is neither from here nor from anywhere else, he is somebody in between and could help things to reconnect, especially the masculine and feminine sense together. Here, the best example of the celebration of democracy is the openness of how transvestites are being handled in the movie. All cinematic allusions are well interpreted in All About My Mother. The director captured the actors in movement following their activity within rooms thus creating a feeling of intimacy as compared to the common scripted film genre. Spain particularly Madrid is well represented in Almodovar film. The thematic dimension adopted was strong; therefore, limited artificial effects were utilized. The cultural issues of trans-sexuality, women and society, bonding of the family and direct humanism portrayal made the audience feel the essence of the movie. The democracy prevalence, strikes against the government, onset of AIDS as well as the General Pinochet prosecution are dramatically transcended in the scenes (Dafini). The argument concerned with national identity came back with retaliation to the cultural debate in progress. It amalgamates the variables of ethnicity, sexuality, gender triggering the molding of closed identities for depicting floating ones that are affected by diverse cultural issues (Diniz 34). In order to get an idea behind the national identity as presented in the movie plot it is important to get an understanding of the Spanish context from where Almodovar established himself as a filmmaker. Spanish citizens led an oppressed life under the rule of Franco, morality was highly stressed together with censorship of raw ideas (Kinder 42); even being a patriarchal community, the fatherly figure had no contribution to the family. Therefore in All About My Mother, the director centered the theme around an “exalting mother” while the father was portrayed like a passive figure (Dafini). The films by Almodovar have marked the revolution of “post-Franco Spain”. Spanish culture is represented through family relations, religion and gender thus portraying a world which is held intact by the independent generic hybridization rules. Gender is just relevant as a societal construct; whereas marginality takes the center stage (Acevedo-Muno 26). Conventional norms of Spain are revitalized with slightly different meaning. The desire and “pursuit for pleasure” are emphasized at the crux of true Spanish identity (Hill and Gibson 100). In Spain, Barcelona and Madrid are the characters of national identity, therefore, Almodovar utilized the cityscape as homage to his nation e.g. in the film when Manuela reaches Barcelona, the cinematography captured the place as heavenly and poetic. “Shot-reverse-shot” among the cathedral (built by Antonio Gaudi) and Manuela gave the impression as the protagonist has reached a place of rejuvenation. The city seemed to have a holy spirit while in actuality under Franco rule, the dictatorship prohibited freedom of expression in the society (Dafni). The opus of Almodovar is often characterized by melodrama, yet he managed to formulate his own principles that cannot be summed up in one specific genre. All modes of expression are intricately fused in the film (Acevedo-Muno 20). It can be judged as a “film of women, rather than a film about women”. The characterization of Manuela, her journey to search for her own identity, past reminiscences haunting her present state of mind with the tragedy further impeded by the untimely death of her son are well intertwined (Diniz 34). The Idiots (Lars Von Trier, 1998) Summary The film is of a genre which is specified as outrageous. The plot of The Idiots (1998) is fairly frank and rather it can be regarded as being fairly blunt. The story revolves around a spoiled brat living for free in his uncle's house under the alleged reason of arranging it for sale, Stoffer i.e. Jens Albinus, invites a bunch of friends over to stay. Without any money to get by, Stoffer comes upon the idea of 'spazzing', which means that he and his friends started to pretend to become retarded or in simpler words they acted like they were mentally not stable, in order to avail themselves of society's bigheartedness. What starts out as a joke swiftly changes its course and becomes a way of life for him and his group of friends as they try to get in touch with their inner idiot by continuously acting the act of spazzing, but when Stoffer unintentionally brings introverted novice Karen i.e. Bodil Jorgensen into the group through a spazzing incident, nobody knew that the outcome would be so outrageous to handle. Points About national identity and national past The idiots presents this specific group of people known as the spazzers as a microcosm for “The Group” in order to explore the restrictions and possibilities for transcendence of a concept that is at the foundation of the Danish national identity. This identity is not specific to the Danish people, but also Scandinavian people can relate to it, this helps us to understand the critical and popular success of the idiots in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, and its inversely unenthusiastic response in the rest of the world, including the United States, where it was released after a two-year delay (Ago 38). By creating a combination of such despicable and hideous natured people, and making people chuckle at their abusive actions, and in turn be painful, Von Trier strikes a chord with people about their own insincerity and double standards and also the hypocrisy of the world at large when it comes to kindness and sentiments (McKenzie, 2005). Comparison Both of the movies are very different from each other, in context, story and plot. One talks about social issues like AIDS and other talks about how people could become hypocrite. In All About My Mother the basic story revolves around women and their issues within the society. Especially in Spain where as in the movie The Idiots mostly hypocritical factors of the Danish and Scandinavian society are being portrayed and could be easily pointed out in various stances in the screenplay. Both being European societies do have some interconnection with each other but, their culture and their natural identities are a totally different ball game. This appraisal also tells us that Spanish people still do have some heart to care about people who have been wronged in life in some way or the other but that is not the case with the Danish society, as it caters to much more hypocrisy. Also in the first movie there is a great amount of discussion available upon the democracy of the country where these factors are not filmed in the Danish movie. Another issue that has been raised in All About My Mother is about the society of transvestites, this is a group which is considered a taboo all around the world. The only region in which both movies cross road is when there is a talk about certain groups of societies as the later film talks about a group of people who act retarded to get what they want. Here, two different groups are being discussed but actually they collectively represent who we are and what we were in the past, not just as human beings but as a nation. Especially if, the movie The Idiots is considered it would be seen that group activity has been the main theme of the story. In Denmark it is not the matter of class or race that counts rather the need of belonging to a certain kind of group, especially, when it encompasses everyone as there is a little chance of adjustment if someone is marked as an outsider (Ago 38). Other than that some traditions of family and its values are visible in All About My Mother but in The Idiots all of the boundaries have been breached when it comes to things like family and morals. Conclusion Both films come from different genre and cater different kinds of audience, after watching the academy award winner, All About My Mother the audience feel depressed and sorrow but there is a lesson that could be learnt through this movie, but when it comes to the movie The Idiots one cannot deny that it is a brilliant work of art, the movie is ironic, starting off with a cheerful note, humour is well versed in scenes yet it leaves the viewers with a depressed feeling and this is all due to the fact that the director has tried to convey a message in a very straight forward manner which could have been subtle. Despite the fact that both movies have their pros and cons, they have been successful in conveying the message very clearly about how their respective societies have been acting in the past, about their governments, ethics and traditions and how these factors would impact the future of their society. Biblography Acevedo-Munoz, Ernesto R. "The Body and Spain: Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother." Quarterly Review of Film and Video Vol. 21 (2004): 25-38. Ago, Alessandro. Once Upon a Time in Amerika Dancer in the Dark and Contemporary European Cinema. The Division. Dafni, Kelly. Pedro Almodovar's Renegotiation of the Spanish Identity, 2011[Online] Available at < http://www.moviesin203.org/2011/01/pedro-almodovars-renegotiation-of-the-spanish-identity/> [Accessed: 2 March 2011] Diniz, Julio. Brazil and issues of cultural and national identity in Latin America. Dialogous Latinoamericanos, 2000 [Online] Available at: [Accessed: 2 March 2011] Hill, John and Gibson, Pamela Church. World Cinema: Critical Approaches. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2000. Kinder, Marsha. "Reinventing the Motherland: Almodovar's Brain-Dead Trilogy". Film Quarterly Vol. 58, No. 2 (2004) 9-25. McKenzie, Edward. “The Idiots (Idioterne)” (1998). [Online] Available at < http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Reviews/Reviews.asp?ID=6221> [Accessed: 2 March 2011] Smith, Paul J. Sight and Sound. Cambridge University press: London, 1999. Wandersphan, Gary M. Intercultural service: a worldwide buyer's guide and sourcebook. Gulf publishing company: Houston, 2000. Read More