Note: This article has spoilers.
In late September, the China film market ushered in the release of many foreign films. Among them, The Romance of the White Lion is a French film that was the most popular in overseas markets in 2019. As we all know, French films have always been famous for their strong artistic flavor. What’s different about The White Lion?
Poster of The White Lion Romance
See the lion again
As you know from the title, the white lion is an important role in this film. Animal movies have a history of more than 70 years since the first animal-themed movie "Lacey the Dog" came out in 1943. There are countless animals in the movies. The white lion, which is rare in nature, is undoubtedly chosen in Romance of the White Lion to show its preciousness — — Just like the "white elephant" regarded as a national treasure by Thailand. But in this year’s film world, the lion is not the first time to appear. Just a few months ago, the audience just saw the "real lion version" of Disney in the United States.
"Real Lion Edition" and "The Lion King"
Of course, the plot of The White Lion has nothing in common with The Lion King. In essence, this is an animal movie about the relationship between man and wildlife. How should they get along with each other? In the first half of the 20th century, albert schweitzer, a French thinker, developed his ethical thought of "reverence for life" during the two world wars, when human culture declined and degenerated. Schweitzer believes that man should establish a harmonious relationship with the universe, and different lives should share weal and woe, and advocates "extending the principle of love to all animals".
On the basis of this idea, the concept of "animal rights" (animal rights), which has become the core idea of animal protectionism today, has also appeared. Reflected in the film, it is the British film Born Free (1966), which was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Film. The protagonist of this film is also a lion, that is, the lioness "Elsa" who has entered the Chinese textbook. Austrian woman writer joy adamson adopted Elsa, a wild lion who lost her mother, and helped her return to nature. Based on his experience with Elsa, Joey wrote a book called Born Free, which caused a sensation in the world and was praised as "the most outstanding animal literature in the 20th century". It stayed on the famous The New York Times bestseller list for nearly a year. The film is based on the original work of the same name.
Born free
Although more than 50 years have passed, today’s audience can easily find the origin between Born Free and The White Lion. The father of Mia Owen, the hero of the film, opened a beast farm, which kept all kinds of beasts, including a young white lion. The plot of the whole movie, in short, is the story of ten-year-old Mia gradually developing deep feelings with the white lion, and helping it to get free and return to the Dinokeng reserve a few years later. The literal translation of the title of this movie is "Mia and the White Lion".
There is no doubt that Mia is joy adamson in Born Free. Even some other characters in The White Lion can find their own shadows in Born Free.
In Born Free, Joey’s husband, George Adamson, is a neutral figure. As a hunting inspector, on the one hand, his job is to protect wild animals from poachers, and on the other hand, to deal with dangerous animals that endanger human life and crops. In The White Lion, Mia’s father plays a similar role. As the owner of the animal farm, he needs to raise all kinds of animals. In order to maintain the expenses of the animal farm, he must also sell some lions from time to time — — No matter how tragic its ending may be.
Even the inner world of the "villain" in the two films is strikingly consistent. In Born Free, police officer John is extremely hostile to Elsa the lion, and thinks that she should be sent to the zoo to be locked up. In The White Lion, the buyers of the lions stand on the bodies of the lions they shot. In the two films, the characters have different performances, but one thing in common is hard to deny. These people are the most typical anthropocentrists. Anthropocentrists always think that people are the masters and dominant forces of all things in nature, and refuse to recognize the intrinsic value and survival rights of animals. Therefore, police officer John can seize Elsa’s freedom (confined in the zoo), and those buyers even took the lion’s life — — Of course, at an absolutely safe distance, taking the lion’s life with a rifle behind the barbed wire is not "brave".
Buyers who shoot lions and take pictures.
The vague image of Africa
Like Born Free, The White Lion was also filmed in Africa (specifically South Africa).
In fact, the relationship between French films and Africa goes back to ancient times. As the hometown of world movies, France has a colonial and colonized relationship with Africa, which makes the time for movies to arrive in Africa almost synchronous with other parts of the world. The film was invented in 1895, and the first film screening activity appeared in Cairo, Egypt the following year. The African continent, which is born with the characteristics of wonders, naturally cannot escape the eyes of film pioneers. The equatorial line almost just bisects Africa. There are vast tropical rain forest belts, forested savannahs and Yuan Ye full of grass in the inland plateau. The northernmost is the largest desert in the world: Sahara. Such a beautiful and lush land has become an important reason to attract the creative attention of French filmmakers. "Every time the Lumiere brothers go to a city, they are keen to shoot well-known local attractions." There are more than ten scenes about the scenery of North Africa in their series of short films about scenery filmed in 1905.
However, it is disappointing that even in 2019, the images of Africa seen by the audience in The White Lion is still vague. At the beginning of the film, the audience saw Mia having a video conversation with a London boy. From their conversation, the audience can infer that Mia’s family is British. Unlike the London boy (who may be his former classmate), Mia is a fan of Manchester United instead of Chelsea. But this background introduction has no effect on where Mia is now. Mia’s father used a loan to set up a animal farm, but the audience didn’t know it was in South Africa until much later — — Even later than the irrelevant plot that Mia’s mother is a the French.
What’s even worse is that the 21st century Africa shown by The White Lion is almost the same as the movie Out of Africa in the last century. The magnificent savanna and spectacular wildlife (represented by elephants and lions) seem to be "Africa", regardless of the existence of the remaining four-fifths of African land. If this can only be regarded as a harmless "stereotype", more importantly, as a film shot in Africa, the Africans are extremely marginalized in the film. In the film, Mia’s assistants in the animal farm, the brokers who trade animals and even the buyers of lions are almost all white. The first black character to appear in the camera is the domestic servant — — No matter from the posture or status, it is very much like Mannia played by the black actress hattie mcdaniel in Gone with the Wind.
As for the "Shangaan tribe" mentioned many times in the film, although it has a commendable tradition of "loving white lions", it is still only a primitive tribe that stays in slash and burn. On the contrary, it is a modern landmark building like the commercial complex, which has a different meaning in the film — — It was built on the only way to the animal sanctuary, blocking the "way home" of Mia and White Lion. The film seems to imply that maintaining this primitive and backward appearance is the "right way" for Africans. This can of course be called a colonialist perspective.
Shopping malls that block the white lion’s way home
Xiong Haizi’s Adventures
As for the plot of The White Lion, it seems to be different from the obscure painting style of many French films. The film "The White Lion" is only 100 minutes long. It seems that French filmmakers are aware of the overwhelming pressure of Hollywood movies. Isabelle Giordano, director-general of the French Film Union, admitted in an interview with le figaro last year, "I often hear buyers say that our films are too long and have too many lines." As for the long-standing "artistic pursuit" of French films, they have to bow to the market to some extent. Frederic fiore, co-president of Logical Film, a film financing and production company, claimed that "French films have changed in the international market, and now this change is developing very fast." One of the main changes is that "the French has overcome the habit of complicating genre films".
This point is fully demonstrated in The White Lion. The plot of this film is almost suspected of oversimplification. Mia grew up from the age of 10 to the age of 14. After all, she is just a "Xiong Haizi". A key conflict point is designed in the film. Mia secretly hid on the roof of her father’s car carrying lions and witnessed the end of those sold lions — — It’s meaningless to be killed by the rich as prey. In fact, this is the focus of this film — — In the past decade, more than 10,000 lions from animal farms have been "legally" hunted in South Africa, while there are only more than 20,000 wild lions left in the world. Realizing that her beloved white lion will also be sold and then hunted by buyers, Mia decided to abscond with the lion. Her subsequent actions fully exposed the essence of "Xiong Haizi". She opened the cage in the middle of the night, released all the lions and other animals (such as hyenas), and then drove away with her white lion in a car. Even in order to break through the border, Mia broke into the commercial complex with a lion on foot, causing extreme confusion among customers (interestingly, these panicked customers are basically black). Fortunately, the lion was not frightened out of control in the shopping mall, but as gentle as a cat. In the end, Mia completed the adventure with the lion and arrived at a safe shelter, "the land of Shangana".
White lion and Shanggana nationality
During the whole escape, although the director designed a line for Mia, such as "I’m still a child, how can I save you", in an attempt to show her helplessness and despair, but in the plot, she put on an obvious "protagonist aura" for Xiong Haizi. Mia’s age makes people suspect that she doesn’t have a driver’s license, but her driving skills show that she is an old driver. And her composure and sophistication in the process of escape are obviously beyond her age. The audience has reason to believe that this is the director’s theme of animal protectionism to promote "human beings fulfill their obligation not to harm animals but to help them", thus sacrificing the rationality of the plot.
Xiong Haizi’s despair.
At the end of the film, Mia’s family came back to "the land of Shangana". The white lion, who has adapted to the wild life, came to visit his old friend with his "little family". This scene is undoubtedly a tribute to Born Free: at the end of the film, Elsa, who was released into the wild and married, also appeared in front of joy adamson who came to visit with her cubs. However, another obvious fact is that under the similar theme, The White Lion has no way to surpass this classic more than half a century ago. (Hong Sanyu)
