A short-haired woman is driving a car. The wind and rain are blowing outside the window, and the crackling raindrops continue to fall on the window. The outside world is miniatured into a blurry barren and distant place. Only the sound of tires colliding with the gravel road can be heard. Amidst the sound of the rain, the reels roared.
The woman kept looking left and right, as if she was looking for something, and then... she found it.
The car stopped on the side of the road after a cross-cut. The woman opened the door and walked down. She fished it next to her thigh, and there was an extra pistol in her right hand. Wilderness—only a few donkeys were grazing with their heads bowed.
"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa."
The automatic action of the wipers swept away the raindrops on the front window of the car, and the vision became clear, and then you could see the woman's footsteps stopped, raised the pistol, pulled the trigger continuously, aiming at... a donkey , and then the donkey fell to the ground, only the wipers were still moving left and right.
what's the situation? This is
"lobster!"
The big screen went black, and then the movie title appeared, and the audience was full of question marks - what does this mean? What is the beginning of this
But this is the consistent style of Ogus Lanthimos. It is cold and rigid. The coldness of the lens is always filled with a lingering narrowness and depression. It seems that it is impossible to capture the slightest temperature from the lens, just like a label. , which laid the tone for each of Oggs's works.
The same is true today.
The beginning of the story cuts into a strange situation: a simple and honest otaku, accompanied by two men dressed as hotel waiters, led a Scottish Shepherd dog and a carry-on bag, sat on the A white passenger car that looks a bit like a prison van and a bit like a retro bus.
"He thinks the brown shoes are the most suitable choice. He has some pain in his back, but it is not the unbearable pain in the past."
"He thought to himself, his wife chose to leave because of love, so why did he continue to insist on it? He didn't cry for it, nor did he think that when other people face separation, their first reaction is to cry. Can't say he was hopeful, but at least not bitter."
In the classical string music of the violin, the man's dull and rigid face reappeared in the camera, slightly restrained and vaguely restless, with a seemingly rigid expression, but inadvertently he was able to capture a glimmer of light that slipped through his eyes , revealing the inner surging, but the lazy and slow movement like a sloth, the focus of sight that collapses from time to time, but it implies that he is in another world.
especially-
"What is your sexuality/orientation?"
"Women. But... I had a same-sex experience in college before, so is there a bi/sex/ option here?"
The questions and answers that came back and forth seemed cold and rigid, and the rules were strictly followed. The Lumiere Hall paused for a moment, and then laughed collectively:
Although the film was filmed half a year ago, such a dialogue just fits the hot spot of the Cannes Film Festival in the past two days. Instead, it has formed a clever intertext and created a crazy comedy effect. The audience is no exception, and the laughter is like opening Canned food in general, erupted collectively.
More importantly, the unbelievable cold humor slowly flowed out from the big screen, firmly attracting the audience's attention, and then the story came on stage along with the people from all walks of life in the hotel, like a picture scroll. It unfolded slowly, outlining a peculiar apocalyptic scene.
This is a utopia...or a dystopian future society.
According to city rules, all singles must be arrested at a hotel, where they will have forty-five days to find a matching partner; failing that, they will be converted into a Animals, exiled to the forest. The shepherd dog beside David is his brother.
At the same time, many singles have chosen to flee, and the hotel will hold hunting every day, and the hotel occupants will go hunting with a narcotic shotgun. As long as a single person can be arrested, their stay in the hotel can be extended by one day. , that is, adding time to the day to find a partner.
The entire audience was stunned: the amount of information was a bit large - so, the donkey that was shot at the opening? Is it a short-haired woman's partner, or an enemy
Further, are all pets in this future society their own family members or relatives? Just like in the real world, every family treats pets as their own family members? Is this satirizing the reality or the future society
"Lobster." This is the pet chosen by the hero David, "because lobsters can live for more than a hundred years, their blue blood has an aristocratic atmosphere, and they maintain fertility for life."
The mystery is revealed, which is the origin of the movie's title.
But the Lumiere Hall burst into laughter again: Renly and the nobles? Are you sure it wasn't a deliberate prank by the director
Ogus sat in his seat, shaking his head in silence: No, no.
"I have to congratulate you, most people think of dogs first," commented the hotel manager. "That's why the world is full of dogs. Very few people choose rare animals, which is why they are on the verge of extinction. Lobster is an excellent choice."
The audience couldn't stop laughing - is this a black comedy? instead of hilarious comedy? This has just begun, and the scene has already burst into laughter for the third time.
The first lesson of staying in the hotel, the right hand is tied behind the belt with a belt, only the left hand can be used, the hotel makes people understand in this way:
Compared with being alone, it is more convenient and comfortable to be in pairs.
Then the audience watched as David, played by Renly, a hereditary aristocrat Renly-Hall, who squeezed toothpaste with one hand, brushed his teeth with one hand, and took off his pants with one hand, rolled around on the bed like a silkworm. , struggling; there is no soundtrack or lines throughout, like a mime.
The audience couldn't believe their eyes, as if they were witnessing the new world, the low laughter came one after another, so that Renly couldn't help but cast his gaze towards Oggs, and they were not sure what it was. It's a good thing or a bad thing, but it always feels a little weird.
At breakfast time, David met two new friends, a lame man and a big tongue man. Under their popular science, the rules and regulations of the hotel were revealed little by little.
"When my father left my mother for another woman, it was just because she was better at maths than my mother. I think, she had a postgraduate degree and my mother only had a bachelor's degree. I was nineteen at the time. My mother came to this hotel but didn't Having successfully found a mate and eventually transformed into a wolf, I miss her so much."
"I found out later that she had gone to a zoo, and I used to run over there to visit her. I fed her raw meat, I knew wolves liked raw meat, but I didn't know which wolf was the mother, so I would feed each wolf A little. One day, I decided to break into the fence because I really missed her and wanted to hug her."
"I climbed over and jumped into the enclosure, and the wolves rushed towards me immediately, besieging me, only two wolves were motionless, so I deduced that one of them should be my mother. The guards at the zoo quickly rescued me and put me Went to the hospital and thank God I saved my leg, just a little lame. That became my signature."
"My wife died six days ago. She was beautiful and I love her. She was also lame."
This is the story of the lame man.
The entire Lumiere Hall was quiet, and they couldn't tell whether it was humor or cold-blooded, but it was this contradictory feeling that made the audience's thoughts really enter the story, from absurd laughter to The absurdity of the chills down the spine, countless thoughts burst out in my mind.
Undoubtedly, Ogus presents the fear and weirdness behind the hotel in a mechanical, icy, rigid, expressionless way.
Even the dance party with singing and laughter was like this. The dance steps showed a robot-like coldness, and all this was discussed in a way that had no taste or temperature, including talking about the hunters, "The woman just now is a cold person. , she's the best hunter in the hotel, she's the woman's record holder, hunting one hundred and ninety-two loners."
Then, all actions are like hunting.
The lame man kept standing all the time, looking for a suitable target to attack; while David waited for a while, he also chose to take the initiative to attack, walked to the gathering place of the three women, and issued an invitation to dance, but one of the three women failed. The sparkling tension immediately permeated, one second was talking intimately, the next was holding his breath.
David invited a beautiful young woman with a nosebleed.
During the dance, the woman had a nosebleed again. She analyzed the correct way to wash off the blood stain with a calm tone of scientific research. At the same time, her nosebleed was still flowing slowly, and she was watching David like a puppet. . David didn't know how to respond.
Inviting and being invited, accompanied and unaccompanied, even the movements of chorus and dancing are filled with stylized process steps, then the alarm bell rings, and the curtain of the hall is slowly opened - this is not night, but evening, outside the window. The gray sky sheds sparse sunlight.
All the guests left the ballroom in an orderly manner, then dressed in suits and evening gowns, took up arms, and headed out to… hunt.
The audience in the Lumiere Hall had different reactions, but it was certain that no one expected the direction of the development of the matter. A lingering sense of joy, but can't laugh at all.
"I wish I didn't have a lame leg. I used to be a good runner, but now I can't. I'm sure I'll be slower than everyone else," the lame man said to David.
David earnestly advises, "If I were you, I'd think about some other means of winning, not speed."
"Sun and Moon"
"You're right," the lame man agreed.