Movie Review SSJ

I. Background of the film

First of all, let’s introduce the background of the film. The European Showerbath, directed by Peter Greenaway, is from the 2004 film Visions of Europe, which was released on May 1, 2004, when Cyprus, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia Ten Central and Eastern European countries formally became members of the EU. This is the largest enlargement in the history of the EU. It is against this background that this collection of short films was born.

Icosahedron of Europe” is a collection of short films made by directors from each of the 25 EU member states (25 in 2004, 28 as of August 2015), expressing their views on the present and future of Europe, highlighting free culture and diversity of ideas. The film features a number of influential directors such as Peter Greenaway, Fatih Akin, Aki Kaurismäki, Bela Tarr, Jan Troll, as well as some lesser-known European directors. The directors’ short films vary greatly in style, expression and attitude, and are of varying standards.

It is almost impossible for so many big directors to make a film together, but it is also a pleasure for fans to see them compete in the same short film, which is a great advantage of short films. In fact, this kind of short film is also unappealing, for one thing, time is limited, extremely test storytelling ability and editing skills; for another, good things are afraid of comparison, a comparison will be the high and low immediately, either to win applause or smash their own sign.

Second, the EU background

If you don’t understand the EU, it’s hard to understand this short film. The vision of “European Bath” is not only limited to the history of the EU before 2004, but also looks at the future of Europe with amazing foresight.

In fact, we have all learned it in our political science textbooks, but I believe we have already returned it to our political science teachers, so I will take this opportunity to popularize it again for you. (For those who can afford the political science teacher, please skip it by yourself)

The European Union (abbreviated as EU, English name European Union, abbreviated as EU) developed from the European Communities, is a political and economic entity in one, has an important influence on the world of regional integration organizations.

On April 18, 1951, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg signed the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (Treaty of Paris) in Paris. On January 1, 1958, the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community were formally established. The Treaty of Brussels signed by the six countries entered into force on July 1, 1967, merging the three communities and formally establishing the European Community.

In December 1991, the Maastricht Summit of the European Community adopted the Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty (the “Treaty”). On November 1, 1993, the Treaty entered into force, and the European Community was renamed the European Union. This marked the transition from an economic entity to an economic and political entity. At that time, there were only 12 member states. After the millennium, the European Union expanded further, from Western Europe to Central and Eastern Europe, and on July 1, 2013, Croatia became the 28th member of the European Union.

The great French writer Victor Hugo once said: “One day, by then …… all the European countries, without having to throw away your individual characteristics and shining personalities, will be tightly integrated in a higher whole; by then you will construct the European fraternity. ” Hugo was simply the emperor of prophecy. So was Greenaway.

III. Analysis of the short film

How to represent a country in a film? The easiest, most intuitive and laziest way is to express it with the national flag. In some foreign portraits of people will also use this way of expression, so that the model clad in the flag of each country. In this short film, the flag is painted directly on the body of the actor, and is not naked. The flags are painted on the chest, the back or the buttocks.

In accordance with the historical process of the European Union, the film begins with a German man with a large belly in the bath, a man in the super large shower head, can not be more comfortable. The next to come in is a French woman with large breasts, really very large cups, could it be that this is Greenaway’s impression of France. The French woman and the German man were taking a love bath, skin to skin, ear to ear. Then came in a Belgian slim woman, a threesome, also a wonderful combination. Then a tall Dutch man, a middle-aged Luxembourg man and an old Italian man joined one after another, forming a “shower six”.

At this point, the six people standing under the super-sized shower nozzle is already one after another, the six people’s hug range has exceeded the diameter of the nozzle, in order to get the shower, you must raise your hands, body to the nozzle below the squeeze in. But six people cooperate with each other, each other can get a shower. This scene is a symbol of the formal establishment of the European Community in 1967. At this time, the six countries to collaborate with each other to maximize the benefits of each other can be balanced, just like everyone can take a bath and get a more equal amount of water, the whole out of an equal state. This is a figurative interpretation of “equalizing the dew”.

However, it is worth noting that the coloring on the six people is gradually fading and flowing down from their bodies, which means that the personalities of the six countries are gradually fading, and as exchanges and cooperation deepen, they are becoming more and more similar to each other and are unknowingly losing their former colorfulness.

With the acceleration of European integration, more and more people of different heights and sizes, men, women, and children are entering the baths, crowded figures, and messy feet. The shower nozzles were not enlarged, but the number of heads under the nozzles was increasing, and the amount of water in the nozzles was simply not enough to meet the needs of all people, who were pushing and shoving and crowding, all wanting to get a bath. As Churchill said, “There are no eternal friends and no eternal enemies, only eternal interests”. European countries joined the EU for their own interests and competed for limited resources. The weaker ones could not get a chance to take a shower.

The amount of water from the showerheads gradually decreases, yet there are more people waiting to bathe outside the bath. Eventually, the showerheads were dripping with water, and countries could only stare at the baths. A pool of sewage was left to flow counterclockwise into the outlet.

It is true that European integration has indeed given Europe an unprecedented opportunity for development, customs union, abolition of border controls, unified currency, unified agricultural and fisheries policies and other measures, greatly accelerated the exchange of economic and trade cooperation between member states. It may look beautiful, but the barriers between EU member states still exist. In particular, the EU constitutional crisis, the European debt crisis, the European migration crisis and the acceleration of the UK’s exit from the EU, which emerged one after another after 2004, are excellent proof of the foresight of the film. The film pointed out sharply the great difficulties that the EU would face after its rapid expansion.

The EU’s dilemma did not emerge only in the last decade or so. As early as in the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher, then the British Prime Minister, said that Britain was not willing to be increasingly marginalized in the European Community.