Watch | Nordic Cinema: The Worst People in the World

The Norwegian/French/Sweden/Denmark co-produced film from four countries opens at the Cannes Film Festival on July 8, 2021. Nominated for the Palme d'Or in 2021, and nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 94th Academy Awards the following year.

To say that the film's achievements may not be outstanding, but the universal value it tries to bring to modern women is far higher than the professional value of the film industry.

If you just read the title - "The Worst Man in the World" - you would think that the heroine must be a confused middle-aged woman who has accomplished nothing. However, the director showed the audience an almost perfect girl with a high degree in the first few minutes. She not only learns well, but also knows how to maintain her independence. She is a typical scholar who works hard and plays hard in foreign values.

So why is she called "the worst person in the world"?

As the film progresses chapter by chapter, you will find that the heroine may not know what she wants.

1. In a society with too many resources, why are people more confused?

From medical school, to psychological research, to amateur photographer, and later to write a popular feminist article... These changes are difficult for ordinary people, but she can easily achieve them . You see she's very smart and can do almost everything, but it doesn't seem like everything is connected in a clear line.

Information in modern society is highly concentrated, and what people want is almost at their fingertips. It seems like technology has made everything easier. But with countless options and possibilities, do people really have more?

So just like many women, she ushered in a confused 30-year-old in the headless groping.

On her birthday, the narrator said a very meaningful female reproductive history:

As a highly educated Julie, she finally has the right to resist and choose to have children after a few generations, which is undoubtedly the progress of the concept. But this choice is equally problematic for contemporary women—peer pressure. In a social environment where feminism is prevalent, it seems that having children early is not feminist. The overwhelming news proves the consequences of women having children: old age, stunted career, limited personal development... All these have made women's fear of having children to an unprecedented level.

Such a contradictory community is vividly reflected in a thirty-year-old woman. From resisting having children with her boyfriend, to derailing and breaking up when she found that she was not valued in the relationship, from her rebellious psychology to her father, to confrontation with elder men at the dinner table, to asking people everywhere, "Have you read the article I wrote? Has the article been made?" The director revealed her inner contradictions step by step.

At the personal level, her father's irresponsibility made her hate being controlled by men, but she also longed for fatherly love; at the social level, she lost the ability to think independently in order to cater to women's rights. She advocates freedom and longs for independence, but ignores the other and gives up communication.

On the surface, she is independent and independent, but in fact she chooses to escape for self-realization. When encountering a problem, her first thought is to avoid it instead of actively solving and exploring.

A typical example is: Before she ended her relationship with her boyfriend, she had fantasized that the whole world had stopped, and she could run to the person she likes without any scruples, regardless of reality. Only she and another boy can hug freely.

You can see this as advocating freedom and love, but it can also be seen as focusing too much on your own thoughts and leaving the whole world behind. I think: When fantasy becomes an important basis for a person to make a decision, then only her "animal side" is the one who makes the decision.

This fantasy can also be interpreted as the heroine's attitude towards any person or thing. After she is tired of the "old", she can run towards the "new" completely regardless of the existence of other people and factors in this world. For career choice, for love, they are all self-centered in making decisions - to put it bluntly, it is a little self-confidence. However, in a society that pursues individualism, you can hardly blame her, because she seems to be living more freely than you.

This may explain why there are still many people living unhappily in northern Europe, where welfare is better. In fact, it is the same as the flood of information: when resources are flooded and choices become more numerous, people will no longer be able to make their own decisions, and the sense of purpose in life will be deprived in disguise.

2. Is this a feminist film?

A lot of feminist content has been said above, and it is true that many people regard this movie as the heroine's resistance to patriarchy.

Especially in that scene: after the hi-hi, the heroine fantasized about throwing the blood-stained sanitary napkin on her father's face, and smeared two blood marks on her face angrily as a demonstration. This is clearly an incarnation of a battle angel to rebel against the patriarchy. The blood from women's bodies has always been regarded as "dirty" and is reluctant to be mentioned. Perhaps only when the consciousness is not clear, can it be "bravely" mentioned.

But I still like to see it as a long film, rather than some kind of resistance to patriarchy.

In fact, if you look closely, you will find that the so-called feminism of the heroine in the film is just to please others and try to make men recognize their wisdom. Her wit and intelligence in many moments are all to attract the attention of men.

And the length of the back of the film is very long, and it is spent on thinking about life and death. The ex-boyfriend is about to die and she sees a real "death" happening. A person who once spent time with her is slowly passing from her palm, and she can do nothing but accompany her.

In the face of the fragile life, the pride and edge of the heroine also seem to have collapsed. Finally, I picked up the camera and took pictures with a delicate and true feeling.

She may finally start to think after a wild run for no reason: without a prosperous life, without a glamorous title, who is she?

The heroine is like a fun mirror for middle-class Kochi women, and you can see your own shadow in it. She is sometimes your ideal and sometimes your nightmare.

After watching this film, I wrote this sentence: "Life is a repeated jump between self-satisfaction and boredom, choosing pain and happiness between no turning back and regret at the beginning."

It's a mouthful to read. Inconsistent and unintelligible.

But after chewing it over and over again, it has some taste of life.

postscript:

When I just turned 25, I was really moved after watching the film. If you really can't find what you want, what's the difference between 25 and 30?

There's also a bit of a disappointment at the end: the old-fashioned haircut. I don't understand, why do women have to cut their hair when they are mature? Nordic also has "long hair and short knowledge"?

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