Happy as Lazzaro is one of the best European art films in recent years.
The Story takes place in a small, isolated town in Italy in the latter half of the last century. Lazzaro works alongside a group of farmers for the Countess, who is known as the Tobacco Queen. The Countess's young son accidentally meets Lazzaro, and the two people who originally lived in different worlds unexpectedly become friends. However, the rebellious young master is tired of the heavily restricted noble life and runs away from home to hide in the mountains. He stages a kidnapping farce but eventually attracts the attention of the police, completely disrupting the peaceful life of the farmers. Over time, Lazzaro travels through time and space to find his lost friend decades ago, only to discover that he is facing an entirely unfamiliar modern world.
Rural Version of 1950s Italian Neorealism
Happy as Lazzaro combines Italian magical realism with ancient legends and religious elements. The film's first half depicts Italy's beautiful countryside life like an oil painting, while the second half explores the post-modern world that humanity has just entered. The seemingly separate parts are cleverly linked through the magical realism of Lazarro's fate. The density and intricacy of the information contained in the entire film are comparable to, and even surpasses, last year's Palme d'Or winner, The Square.
Lazarro is like a young, innocent David, symbolizing the supreme beauty of humanity. Lazarro's happiness is without any desires, envy, or complaints about the unfairness of life. It's a yearning, perhaps even a near-desperate nostalgia, for the notion of pure and primitive human nature, akin to the character of the saintly Lazarus (as well as the legend of the saint and the wolf related to him). The rural ukiyo-e in the director's lens is a rural version of the Italian neorealism of the 1950s. It is not a simple pastoral poem of human nature, but a naked human nature exposed to nature and returning to primitive instincts. Each scene symbolizes the exploitation of Lazarro, who does not resist or complain and, at the same time, ignorantly strives to maintain a higher level of exploitation system.
Each scene's symbolic meaning is profound, and every detail is full of infinite possibilities for reflection. Lazarro couldn't bear to wake up the half-awake rich young master, quietly placing food beside him. But the young master's response, "You're blocking the sun," not only stings the viewer's heart but also foreshadows the change in his attitude towards Lazarro later in the film.
The moderate use of blank space is also cleverly done.
A destitute family arrives as promised at the former residence of the rich young master to enjoy the lunch he promised them. However, upon opening the door, they are greeted by the former miss of the house, now his wife. The young master never appears on screen, and it is through her that their downfall is revealed. The scene where he asked for some snacks was unexpected for me, but after watching it, I felt that it was very powerful. In just two minutes, the scene revealed the starkly different personalities of the two fallen aristocrats:
the young master is still immersed in nihilism and his own delusions of grandeur, while the miss has long faced the bitter reality. It also points out Antonia's pre-modernist character traits that have remained with her despite her current tough city life and how she used to serve them as a servant in the past.
A Brilliant Fable About Pre-modernity and Modernity
As the camera moves from the countryside to the city, the serfs who were exploited due to ignorance in the past still lack any survival skills but quickly learn clever tricks and theft in the fast-paced city life and a strong desire to survive. This contrast is truly startling. In this sense, the film is both ruthlessly tearing apart the pre-modern, pastoral idyll and throwing profound questions at the modernist world. It's hard not to think: What is happiness? How many dimensions does happiness have? What kind of impact has modernity had on the mentality of the masses? And how do we deal with it?
Leaving the master's house, Antonia's family pushed their only possession - a shabby truck - back home and followed Lazarus' church gospel, bringing a warm light to these struggling souls and also one of the few warm moments in the latter half of the film. Then, the director pushes the audience's questions to an extreme and cruel ending, where the naive Lazarus risks his friendship with the master again and is beaten by a group of civilized people in the bank for a reason in modern society. Even at the moment he fell, his eyes remained pure and innocent, without any trace of resentment.
This is what the modern world does to a pre-modern world. It can happen in the Age of Discovery, in America, or at this moment, in a virtual yet real time and space constructed by the film. Perhaps the charm of movies lies in the fact that it is like a prism, capable of reflecting many different perspectives, viewpoints, and landscapes.
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