2022-01-10

Blog1 Toni Erdmann

As the director said in the interview, Ines is free and opinionated, and it's not just a film about how a woman is treated but how she treats herself and how she deals with it. In his father's sense of humor, Ines found a way to express herself, to find her original self, and to find a better way to face the world. (Ratner , as cited in Maren Ade, 2017)

the heroine Ines's self-exploration also runs through the whole film.

Although Germany has been unified for a long time, there is a sense of unease and instability in the film. It's also in Toni Erdmann. In the movie, Ines embarrassment when getting along with his father's, the concept of collision led to get along with is always awkward. Ines is a pragmatist, when customer invited his father go to the pub to chat, even if the father want to go home and rest, she still encouraged the father to join in. The identity who is good at working has been completely obscures the daughter the parent-child identity. Her father is more like a tool to help me get close to clientsthan the loved one.

(Ines persuaded his father to drink with client)

 In the financial capital prevailing, free capitalism in power, the tide of globalization surging at the moment. In order to obtain greater benefits, efficientism becomes the main pursuit. People seem to have only interest relationship with each other, and the distinction between high and low is particularly clear. People only care about the real output and effect. In this context, Ines played many roles. She's a daughter, but she's also an employee of the company, a boss of many people, a member of the rising middle class. In the course of having to play many roles, she went astray. The face of the modern corporate person in the workplace is ultimately a kind of cold role-playing, increasingly detached from the human nature.

(Ines is in conflict with her father)

 Luckily for Ines, her father has a quirky sense of humor. Humor is a father's sword and shield, giving him a chance to collide with his daughter's workaholic personality (Cooper, 2007). When he jokingly asks her at the mall, "Are you human?" Ines' search for self begins. Once cold, she sings at her father's urging, even holds nude parties at home, and seems to understand some of his sense of humor when she goes out with her father dressed as a hairy monster. With the help of her father, she finally found herself, that singing surging, righteously strong, no longer compromise of their own. She is naked in the face of all people, accompanied by the family, she found her own. By the end of the film, Ines has quit her job to work at McKinsey and has learned to communicate with her father "with a sense of humor." Her future may have changed. Pressure from life is objective, but how to deal with life is optional. It is important to uncover layers of masks to deal with things, break away from the role played in interpersonal relationships, and find the id.with the artful empathy of Toni Erdmann, Director has brought us closer than ever to seeing ourselves (Taubin, 2022).

(Father dressed up as a shaggy monster)

Cooper, R. R. (2017) ‘Toni Erdmann’, Commonweal, 144(5), pp. 26–27. Available at: https://search-ebscohost-com.ez.xjtlu.edu.cn/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=121456685&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 6 January 2022).

Maren Ade(Producer/Screenwriter/Director). (2016).Toni Edrmann [Motion picture].Germany:Komplizen Film.

Ratner, M ( 2017,spring). TONI ERDMANN, FAUX PA. Film Quarterly. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26413787.

Taubin, A. (2016) ‘Human resources: with the artful empathy of Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade has brought us closer than ever to seeing ourselves (and everyone else)’, Film Comment, 1 September, p. 28. Available at: https://search-ebscohost-com.ez.xjtlu.edu.cn/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgea&AN=edsgcl.465686562&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 6 January 2022).