The terror attacks which took place in France
and Nigeria last week were triggered by hatred. It is extremely difficult to
counteract the effects of hatred, which cannot be justified or understood in
any way. As I´ve mentioned before, films help us to get a better understanding
of our reality: the problems and the challenges that we face in our everyday
lives are reflected on the big screen and very often, this is achieved by means
of humour. In this respect, a French film comes to my mind: Serial (Bad) Weddings (“Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au Bon Dieu?”),
one of the most successful comedy films in the recent history of French cinema.
Serial (Bad) Weddings makes use of
humour to describe the new and complex relationships of French families as a
result of a multicultural society where people from different nationalities, religions
and traditions live together, which is not easy at times. However, the film
shows us that humour and willingness lead to not only mutual understanding but
also to respect and even love. Humour as a way of overcoming prejudices and
misconceptions is the formula that this French film recommends even if it´s
only a comedy which merely aspires to make us have a good time for a short while.
Have you
ever watched a film which has helped you to learn more about a different
culture or society? In which way do films help us to become familiar with the
traditions, customs, problems and challenges of other countries?
Precisely, I´ve seen the film that you, Marga, has written about . I liked it a lot. On the one hand, I laughed about the differences created due to the races/religion (because they are portrayed from a humorous point of view). And on the other hand, I think that the conclusion of this film is that living together is possible despite those differences. And this type of films, nowadays, unfortunately, has become necessary.
ResponderEliminarI wish a lot of people saw this film and learnt about tolerance.
I´m glad to read that you liked the film I mentioned on this post. Humour can be a very useful tool to deal with our problems but it is sometimes difficult for some people to understand it in the same way as it is also difficult for some people to understand irony. I don´t know if you read my post “It´s such a difficult business” (12th October 2013) as, on that occasion, I also wrote about humour. If you didn´t read it at that time, have a look at the post and the comments on it, you may find them interesting.
ResponderEliminarThank you for your opinion. As you´ve written, it all comes down to learning about tolerance, a lesson which apparently remains to be taught.