Young Johannes Betzler, a great admirer of the Führer and his imaginary friend, belongs to the Hitlerjugend. His mother, named Rosie, brought him up alone, while carrying out resistance actions. One day, Jojo hears a noise upstairs. He is stunned to discover that his mother is hiding a young Jewish girl named Elsa Korr. Some time later, Rosie is arrested by the Gestapo and hanged in public. From this situation flows the rest of the film, oscillating between war and freedom, humor and drama, innocence and indoctrination.
A varied film
Jojo Rabbit is first and foremost a comedy. In this sense, Taiki Waititi's film follows in the great tradition of comedy films about the Second World War. The humor, often pushed to the point of absurdity, is not without a few good laughs in the audience. Characters are caricatured, situations are exaggerated. This work on clichés skilfully conveys the horror of the situations described, while retaining a light, entertaining touch. Unfortunately, the humor sometimes becomes too heavy-handed and crude. Some scenes, with their poor taste, They leave an unpleasant sensation of emptiness.
Beyond the comedy, the film explores several areas. First, the scene where Jojo meets Elsa. In a surprisingly clumsy fashion, the director uses the codes of the horror film. The gap between this scene and the rest of the film leaves us wondering why he made this choice. All the more so as this scene adds virtually nothing to the understanding of the film.
A serious background
Secondly, and much more skilfully, Taiki Waititi explores the genre of drama. Both the mother's death and the boy's rebellion in trying to kill Elsa leave no one indifferent. Thanks to this dialogue between humor and drama, the film tackles some very interesting underlying issues.
One of the main themes of the film is the indoctrination of young people into the Hitlerjugend. The camp scenes at the beginning of the film are undoubtedly the most interesting. In the tension between comedy and horror, we perceive the real tragedy of the indoctrination of German youth to prepare them to serve the Third Reich.th Reich. We spend several minutes laughing, but we're laughing at children who learn to attack, to kill, in short to wage war for a regime whose misdeeds we know today. Isn't that strange? Be that as it may, the film's framework has been set, and the viewer is left to make up his or her own mind.
Hitler for a friend
Throughout the film, Jojo has perhaps the strangest imaginary friend of all: Adolf Hitler. This friend represents Jojo's ideological conscience, a kind of fascist superego. He is also the one who supports Jojo in difficult times, the one who gives him hope and strength, like the Führer who gave strength and hope to the German people in the thirties.
Jojo starts out as a true «fanatic», but as the story unfolds and his relationship with Elsa develops, he gradually emancipates himself from the ideology he has been taught, eventually killing his imaginary friend. The figure of Hitler is very interesting in that it illustrates what fascist indoctrination could be. It also serves to highlight the tragic confrontation between the innocence of childhood and the barbarity of totalitarianism, even if the film ends on a high note. happy end almost romantic.
Finally.., Jojo Rabbit is definitely worth watching. It may not be earth-shattering, but it's nonetheless touching and downright funny. It raises some very interesting issues, albeit in a light-hearted way, but isn't that an important part of remembering?
Write to the author: antoine.bernhard@leregardlibre.com
Photo credit: © Twentieth Century Fox
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