Sonatas for solo or two-instrument ensembles also contain regression in their structure. Autumn Sonata is too soulful to be named. Whether it is the camera or the words, it always ends with the tendency of the mother-daughter duo to talk (ensemble), but it is still a person's self-talk after all. Bergman's works often have a strong sense of drama, but the movie is sharper than the drama. Bergman makes a choice for the audience. In the lens of this work, you can often only see one person, or you are close at hand. But two people are miles apart. This is the most cinematic monologue (compared to the dramatic pour-over monologue, which has more room for perspective choice).
I don't know if Kitano Takeshi, who ridiculed "The Virgin Spring", has seen this movie, but he made a "Sonata" at a turning point in his life, and he also said in an interview: When we start playing the sonata, it's not the beginning Signs of some good ground? To assume that Bergman meant it would be too modest.
Has Bergman's film also entered a new phase from the fall of the previous film full of precious summers or bitter winters into this film? At the beginning, Victor spoke to the camera, and even sat down on the spot and read a book, saying that what he loved was Eva as she was. This is the way life is, and perhaps the way movies are.
As soon as her long-awaited mother Charlotte arrived, she was immersed in her memories and talked to herself. When daughter Eva mentioned Helena, her mother suddenly changed her face. At that time, the movie had just started, and Eva still had the time to joke about her mother's insomnia: if she didn't suffer from insomnia, her exuberant energy would overwhelm the people around her.
The prelude to the runaway was Eva playing Chopin for her mother. After she was overwhelmed by her mother's upcoming feedback, the mother said she loved her lightly, and then demonstrated the performance at her daughter's request. The interpretation of Chopin was wonderful and profound: emotional and Sentimentality is different...it's not temptation here, it's overcoming obstacles...she's not a dull, ruthless mother, she's actually very delicate and deep, isn't she? It's just that she cares less about her daughter than Chopin or Beethoven. The mother said that she can express her emotions only in music, and the daughter expresses her own emotions in music, those cautions and "temptations", but the mother doesn't care. And Eva only has the mother in her eyes, just like when the mother demonstrated, she followed Chopin and those notes ecstatically, while the daughter just kept staring at her, her eyes full of respect and humility.
One does not care, the other cares too much, how to deal with such dislocation? Therefore, Eva complained: I am your doll to relieve boredom... In the name of love, the daughter inherited the grievances of the mother, the daughter felt the pain of the mother's failure, as if she had never cut the umbilical cord, is the daughter's misfortune a victory for the mother? "Mom, are you cooing over your daughter's grief?"...
And didn't Eva copy how her mother treated her to her husband Victor? Fortunately, Victor doesn't care about the fact that she doesn't love him, just listens, smiles, and is not ashamed to say frankly: I am still amazed every day... I still have a longing for you...
When a mother is ready to play her part, putting her resistance aside and entering the room to meet her long-lost disabled daughter Helena, is she really just acting? The mother is not strong without dead ends. When she was questioned by her daughter Eva later, she showed vulnerability. The sudden shift from graceful authority to negative is a Bergmanian surprise, and a natural "but". The weak exchanged like a mask, the mother said that she wanted to be comforted, and the daughter said in an uncompromising tone: I am just a child. It is not semantically weak to call yourself a child. The mother lying on the ground continued to talk to herself: Are some people more gifted than others for being alive, or are some people never alive? They just live in the world... having a sense of reality is also a gift.
Confession itself as an attempt, after all, is a step forward, just like Helena struggling to crawl forward. A man who is aphasia and incapacitated, the short words he can say are about his mother and sister. When the mother pleads with Eva: Help me! Helena cried weakly: Mom, come here! They all need help and are asking for help, but when they can't understand each other and can't understand each other, how can they help?
Eva finally asked another reason why her mother disliked Helena. She was a daughter and a rival in love. This sickly daughter she disdained was actually her rival in love. Eva spoke of that afternoon many years ago when her mother’s second husband visited, and he played the cello badly, but movingly. She said that for the first time Helena was so calm and relaxed that it was almost impossible to tell that she was a patient. Eva said: I can't forget her look. Helena's physical disability can't resist her persistent and powerful ability to love. She is so tenacious and calm, I am afraid that it is a feeling that neither mother nor sister has ever felt. In the family life in the recollection clip, no one said a word, and it was as quiet as a silent film.
Just after reading Shi Tiesheng's "Letters and Questions", I became more and more convinced that everyone is somewhat disabled. For example, even if the body and mind are healthy, the body often cannot keep up with the heart. The sisters and mothers in the film are not that different. They are both mutilated and asking for help. They are both crawling hard like Helena but unable to reach each other, shouting hard but unable to express themselves. They're not as different as they seem, they're the same, and so are we.
When the mother gets on the departing train, the warm red that belongs to the mother and the somber gray around Eva are like a contrast of major and minor tones. In this set of "counterpoints", one side is the departing train, the other side is the silent grave, the mother and Paul hold hands, Eva calls Eric, and Helena gradually loses control... The mother talks to Paul Her: Why didn't she die? Reminds me of Yuwen's eight-year marriage with Liyan in "Spring in a Small Town": Unless...unless he dies!
At the end of the film, it returns to the beginning, and it is still a Bergman-style inner monologue of Victor. He still loves Eva wholeheartedly, and it is still Eva who writes letters to his mother, but Eva is more calm after all. Keto helped send the letter, no longer read the letter and double-checked it, only let him read it when he had time, and she was going to accompany Helena. life goes on.
With only Eva on camera when Victor reads the letter, I can't help but expect my mother to show up, and she does! The wet-eyed mother said nothing. Still alone and alone, returning to a seemingly peaceful and dilemma life, as if nothing had happened, and as if something was about to happen. There is a hint of disappointment, but no despair. This set of shots of Bergman is the first in this film to show the possibility of eye-to-eye (conversation) between people across physical distance.
That letter feels a lot to me personally like Chekhov, and the final monologue is simply Uncle Vanya style:
Dear mother, I know now that I treat you badly, I approach you with demands, not affection, I torture you with my hateful hatred, but mine is gone Saved, I did something wrong, and now I ask you to forgive me. I don't know if you will receive this letter or if you will read it, maybe it's too late. But I hope my discoveries will not be in vain. There is still goodwill between us, I mean we need to take care of each other, help each other, and love each other. I will never let you disappear from my life again, I will stick to this belief, I will not give up, even if it is too late, but I think it is too late, it must be too late.
Referring to the characters in the photo, the real Bergman is probably more like the mother in the film. Bergman's daughter is called Eva. He approached it in a distance rather than autobiographical way, perhaps more able to examine himself, to face those struggles head-on, but also to face the bitterness behind the resolution and the possible end of no solution.
As for the inspiration of life from watching movies from the utilitarian side, the biggest feeling is: you must be careful when you speak, especially to those close to you. Life is not equal to a movie. It is not advisable to turn all the broken thoughts into monologues and pour them out. Sometimes it is not water but a knife that is poured out, which can easily hurt people. Whether it's a mother, a daughter, or a jade pattern, it can't be said that their hearts are too bad, and they are afraid of being too quick.
In the past two years, I can always find some traces of directors imitating the masters of the predecessors in the movies, and I found that it is a great pleasure to watch movies, but in the face of masters such as Fellini, Tarkovsky or Bergman, how to do What about imitation? And look at this film, Bergman stitches so finely, almost every minute and every second is full of strength and intriguing. For many of his previous classic works, there are still some memorable points, those unforgettable scenes: such as the spring water in "The Virgin Spring" or the father pulling a tree, such as playing chess with Death in "The Seventh Seal" , such as the clock without pointers in the dream in "Wild Strawberry", for example, in "Summer with Monica", Monica jumped and ran to the water... When it comes to this "Autumn Sonata", I am afraid to choose not come out. Even if you can't sit with the characters in the film, you can still feel the pressure and tension all the time. What condensed in the ninety minutes was more than three times the length of time and the concentration of experience of almost a lifetime. If you have to count it, you just have to watch it again and walk it again, follow the characters to be opened up layer by layer, and follow Bergman one frame. Discover yourself and your life in detail, frame by frame, and experience those subtle emotions that are habitually missed.
I am very fortunate that I have a family environment where I can sit down and chat calmly. During the Chinese New Year, I also talked to my family about the communication barriers between parents and children that are very common in modern society. I listened to a lecture on Lu Pa's works a few years ago. He said that modern society is very patriarchal, not that fathers have the final say, but that love in modern society is conditional. Will love you and affirm you, but love should be unconditional, more maternal, no matter what you are, I support you. Of course, paternity and motherhood here are not the same as biological sex, just as the mother in this film brings her daughter Eva to patriarchal oppression and imprisonment. It is common in China that the elders, especially the grandparents who are across the generation, have unconditional and pure maternal love for the younger generation. Of course, there will be doting and blindness and unreasonableness, but in all fairness, who doesn't want this kind of love?
Perhaps a large part of the peace of mind when chatting and discussing difficulties is also brought to me by the movie? After all, I have read a lot of positive and negative story teaching materials, and I have internalized it into my own experience and experience. Thanks for the movie. Thanks Bergman.
View more about Autumn Sonata reviews
