Opening｜
"Yesterday I imagined a picture of moral tears, conversing with Diderot. A winter scene, an old coachman, with an expression of utterly brutal cynicism, colder than the winter that pervades all around, confronts his horse Pee. That horse, poor, battered creature, looked around, grateful, so grateful." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"On January 3, 1889, Turin, Friedrich Nietzsche walked out of the gates of Via Carlo Alberto 6, perhaps to take a walk, perhaps to pick up a letter from the post office. Not far from him, or actually At a great distance from him, a coachman was wrestling with his stubborn horse, which would not move no matter what he tried. So Giuseppe Carlo Ettore, the coachman, got impatient, and threw his whip at him. The horse was drawn away. Nietzsche approached the crowd and stopped the cruel scene. The coachman was so angry at the moment. The burly, bearded Nietzsche suddenly jumped into the carriage, threw his arms around the horse's neck, and began to sob. The neighbors took him home, and he lay on the low sofa for two days, motionless, without saying a word, until finally he murmured the last words of his life: Mom, I'm so stupid. Nietzsche lived 10 years under the care of his sisters, mild-tempered and delirious. As for the horse, we don't know anything about it."
After｜
The roaring wind, the lonely stone house, the stables connected to the stone house. There is a well in a shot, and in the distance is the edge of a hill, and a big tree with stubby branches marks the boundary.
A disabled father, a hard-working daughter, a horse that was hugged by Nietzsche and cried and stopped eating. In the morning, two glasses of brandy in neat clothes. Over time, two boiled potatoes. The light is no longer, the wind is still the same, undressing and falling asleep.
On the first day, the horse stopped obeying orders and went away.
On the second day, philosophizing and friends who bought brandy.
On the third day, the wandering gypsies compensated for the bible of well water.
On the fourth day, water was lost. Failed to move.
On the fifth day, the light was lost.
On the sixth day, raw potatoes on the dinner plate, desperate father and daughter.
"Everything will be in ruins because everything has fallen. They, the rulers of the world, have taken everything. What they touch--and they touch--make everything low. Touch, Debase, then take; or, touch, take, and debase. Even God belongs to them. Yes, God, always intervenes, on their side. Greatness, excellence, nobility should not be involved in this strife, They are like their names, their independence shatters the meaning of any action. They stand there at a distance, the great, the great, the noble. They have to understand and accept that God and the gods are Nothingness. The world is changing little by little, and they gradually believe, accept, but just don't understand. They stand there, bewildered, but won't give up. Until the inspiration that flashes in their minds finally enlightens them, they are all instantly aware To God and the gods are nothingness, good and bad, good and evil, beliefs, wills, desires, goals, are all nothingness. In this case, itself is nothingness. It is estimated that it is like the plain, withered and yellowed. The burning grass, the wind blows, and when they touch each other, there will be a crisp sound like raindrops dripping. A burst of flame swept, nothingness, the remaining ashes, the moment when it was extinguished and burned out."
After the movie｜
"Nietzsche is like the horse to this film, like each of us."
The horse is a beast and a slave. It chose not to obey people and was whipped. It chose to go on a hunger strike to show its will. But in this way, what will be faced is death.
Humans are the same, we have to face the utter nothingness. With every hopeful departure, the soul will be smitten like a scourge of an animal. The film depicts a process of destruction.
God created light and water, and the father and daughter in the film lost light and water one after another. God created the complete world on the sixth day, and the father and daughter went to complete despair on the sixth day.
If we have high spiritual pursuits like Nietzsche - people without skin. The consciousness of destruction is real, not just a way of expressing in the film. Through the superficial prosperity of life, Nietzsche's "Superman" will not find any fulcrum, the so-called freedom is unrealistic, and the consciousness of nothingness will make people fall into complete nothingness until they deny their own existence. This is the pessimistic attitude generated after knowing the world, and it is also the main idea of the film's performance - Bella Tarr shows the absolutely tragic side of the world. The director does not have as much power as we think. Pessimism and optimism are not freely regulated. In a sense, "pessimism" is the truth of the world.
But he asked: "When you watch the movie, do you get stronger or weaker?"
Movie to me｜
For high art, banality and simplicity of form are necessary. Characters and plots are often placed in simple situations, scenes are monotonous, and the most expressive is a series of details. Because profound things are more often not dependent on imaginative imagination, but extreme thinking.
Everything the film shows is in isolation. Black and white picture, fixed space, only two figures and a horse. When the father and daughter decided to move, the camera still did not leave the stone house. Their dwarfed figures disappeared from the contours of the hill. Monotonous long shots. appeared again. They went back to the house and put down their luggage. Every day, the daughter helps her father dress and undress, and there are several layers under the thick coat. Two cups of brandy, two boiled potatoes. All of these were meticulously recorded in the six days of the film, with long shots of varying angles. The light and shadow are very delicate, the father's disability and impatience, and the daughter's obedience and hard work are only conveyed to the audience through the lens. In addition to this, there is a constant wind that haunts the film all the time.
The film weakens the plot, and the inner logic is weak and unimportant. The pattern reminds me of Godard's "As You Like It": the film has a certain tendency towards formalism, but the whole purpose is to express the ineffable. Therefore, I don't think it is necessary to deliberately establish a corresponding relationship between the elements in the film, because the form is the form itself, which leads the audience into the "inner field of vision".
In the monotony, there are some surprises set up. Such as the sudden disappearance of water and light, the sudden visit and tirade of friends, the trouble of gypsies. As if the accident was the purpose of the film. Due to the monotony of the plot, their insertion is not natural, such as a long speech by a friend that seems to be embedded in it, like a handwritten comment next to a printed newspaper. They are bluntly stuffed into the audience's mind, and the audience can't help but ponder and think. They are like lures that lure the viewer into the "inner sight".
Last｜
As mentioned earlier, the film shows absolute pessimism. I no longer agree that facing pessimism head on, pessimism can be turned into positivity. If I've gotten stronger, it's because I've realized something new.
The last of Nietzsche's three realms of life: like a baby. A state of "I AM", living in the moment and enjoying what it is. Kierkegaard, who is also a master of existentialism, also mentioned a similar theory, that is, the distinction between "aesthetic" and "ethical". He proposes that one can live in an eternal ethic, breaking through from one stage to the next like a task, rather than just abrupt passion. Including Wittgenstein, also said this: those who live in the moment are the happiest. China's "Tao", the so-called adaptation, is also an allusion to the present. Their thoughts all tend to the same direction for the ideal way of life, which is to "live in the moment". This does not refer to the focus of consciousness on the present moment, because that would still be unfree, not divorced from nothingness. "Living in the moment" is equivalent to thinking.
While the mind has not yet freed itself from arbitrary attachment, the individual remains a slave, expecting to be rescued. It is only when thinking that the past and the future come together into the present moment, and only in such a moment can man attain the only freedom.
This is all I can think of, but I know that the director's intention is never to ask for a standard answer, but to hope that every audience will reflect on survival itself. Are we getting stronger? yes. But life is so bullshit, so meaningless, so worthless. isn't it? If so, what's your answer? Only after seeing the utter nothingness, like the only hope found in a desperate situation, like the only outline caught in a mess, can the enlightened truth be the answer that is trustworthy and belongs to itself.
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