That piece of the puzzle that the audience will never see
When you look back at these wonderful old movies, you should regard those exaggerated arcs of characters as the "beauty mole" in the film age. This mole is like the clown that Brecht hopes often appear in theaters, reminding you to pay attention all the time. The strangeness of drama.
The success of a suspense drama director lies in becoming one of the most cunning perpetrators. He manipulates the characters who "create" the truth in the play to implement some clever or clumsy tricks. And let the rest of the characters, and even the audience, produce a lot of "misunderstandings." Among all these "misunderstandings", the most wonderful thing is that the suspicion that had been flashed before was re-remembered at the end.
Misunderstanding is often the pungent taste in life. This kind of excitement does not know whether drama has copied life or life has imitated drama.
In the movie "The Devil", the relationship between Madame de la Salle and Nicoll, the two accomplices who committed the crime, is obviously a bit strange. As Mr. De La Salle's public lover, Nicoll is inseparable from his wife and talks about everything. Perhaps it was because they all recognized Mr. De La Salle as a "tyrant" and naturally formed an alliance. But their situation is not that similar. One is already dying, and her husband expects her to die in order to sell her dowry (a boarding school for men), but has been unable to divorce her husband due to religious reasons. And the other one, who only occasionally suffered minor injuries in the quarrel with his lover, was definitely not the focus of the lover's malice, and even reached out to help when Mrs. De La Salle was being insulted, without being affected by it.
Obviously, Nicoll's motive for killing his lover was not so sufficient. The only explanation was that she wanted to help Mrs. De La Salle out of justice to get rid of the man who could be called a "demon". But what is even more absurd is that Mrs. De La Salle is so religious, but she suddenly skipped the step of divorce and got on the thief ship of murder. Of course, she was "instigated", she shed tears of despair, and numbly completed the murder.
The human nature under the magnifying glass is always more absurd than reasonable
On the way to the scene of the crime, Mrs. De La Salle herself also had a moment of doubt about Nicholas' motives. In her opinion, what Nichol most wants to die should be the wife who prevented her lover from selling the school. After all, if their relationship is not completely broken, she will benefit from it together with her lover.
Perhaps the sensitive audience has already begun to suspect that Nicholas is so aggressively planning this murder just to frame Mrs. De La Salle. But as the murders unfolded in full swing, the oppressive reality of committing the crime, and the moments of shock they encountered while transporting the bodies back to school, made people feel that Nicholas did not show any signs of escaping from self-preservation, but instead devoted himself to it. Trying his best and calmly enough to provoke the task of the whole thing. As for the lamb-like innocent Mrs. De La Salle who would faint at any time because of her sins, it is hard to doubt that she was partly involved in this murder for an unknown purpose. Although she is also motivated-she should be jealous of her love rival.
When the matter has developed to this point, it seems that it is not a case that needs to be solved, but just a crime that I don't know whether it can be successfully covered up. Until Mrs. De La Salle fainted by the drained swimming pool-the body they threw in by themselves was nowhere to be seen!
If this is not a supernatural event, there are only a few possibilities:
1) Others discovered their secrets and tried to blackmail
2) Nicholas will kill Madame de la Salle and occupy the school
3) Mr. De La Salle deceived them with suspended animation and is now preparing for revenge
4) The killing of her husband with Nicoll was only Madame de la Salle’s fantasy, and it did not happen in reality.
5) Mrs. De La Salle pretended to be frightened, just to hold Nicoll in order to find a chance to push all the blame on her.
The prince’s dress (the one on the corpse) sent by the dry cleaner and the secret apartment with no trace of life found through the key left in the dry cleaner turned Mr. De La Salle into a ghost. exist.
When the audience thought that the corpse found in the Seine in the morgue was Mr. De La Salle, they found that Mrs. De La Salle's nightmare was far from over. The person he killed didn't really die, but turned into an evil spirit to haunt him forever. This is the deepest fear of every murderer.
Compared with Mrs. De La Salle's eagerness and determination to find out the truth about the disappearance of the corpse, and even almost surrendered to the police for this, Nicoll's confusion appeared conservative and calm. She seems more willing to lock in a reasonable explanation and find a basis for this explanation——
The gatekeeper said that she would never allow any strangers to come and go, but she searched every corner of the campus and found no corpse. The dress was returned by the laundry and the suspected corpse appeared in the Seine, indicating that the corpse had been taken out by an insider. This person didn't report them, but played tricks on them, only for the purpose of extortion.
Could De La Salle actually be alive? ! Nicol said that she had seen a dead person, and that it was definitely dead. And he pressed him into the water with his own hands until the bubbles disappeared, pressed the bronze statue that Mrs. De La Salle had brought on him, and finally covered the entire bathtub with a nylon tablecloth. If he wanted to save himself, he would inevitably make a noise, but they heard nothing that night. After bringing the bronze statue, Madame de la Salle left the bathroom, and fell on the bed due to exhaustion. She didn't see what happened afterwards, because Nicholas locked the bathroom door afterwards. It was Nicholas who killed Mr. De La Salle, so only Nicholas might let him go.
And the boy Mowani's "lie" and the phantom in the group photo deprived her of the last trace of luck.
Nicoll's performance before leaving made people almost believe that her feelings for Mrs. De La Salle were absolutely sincere. It's just that she is too scared, so she has to go. Since Mrs. De La Salle insists on staying, this can only be the moment for them to part with each other. Perhaps such a distinction is the best choice for them.
Madame de la Salle, whose condition has rapidly worsened, is not so afraid of death. The clear recognition of her crimes and the foreboding that she would be met with more terrible retribution than death made her life worse than death. So the retired detective who had met during the corpse recognition heard her confession and confession.
The detective just told her that he had found her husband. Whether he wanted to test Madame de la Salle with this, or was he stating a fact that he thought could comfort the patient, only he knew. But in short, he must have gotten the key message to understand the mystery of happiness, because before leaving he told Mrs. De La Salle with certainty that when she woke up the next day, she would find that she was not guilty.
So has the detective's "prophecy" come true? If the boy Moigny didn’t lie, if he really took back his once confiscated slingshot from Madame de la Salle, whom everyone believed had been killed, this sad and terrifying story would have a fairytale ending. .
However, even the detective who had ruled out Mrs. De La Salle could not confirm the complete truth before he saw the body crawling out of the bathtub with Nicholas with his own eyes.
Even if he has discovered that Mr. De La Salle is secretly haunting the campus, and is very suspicious that Nicoll is responsible for it, the moment he retreats into the darkness and waits for the truth to be delivered, the inference still needs to be confirmed.
Confused you, but at the end, let you know how he laid a puzzle for you. Perhaps Cruzo himself is the silent but unobtrusive "demon" in the play.
It is not unreasonable that he provides clues, and it is not unreasonable to set answers, but he will never deprive the audience of the fun of being a detective.
The darkness and mystery hidden in the calm and innocent atmosphere, we are also deeply involved in outsiders who could have been cold-eyed. We can’t help but sympathize with Mrs. De La Salle and are willing to believe that she is a fairly “transparent” figure—it is impossible to imagine that she can kill a person but become an “accomplice” in a crime. "But he was played with by the "devil" from beginning to end. So her fears and doubts seemed to be what we felt.
As for the open ending, perhaps it is suggesting that De La Salf is the one with the most savvy tricks. She guessed the conspiracy between her husband and lover, so she tried her best and played her dying breath until the moment they were arrested and brought to justice.
We can only figure out TA's heart through everything that the characters reveal on the surface, and form our own conception of the whole story. Unless we can stay in the matter.
Each character is a puzzle. It is full of an interpretation of the truth. Their perspective may cause limitations, and their positions may bring lies. Details are the nourishment for reasoning. If the audience never presses the pause button and never replays, they will lose some of the joy of walking side by side with many possibilities due to negligence.
And these we are trying to make.
The best story is personal experience. —— Alienation drama
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