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Roman Polanski's "Immoral Judgment" (1994), first of all, we have to define what is moral. Is there a unified yardstick? When a victim suffers humiliation, she still cannot see the possibility of redressing her grievances for a long time. Should she resign her to her fate or fight back. I think this is definitely inconclusive. Only in a country with a sound democracy and a sound legal system, can we extravagantly seek judgments above morality. For example, this movie is aimed at a small fictional autocratic country, which seems to be about to move towards democracy, but everything is still chaotic.
In Paulina (played by Sigourney Weaver), I heard the voice of Roberto Miranda (played by Ben Kingsley) as one of the perpetrators when she was illegally assaulted by the secret police, because Her face was blindfolded, and although she couldn't see the guy, she still concluded that Miranda was the bastard who had raped her 14 times. At that time, the physical assault she suffered included electric shocks and other cruel types, and verbal insults were even more commonplace. The strange thing is that when Pauline was raped by Miranda, he always put Schubert's "Death and the Maiden", so that when she heard the song later, she would vomit. When she was a young girl, she and the death situation of this song did have a certain kind of sorrow that matched.
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But her husband, Gerardo (Stuart), woke up in the middle of the night and found that his wife had kidnapped Miranda. He panicked. After asking the reason, he questioned his wife's actions. In his opinion, even if the doctor is the perpetrator, then family law cannot be lynched. But the wife said angrily: "At first I wanted to rape him, so that he can feel the pain of being raped, but I am a woman and cannot do this. Therefore, I want you to rape him, but I thought you might not want to. For some time to get excited, I just thought about stabbing him with a broom, how about it."
The husband felt that his wife’s words and deeds were unreasonable, not to mention that he was a lawyer and a celebrity around the president. He might become the head candidate of the "Human Rights Investigation Commission". This position is equivalent to the Minister of Justice. Strangely, their home lives on an island that is almost isolated from the world. The husband knew that his wife had been tortured by the secret police when she was in college, but he did not know that she had been raped. According to his wife, Roberto Miranda was secretly involved as a doctor, so that the secret police would be more likely to destroy them physically and mentally. This Miranda of course denies her allegations.
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After all, this is a film directed against an autocratic dictator, although we can see the cautious elements in it. However, it is still clear the basic political form of this country. Just as the husband has lived in the shadow of the aftermath for his wife for so many years, he doesn't know how deeply it hurt her. We don't say whether this Milan reached the end is the perpetrator, maybe he was wronged. As far as Paulina suffered, it is a question worth exploring. The film focuses on this kind of harm, for a woman after years of suffering and suffering, it is concentrated in a big outburst of hysteria. It should be said that this is what happens sooner or later after a person suffers a traumatic stress disorder.
According to Paulina, Miranda's smell, panting, and tone of voice made her determine that it was him. He sent himself to me like a Christmas present. How I forgave him lightly. In the beginning of the movie, a house isolated by the sea, that evening with thunder and wind and rain, Paulina waited in confusion for her husband to come home and prepared her food. But the power went out, and she lit a candle. I saw a small car coming with lights coming. She took the pistol and blew out the candle in a panic. At the beginning of the movie, a scene where a woman was so panicked was created. We don't know why she is so panicked.
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Dramatically, the husband happened to be seen by the doctor Miranda because of a puncture, and he was kindly sent home by Miranda. After they fell asleep, Miranda returned to return the spare tire again. Paulina, who had been alert, heard the doctor's words in the bedroom, and ran outside and drove his car. The cart fell off the cliff and sank. Yu Kuangtao roars in the sea. When she returned again, the doctor slept in the living room and her husband slept in the bedroom. Only then did she have the opportunity to bind him, and his mouth was sealed tightly.
Indeed, Paulina found Schubert's tape "Death and the Girl" from his car, and after binding him, while playing this tune, she accused him of the infringement that year. When the husband heard the music, he ran out curiously, what he saw was such a frightening scene. The husband is a lawyer and feels that this is illegal and unethical for his wife. In the meantime, this good gentleman also wanted to help Miranda escape with a knife. He was shocked to drop the knife after hearing his wife said that he had been raped 14 times. The husband did not know that his wife had been raped, he cared about it very much and wanted to bring her out to talk about it.
His wife said he liked Nietzsche, and she laughed at them with Nietzsche's quotations at every turn. Before Gerrard chatted with Miranda, this guy actually quoted what Nietzsche said: "We can never fully possess the soul of a woman." But the husband still disagrees with the wife's approach. His idea is simple, even if he is the perpetrator, he cannot use lynching. But she had a gun in her hand, and he couldn't help it. My wife suggested that I would not kill him, as long as he truthfully confessed his crimes, I would let him go. She also lied, his car is still there, good.
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In this way, the husband ran into the house and persuaded Miranda to admit what he had committed. But Miranda said you are in the same group. In fact, the husband at this time was convinced that the doctor was the perpetrator, even though he said that he studied medicine in Barcelona from 1975 to 1978 and did not stay in the country. Next, the film is reversed twice. One is Miranda's excuse to pee. This scene makes people laugh. Taking advantage of her negligence, Miranda snatches Paulina's pistol. This adds to the drama of the film. In a scuffle, the gun returned to Paulina's hands again. These two reversals, obviously, the director did not want to be too entangled in suspense, but took the opportunity to force Miranda to completely let go of the fantasy and cooperate with Gerrard's so-called confession.
Indeed, the doctor had to write down the process of destroying Paulina, even though he repeatedly said that he was innocent, it was all her fabrications of him, her rhapsody. Gerrard said that she was arrested because he edited an underground newspaper "Liberation" and published some anonymous writers' articles through her. Only she knew my true identity, but then she was in 1977. I was arrested in April and she never said my name in order to protect me. When he said this, the phone rang. It turned out that it was the president who called, claiming that because he was going to be the chairman of the committee, someone began to threaten Gerrard and plan to send guards to protect him at 6 o'clock in the morning.
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This made Gerrard panic, and it was less than 4 hours before 6 o'clock in the morning. Geraldella took Paulina aside, but she was not in a hurry, and asked how many times he had done with "her". This sudden problem let us know that she was also jealous, and it was a normal state of a wife. But this "she", we don't know who it is, anyway, it is a woman who has had a relationship with Gerrard. The husband was forced to feel helpless, his eyebrows burned, and he had to say that something happened. It was only because you had been missing for several months.
We can speculate that it is possible that he wants to find Pauline through this "she", then this "she" is also someone who has an identity and can speak. The wife said nothing. Time is running out, and then, according to Miranda's confession video. Miranda said that she had been interrogated 94 times, each of which lasted 16 hours, using treatment as an excuse to achieve the purpose of interrogation. She was tied with wire at the time (he was right, I was tied with wire, not a rope). I was the most ethical person among them and saved many people. I was also the last person to get into the water. She was covered in cuts and bruises, and I cleaned her up. Of course, the fresh meat is on the case, the fluorescent light is shining, I can get anyone, I'm lost. I was just morbidly curious. When she was shocked, I was wondering if her vagina would become dry. I like you and know what I am doing. That is one way I protect you. You have to thank me, but I am sorry.
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After the video was recorded, it was dawn. Paulina could not control her anger and walked outside the house with a gun against Miranda. The doctor shouted, I am innocent. I was in Barcelona at the time. You can call and ask. She said it was only for 5 minutes, Gerrard called, and the other party informed that Miranda was here at the time. But Paulina said that this doesn't mean much, because many guys let others go abroad with fake passports in order to escape the crime. What can I say. She escorted Miranda to the cliff by the sea. Gerald untied his rope and begged her to let him go. When we thought Pauline would never spare Miranda lightly, we dropped the gun and walked away.
Let him go, Gerrard didn't expect it, nor did we expect it. It’s amazing that, at the end of the film, in the concert hall, Paulina and her husband watched the Schubert Quartet "Death and the Maiden" live. She turned to look upstairs. Miranda and her family were also watching and nodded to her with a smile. , But her expression is solemn. We can regard this as this country, moving towards reconciliation under a democratic system. As for whether the perpetrator is the doctor or not, it doesn't matter. The key is to put aside the past and join hands to move towards a new life. This may be the director's ultimate expectation. But the question is, that kind of unforgettable pain, is it so easy to let it go and let it go. Well, not so, so what can be.
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Choosing to forgive is not about weakness and incompetence, but about using the power of kindness to avoid such a tragedy from happening again. In this way, this kind of forgiveness is powerful. I have to say that the three actors have their own unique and subtle interpretations of the roles. Kingsley, the old drama bone, wanders between righteous and evil, true and false, and false and true, which can be described as three points into the woods. The most commendable is Sigourney Weaver, this beautiful temperament, a true acting school, we have learned her acting in the "Alternative" series. In the film, she extremely finely interprets the victim's suffering state, the tearing and fearful depression.
Recall that while waiting for her husband in the opening film, Paulina couldn't stay alone in the huge living room. She ran to the small room to light a candle and dine. It seemed that this claustrophobic space could make her feel at ease. This is so pitiful and cramped, like a life of detention, who really appreciates this kind of deep-seated pain. Reversely, after 1977, the director Polanski was burdened by the US's allegations of infringing upon young girls, and the wanted order has not been withdrawn, that is to say, he has not been allowed to go to the United States so far. That year, his "The Pianist" won the Oscar for Best Director, and he received the award through his friend Harrison Ford. And this "Immoral Judgment" can only be completed in the UK, which fits well with the treacherous scenes in the film.
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It can be said that the physical and mental suffering suffered by the director himself is the same as the pain experienced by Paulina in the film, but the nature of the event is different. I think it is unknown whether the director used this film to express this tortured psychological dilemma. In his childhood Polanski, his mother died in the gas chamber of the Auschwitz concentration camp, and so did an uncle. His father survived the disaster and survived the end of World War II. What caused him the most pain was on August 8, 1969, when his 8-month pregnant wife Sharon Tate was brutally murdered at home, and 5 other people were killed in the room. This was a cult organization. His revenge may have originated from the "Rosemary's Daughter" he filmed the previous year.
What I want to say is that these personal and family changes cannot but affect the director's heart. Therefore, his multi-dimensional interpretation of the character's psychological level is more rigorous and precise than ordinary directors. Just like this sentence "We can never fully possess a woman's soul", what I want to ask is why we should possess and what about possession. There is still a patriarchal thought in this bone, why can't it be shared equally. Furthermore, if there is a soul, possession becomes empty talk, because the soul itself has its own tenacity and independence, and it will not be dominated by anyone.
The essence of the film is that although you may possess my body, you cannot possess my soul. In this way, it becomes natural for Paulina to fight back after many years of injustice, and the final forgiveness is somewhat helpless. This is exactly how a woman has to continue a kind of sorrow after being hurt. .
2018.7.7
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