Bergman said: "Silence" shows "God's silence", "In general, Anna is the body, and Este is the soul." "This movie will become a place between the soul and the body in the absence of God. The echo of the noise produced.” Simple plot, almost no soundtrack, but the whole movie is not dull. Bergman uses smooth shots and rich film language to maximize the expressive power of the movie, just like Chieslow As Wowski admired: "The tension of Bergman's film, among other things, is where magic is born on the screen."
Window is an important visual language to understand the external environment. On the train, John looked through the window and saw the ammunition train passing by. Looking down from the hotel window, Este always sees bustling streets, fighting crowds, and an overwhelmed old horse-which probably alludes to her frail body. On the empty city streets at night, there are developed tanks on one side, and people who throw gasoline to set up ambushes on the other. Under the illusion of silence, a war is about to break out.
The two doors of the isolation room are a symbol of the relationship between Anna and Este’s sisters. Este monitors through the half-covered door, while Anna hides herself by closing the door. The door closes again and again—with The trembling of the mind and the irreparable division. Anna, who had just settled in the hotel, was eager to have her own independent space, and the crisp sound of closing the door reflected Estay's unnatural eyes. The two doors divide the space and also hint at communication barriers, one is the lonely Este, and the other is Anna and her son John. The door was opened for the first time because Este was in a good mood and wanted to see his sister and John in the next room. In the shot, Anna was lying on the bed topless, with elastic skin and thick and shiny hair, and she slept on the side. John, curled up, like a baby in the mother's posture, serene and quiet. The beautiful scene in front of him probably made Estay feel difficult to blend in, and he had to return to his enclosed space again. Estay gently stroked the sleeping Anna's curly hair and touched John's body. This scene echoed the intense disgust that Anna showed afterwards, and even didn't want to go back to the room with her, and John instinctively resisted his aunt's caressing. . The audience feels sadly that it seems that only in a state of unconsciousness can they feel the warmth of a moment. The director Bergman is extremely stingy in showing warmth, even a few scenes may just be an orderly illusion. Another set of shots: In the evening room, Bach’s clear music was heard on the radio. Anna borrowed a cigarette from Esther in a John tone. The completely open door symbolized the agreement between the two sisters on music. However, this Temporary relaxation seems to be a perfect irony—a double irony of family affection and language as an important medium for human communication.
In the movie, most of the time the door is half-open or half-covered. That was exactly what Anna woke up. The director deliberately omitted the details of opening the door, leaving suspense. In the next set of shots, outside of the screen, there always seems to be another pair of eyes watching everything that happened silently. It can be guessed that the calm gaze behind may come from the "silent God": he witnesses everything but does not exert any influence. With the parallel movement of the photographic lens, behind Anna’s graceful body, through the half-covered door, the eyes of the audience meet Este’s. The angle of view of these eyes is restricted, apparently due to the half-covered door. In fact, it was because of her weak body that she had to be trapped in the bed, but what flashed in the monitoring eyes was completely opposite to her physical condition-majestic and arrogant.
Anna couldn't bear the dullness in the room, and decided to go out for a walk; Estay wanted to say but stopped, first waited, and then said nothing. Anna saw her pain in Este's hesitation, and she closed the door behind her with a bit of pride. At this moment, Este’s face close-up occupies the entire picture. She pressed her hand tightly to her open mouth, trying to prevent herself from slipping into the pain, numbness of alcohol poured out in the rush (maybe the director is kindly reminding the audience, Alcohol is not a cure for trauma)...fragility, depression, loneliness... the sudden nervousness made it difficult for her to sustain herself. After a brief gaffe, Este realized her mistake. While repeating others' compliments, she murmured at herself as a fool who was drinking on an empty stomach, struggling to regain her sanity. In this performance on the verge of mental breakdown, the audience felt lingering fears. The fragile "mind" could not heal the wounds on its own. She needed the anesthesia of tobacco and alcohol, and the affirmation of others. Compared to Este’s arrogance, Anna’s recognition of herself is more intuitive, through the mirror in the room, washing mirror, full-length mirror, makeup mirror for applying red lips... thick hair, healthy complexion, and plump Her figure and fitting clothes are reflected in the mirror one by one. It can be guessed that Anna, who once focused on her sister as a goal, realized her own capital of confrontation from the mirror image, but no matter how beautiful the image is, it can’t be changed. The nature of her illusion, in the subsequent film plot, the audience can see that Anna did not get real fun from it. And Estay almost never looked directly at herself in the mirror. Only once, the old waiter at the hotel gave her the mirror and comb to her messy hair. Estay just glanced at it hurriedly before burying the mirror on her chest. However, the director did not let Este deliberately evade him. Under the camera, the silhouette of Este appeared in the mirror of the room was frequently seen. From the perspective of the room layout, this large mirror was placed in the door of the two rooms. Next to it, you can imagine that when Esther peeked out through the half-covered door, his own mirror image must appear in his sight. This is like a magical mirror that reminds all the time-the facts about her sick and weak body. .
Anna wandered aimlessly in the streets, and when someone delivered a newspaper, she bought it. The bartender deliberately molested him, and completely left it alone... When Anna appeared in the corridor of the hotel again, she responded coldly to John's hug, and the first thing to enter the room was to close the door softly, avoiding Estay’s. The sight range, a camera turned around, the dust on the back of the dress was exposed, suggesting everything that happened just now (after passing through the dialogue between Anna and Este, I know that the movie deliberately omitted the plot of Anna and the bartender messing together in the church). The sound of the water sounded, deliberately exaggerated many times. For Anna, water has a special meaning and symbolizes getting rid of. Anna, who had just settled down in the hotel, couldn't wait to take a bath, trying to get rid of the smell of sweat, the sultry weather, and the irritability. But this time, Anna came back from the street and withdrew the soiled clothes. It seemed that as long as she washed her face, she could calm her inner anxiety and escape the blame from her heart (Ester). Este, who suddenly appeared behind him, looked at the evidence of the crime with contempt-the soiled dress, and then left without saying a word with an expression of disdain. From the switch of the camera, it can be known that Anna saw Estay's series of actions through the mirror. The mirror not only made Anna see her pride, but at the same time saw her unbearable. Anna turned to face the camera with a close-up of her face. All she saw in the lens that swallowed everything was empty eyes and eyes that didn't know how to listen. "Be your own and don't care about me" is a kind of break-away and warning. When Anna closed the door again with her pride, Estay's unreleased expression, empty eyes, and silent sorrow were seen in the camera.
At night, Anna had a tryst with the bartender. This scene brought the confrontation between the two sisters to the extreme. Estay asked Anna to stay, but he felt humiliating and arrogant for the reason. The cold tone made the intimate movements suddenly stiff, and the audience saw Anna's face stabbed with self-esteem. Once again, in front of the door, there was an obstacle that could not be crossed, Estay sobbed softly. When she entered the room, she saw the joy of Anna and the strange man under the bright light, and her eyes were full of horror. Anna wanted to blow Este to the ground with an indulgent attitude, but was manipulated by her angry questioning and eager desire to get rid of. She irresistibly released the grudges in her heart. It was because love turned into misfortune, and she felt humble. The resistance. Este found the self in Anna's anger. The restored peace Este stroked her hair with pride that penetrated everything, and expressed mercy with inescapable forgiveness, and then left with a disguise. Go, looking back, the eyes are full of emptiness, but no one has ever seen it. Anna burst into hysterical laughter and crying amidst the humiliation and frustration. The lamp that fell to the ground went out after the overload of energy was released. Presumably Este who was outside the door must have heard it very real, and suddenly appeared in the corridor of the seven small children. Dwarf, politely pay tribute to Estay, this strange sight, as if what happened just now was just a nightmare.
Este was in bed with a worsening condition. He felt uneasy because Anna and John had not returned for a long time. In the face of loneliness and fear of death alone, Este finally couldn't bear it and said what he could not share with others. Silence: The rejection of the opposite sex, the fear of loneliness, and the failure of independent attempts made her feel that this power is irresistible. A loud horn suddenly came from outside the window. Is it a signal that a larger-scale war in the city has begun?
The dull atmosphere of the film is incompatible with the child's lively nature. From time to time, the audience can hear a heavy sigh that does not match his age from John's chest. The working sound of clock and watch machinery sounded four times in the film, and the monotonous and lengthy sound of clocks and clocks at the beginning of the movie has already foreshadowed the theme of the whole film. John longed for his mother's caress, he liked to snuggle in his mother's arms, staring at her moving ankles, and smelling her charming breath. John’s attachment to his mother is fully demonstrated in the film. In the corridor of the hotel, the photographer uses a fixed lens to track John’s running back. At the end of the corridor, John sees an oil painting of a monster with a horse head and a naked woman. , The content of the screen shocked him. At this time, the camera switched to the scene where Anna was taking a bath just after waking up, revealing her mellow breasts. Afterwards, John approached the oil painting again with curiosity. This set of shots hinted at John’s inner dimness. Oedipus complex. In addition to attachment, the mother and son also have a good heart. When John was put on a lace dress in the apartment of the seven dwarfs, Anna had just combed her thick curly hair and put on a white close-fitting square-necked dress. John was very disappointed because of his mother's caressing and obedient, and because of his mother's cold response, and he was very sad because he saw his mother getting close to a strange man. While John waited for his mother for a long time, the clock sounded again, but John’s paintbrush dropped on the paper was frantic and irritable; the original cute doll drama has also become a naked venting of anger and massacre, and it is truly hidden in his heart. It is the tears of abandoned grievance and loneliness. The mother's leaving alone made John feel at a loss. He gradually approached his aunt Esther and became interested in her translation work, and asked her to help him write down the vocabulary of this strange city. At the moment when he was about to leave, John finally took the initiative to hug his aunt, and even intentionally covered up the letter from his aunt to his mother.
On the second day, Anna took John to leave, and the door was completely closed by the hotel attendant, leaving only Este and her alone. This nightmare of unwillingness to reconcile the body and the soul was separated in a way The curtain fell. On the train, Anna opened the window to face the wind and rain, while John who was beside his mother stammered out the word "mind", hoping to be passed on to the child who started a new journey.
P.S. "Silence" can be regarded as Bergman's relatively intuitive movie, with its concise plot and smooth shots, and it is even called "vulgar realism". The original idea was to use modernist interpretation methods to identify the symbolic film language in the film. Later, I found that my interpretation method was closer to postmodernism, making it difficult to understand the originally obvious lens.
from my blog:
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