Text | Tao Jia
However, just a few years after Bergman’s "representative" work "Wild Strawberry", "Bad Girl Monica" can't find the feeling of sheer lateness at all, leaving behind the deep icy dreams and metaphors of death. Deconstructing the audiovisual language of the stream of consciousness and the obscure time and space editing, "The Bad Girl Monica" is more like a smooth prose poem, full of salty ocean waves.
When the teenagers drive away on the yacht, leaving empty shots with ripples, their resistance to hopeless life has become the most innocent image in film history. But this love hymn, which seemed to be permeated with youthful and beautiful breath, was shattered in the face of powerful reality in time. Their quarrels or mutual care were speechless, revealing the most common and ultimate contradictions and games of the two sexes in their lives.
Bergman wrote in his autobiography "The Magic Lamp":
"...I feel relaxed and happy. All professional, financial and marital problems have been removed from the sky. We live a fairly comfortable outdoor life in the location. We work during the day and rest at night. The dawn is very fresh and the weather has its own advantages. The days are long and nights are short, sleep without dreams...
Film work is an extremely erotic business: the actors treat each other frankly and expose each other. In front of the camera lens, all the intimacy, loyalty, interdependence, love, self-confidence, and reliability become a kind of warmth, perhaps an illusory sense of security. The tension, the relaxation of the tension, the tacit understanding of helping each other in the same boat, and the anti-climax that followed after the successful carnival moment: the atmosphere is inevitably full of sexual desire. It took me many years to understand that one day the camera will stop rotating and the lights will go out..."
When Monica and Harry were immersed in each other's arms and the light was on their faces, their young appearance became a very intoxicating segment on the screen; when they embraced each other on the hillside and looked at the few people, as if This is the most beautiful portrait of love in the world. At that time, Bergman and his wife Gong had already had an unhealable rift between the daily routines of their married life, and "Monica in the Summer" really became his summer.
When Bergman shot the full juice of fresh love in a relaxed tone, and photographed the eclipse of daily life, he and his wife ended their marriage and each other had a better life.
Here in Bergman, love is nothing but a rush of faith. The scent of wildness exuding from Monica's body is exactly opposite and matched with the classic style of the drama and the mirror movement, and they are finally fused with the elusiveness of love.
"The Bad Girl Monica" is derived from the text of the novel, and its attributes are full of straightforward intent. When the image puts Monica in the woods of the island, it symbolizes the men and women of the city in a sense. It is often said that movies are born to create dreams. Monica tears our thoughts and memories back from the distant sun and the beach, dismantling dreams about love bit by bit.
The naked reality is cruelly presented to the eyes in the mirror that echoes at the end: life has given people a lot, and it has taken a lot. And people can only sigh in the end.
This article was first published on the China Film Index WeChat official account, unauthorized reprinting is prohibited.
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