I remember one time when I just came out of the church, I didn’t choose to take the nearby bus, but ran to take the subway. In order to catch the upcoming subway, I hurried downstairs and fell to the ground without warning. I was dizzy and didn’t return for a long time. I came to my senses, and then I thought that it was due to my impatience and choice, or that I was destined to have this fall. If I had chosen to take the bus at that time, would I not have had this fall. In life, I have doubts like this. There are too many examples, and I constantly guess and doubt the uncontrollability of impermanent fate and the somewhat mysterious givenness of life.
In the movie "Song of Opportunity"/1987 (this year happens to be the 30th anniversary of the release of this film, the charm of the master level and the classic is that it will never be out of date, and you can benefit a lot from watching it anytime!), Jeslowski did a wonderful and profound video experiment.
Films like this that are presented in the most direct and clear multi-layered narrative structure without relying on technological processing, especially the high-end line of literary and artistic style, which also has a strong political and social background, are easy to create. A dull, unengaged atmosphere, and the dullness is likely to become a "repetitive" theme, Kieslowski is also aware of this, whether it is echoed at the beginning and the end. On the conception of the three main lines that are both connected and independent, coupled with his attention to detail (vivid and rich) and his consistent preference for mysterious and meaningful metaphorical plots, this film is extraordinarily sophisticated, brilliant and rich. connotation.
★The following contains spoilers, it is recommended to watch the movie after watching the movie!
Many times, when we get an unsatisfactory result after making a choice and experience, we like to regret the initial tangle and make various hypothetical changes to the previous experience, and subjectively imagine the different results produced by it. and spread, as I wrote in the first paragraph if (if)...will (won't)...but even if the "cause" can be easily changed, can it really affect the "effect"? With this question in mind, let's look at Kieslowski's masterpiece "Song of Opportunity". The film makes three very different decompositions and interpretations of the life of a medical boy named Witke. By extension, let's talk about the title first. At first, with the male protagonist's scream, the camera shot directly at his dark throat and the subtitles appeared. After finishing with the finishing touch, after watching the shocking ending, it was very clever and easy to use.
Then, in the form of intermittent fragments, the male protagonist begins to review his life experience. The camera alternates between subjective and objective positions and perspectives. And understanding, there is no room for negligence and distraction, and then Witke's father died, he dropped out of school and ran to the station to catch a train bound for Warsaw. The story began to branch from then on. The first time was when he caught the train and then met When he became a member of the Communist Party of his father's generation, Witke, who was influenced by him, decided to join the party and enter politics, but the reality was very different from his ideal. He thought that the idea of improving the social pattern and phenomenon through participation in politics was too naive, and on the surface it was under the banner of socialist development. In reality, it is still the darkness and corruption that precedes the right, and his first love with the underground organization also ended because of his sensitive position and identity.
The second time he failed to catch the train and had a violent conflict with the police and was detained and had to perform labor obligations, Witke accidentally encountered a group of underground activists with different political goals and intentions, and became one of them. In an assigned mission, Witke had a dialogue with a middle-aged woman who was harassed by political factors → "Life is a gift from God", which made him relax, choose to be baptized, accept the faith, and happened to go to Denmark with the beginning. The Jewish friends reunited and fell in love with the friend's sister (who has a husband) who was a bit against the religious creed. Then they were exposed in the underground base for printing taboo publications, and they were also misunderstood because of the misunderstanding of Witke. Witke, who was able to exchange for the opportunity to go abroad but failed to become Paris, ended in the comfort of his aunt.
In the third segment, Witke also failed to catch the train. He and the girl who also studied medicine at the beginning got married and had children, and returned to the hospital to continue their studies. This time, he no longer had any political stance, but was only loyal to himself and devoted himself to being a doctor. In this profession, in the end, he went abroad to attend a seminar for the director who was implicated by his son. Witke, who changed his book to celebrate his beloved wife's birthday, finally caught up with the plane to Paris, but it ended in tragedy. , the plane exploded in the air, and the characters and plots that appeared earlier in the last paragraph subtly "converged" again one after another, no matter how many possibilities can be inferred, everything seems to lead to the final ending that cannot be changed, just like the film The spring-like device that goes down the stairs in the middle, the moment at the end is "the moment of death".
In Kieslowski's in-depth discussion of fate and death using images, there has always been a strong taste of sadness, coldness and pathos, and human existence is always passive and helpless (from the moment of birth it is ), in the various incidents caused by the unsolved contingency and randomness in the course of life and the impermanent trend of the future, people seem to have no choice at all, but can only face, accept and experience, in fact, from another perspective , many times when we are in a bad situation or get painful and sad results, we often instinctively beautify the other possibility assumptions, thus ignoring the more tragic and tragic possibility of the other possibility, like The three endings of Witke in the film are not much better, and the last one seems to be beautiful and can be left alone, but the result is even more tragic.
It is not difficult to see that there is another layer of metaphor, which is to focus on the social reality of performance. Even if you don't go into the muddy waters of any party, if you only concentrate on living your own life and doing your own job well, will you be able to live happily and happily? Not necessarily, Witke's third ending is actually closely related to the country's situation and political factors, like the shackles and shackles that can't be shaken off. A member, he has witnessed the dark hypocrisy of the political system and the insignificance of the underground revolutionaries, even God is powerless, there seems to be no hope at all, can be compared with the speech of the old Communist Party member in the first time, Chieslow Fsky's great purpose is to criticize, reflect or more truly reflect the real situation through this narrative form of multiple possibilities.
You must know that under the stricter censorship system in Poland at that time, this film was able to see the light of the sun after many years of twists and turns. There are also several obvious reminders in the film → it is not easy to release. The soundtrack of this film is very outstanding, sad and shocking, beautiful and advanced, very infectious and emotionally mobilizing magic. This time the soundtrack was produced by the famous Polish composer and soundtrack master Wojciech Kilar. In the movie "No Country for Old Men", the perverted killer uses coins to easily decide life and death twice, which is like an artificial symbol of destiny. In this film, Witke meets an old woman while chasing a train. Kieslowski gave a close-up of a scattered silver coin, what determines the end result after the coin falls, what will happen next, and what will happen next? Is it self-awareness and choice, or is it the incomprehensible destiny?
ps: I chatted with my friends and said that I wrote too "mourning". I may be a complete pessimist like Kieslowski, but in fact, I can still experience a trace of hope that has not been extinguished from the film. Guang, just like the middle-aged woman who talks to Witke in the film, the doctor pronounced her death date early, but the fact is that she was very lucky to survive. Many times there is no certainty and absoluteness in everything, although there are in the world. There are many unexplainable problems and accidents, even if people feel very helpless, incomprehensible and passive, but there will be a good side, everyone should have hope in their ability to change (society or fate, etc.).
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