If we use the "Motivation Movie" to examine "Spirit Boundary", we will discover how bold the director has made sacrifices for its own narrative logic. The film is based on real events. In the 1970s, there was a terrifying event like the "Exorcist" in Germany: The Vatican admitted for the first time that a 19-year-old freshman girl was "possessed by evil spirits"; over a period of several years , This girl was forced to exorcise by two priests and was tortured to death. The incident shocked the world at the time. Despite the Holy See's defense, the two priests were still prosecuted and sentenced to heavy sentences. It is almost unbelievable to shoot a movie with this theme, but give up attention to this sensational result. But Hans-Christian Schmid, the director of "Spirit Boundaries", known as Germany's most talented young director, did it. He let the most violent incident confess the matter in one sentence at the end of the film, but turned around and fully "knowed" the victimized girl through the lens.
The girl who plays this girl is Sandra Hüller. Her amazing acting in this film won her the best actress at the Berlin Film Festival "Silver Bear Exhibition". Some people may think that playing "abnormal humans" has always been an actor's habitual tactic for acting and capturing awards, but Sandra Wheeler's performance in this film is similar to Jack Nicholson in "Flying Over the Cuckoo's Asylum", The performance of Nicholas Cage in "Las Vegas" is the same line-she played an abnormal person as normal, the fear and concealment of the past medical history, the yearning for friendship and love and The forbearance that cherishes and desires the mother’s approval but repeatedly frustrated, as well as the panic of losing faith in the end, and the numbness of being led to the theory of "evil spirit possession", under its interpretation, every movement and expression are Snap into the buckle. This classical performance endows "Spirit Boundary" with a strong tragic character. You can see a girl struggling with all her strength to fight her own destiny, and after struggling with all her strength, there is still nowhere to escape the destruction process.
This is the humanistic thinking contained in "Spirit Boundary" as a serious work. The victimized girl Michelle played by Sandra Wheeler asked twice in the film: My requirements are not high, I just want to be a normal person, why can't I do it? Her parents could not answer this question, her close friends could not answer, her boyfriend could not answer this question, nor could the doctor and priest. With the exception of the mother, who was obviously playing the worst role, most of the actions these people took to solve Michelle's problem actually aggravated Michelle's condition and pushed it further into the abyss. Director Hans Smith may be implying that ethics, science, and beliefs are powerless for one's own internal problems. But the results of the real events drawn from the film show that people and society must have a compromise, that is, the society will take the initiative to find motives and answers to any question, regardless of whether the result is counterproductive or not.
From this movie, I see even more the incommunicability between people. The epilepsy that Michelle originally had was just an excuse. What really happened was a disease between people. In the beginning, this stubborn girl finally buried her past medical history and returned to university to continue her normal life. At this time, she must do her best to grasp any "straw" that can support her normal life, including studies, essays, friendship, love, sex, and possible family and career. However, the more she worked hard, the more she would lose; resisting the lost destiny could only lead to faster loss and worse results. No one will understand what happened to this girl, what made this girl so painful and anxious, everyone will only use their own knowledge and speculation to force this girl to do what she should do-drop out of school ; Go to the hospital; see a psychiatrist; confess; pray; exorcise. All her efforts with amazing perseverance under terrible pressure are regarded as proof of abnormal behavior. From physical convulsions to mental hallucinations to the so-called "evil possessing", Michel tried to believe in herself strongly. In the end, she was isolated and helpless, but she could only rely on the devil's pain that a certain saint suffered before enlightenment. Test, to explain one's own misfortune, at this time, it is logical to compromise to the ignorant exorcism theory.
The end of the movie is extremely bleak, despite the sweet singing. Through the window glass of the moving car, the girl's face presents a tranquility that makes people feel heartache. This is the tranquility of obedience, and it is also the tranquility of despair. She gave up all her efforts to save herself and let others save her instead. The ordinary life that I tried my best to fight for is dying like the shadow of a tree reflected on a car window. The reality is that she will die in humiliation after experiencing a cruel exorcism ritual that is unimaginable by ordinary people.
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