Bergman's "magic word" means that the character sends out a core key line, which makes the film instantly enter the metaphorical space at the symbolic level from the dramatic relationship of the indoor drama, thereby extending the profound thinking dimension. But the process is still based on the basis of "reality", and rarely out of the context of reality, and completely develop another set of "fantasy" logic, and the "surreal" elements appearing in the film can be justified by the "movie" (in the movie This is what happens here), so in a sense, Bergman elevates "movie" to the level of "god".
Regarding the "magic word", it is very particular about when and how it appears. I don't like it, and I like it very much. For example, in "Silence", the "magic word" is too straightforward and too anxious, and the character settings and relationships do not have the motivation and soil to "question". However, the perfect "magic word" can give a person a momentary epiphany. In "Winter Light", the fisherman faced the pastor's consolation "to continue to live", and asked: "Why do you have to continue to live?" For me, it was like a sharp sword piercing the heart. "Why do you have to continue to live?" - This sentence pierces the existential problem of people, just like the children's words in the emperor's new clothes, pointing to the absurd scene where everyone's life is at stake, but they turn a deaf ear and pretend to be calm.
At this point, the pastor's value and "faith" began to collapse: "This question, let me go back and read some books and think about it again", just like a sick old man who was stripped naked in bed and eager to find a fig leaf, only when he was dying. When I was about to be washed, I suddenly remembered that I was born naked—do I really need to think about it? This is a problem that I have to face every day when I wake up from a dream, a well-known problem.
Without the most thorough retrospective, without asking the most fundamental questions, there is no real "faith". Nietzsche's "crazy words": "I am not a man, I am dynamite". Only dynamite can make the priest's "faith" truly reckoned. The various "collapses" that followed were nothing but dust from a massive blasting project. Only by witnessing the burning of the curtain of the illusion of peace and order, and looking directly at the source of the "winter light" that projected false and beautiful images - the dazzling, naked eye-destroying sun, can one begin to discern the "good-ugly" relationship (the good is ugly, and the ugly is good), get rid of or embrace "vulgarity".
So, what about "faith"? The subject of Bergman's life has been questioning the matter, and at no point has he given up his vigilance and torture, falling into some sort of relieved paralysis. In "Marriage Life", the issue of "belief" is transformed into the pursuit of "love" by ordinary people in the context of life. Bergman abandoned the metaphorical system of "character-symbol" in a small space, and implemented the construction of a group of rich Character relationships with a sense of detail in life. Therefore, the method of questioning has not changed. However, this time, the relationship between characters is no longer a tool "manufactured" to anchor a certain conclusion. The relationship between characters is endowed with particularity and condensed into a prism that refracts "truth".
In the last scene of "Marriage Life", the "husband and wife" who have experienced nearly 30 years of intense "marriage" long-distance running, once again returned to the old bedroom, fell in love with each other, and complained about the unsatisfactory life of their respective lives, as if they had met each other this time. Embracing is the final answer to "love" and the end of their "marriage" life. However, after a night of indulgence, the movie was about to end, the wife suddenly woke up from a nightmare, her body trembled, and said, "What will happen in the future?" potential energy. "Past" and "future" no longer constitute a long linear river in the traditional sense, but form a vortex in which "past" and "future" all flock to "now". The hatred and prejudice of the "past" condensed the "now", the unknown and fear of the "future" invaded the "now", and the whirlpool of time forced them to stop asking until they died.
Looking around, almost all of Bergman's films end with "abruptly stuck in a state of questioning". "Question" has been eliminated from the narrative tone of "past tense" and "perfect tense", changed into a long chanting that never stops, merged into "belief", and became the existence structure of "belief", that is, "belief" and "faith". "Questioning" coexists, and "belief" is defined by "questioning".
We can clearly see that the nightmarish nature of "faith" drives Bergman's non-stop creation throughout his life. The agonizing pain tormented by the falsity of a thing that human beings conspire to admit and feel forced him (we) to no longer be able to remain in the shadow of gracious comfort, escaping the intense insecurity of questioning "faith" feel. It is impossible to continue to ridicule the absurdity of our own situation with a cold, ticklish stare. Because stopping the questioning also means "death", the fate of the fisherman is the most tragic example.
I still can't be sure whether there is a "God" in Bergman's world. The gap between life experience and circumstance may suspend his films to an unreachable place. But what I do know is that exposure to the sun takes sheer courage.
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