A bust of Hitler with a stern face is used as the background to set off the first line of dialogue in the film: "Hermann Braun, are you willing to marry this woman?" Accompanying the ear is the cannonball leaving the bullet in the air There was a screeching noise of gliding, and the wall with the Hitler portrait was blown up. Here, in the gap between the wreckage of the bombed wall, in a shot with the focal length of the person being photographed indoors from virtual to real, the director did not rush to let us see the character's face clearly, but inserted an outdoor environment. Panoramic empty footage. The window frames fell and the ground was dusty, first emphasizing the intensity of the bombing, creating a kind of imminent predicament. But in the defocused shot, we can still vaguely see a man and a woman inside, a woman in a wedding dress, a man in a military uniform, and then the lens becomes solid. Both men and women said "I do" respectively. They are risking their lives to insist on completing the marriage registration under the shelling, grabbing the signature of the staff like a life-saving straw, and finally the groom Herman even stamped the marriage certificate himself. The two lie on the ground and snuggle with each other to avoid the bombing, and the camera freezes here.
Fassbender's high level of generalization and narrative ability can be seen in the opening plot account of less than two minutes. The relationship between the characters, the tension between the characters and the environment, and the contradiction between the environment and events are shown one by one. With cool tones against bright red subtitles, the cry of the baby is accompanied by the sound of bombing, which not only causes visual and auditory shocks, but also makes the audience go crazy because of the particularity of the plot. At the same time, there is an illusion that this is the beginning or the end. Such a talented director is destined not to sit comfortably in front of a screen and watch a movie. He will penetrate deep into human capillaries to stir up sensitive nerves. In the description of the film at the beginning, the director has clearly expressed his creative intention. Posting Hitler like the bombing of a high wall symbolizes the ultimate fate of the Nazis' collapse. Men and women are obsessed with marriage, just like the German people are obsessed with Nazi blind faith. Of course, marriage itself is not at fault. Under the background of the special historical environment, people lose their grasp of fate for a while, and cannot correctly see the environment they are in. They are too obsessed with certain specific relationships or forms, and they set various rules and regulations for themselves in their thoughts, so that they cannot even wake up. When the final outcome is in front of you, it is impossible to face your own absurdity and mistakes and lead to collapse. The pieces of marriage registration papers flying up in the freeze-frame shot are particularly eye-catching in the foreground, and there are countless of the same German people. In just one scene, the characters are pushed under the fire, and the future created by it has both uncapable expectations and a lingering sense of fate.
Entering the title of the film, Maria carries a sign with Hermann's name on her back to meet her husband at the train station. The wooden fence as the foreground isolates the camera from the movement of Maria, the train station from Maria, the woman from the war. Here, women always seem to be regarded as weak and blocked from the war from the beginning, and they cannot really participate in the war directly. But on the other hand, they have to bear the husbands, relatives and families lost because of the war. Those who died in battle became heroes, and the rest had to pay a heavy price. In the same situation, Mara in "Blue Bridge" was waiting for the news of Roy's death, and Veronica in "The Wild Goose" was deprived of the opportunity to say goodbye to her lover Boris. And Maria had to wait painfully for the marriage that lasted for half a night, a twisted human nature. The film depicts Maria Braun, a slightly beautiful German woman as a typical example, but in fact reflects the mental outlook of the German people after the defeat, with their dreams shattered, lost, numb, and still in mental distress. Coupled with the Berlin Wall that separates East Germany and West Germany, so many relatives are like living in two countries. Such a feeling of unsatisfactory family relations caused by external forces has always permeated the hearts of the German people. Schlöndorff, Herzog, and Wenders, who are also known as "Four New German Films" with Fassbender, because they all grew up in post-war Germany, witnessed the changes around them. For these children who grew up on the ruins, they can find a profound reflection on the war and a mind of caring for the future of the people in their films. In "Maria Braun's Marriage", in addition to his reflection and concern, it can be seen that Fassbender sounded the alarm to those who could not face up to history and reality.
The director was also very thoughtful in arranging the appearance of her husband Herman, drawing out the real person through two close-ups of the photos. In the hasty two-minute bombing scene at the beginning of the film, we can only see the appearance of the heroine Maria, and there is no direct shot of Herman's face. Therefore, the audience's image of Hermann only stays in a German military uniform, and it may be possible to depict a heroic officer's shape through their own imagination. Transitioning to Maria's house, the mother took off a small piece from a large piece of bread and carefully dipped it in water to eat it. Mother licked her fingers and Maria came home tired and took a can or two of potatoes and potatoes from her bag. When she turns her head to the food, the camera gives the first close-up of a picture of Herman wearing ordinary clothes on the side of the bread, and it is also the first time that we can see what Herman looks like. This seemingly unintentional turn of the head is rich in meaning because of the special location of the photo. Bread represents the ration for the whole family's life, it is something that must be touched every day, and it represents survival. Maria put her husband's photo here, which means that to her, her husband's status is as precious as life, a person she misses every day, and her daily spiritual food. Then came the look of sadness on her face, from which we could judge that Herman had apparently gone to the battlefield where his life and death were uncertain. The mother's cherishment of food, and the missing china under the teacup, can see the embarrassment of their family's life, and Maria is working hard for the family's survival.
The second photo appearance was when Maria asked her girlfriend to do her hair and was about to go to work in a bar. The two of them sang as they talked, hiding a recent photo of Herman in military uniform smiling brightly among the piles of curling irons. Maria looked at the picture of her husband and laughed at herself like a poodle. Every day, she went to the train station to wait for her husband with the missing person's notice, and took her husband's photo with her. At this moment, she seemed to be saying, "You are still laughing, look at your wife, I'm going to be a poodle now to make money from the Americans. No matter what you do, in Maria's heart, the value of marriage is sacred and first.
Although we have seen Herman's appearance clearly in the two photos, it is still a vague impression. According to the traditional theatrical model, there must be an accident in addition to the arrangement of conflicts and contradictions. Herman can only be "revived". How can he only be allowed to live on two photos? In a scene where her husband Herman actually appears, Maria is undressing and flirting with a black man, who are on the right of the painting and occupy the logical focus of the screen. The door on the left is half-closed, not completely closed. The crack of the door is the button of the drama, and as long as it is seen, it can inspire the audience's unparalleled speculation. So we saw a man coming from behind the door, in rags and carrying a beige satchel, looking at the room with a dull look. Maria was flirting with black people. Although it can be roughly guessed that the husband will come back without death, when the husband really stood behind the door and peeped, I still did not immediately correspond to the person in the photo. As the audience, we are actually similar to Maria in the film. For Maria, after years of waiting, the impression of her husband has stayed on the photo, not to mention her husband who is now down and out. The two photos were used as a foreshadowing, and finally a character shape that did not conform to the impression was given, which made the audience feel a little sense of loss at the same time as the accident. The husband who went through the ordeal of the war is no longer the husband who anxiously took the initiative to stamp the marriage register. It reflects the intention of the director, no matter whether the two sides of the war are right or wrong, the war itself is a catastrophe for human beings, and no one can be spared. Whether directly or indirectly involved, everything has changed beyond recognition.
In the scene scheduling at this time, Maria occupies the center of the picture, and the husband and lover are located on the left and right sides: husband—Maria—black. Explain that Maria will form a conflicting point of conflict between the two men, and she is the key figure. As the plot develops, the husband unexpectedly walks to the far right of the room and sucks on the cigarette on the table. The black and Herman scuffle, and Maria is on the far left of the screen. The pattern became: Maria - Negro - Herman. At this point, it is obviously implied that black people have become an obstacle to Maria's reunion with her husband, and it is a logical guide for Maria to kill black people with wine bottles. The husband turned around, and the camera finally gave the real person a small special. Most of the whole film was a medium shot, and here it was given to the two people who had a strong heart to fight back and forth. It is used to strengthen the facial expressions of the characters and to emphasize the characters. Externalization of psychological agitation. Maria, who was in the backlight, was in shadow, only one pair of eyes was shining brightly. For her, no matter what her husband became, as long as he came back, it was hope and light. Such a scene is too sensational if it is not handled well. But because of the accidental death of a black man, dark clouds covered this drama that was supposed to be a reunion of husband and wife. The more emotional indifference is dealt with, the more it can reveal the director's own strong pursuit and insatiable feelings, and the psychology of wanting to be loved but not being loved.
Although the film describes a woman's marriage during the war and life after the war, it is actually the director's rational reflection on the Nazis. The heroine Maria, she went from working in a bar to working in a bar every day, carrying a missing person notice, until she was pregnant and finally killed, and then she became the mistress of a wealthy businessman. In this step-by-step fall, the only thing that runs through is her always conservative and loyal attitude towards her unsatisfactory marriage. Maria and Hermann's obsession with a marriage contract was the unquestionable obsession of the German people with the Nazis at that time. So much so that when Maria finally found out that she had been betrayed by her husband, she felt that everything was meaningless. Also in "Lili Marlene", the female singer played by Hannah Xugula finds out that she has been deceived and her dreams are instantly shattered after giving everything for love. Every time we see a woman in a Fassbender movie devoting herself to something, the nerves are highly tense until the last flip. The plot is ups and downs, twists and turns, and can't escape the empty ending. This also alludes to the Nazi ending. The more abundant and rich the characters' emotions, the less able it is to cover up the nothingness that the fanaticism eventually leads to.
Rather than saying that Maria is a distortion of repression, it is better to say that she is a distortion of repression herself. In the film, although she tore the missing person notice and threw it on the rails, letting the train run over it when it passed by. For her, the train ran over not only the tracing notice but also her heart. Even if her marriage was hopelessly waiting for the day it would never be consummated, she had to bear the fate of being run over. To her, getting married, being one's wife, seemed to be finding an ideal social position, and then having to suffer the fate of being oppressed by life during the war for this position, because it was a sacred thing to her. things are beyond question. Even when Maria goes to the bar to seduce men, we don't see the usual tales of crying and humiliation. They show an instinctive attitude towards life, and their knowledge of their living flesh makes it easy to seduce men. They are not uncomfortable, and the betrayal of their bodies has nothing to do with the sanctity that the soul insists on, and all unscrupulous actions for the sanctity they consider are commendable actions. The yardstick of morality has long been distorted in their hearts, and the repression they think has become a metaphysical shackle. Maria splits herself into two extreme personalities. On the one hand, she is a wife who is loyal to marriage and waits for her husband's only son; on the other hand, she sells her flesh in a bar and becomes someone else's mistress. But the point is that she is also almost faithful to her lover, and only in the case of conflict with her husband, marriage is the supreme thing for her. Maria, like people in war, seeks a balance in a state of extreme polarization, and she will be shattered if she is not careful. But the fact is that no matter how rigorous and impregnable it is, there will be a time when it will collapse. It is only a matter of time before it collapses.
The most moving scene in the whole movie is in the last third of the movie. Maria and her girlfriend are walking through the house that has been bombed to ruins. The two of them sit against the wall. Her girlfriend rests her head on Maria's shoulders. Maria also hugs her affectionately. The two laughed and sang, and Maria had both a smile and a cry on her face. Again through the wreckage of the bombed wall, this time a distant view, like two mad women walking through the ruins and singing. The camera pans up, the blue sky against the dilapidated house, and the sound of a mechanical crane can be heard. Audiovisually, sound and picture are opposed, destruction and reconstruction coexist, and crying and hope embrace each other. The war is over, people get dressed and start to feel sad about the past in the ruins and reflect on themselves and look forward to the future. At this time, Maria seemed to be the most normal woman, the most real person.
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