Rainer Werner Fassbender, known as the "new German cinema" wizard, from his "debut" "Love is Colder than Death" (1969), to his "best pen" "Sailor Quiller" ” (1982), in just 13 years, he made more than 40 films with rare and vigorous creative energy. The motif that runs through all his works is to analyze the historical evils of the Nazi "Third Reich" and its aftermath.
As an artist who dares to face reality and has a sober and severe sense of history, Fassbender weighs the creation of films and the writing of history on the same scale. He once said: "I want to write a book about the peculiar history of the birth and development of the Federal Republic of Germany. I want to get to the roots: why the Federal Republic of Germany is what it is today and not another." Driven by his sober awareness of historical criticism, Fassbender's artistic tentacles always penetrated deeply into historical contradictions and the depths of human spiritual world. The material, spiritual, and moral issues are linked to the historical disaster of Nazism, and all these are placed before the judgment seat of history, giving a devastating blow to the historical amnesia that permeated post-war Germany.
The film "Marriage of Maria Braun" is a masterpiece of Fassbender's artistic maturity. It belongs to one of the four historical series of "German women" - the other three are : "Lily Marlene" (1980), "Lola" (1981), "The Desire of Veronica Firth" (1982). This film, from the perspective of society, human feelings, and customs history, depicts the historical trauma of the Nazi war and the gloomy picture of post-war Germany's reconstruction period through the many trials and tribulations experienced by the heroine Maria's personal marriage. The image has a rare historical sensibility and unique depth. The film was voted one of the ten best films in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1979.
Fassbender's pursuit of artistic aesthetics significantly surpassed modernism and opened up a new face of "post-modern" films. The "German Women" four-part series with "Marriage" (abbreviation) as a prominent symbol has two distinctive features in the construction of artistic narratives: First, reaffirming that the narrative of the film is always intertwined with history and social life , endow the narrative with a broad historical vision and "historicity of inscriptions", thereby overcoming the pure subjectivity of modernism's rejection of narrative; second, reconfirm the mass media nature of the film, focusing on the viewing value of narrative appearance and the speculation of historical connotation Unity of values, "quoting" from classic Hollywood-style writing techniques, thus overcoming the artistic closure of modernism. These two aspects are basically the same as postmodern forms and styles in other fields of literature and art. In this way, at a higher level, the rational content and the artistic image can be infiltrated and merged, creating a so-called "German-style Hollywood film" in the sense of "postmodernism". The four "German women" represented by "Marriage" are presented on the screen as a long artistic scroll with the central theme of the bloody history of Hitler's war and the mental distortion and alienation of people during the post-war reconstruction of Germany. They not only have deep historical connotations, but also have fascinating viewing features.
Fassbender writes history on the screen, mainly through the shaping of human image and character. , customs, etc. supplement the history that has been overlooked by historians. The heroine Maria in "Marriage" is a schizophrenic and complex character. She suffered from the historical trauma of the Nazi war, but after the war she sold herself as a means of self-affirmation and climbing. As far as the soul of this character is concerned, there is not much value in beauty; as a character in art, its aesthetic significance lies in the perspective and analysis of the tragedy of human loss and alienation, and it is in line with a certain reality in post-war Germany. These tragicomic factors are inside and outside each other. Fundamentally, this character reflects Fassbender's re-understanding and re-criticism of Nazi history from the perspective of humanitarianism.
In this film, the most symbolic shape is: the ruins of war. It has also become a modeling image that appears and repeatedly "varies" with the development of Maria's character. For example, the "marriage registration" in the prologue is the first ruins (the marriage certificate was found from the rubble); photos in military uniforms), with her girlfriend Betty, was walking down the ruined street (accompanied by the sound of jackhammers and hammers) to the train station waiting for the return of their loved ones; After she made her fortune, due to the lack of true love and emptiness in her heart, she and her girlfriend, Betty, were saddened by the sight of the ruins of the school they used to study, hugging their heads and weeping, as if they had become a tribute to the lost humanity and youth!
For Maria, from the beginning to the end, "Marriage" - 1944, "Destruction" - 1954, this semi-epic 10 years, this 10 years of mixed history blood and filth, also means that her whole life. Her love was taken away by the Nazi war; after the war, no matter her expectations, struggles or fortunes, her life difficulties, loss or alienation, she was endowed with a rather harsh sense of historical tragedy.
"Marriage" as a wedge, in fact, has been deeply "wedged" into the depths of Maria's destiny, and it is connected to the whole situation. It may be said that from the "starting point" of marriage accompanied by the fall of Hitler's head, it will surely lead to the "end point" of destruction caused by the gas explosion - the pure love and the "sacredness" of marriage that Maria pursued with all her heart and soul. The "starting point" seemed to be covered with a "noose"; and the flames detonated by the gas at the end not only devoured the bodies of Maria and Herman, but also devoured the buds that had never bloomed between them and had never been enjoyed. A "marriage" that is joyful but endured by many trials and tribulations. People can see that Maria's marriage, fortune, and death are precisely contrasted and intertwined with the so-called "economic miracle" of post-war Germany. From being hired as Oswald's private secretary, Maria has gradually become the actual manager of the factory and enterprise, whether it is capable and decisive in business negotiations with American businessmen, and whether it is negotiating with trade union representatives. Cold and cunning, they all reveal her character and energy as an "iron woman" again and again. Apart from the little love left in her heart, this Maria is no longer the girl who rushed to get married in a hurry. On the one hand, she trekked with a heavy historical cross on her back, and on the other hand, she is living in "all the living conditions that violate human nature in modern society." The alienation of human beings is realized. The value of the historical inscriptions of this film is precisely what is presented to us, layer by layer, through the course of artistic character.
Fassbender writes history on the screen, and thanks to his creative "citations", borrows the "Three S's" from the classic dramatic narrative structure and gives it a new modern (or "postmodern") meaning. According to the classics, the concept of narrative has always referred to a movement form of a plot with a beginning, development and ending. The so-called "Three S's" means that "suspense" should be vigorously put forward at the beginning of the plot, The development department has to constantly cause "surprise", and in the climax or ending department, it needs to give people the final "satisfaction". The narrative driving force of "Marriage" is closely related to the flexible use of these three "S"s, but it is not limited to strengthening the sense of narrative form, but from the connotation of history and reality. The deeper excavation focuses on how Maria, a German woman who was burdened with the historical trauma of the Nazi war, faced the war and the predicament she encountered on the ruins after the war, and her actions to fight against the predicament. The predicament she encounters, and her struggle against it, is as intensely dramatic as the actual contradictions that exist historically and the real stakes between the characters. "Marriage" formed the first "S", which raised the overall suspense of the film; after that, several "sudden turns" involving Maria's personal relationship were all the second "S" and its progressive reinforcement. , constantly creating a complete dynamic full of historical contradictions with "surprising" dramatic actions and situations, maintaining a dramatic tension in the jumping plot advancement (such as Bill's death, Herman's "Far Act", Oswald "Will", etc.). And the most powerful is undoubtedly the Fassbender-style third "S" with historical speculative color. It is no longer the kind of "satisfaction" of good and evil retribution or reunion that is commonly used in classic narratives. The speculative "satisfaction" extracted from the inevitable movement of history is adopted. In the climax of "Marriage", the couple who have been through many trials and tribulations, on the night of the final "reunion", but instead of the classic "reunion" model, it is "difficult to reconcile" - from the climax of joy , plunged suddenly into a tragic and destructive end. That night, Herman miraculously returned from overseas as a rich man, Maria also became a wealthy management agent in managing the enterprise, and the entire inheritance left by Oswald after his death belonged to the couple. In their name, however, although they have such great wealth on earth, they are extremely poor and hopeless in mind and spirit, and have no choice but to destroy. The climax of this third "S", the finale, also inspires the audience to ponder how Maria's personal tragedy was affected by this accursed piece of history. doomed. From this, it is not difficult to see that the classic "Three S's" has been skillfully used by Fassbender to create a plot dynamic full of historical contradictions, so that the narrative of the film has a shocking power of historical speculation. .
Fassbender's motto is: "I went further than Brecht, I want the audience to perceive and think." His work, the character of Maria he shaped, is an aesthetic practice in this sense, It is an artistic development in the "postmodern" field.
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