Florian Henkel von Donnersmarck has few works. 2006's "Eavesdropping Storm" made him famous, and 2010's "Deadly Companion" was his Hollywood water test work, until the launch of "Blessed Works" in 2018, we can probably see him returning to himself. trace.
Florian borrowed part of the experience of German visual artist Gerhard Richter, polished and sculpted, and formed the film "No Master". Coincidentally, this film also explores the issue of "true self".
I have always felt that movies with grand narrative themes are difficult to grasp and require extremely high director ability. The choice of face and point makes it easy for a movie to be cliché if you're not careful, boring if you're not careful, and shallow and boring if you're not careful.
Director Florian's story takes place in the country where he was born, Germany; a complex and diverse region, Berlin. Time from 1937 to 1966. The turbulent country experienced the repressive regime of the Nazis, the construction and fall of the Berlin Wall.
The film and television works created around the historical background of the Nazis and the Berlin Wall emerge one after another, whether it is documentaries (such as "My Beautiful West Berlin") or commercial films (such as "City of Extreme Cold"), consumers are coming in one after another. Our time and emotions.
The German meaning of "Work without Owner" (Werk ohne Autor) is "a work without an author" (Werk ohne Autor). Never Look Away) - This comes from a line that deeply influenced the protagonist Kurt, and it is also directly linked to the theme. Just like the director's name, "Borderless" is longer than a normal movie, reaching 189 minutes. The amazing thing is that during these three hours, the movie pressed me to the seat, I never thought to "look away".
This is a film about politics, art, self, truth. In the era of centralization and war, no matter how the regime oppresses individuals, it cannot prevent individuals from pursuing their true self and belief in beauty.
Demon Skull
The story begins with the Nazis. The story begins with the little boy Kurt. He lived in the countryside and survived the Nazi war, but his aunt Elithebath, who had always inspired him spiritually and artistically, was not spared—she was classified as mentally ill—sterilized and killed.
The story seems to tell the process of Kurt's pursuit of art and the pursuit of his true self. After the war and the repressive regime of the East German government, Kurt met his love, Ellie, but also found that there was no "self" in his paintings. He fled to East Germany with his lover and began a journey to find his true self. Unbeknownst to him, the truth is revealed in his artwork.
Wise men build cities, fools build walls. However, the wall will eventually come down. Time goes back to Germany from 1937 to 1966, a country and era that seems far away from us. In such a turbulent historical torrent, the ups and downs of individuals are actually exactly the same as ours.
Unlike the perspective of murdering Jews, the Nazis in this film also arrogantly control the fate of their "compatriots". They believe that human beings are divided into superior and inferior bloodlines, and they believe that human beings with "inferior" physique/mind should be cleaned up in order to achieve "prosperity" of the nation. People in a special/high-pressure environment will lose the rationality and warmth that remains deep in their hearts, and serve such absurd theories—some people are forced to, and some people are really determined to see what they want.
The story wonderfully links an obstetrics professor (Carl, Ellie's father) and an artist (Kurt), who survive the war and continue to thrive after the war. It's just that they grow in different directions.
Carl is a Nazi, a centralized power, and a violent existence that restricts and prevents the free growth of human beings. But the poor thing is that the devil inhabits a human body and takes up the resources of his life - it blinds his heart and uses his hands for dirty deeds. His mind has long been controlled, and even his own daughter has not been spared.
Kurt is each of us, an artist. Reticent, he has been quietly watching all the happenings in the world, whether it be a tragedy or a comedy. In the torrent, he watched silently, but by no means endured it all the time. He chose truth, self and art - to grow stronger in this realm where humanity finally belongs.
Skulls are shown a few times in the film while the Nazi part is being told. On the ring on the finger that turned on the gas chamber valve, on the hat in Carl's neo-Nazi uniform, on the paper that Kurt was surreptitiously drawing. It symbolizes death, exhaustion and rebirth.
The Nazis said that "abortion can separate lovers", they were wrong; the Nazis savagely took the wombs and even the lives of those with physical/mental diseases to shatter the dreams and hopes of the "sick", they were wrong ; The totalitarians want to erase the "self" and nail each individual in the mechanical groove of the grand unity, in order to realize their dream of a great power and obliterate the individual, and they are also wrong.
Mentally ill
Worth mentioning is the film that appears in the film: Hitchcock's "Psychopath," which appears after Kurt flees from East Germany to West Germany with his wife.
This "No Master" is similar in structure to "Psycho": the character followed by the camera for more than half an hour is terminated.
The story begins with Kurt's aunt Elithebath, and the camera follows this beautiful and artistic girl for the first half hour of the film. The audience watched her take little Kurt to see Kandinsky and Mondrian; watch her begging the bus drivers to honk the horn at the same time, and she listened to her own notes with her own world in the square; Crazy, excited, watching her playing the piano naked; watching her smash the ashtray on her head to make a constant, harmonious, standard A sound; watching her being classified as a mentally ill patient, watching her pleading Carl don't sterilize her and watch her collapse in the gas chamber...
Unlike Psycho, we know that Elithebath will die. Her life ended in that era. But her influence on Kurt continued, and her artistic temperament continued to take root and sprout in another form. It was she who inspired this young man: "Never look away".
We don't know if Kurt knew what happened to Aunt Elithebath, but we do know that there is a wonderful connection between their lives, in the air and nature, in the breath and the eyes, in the mind and the mind.
Elithebath was defined by the Nazis as a "mentally ill person", who was deprived of his womb and life. The love Kurt met after that, a girl with a similar temperament to his aunt, was also called Elithebath (nicknamed Ellie). She is also a survivor. Although she has not lost her life, she has not escaped the poison of the Nazi remnants.
Whether it is a tribute to Hitchcock or not, the appearance of "Psychopath" in the movie is hard not to make people think more: in that absurd world, what is a "psychopath" and who is a "psychopath"?
art, truth, self
Art is interconnected, and everything in the world is implicated. In this rolling historical torrent, Kurt has never forgotten his pursuit of truth, self and art. This is of course closely related to his aunt Elithebath.
After the war, Kurt, who was spared from the disaster of the war, had an epiphany while sitting in a tree, watching the distant mountains. He excitedly told his father: "I understand, I understand how everything in the world is connected, everything is interconnected. We don't have to worry anymore, we don't have to fear anymore. No one can hurt me. I will finally find the right, real thing".
Sadly like Carl, brainwashed by the Nazis. I have always believed in the theory of "people's strengths and weaknesses". He was a Nazi executioner, as merciless as a machine. Although I have saved a life with my hands, I have also killed a life with a pen. He has always held the image of authority and has always been arrogant. Relative to Kurt's presence, he acts like a nasty preaching machine.
The director (who is also the screenwriter) arranged the story by coincidence. When art and truth were presented to Carl, his entire world collapsed. At the end of the story, there is no explanation for Carl, can he rebuild his world? How did he end up? We all don't know.
Self and freedom are especially important in the field of art. They can be unique, real and sharp through artwork.
Director Florian uses the Berlin Wall to subtly divide "self and freedom" into two different states, East Germany is the restriction of high-pressure centralized power, and West Germany is the communication of free self. The same art class, different discourse systems - one is to meet the needs of the regime, the other advocates the liberation of the self. Here Kurt is liberated, returned, and given space to grow.
The blurry photos he created at the end of the film carry his unspoken life experiences and feelings. When the brush deliberately brushes the clear picture into a blurred scene, we can feel that the people in history and memory will not disappear.
Fortunately for Kurt, he has been told since childhood to face the darkness and the emptiness.
In East Germany, professors at the academy shared their own life experiences, allowing Kurt to return and face himself. Kurt created a series of "blurred photos" in an era when "painting is dead" - this laid a solid foundation for the expansion of his life and art: he really doesn't have to be afraid anymore, what? There was no way to hurt him.
All he has to do is move forward with his beliefs and the truth will emerge.
over.
Text丨Photos of Yue Zhang丨Internet, official pictures
This article was originally published on the official account of "Tiantang Cinema" (WeChat: BrilliantFilms), and we warmly welcome your attention.
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