Hidden Life, Malik's Poetic Images
For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric arts;
And that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life,
And rest in unvisited tombs.
-George Eliot
The camera penetrates deep into people's hearts, and the scenery becomes the extension of emotion
Obviously, Malik didn't intend to please the audience this time. In fact, Malik's films have never made money. He is making films that he wants to make, reflecting people's various personalities under the natural images and going deep into people's hearts.
If you were in the shadows, what would you choose?
"The Hidden Life" is a war film. Without our usual understanding of this type of film, there is no "big scene" in which the enemy and the enemy exchange fire. This war film seems so calm rather than peaceful. As the roaring engines of planes fly over a "hidden village" in Austria, the effects of World War II are everywhere, and there is nowhere to escape this sinful, inevitable event.
The old film images and the original 1:1.33 format of the film are used to restore the state of wartime Germany under Hitler's rule. The purpose of this is just to bring it into the context of the era of World War II. Without making any judgments, I just looked at the German Nazis as a point of view to see what their own country was like under their rule.
This is a new form of "anti-war cinema" not against war, but about it.
Malik also made a war movie, "The Thin Red Line," which was the second Malik film I'd seen after "Days in Heaven." I also really liked this war movie after I got to know Malik's strong and natural photography style. Malik's photography closely links the breath of nature with the breath of life. During that wonderful hillside battle, close-ups were given to every soldier's face. Everyone is a fighting machine on the verge of death. Where can there be beliefs and feelings worth relying on? Everyone knows that the principle of the most soldier is to obey orders. When the order comes, can you choose not to rush?
Malik's expression of the characters' emotions is truly linked to the natural scenery. When you look at the natural beauty in front of you, something will come to mind and you will have a different mood. See the snow melt, see the night till dawn, see the lightning in the valley, see the thick cloud of the storm coming. Pleasant, cheerful, melancholy, worried, fearful. This is poetry. Poetry is the bridge between people and scenery. When you see poetry, you see people, and when you see scenery, you hear poetry. That's how it is.
The whole film of "The Hidden Life" is about 3 hours, and 1 hour is used to show Auguste's happy life in the village, and the remaining 2 hours are almost all watching Auguste's days in prison . August was a man who went to the village and went to the battlefield. The war was not over, but he began to doubt the right or wrong of the war and refused to obey Hitler. And stick to it until the last moment of life.
He is not a hero, but a man who has no condolences after his death
Sometimes people seldom make decisions for themselves. Some people are chaotic, and their life is over. They don't know what they believe in, and naturally they don't know how to fight. If there is a kind of thought called slave thought, then there is a kind of thought called rebel thought. Even if it is God, Jesus Christ does not know right or wrong, and there is no one and no way to define right and wrong, but the rare thing is to decide what to do. What's wrong with me, what's wrong with whom, what's wrong with who's doing, what's it going to matter to me? What fascism, what does anti-fascism have to do with me? I have a mother, a wife, and a child, which gave me the strength to hold on to my beliefs, but what does it matter that I was hated by the people and tortured by the soldiers for disobeying Hitler? I have made up my mind, I only pursue my beliefs, someone will always support me, I will never change because of anything, I only stay true to my heart.
"I'm not a philosopher, I don't have enough trust in reason, and it's even harder to believe in a theoretical system. My interest is to explore how to act. More precisely, when people do not believe in God and do not believe in reason, they should how to live."
- Albert Camus
The film fades in and out many times, like a rhythmic kick. We watched footage of depressing scenes, and we listened to August's monologue.
Nature does not pay attention to people's sorrow
Nature does not notice the sorrow that has come over the people
Although I can't see anything here
Though I cannot see much here
I imagine everything is greener and cuter than in previous years
I imagine that everything is a more lovely green than in past years
at dawn
At dawn
We can hear the black birds singing loudly outside our window
we can hear blackbirds singing loudly outside our windows.
they look freer
They seem to have more freedom
And have more peace and happiness
and to know more of peace and happiness
Although they are just irrational animals
though they are only unreasoning animals
, unlike us humans
than we humans do
We have a gift for understanding
We, who have the gift of understanding
What I felt was the flow of suppressed emotions. People are afraid of death, and death is only a part of life. This "meaningless" confrontation is against this world where everything is absurd.
On December 19, 1941, Camus wrote in "Empirical Review One" "...you ask me why I was on the side of the Resistance. This question, in the opinion of some, myself included, It doesn't make sense. I thought then, and I think now, that you can't stand on the side of the camps..."
August 9, 1943, Augustus died.
On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered.
Maybe right or wrong doesn't make sense
But believing in yourself makes sense
Goodness in the world is increasing
Part of it depends on unheralded behavior
And the reason why things around you and me aren't so bad
Half thanks to those who don't seek fame
just live faithfully
People who have no condolences after death
-George Elliott
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