The film opens with close-ups of faces. According to Bergman, a good film art theme is always about the human face, which encompasses everything we know. The face here is not meant to be a mere close-up, but the study of the face, an intense, heart-to-heart gaze. Pay attention to the few stares facing the camera in this film, which is the key to our understanding of the film.
So, how does the film use images and texts to jointly complete a reshaping of women's self-consciousness.
One of the strange things about the background of the story is that we have no way of knowing the past of the four main women in the film. We can only get a little bit of information from a few words: Mariana had been to Italy, had a relationship with a certain man, and had an abortion. , and still have menstrual cramps. Eloise, on the other hand, has been living in a convent, likes to read and sing, and longs for freedom and equality.
The first portrait was unsuccessful, and Eloise commented that it had no life, no existence.
The film produces a new interpretation of Eurydice's mythology. In Marianne's view, turning back is a choice made by Orpheus, not a lover's choice, but a poet's choice. For Eloise, it's an expression of love.
All of the above seems to indicate that Mariana's self-consciousness has been distorted and oppressed, so that when she first arrived on the island, she showed a negative and overly rational attitude towards the past. Eloise, on the other hand, showed a more perceptual cognition of things. Both constitute symbols of self-consciousness: rational and emotional.
The whole film is a fusion of rationality and sensibility, so as to realize the process of personality integrity.
In France in 1760, a young female painter, Marianne (Nomi Merlant), was commissioned to go to a certain island and, without the other party's knowledge, complete the work of Miss Heloise (Adele of the Rich). Harnell) portrait before marriage.
Shortly after the opening, the female painter Marianne fell into memory. She came to the island in a small boat with five men on board. Marianne's painting box fell into the water, but the camera did not respond to other people. Marianne had to go into the water to retrieve it. There are almost no male characters involved in this film. Combined with the indifference of men in this shot, it is not difficult to find that the absence of men means that this is a story that focuses on women's inner self and has no direct connection with the patriarchal society. .
(Picture hung up)
Upon arrival at the destination, first there is the change of tone, the paleness of the exterior contrasts with the oil painting-like tonal arrangement of the interior. Then, there is a rather symbolic composition. The pale drawing board forms a reference with the naked Mariana. The pale drawing board, which symbolizes rationality, is the portrayal of Mariana's consciousness at this time.
Mariana's interview with Eloise's mother revealed crucial information. The first time happened before they met Eloise. The two admired the portrait of the mother. From the conversation, they learned that this painting was also secretly painted before the mother got married, and the painter was Marianne's. Father. In the next few conversations, we learn that it is the mother's intention to marry Eloise away from Milan. The mother here is clearly a symbol of traditional female orientation. Eloise has a sister who has committed suicide, and her sister finally left a letter: "Apologizing for throwing her fate on me." As a victim of the previous traditional marriage, her mother became a traditional accomplice at this time, her sister became the first victim, and then it was Eloise's turn. From this, we can see that a tradition is inherited, and it is this kind of inheritance that has caused the continuous oppression of women.
After all these preparations, Marianne finally wants to meet Eloise. Notice how the director made a connection between the two at their first meeting: Marianne's first glimpse of Eloise's back, followed by a chase, at which point the only shot in the film Visible shaking. The two start some simple conversations, and on the way back there is a monologue by Marianna about the latter's facial features, which ends with Eloise borrowing a book from Anna. The movement of the camera, the close-up of the faces, and the combination of the text make for a perfect cut. Since then, the two have had multiple conversations that often imply some kind of complementarity:
——M: "I will inherit my father's property, he is a businessman." A: "Because you can choose, so you don't understand me." M: "I can understand you."
——M: "Your mother agreed to let you go out alone tomorrow, and you will be free." A: "Does freedom mean being alone?" M: "Don't you think so?" A: "I'll tell you tomorrow. you."
——A: "Do you mean that there is no life, no existence?" M: "Your existence is also composed of the past, which is fleeting and has no reality." A: "Not all moments are fleeting, there are some emotions It's profound, even though it didn't happen to me, but I can understand. It didn't happen to you either, it's so sad." M: "So you know it didn't happen to me. ?"
...
These dialogues imply the confrontation and complementarity between rationality and sensibility, as if a breeze blowing through the soul, subtly affects the characters and deepens the connection between the characters.
A portrait with a mutilated head appears several times in the film, which burst into flames in the chest as Marianna made contact with Eloise.
Bergman's "Seventh Seal" ends with an impressive image: rows of black shadows follow the god of death on the dark mountains. There is a similar scene in this film. The two protagonists and the pregnant maid arrive at the campfire, surrounded by a group of women, and then the group utters a strange chant, as if they have experienced a surreal journey (since then There are two foreshadowing surreal images). Immediately afterwards, there was a front-to-back shot of Marianna and Eloise. The difference was that Eloise was in a fiery distorted fire, and under Marianna's gaze, the skirt burned. Such footage suggests that something has changed in Marianne's self.
When we got back, Marianne and Eloise joined together, and we couldn't tell them apart except for their hair color.
For most of the film, the characters' gazes are always focused on each other. In the second painting, Marianne walked up to Eloise and looked straight into the camera for the first time from the model's point of view. Undoubtedly a hint of yet another change in the inner self.
The fusion of these visualizations suggests a deeper spiritual gravity.
Under the combined effect of images and texts, the two gradually merged into one and perfected themselves.
Opposition to oppression is resistance throughout the film. Sister's suicide and Eloise's refusal to cooperate were all direct and explicit resistance. As time went on, from Eloise's agreement to cooperate with Marianna in painting, to the three of them working together once Imitating the painting of abortion, the behavior of the characters has become an indirect and implicit resistance, and the biggest difference between these resistance behaviors and the former is that Marianne's attitude has changed.
At the end of the credits, Marianne holds an exhibition of paintings in her father's name. The theme of the painting is directly related to the story on the island. This implicit act of resistance also reflects from the side that Mariana's reshaping of self-consciousness has been completed at this time.
At this point, we need to pay attention to a few key images: the island, the absence of the male, the portrait, the four women. The whole story can almost be regarded as a spiritual reconstruction. The isolated island provides us with an excellent spiritual container. How to complete the perfection of personality under the oppression of tradition.
In the end, Marianne's resistance just realized the integrity of her personality, a kind of spiritual integration, and the theme of the film emerged from this: true female freedom and equality, first of all, a spiritual self-fulfillment.
Public account: Sujue
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