(This article is a review of the three films "Wild Strawberry", "Cry and Whisper" and "Autumn Sonata". Because I like "Cry and Whisper" the most, I select it under this title)
For Ingmar Bergman, known as one of the "Three Saints of Movie History", I have always admired and resisted, and the resistance often prevailed - the reason is of course the fear of boredom. I remember hearing people say that when watching "Wild Strawberry", you have to fall asleep every 30 minutes, and then finish it several times. After some psychological struggle, I still watched three Bergmans in a row out of wanting to see what such a contradictory film was: "Wild Strawberry," "Cry and Whisper," and "Autumn Sonata."
Are you bored? It must be admitted. So much so that I fell asleep in the last ten minutes of watching "Autumn Sonata". But I firmly believe that this is not a problem with the film, but because of my lack of experience. Although I didn't understand every single line of dialogue in every shot, I still saw many bright spots, which in themselves were enough to convince me...
(1) Characters
Most of Bergman's films consist of only three or five characters connected in series. Although there are few characters, each of them can stand up. The synopsis for "Autumn Sonata" says that the mothers in the film do not love their children. Looking at it with such a premise, after reading it, I feel that it is far from enough to summarize Bergman's mother in such a light-hearted sentence. "Not loving" is not abandonment, fist-fighting, or cold violence, but loving yourself far more than loving your daughter. The mother in the film puts on a thick disguise for herself, plays a loving mother in daily life, and does not seem to be shy to express her love to the children. But before visiting her sickly, paralyzed daughter, she took a few deep breaths, trying to hide the disgust in her eyes. The facial movement was exposed in close-up, and when she held her little daughter's wrinkled face, it was not out of love, but It's forcing myself to fulfill my mother's duty. Only when she was alone did she temporarily remove her disguise, and she said to herself, "Would you like to buy a car for the eldest daughter and his wife?" Almost as soon as she finished speaking, she denied, "It's better to have this money. Get yourself a replacement." The director lets us see the selfishness of the mother through a very small opening, which contrasts with her mother's demeanor in front of her.
Bergman's films always carry reflections and confessions on their own emotional life, so the main characters are often indifferent, and there are many gaps between people. But Agnes in the Autumn Sonata is an exception. She was sick since childhood, and her mother didn't like her. By the time the story in the movie happened, she was terminally ill and was about to die soon. Her two younger sisters stayed by her side, but one of them disliked her and wanted to run away from her. Agnes must have known, but she didn't hate her sister who took away her mother's love when she was a child, and was stingy with giving even a little love when she grew up. Instead, she cherished the time the three sisters spent together. She wrote in her diary, "I wish time would stop here because I am with the people I love". She was sad in the sense that she was bedridden, eventually passed away, and ended up not getting the love of her sisters either; but she was willing to give love and gratitude, and Bergman highlights her two sisters' attempts to get close. While unable to each other, they are also narrating her luck.
Bergman turns the camera on every ordinary person. Their character cannot be described by good or evil, and the answer to their life cannot be answered by good or bad, because they are us.
(2) Family
It is precisely because of the indifference of the characters in Bergman's lens that their families are all unfortunate. The family is Bergman's most involved subject, which seems to have been greatly influenced by the ruthless indifference of Bergman's own family in his childhood. Watching his movies, you can clearly feel his obsession, his cold criticism of human feelings, and more - his call for love.
The relationship between the two sisters Anna and Maria in Cries and Whispers is not without contradiction. The two are hostile to each other, and Anna is jealous that Maria is surrounded by love without knowing it, and demands more love and quickly tramples on the sincerity of others. Maria, on the other hand, resents Anna's lustful, yet prudent hypocrisy. This determines that the relationship between the two can only be detached, and it is impossible to get close to each other. However, as close relatives, they are testing each other all the time, hoping that the other party will take that crucial step first. Therefore, in the movie, we can not only see the two mocking each other and exposing their shortcomings, but also be moved by the moment when the two briefly meet each other sincerely and hug each other in whispers. As for the fate of the two sisters after the death of their sister Agnes, when Anna tentatively mentioned the night of their friendship to Maria, Maria replied, "I don't remember the stupid thing." Love still failed to melt the ice-like estrangement.
The same goes for the mother and daughter in the Autumn Sonata. It's not that the mother doesn't love her daughter. She struggled several times to complete her transformation into a good mother, but at the end of the film, she left her daughter and put herself into the arms of others falsely. The always humble daughter took advantage of the wine to confide her resentment and dissatisfaction to her mother. Just when we thought she was going to cut off the relationship between herself and her mother, she returned to her old ways and wrote an apology letter to her mother. In a humble tone, he begged his mother to come back to him. When arguing with her mother, she seems calm, and the montage shows us the shrill cry of the disabled little daughter in another room - "Mom, come on!" This is what the eldest daughter has always been saying. We are almost certain that this unhealthy relationship between mother and daughter will continue.
(3) Surreal
Some people say that a good realist film should have some surreal in its narrative. For example, at the end of "Parasite", the son of a poor family fantasizes that he made enough money to live in a big villa, for example, at the end of "The Devil is Coming", his head turned three times. Bergman's films are no exception. Only with surreal magic as a foil can the reality be particularly bleak.
The protagonist in "Wild Strawberry" has four dreams, so many times that we think this is a case of psychoanalysis. For the first time, he dreamed that the god of death was pulling himself into the coffin, which reflected the fear of death deep in his heart. The second time he dreamed back to his youth, and witnessed how his beloved girl was deceived by his brother, it can be seen that most of his life has passed, and this matter is still an obsession that he cannot let go. For the third time, he dreamed that he faced the examiner but didn't know anything, was interrogated for no reason, and was accused by the patient and his wife. This was his subconscious guilt and repentance for the mistakes in his life. For the fourth time, he dreams of returning to youth and living happily with his once indifferent parents. This is the simplest and unattainable wish of his life. Regarding the protagonist's life experience, the movie is not actually shot, but fictionally written through the surreal technique of "dream", which breaks the rigidity of the linear narrative.
The surreal passages in Shout and Whisper are more typical. The eldest sister Agnes who had died suddenly "revived", shouting that the ground was too cold, and hoped that the two younger sisters would hug her. Faced with this horrific sight, Anna couldn't care less about her hypocrisy and called out "stay away from me", in contrast to Agnes's tender and considerate image during her lifetime. Although Maria approached Agnes cautiously, she couldn't bear Agnes' icy embrace and ran away screaming, reflecting her nature of yearning for the love of others but unwilling to give it herself. At this time, only the crude maid was willing to embrace Agnes, who was already cold and stiff, and use her round and maternal body to warm her up, like a virgin. The comparison of the three makes the audience think about "love". At the same time, this episode of Agnes' "return to the soul" actually symbolizes her lifelong obsession with love. Since she was a child, she could not get the true love of her mother. When she grew up, her two younger sisters were only hypocritical, so that Her soul lingered for a long time and couldn't really die. A bridge subtly shows the inner world of the four women, which is quite concise.
In addition, surreal paragraphs are actually a very "stylish" treatment, which seems to be imaginative, but is actually indispensable. Just as our real life is never short of fantasies and daydreams, because imagination is human instinct. The same goes for surrealism in realist themes, otherwise the film would appear too serious and underpowered.
Only when facing the master can you understand your own lack of knowledge, and then you can understand that no matter how fancy language is used to describe the movie, it is powerless. Fortunately, the monument of the master is always there, always waiting for us to grow up, and then slowly experience new things.
(Put a flag and watch all of Bergman's films one day.)
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