PART 1 Why is the movie called "The Secret Life of Words"
You must be wondering about Hannah's past, especially if the girl in the narration is Hannah's daughter, and is Hannah the woman who was forced to shoot her daughter?
I'm pretty sure the movie won't tell us the answer. Because the title is "The Secret Life of Words".
The choice of the hero Joseph is the director's attitude.
Joseph pursued Hannah's past, all the way to Copenhagen, and found Hannah's former psychiatrist Inge . (I'll talk about this "Inge" later, she has a lot of backgrounds .)
Joseph is infatuated with Hannah, so Inge gives him a choice. She hands Joseph's tapes of Hannah's narration of her tragic encounters. To see or not to see is up to Joseph himself.
As mentioned earlier, the director advocated not opening the scar, and Joseph did the same.
As for the reason, I am afraid that many female audiences understand better than male audiences.
A man met a mysterious girl, he was deeply attracted by her, and so was the other party.
Men are often tempted to explore their lover's past. Because men are creatures controlled by logical thinking, they believe that only knowing a person's past is knowing her. This sounds logical, but women don't think that way.
Women are born with wisdom that men can only learn. They know that instead of wasting time on the past, it is better to seize the short life and remember the present and the future.
Joseph made the right choice. He chose to stand in front of Hannah and beg her to spend the rest of his life with him and create a new life. He gave up touching the past, not exploring Hannah 's secret life, made of words , left on the tape . That's what the title means.
The English title "The Secret Life of Words" has another meaning . At the end of the film, the subtitles roll and rows of archives appear in the background with names written on their covers. Each name is a torture victim , they are the Words , the Secret and the Life .
"The Secret Life of Words" is indeed a sentimental and delicate love movie, and also involves the discussion of "war" and "massacre". But none of this is at the heart of the film.
Because The Secret Life of Words is a film about the lives of torture victims .
PART 2 Hannah's Identity: Torture Victim
Hannah mentioned that she studied (nursing knowledge) in Dubrovnik , a health resort, a port city in southeastern Croatia . Croatia is located in the Balkans . The Balkans is home to many republics formed after the disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (or "the former Yugoslavia").
Inge told Joseph that Hannah had lived through 10 years of war in the Balkans .
These 10 years of war refer to:
- In 1991, the Slovenian War, known as the "Ten-Day War";
- 1991-1995, the Croatian War;
- 1992-1995, the Bosnian War;
- The Kosovo War in 1999; (Note: The Kosovo War should be our most impressive, NATO bombers attacked our embassy in Yugoslavia in this war.)
- In 2001, the Macedonian civil war.
During the ten years from 1991 to 2001, the Balkans experienced constant wars , which were collectively referred to as the "Yugoslav Civil War" . (Note: In fact, the Balkans has not stopped until now.)
From this, I speculate that Hannah is a refugee from the former Yugoslavia. Says she's a refugee because at the start of the film, Hannah works and lives not in her home country, but in Northern Ireland .
The factory supervisor asked Hannah to take time off and called her to the office to talk. The map hanging behind the supervisor is a map of Northern Ireland.
Hannah has many identities, war refugee, massacre survivor, and more. However, in this film, her most critical identity is: a torture victim .
PART 3 The starting point of the clue: Acknowledgments from the director
The starting point for cracking this movie is the thanks at the end.
Director Isabelle Cosette, thanks two friends and an organization.
One of those friends was: John Berger . The director thanks John Berger for pointing out a new "way of seeing" for her to observe the world .
Ways of Seeing by John Berger. When Hannah checked into Joseph's dormitory and put soap on the table, the book was on top of the stack next to it.
The BBC made a documentary of the same name based on this book in 1972, so The Way of Seeing is John Berger's representative work in the field of art criticism.
In addition, John Berger also published a novel called "From A to X" in 2008, and it was widely acclaimed. This was followed in 2009 by the film's director, Sabel Cosette, with a multimedia publication titled "From I to J", a tribute to John Berger.
Coincidentally, the "I" is the initials of Isabel Cosette and the "J" is the initials of John Berger.
Another friend was Inge Genevke. She is the founder of IRCT. The inspiration for the film came from her memories.
Hannah often called a woman, but when the call was connected, Hannah said nothing. The character who answered Hannah's phone was Inge Genevke . Of course it's not Inger himself in the movie.
In fact, the director and Inge Genevke collaborated long before "The Secret Life of Words", and they appeared in person. It was a Spanish documentary about torture released in 2003.
IRCT: The International Council for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims , an organization based in Copenhagen, where Joseph travels to IRCT to find out about Hannah's life at the end of the film and meets Inge Genevke at its headquarters. This is an organization that helps victims of torture .
PART 4 The real body of the movie: two public speeches
Writers play with ideas, not in the open and rational way of philosophers, but in the seductive emotions of art. Quote from: Story: The Principles of Material, Structure, Style, and Screenwriting, Robert McKee
The Secret Life of Words is essentially a foreshadowing of two public speeches . One is to build a reasonable situation for the speech, and the other is to cultivate the audience's emotions for the speech.
The two presentations are:
- Hannah narrates her experience of being tortured. (Hannah's long monologue to Joseph.)
- Inge Genevke expounds on the historical significance of rescue work for victims of torture . (Long monologue by Inge as he hands the tape to Joseph in the archives.)
PART 5 The Secret of Child Voice Narration: Character Arc
The film begins and ends with a large child's monologue, the voice of a girl.
Hannah tells Joseph about how she and her companions were tortured. One of the women who was forced to kill her daughter was Hannah.
At the end of the film, Tong claims that Hannah's two sons are "my brothers" . The child's narration is Hannah's dead daughter .
Is the daughter's voice Hannah's hallucination or the girl's ghost?
The former is more realistic, the latter is slightly surreal, and I am more willing to accept the latter. Because of this, one day, Hannah will be able to reunite with her daughter.
The meaning of the existence of the girl ghost is not only to increase the suspense. More importantly, she 's part of the plot design .
The Secret Life of Words has no strong external conflicts. Thus, the transformation of the protagonist takes place within , or in the mind of the character. And the movement of thought is invisible.
At the beginning of the film, Hannah is alienated and reticent from the crowd. If only because of the affectionate kiss with Joseph, Hannah became bright and bright. This leads the audience to believe that the wounds caused by torture can be easily healed.
So even though Hannah is bathed in the warmth of family life and nourished by love, the healing effect is gradual. As the saying goes, "Illness comes like a mountain falling, and sickness goes like a thread."
Hannah is on a trend of turning in a positive direction. This trend is internal and invisible.
The daughter's ghost changes from "following the shadow" to "leaving with peace of mind", which is a visible change that "externalizes" the invisible inner change in Hannah's thought.
As the director comforted the audience: "Please go home in peace! Hannah will be fine."
If you like this article.
Love so much that words are not enough to express?
I'm "chasing movies year by year", come here often when you have time!
If our content infringes your relevant rights and interests, please send us a notice of rights, and we will take measures to delete the relevant content in accordance with relevant laws.
View more about The Secret Life of Words reviews
