"Breaking the Waves" is my favorite after watching six of Von Trier's films. The last one that moved me the most was "Dancer in the Darkness". After entering the new century, Von Trier's films seem to have become opportunistic self-obsessed, thesis-style lectures and citations. Of course, he still kept his own image style relatively intact, especially under the dogma of the Dogma 95 manifesto, he still maintained the biggest style factor of handheld photography. As for the others, he deviates more or less.
"Idiot", "Breaking the Waves" and "Dancer in the Darkness" are collectively known as the conscience trilogy. Although I haven't watched "Idiot", it is not difficult to detect from the last two films. Two of these three films The main factor: ignorance and kindness. In "Dancer in the Darkness", a mother played by Bjork, her simple kindness made her eventually swallowed by the darkness, and she loved her son almost madly, retaining a little hope of Weibo in the dark. As for "Breaking the Waves", the manifestation of idiocy and kindness is even more obvious. The idiocy here is in the strong religious and cultural metaphor, and the protagonist Beth has become a holy fool. Von Trier admits that he was influenced a lot by Tarkovsky. Although he was born in Catholicism, he is quite fascinated by the image of the old Russian holy fool in Tarkovsky's film world. The Holy Fool's interpretation, based on the Bible, is as follows:
"Let no one be deceived: if any of you thinks himself wise in this world, let him become a fool, and become a wise man, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God." (Sarah Papa) Fro/Paul the Apostle in Corinthians 1/1 Corinthians 3:18-19)
Beth often prayed to God in church, her role-playing was seen as a manifestation of schizophrenia and post-traumatic sequelae, and the Holy Fool's interpretation also included what she said as an oracle, and the pilgrimage was for fellow citizens and The meaning of God. It is not difficult to see the origin of Von Trier's portrayal of the role of Bess in the movie. The depravity and madness behind Bess is regarded as a stupid love for her husband Yang, which is schizophrenia. Her going to church in the middle of the night is even more morbid and perverted. The act of serving God, and everything she did was just for Yang's life, it was a kind of piety. Is everything Beth did evil, did she deceive the world? Did she break the Christian covenant? Has she ever murdered anyone? She spares no effort to save the people she loves, which is another manifestation of goodness.
While Von Trier set Beth as the image of the Holy Fool, he also added the image of Jesus to her. The most vivid manifestation is the reproduction of the Fourteenth Station of the Cross in the chapter of Bess's sacrifice:
Beth was sent to a mental hospital, and the person who completed the agreement was her husband Yang, which was tantamount to pushing Beth into the abyss of death. Consistent with Pilate's handing over Jesus to the Romans.
Pushing a motorbike ( cross ), Beth is driven to the top of Golgotha by Roman soldiers and a crowd ( boys are soldiers, girls are crowd ). Falls several times due to injuries ( whiplash coincides with a man on a large boat slashing Beth's back with a knife ) and being stoned. On the way, Beth went to find his mother ( Jesus met Mary, and Mary was heartbroken [John 18:28]). Although her mother was distressed, she still did not open the door.
Dodo walks through soldiers and crowds ( children ) to Bess and wipes her blood. ( A woman named Veronica walks through the crowd to wipe Jesus' blood .) Beth's pain eases.
Beth was then murdered in a boat sailing on the waves, opposite Jesus' death on the top of the mountain. Young and his friends took Beth's body and buried him at sea. Gospel bells rang in the air.
What's interesting is that when Beth got married, there was no bell in the church. After Beth died, people were buried in a box of dust. In this place where the gospel was not preached by the anchor, the bell rang after Beth was killed. This also reflects Von Trier's tribute to Tarkovsky and the extension of the Holy Fool, which is not contradictory to his setting Beth as the image of Jesus at the same time. Previously posted:
"Let no one be deceived: if any of you thinks himself wise in this world, let him become a fool, and become a wise man, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God." (Sarah Papa) Fro/Paul the Apostle in Corinthians 1/1 Corinthians 3:18-19)
Beth, as the Holy Fool, she is wise, there is no bell in the church, the wisdom of this world is ignorance before Beth.
In a conversation between Dodo and Bess, Bess said that she was a foreigner, why didn't she leave, and it was also reflected in the Samaritans in the Bible. The character Dodo is also kind, and the setting of Dodo, an outsider, is also reflected in the placement of the time and space scenes in Von Trier's films, which will be discussed later.
Is the portrayal of female characters in Von Trier's films blasphemous?
I don't think so.
One of the main features of Von Trier's films is recognized as strong religious metaphors, but he is not shooting a religious film, nor is he promoting religious ideas, but only using religion as a part of culture to carry out an act of "blasphemy" . In this context, the image of the original sin of the female group in his images is to serve this "blasphemy" religion. On the contrary, we can feel all kinds of extreme paranoid love and kindness that only women can do from these female images.
The time-space setting and fixed character "outsider" in Von Trier's films
In Von Trier's films, it is not difficult to find that the time and space of his stories are derailed from society, and the places where the stories take place revolve around the range of places that the protagonist can reach, and there is a sense of closure that blows to the face. In order to break this sense of closure, or in other words, in order to rejuvenate the emotions of the characters who have stopped flowing due to the closure and blocking of time and space, and to introduce the story into a new direction, he added his inherent character setting "outsiders".
The decadent seaside village in "Breaking the Waves", the countryside in "Dancer in the Darkness", the closed town in "Dogtown", the forest (Eden) in "The Antichrist", the villa in "Melancholia", As for "Female Addict", it is more complicated. It adopts the structure of narrative through memory, past and present two time and space. Since the previous movies all refer to what is going on and what is happening, then "Female Addict" 》 can be understood as the hut full of rational analysis and emotional collision.
So what exactly is the "foreigner" setting? This cannot be simply understood as a fixed image of "human beings". Behind the "foreigner" is a Von Trier-style religious connotation, and it is a clear positioning of the role of the intruder of the subject.
In "Breaking the Waves", this "outsider" is not all Dodo under the "Samaritan" metaphor, nor is it all Beth's husband Yang. Since Beth was set as the image of the Holy Fool and Jesus in "Breaking the Waves", then the ignorance of people in Christianity did not change temporarily. The purpose of Christ's coming to the world was to spread the Lord's gospel and save the world, so this "foreigner" It's Bess himself. She broke into the world as Jesus, so she was at odds with the people of this world, out of tune with the world. She disturbed this closed seaside town, especially after she went mad, her behavior was incomprehensible, making this ignorant seaside village and self-righteous people shocking, contradictions occurred frequently, and tragedies occurred, which made this closed seaside town a big surprise. Time and space flow, and the story continues to introduce new directions because of her.
What is the role of this "outsider" in "Dancer in the Darkness"? It was Björk's father who was a famous dancer, and when the lie was exposed, this man came out and pushed the tragic mother, who still had a dream of dancing, into darkness. In "Dog Town", it is even more obvious that this "outsider" is the heroine herself with a strong background, and her "outsider" role is further reflected in her father.
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