In fact, I think I can approach him with the simplest heart. Does an artist only mean being a little more sensitive than ordinary people, a little more skeptical, a little more curious, and more eager to get attention from others? In "Bergerman on Movies," he said that when he was young, no matter what he accomplished, he always had a strong urge to show off. In order to attract the attention of adults, he even made up nonsense. But it was easy to be pierced, and he was even more embarrassed because of the sudden increase in doubt, so he was simply cut off from the world. But the relationship between this silence and the world should be even more tense, fighting against the world with false silence, somewhat similar to Ullman in "Mask." Artists, they just want to understand the world and themselves more strongly, and then influence everything.
The beginning of the film is the splicing of some very weird shots, towering genitals, light bulbs that are getting more and more exposed, various lines and numbers, coupled with high and sharp sound effects, dazzling people. Later, the music became lighter, and a simple slide projector for animated cartoons appeared. Bergman used to like this toy very much when he was a child. I don't know if we can understand it as Bergman's self-referentiality. This is a journey of questioning and questioning about silence, completely led by him.
Next are some more uncomfortable shots, moving skeletons, black spiders with full-hair teeth and dancing claws, and the head of a slaughtered sheep, constantly squeezing its blood with one hand. It is also a painful or uncomfortable thing to face oneself frankly when dripping or tearing off the coat. Self-fatification, or self-righteousness, or narcissism, Bergman warned us at the very beginning.
The feature film begins in the office of the dean of mental health. Bibi Anderson was in a very meaningful composition as soon as he appeared. She was standing in front of a closed door. The seam between the door and the wall was very obvious, making Bibi like staying in a frame or on a stage, and she was in a position of being watched and studied. Then came the dean's narration, but we couldn't see her face. She calmly assigned her new job to Bibi, about a famous actor who was suddenly silent. In this film, the dean plays a role similar to the omniscient or judge. She tore through Ullman's struggle for silence, but unlike Bibi, Bibi's various questions and attacks on Ullman also pointed to herself, so they finally merged. When we scratch ourselves, we can always look around, and then quickly lower our heads to lick our wounds when there is no one. And when all of this, because of the process of being cut through by one's own hysteria or stupidity, fell into the eyes of other bystanders, everything seemed extremely cruel.
Ullman's ward layout is also exceptionally simple. When they appear as nurses and patients respectively, the setting behind them is always exceptionally simple. They didn't realize their limitations. It wasn't until they got to the holiday house by the sea, when they gradually merged and merged, that the setting began to become complicated. Before, they were always in a background filled with lines.
There are several unconventional shots in the play. Ullman, or Bibi Anderson, often gives people the feeling of looking directly at the camera. At twelve minutes, Bibi touched the body lotion on her neck while facing the audience who did not exist (or were we?) outside the camera, she narrated her fantasy about the future life with Karl Henrik and doubts about Ullmann. She imagined an audience, an audience who would listen and identify with her. Evaluation and slightly interested analysis means superiority in intelligence, so she will be so angry when she sees Ullman's letter later.
When she talked to her, she thought that silence represented understanding, tolerance and friendship, but she found that all this was not what she thought, and that deep silence became the most powerful weapon. Silence means mystery. You can't even attack. When you relax or even expose yourself excessively because of the superficial kindness of silence, feelings of shame will follow.
The first scene where Ullman and Bibi merged into one. On the night after Bibi confided to Ullman about his depraved life, Ullman came to Bibi’s room with their necks tangled as if they were one. . But at this time, the combination of the two of them is only a superficial phenomenon. We can notice that in the scene where Bibi confided to Ullman, she sat on a table in order to find matches. The table is on a raised table, and in the foreground are four pillars that frame her. All this is like a constructed stage, and Ullman stares at Bibi like a performance. None of them truly realized the meaning of silence. Bibi regards silence as great safety and love, but Ullman thinks that silence really enables her to fight against falsehood.
And in the eighteen minutes of the film, the omniscient and omnipotent dean said such a thing, don’t you think I don’t understand, the hopeless nightmare is not superficial, but essential... What do others think of you and you? Who... suicide, it’s incredible, you can’t do it, but you can be silent and sit still, so at least you don’t have to lie, you can close yourself up and shut the world out, so you don’t have to play any role, Make any false expressions and gestures. You think so, but the world is cruel, and your hiding place is not airtight. Everywhere is full of life scams.
The dean’s conversation happened to confirm that in the first half of the film, Ullman was so frightened and desperate when he saw the TV images of Indonesian monks who set themselves on fire. She realized that she couldn't. She didn't have the ability or courage to take such an extreme way of fighting and weed out all the illusions and illusions in her life. So, is her silent resistance another kind of vain in itself?
Your hiding place is not airtight. When Bibi picked up the hot water, she finally screamed in horror, no. I haven't used language for too long, so that the sound is so sharp and harsh. After that, after Ullman surrendered to life, there was a major change in the lighting method in the film. Bibi or Ullman, half of them are always hidden in the dark. This is also a process of their gradual integration, further integration.
"The quarrel is a double monologue. The monologue comes from two directions, one is Elizabeth Waller and the other is Nurse Emma." It is also in this segment that Bergman shot a paragraph that shocked the history of film. He played Bibi’s analysis of Ullman twice, only to take pictures of Ullman’s face, which was angry and complicated when listening. The faces of each were taken half and joined together. It's a frightening passage.
Near the end of the film, Bibi and Ullman fought fiercely, but when they arrived in the ward, the two took a posture of oneness. This is a posture of reconciliation, and a posture of the world. Abandoning the formal struggle, it is difficult for us to compete with the world in terms of form. Compared to the world, everything about us is small, insignificant, deliberate and fake.
Since "Mask", Bergman finally gave up the exploration of religion, and changed to the exploration of the human heart. Therefore, this is also a meaningful movie for Bergman and all Bergman audiences. movie.
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