Dozens of hours of interrogation, unchanging expression, always steady tone, careful thinking, perfect result. Like a god, Wesler could tell if a prisoner on trial was lying, knew how to inflict pain, and knew when to lay the last straw. And, after getting the desired result, just like every well-trained secret police officer, he removed the prisoner's seat and collected scent samples for the police dogs, with the same expression as when he started the interrogation.
The student asked, why is it not very inhumane to not allow prisoners to sleep?
Before explaining, Wessler drew a mark on the name of the student who asked the question—perhaps it was only a sign that he had asked a question, or perhaps it represented an unqualified quality. Then, he said, the best way to confirm guilt or innocence is to repeat interrogations without interruption, with the innocent angry at being treated unfairly and the guilty silent or weeping.
Questions begin with sympathy and answers end with purpose. The answer is irrelevant, but it cannot help but be unconvinced.
Wessler lives alone, such a secret policeman lives without close friends, family, gifts, parties, love, sex, music, literature, mourning, whether family and friends mean anything to him is a question, but we at least have one. In conclusion, he knows how to use this meaning. Yes, what brings pain, what brings stress, what is the other's weakness, Wessler knows exactly that. He has used his family to intimidate objects with great success, with prisoners, and with Dreyman's neighbors during the Warrior mission.
God only knows when the moonlight shines into the dark jungle, how the chirping of insects awakens the sleeping soul, and how a tiny movement of air causes a hurricane.
However, the change begins the moment you sit in the theater. Wessler removed the telescope and watched Marta say - he fell into the valley of death and was ruthlessly run over by the great wheel of fate. In the movie, he looked down at the name of the play: "The Face of Love". Was he moved and turned into a different person? No, it is not possible. His first and last reaction was that playwright Dreman was a dangerous man—no matter how loyal he might seem—and should be watched. There is reason to believe, however, that he must have been amazed, if not moved. People like Wessler, with a keen sense of smell, could smell an emotion that permeated Dreman's body from the very first moment: arrogance, neuroticism, enthusiasm, and this emotion itself is a danger signal. Naturally, literature and art, drama, literature, and music all carry a danger that they make people weak and make people no longer willing to be a part of the assembly line. He smelled, secretly or maybe also attracted, from this drama. Like a person who is always in the dark when he sees a ray of light, out of instinct, he doubts, resists, and rejects; out of instinct, he marvels and approaches; out of instinct, he only sees and accepts his own doubt, resistance, and rejection. . Not to mention, little Marta, oh, little Marta.
This film, in addition to "The Wiretap", has a name, and a more correct name: "The Lives of Others", at first, for Dreman, Wessler is someone else, and Wessler's life is someone else's life ; For Wessler, Dreman and Krista are others, but their lives are not "others' lives."
Wessler's life begins through Dreman and Krista and completes through them, in the tavern , he said to Krista "I am your audience". Before the surveillance started, there was neither the fiery love and friendship in his life, nor the desire for personal power, possessiveness, and lustful thoughts (to be precise, he hated these) like his boss. Such a huge machine will either be sublimated or degenerate in the name of the divine, or it will be transformed into a tool, "the strong shield and sharp sword of the party". If people without self do not fall into the abyss, they will naturally incarnate into the power of divine justice. part of it, and incarnate here alone, doing better than anyone else—whether it's a party, a church, or an organization.
However, can a person be without life until death?
Wessler sees Dreman playing with neighbor kids and kissing Krista. In front of the surveillance machine, he listens: Dreman is worried about Yaska, the neighbor woman flees from Dreyman's presence - because of the threat he gave when he installed the surveillance machine (he seems to have a look on his face when he hears this) A little panic), birthday gifts from friends for Dreman, Yaska's grief, Hauser's rebuke, Krista's teasing at Dreman, Dreman and Krista having sex together... …He records as usual, it’s part of the job, but it’s real, alive, and what lies behind one effective threat after another, just like that. The recorder eventually becomes a participant.
The question is when to start. The first intervention, yes, was when the minister brought Christa home. Wessler rang the doorbell deliberately. What does that mean? Sudden change and unexpected betrayal can force a person to have a nature that does not match the apparent loyalty, but this time, I am afraid it is not only a means. "Let you know the cruel reality." Does it sound like a curse? The child does not play with the ball, and sees other children's balls and damages them. This is originally a desire brought by people from childhood and lurking in the dark. It's just that the ball didn't break, and Dreyman didn't break out.
After get off work, Wessler found a prostitute. After the transaction was over, he sat reclining on the sofa. The prostitute said that he would buy a longer time next time. This is the first time that the color of desire in the film appears on Wesler - to praise the desire at the moment, all goodness starts from desire. And the satisfaction of desire summoned by money is not the same as the desire emanating from the embrace and entanglement of the two in the bedroom, although the former arises from the latter. Sometimes I wonder if it's possible that he didn't walk into Dreman's house after looking for a prostitute?
At Dreman's house, Wessler looked at the "salad fork" on the desk, the pen, and stroked the bed sheets in the bedroom. These things represented Dreman's life and became traces of Wessler's life. Finally, I believe he took Brecht's book with him not out of a job requirement. This is the second time, not only the second participation, but also the second time art comes into view. Poems full of love fluttered in the sky, and the reader's expression was strange and holy. The third artistic trace comes from the mourning sound of the piano. On the other side, Wesler looked straight ahead, like a stone sculpture. At that moment he was enveloped in the same grief and understood, not knowing, not exploiting.
So, he can no longer control himself to actually participate in it, not just the change to ask "what's your ball's name" to the little boy who speaks ill of the security agency, when Dreman pleads with Krista not to leave, he is immersed in In the conversation between the two, Krista finally gave up her reluctant date as an outsider, and even when she saw the record of Krista going home, she couldn't help but uncharacteristically praised the deputy's record, even the deputy Surprised - Emotions! emotion! How dangerous.
After watching the movie, I often can't help but wonder, if Wessler just worked hard, wouldn't everything after that happen? If he didn't ring the doorbell, Dreman wouldn't have known about Krista's betrayal. If Krista continued to endure the adultery of high-ranking officials, she would not be arrested and betrayed her lover. If Wessler helped out and reported the trumped-up border crossing, Dreman and his friends would have known they were not safe. Everything starts from one belt and grows bigger and bigger like a snowball. Like Krista's reason for the appointment, "Don't I need this whole system? ... Even if you have talent or ideas, they can still destroy you." In order not to be destroyed, what about forbearance. So what if it doesn't bring about change. Because forbearance brings peace, and this kind of peace is just an illusion, everything can be done without disturbance, as long as it is at the cost of unreality. What is the truest truth? Love, weakness, sympathy, pity, mercy, truth itself, under all drama.
From now on, there will be no turning back. After realizing that Hauser was actually still in East Germany, he walked into the office and handed in the real interview documents, a document that could be used as evidence of imprisonment. Get everything back on track, and, presumably out of anger at being played. However, after listening to his boss's account of the "Four", he finally gave up, and instead asked for the surveillance to be carried out by himself. In fact, isn't that also a way to solve the problem? Isn't it also a means? That is not fundamentally different from 40 hours of continuous interrogation. The moment he walked out of the office, his bleak future had captured him.
He made up, covered up, and said ironically, he carefully defended everything, handed in false reports again and again, and in the end the crucial interrogation was still hosted by him himself, he mastered Krista's weaknesses and used it step by step, again and again Create a betrayal. It's just that this time he is no longer happy about it, but instead tries to make up for it, taking away the evidence in advance. After a series of concealments, the envelope was finally opened. Open the letter, send the letter, until the end, no regrets.
Human life is always dramatic, and before you know it, someone betrays you. Before you knew it, someone fell into the abyss for you.
For better or worse, there are many people in this movie who are weak and unstable. Krista is just a typical example of being brought out. From the interrogation at the beginning of the film, the prisoner finally betrayed the name, Jaska committed suicide in despair, and Dreman, as Krista said, had to sacrifice his independence. What about Krista? She was unconfident, on sedatives, afraid of losing the stage, betrayed. In the final interrogation, even reluctantly, Wessler turned around and began the interrogation. Actually, I think Krista must have recognized the man sitting across from him, the one who persuaded her in the tavern, but she could see why he was sitting across from him. And Wesler's boss had long ago felt vaguely that something was wrong but let it go.
Human beings are weak and prone to betrayal, and what we regard as beautiful, often does not stand up to temptation. How to make the talent of an artist like Dreyman disappear? Treated with courtesy, in solitary confinement for a few months, released suddenly - and then his pen dries up completely. How to make a person abandon the person she protects? Find your weak spot and hit it with one hit. However, compared with this weakness itself, it is more unjust to use it, to promote it through some means, it is more unjust to encourage it like a king and servants, and it is more unjust to force people to betray like playing a puppet. , it is more injustice to watch weakness and betrayal triumphantly with a mocking smile. This is a great evil, and I have never been afraid to curse such evil. I will use the most poisonous curse, and I will never let go.
On the other hand, it is precisely because of forbearance and vacillation that different choices seem precious. Dreman chose to write that article, and Wesler chose to forge and cover it up.
I wonder how Dreyman felt when he saw those records, and the last page was accidentally stained with two fingerprints from the red ink of the typewriter.
For Wessler, everything is calm and natural, and it is this calm that is so moving in the film that he accepts the outcome, and in the basement, there is no sadness or resistance to be seen. Of course, he probably wouldn't make it a question of whether it's worth it, it's not just a sacrifice for "other people's lives", but a decision made by self-choice. From bystander to participant, to such an active chooser, he completes his life.
So indifferent, as if the sting that shakes the original belief has never appeared, as if it has never changed. Until in the bookstore, he said, "This is for me". The eyes and the imperceptible smile are unforgettable.
Watching "The Storm" was recommended by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, a living Buddha who is also a film director. Rinpoche said that even a spy can be merciful.
And this spy was not so compassionate originally, and it was an interesting process to change from being so compassionate to compassion.
Will the people who have lived die?
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