Chaplin's films are loved by many people, and his works are full of sympathy for the small people who live at the bottom of society, are oppressed and humiliated, and usually have a warm, "tearful laugh" ending.
But Monsieur Verdou, released in 1947, is unique among all Chaplin films and is the darkest Chaplin's work.
The film tells a creepy story: during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Verdou, a dismissed bank clerk in France, began to seduce simple-minded, small-saving single "big mothers" in various false identities, "fell in love" with them, married them, and then killed them and took possession of their property.
Such a set of operations seems to be common in the West, and such themes often appear in Hollywood movies. Hitchcock's "Hot Hands Destroying Flowers" in 1942 and Billy Wilder's "Prosecution Witness" in 1958 all reproduce similar dark plots.
The limitation of hitchcock and Billy Wilder, though, is that they both present the killer as a "pure evil," as if it were a simple moral, cultural problem that was at best a psychological one.
A master is a master.
Chaplin's superiority lies in his presentation of this matter in the context of a larger society – the reason why Monsieur Verdou degenerated from a small citizen who followed the rules to a cold-blooded murderer was precisely the result of being transformed and promoted by the basic logic of capitalist society, that is, Verdun became a murderer not because he was "anti-social", but precisely because he became incompatible with society and became highly compatible with society.
Verdoux worked as a cashier in a bank for 30 years. He had a disabled wife and a smart and lovely son whom Verdou loved and felt happy. Killing people was something he didn't even dare to dream about.
But the economic crisis came, and Verdou was ruthlessly laid off. In Verdou's view, it was tolerable to live without food and clothing, even living on the streets, but he never wanted to see his beloved wife and son fall into such a situation.
To understand the fate of Verdeau, a reference character is Huang Shengsan in Cao Yu's famous drama "Sunrise" in the thirties.
Huang Shengsan is also a small bank clerk, humble and timid, weak and afraid of things, in the economic crisis, the first to become a victim, was laid off by the bank. In desperation, he bought poison with the last three dollars, poisoned three children, committed suicide by throwing himself into the river, but was saved and went crazy ever since.
In "Sunrise", Huang Shengsan has a bloody monologue with his manager Pan Yueting, who fired him, and I guess Mr. Verdou will have a relationship after listening to it.
“...... You want to lay off employees, you must lay off me!" But what do you want these ten yuan and two cents and five cents (Huang Province's monthly salary) to do! I'm not taking your money for nothing, I'm taking my life for you! And I can't take a few of you for ten pieces and two cents and a half, and I will die." You really have no conscience, you treat me like this,—— is a thief, a robber, a ghost! Your hearts are simply worse than beasts..."
Although France in the 1930s was an imperialist country and China was a semi-colonial country, in terms of the fate of small staff, it also had a bit of a "global village" feeling.
However, perhaps because of cultural differences, Mr. Verdou made a very different choice from Huang Province.
Before going from an honest bank clerk to a cold-blooded killer, Mr. Verdou experienced a process of "enlightenment" and was ruthlessly kicked out of the door by the bank, which made him suddenly discover that the essence of this society is not to treat people as people!
Man is nothing but a tool for capital to make profits, an element in the "business" that can be discarded at any time, and whether you are dead or alive is no longer concerned because you can no longer influence the "business".
Mr. Verdoux summed up his conclusions in a concise sentence, "You must learn to be ruthless in order to survive in this ruthless society!" ”
What is "ruthless"? The meaning of "ruthlessness" is not to treat people as people, but as "elements" without emotion.
In the film, Verdeau's murder and plunder, like the bankers in the market dumping each other and the big fish eating the small fish, is just a "business", and he does not feel guilty at all, because he is treated in the market in this way. The difference is only that bankers who monopolize the wealth of society can kill people indirectly without staining their hands, and people like him can only kill people directly, and they will inevitably be stained with blood.
Verdun's way of achieving psychological balance was to distinguish between "business" and "life."
In life, Monsieur Verdou was a loving man. When he returned from murder, he did not forget to bring a bag of food to the hungry stray cat at the door, and to trim the flowers and trees in the garden, and would carefully avoid trampling on the dead caterpillars. He meets a tramp Raseni who has just been released from prison for "theft" and was supposed to use her to test her new poison, but Raseni's tragic experience touched him and made him return from "business" to "life", not only dispelling the idea of poisoning her, but also giving her some money to allow her to survive the most difficult days.
If Huang Shengsan is a mirror of Mr. Verdou, then Raseni is another mirror of him. She told Verdeau that she had a husband who had been wounded and disabled in a world war. She loved him, and he couldn't live without her. This reminded Verdeau of his disabled wife and moved compassion, so at the last moment, he replaced the poisonous wine in front of Lasenie with a glass of normal red wine.
The first time I watched "Mr. Verdoux" was in the 1980s, when the logic of capital and the market was not fully unfolded in China, so it was not fully understood.
For example, Monsieur Verdou hastily killed one of his "wives", Lydia, because he had to come up with 50,000 francs by 8 o'clock the next day, otherwise his shares would be "forced to liquidate" by the securities company.
In the 1980s, how many Chinese would know what a "forced liquidation" was? Today, after experiencing several baptisms of stock market crashes, there are more people who understand the meaning of this word and know its severity.
Why, then, was Verdou able to trick Lydia into withdrawing all 70,000 francs from the bank and killing herself that night? Because he told Lydia that a financial crisis was coming and the bank would go bankrupt, he scared Lydia to death.
For this kind of common trick of financial and fund-raising fraud, there are not too many Chinese people who have skin pain in the 1980s, and today, many Chinese people will laugh when they see this plot.
Although Mr. Verdou defeated the detectives who tracked him with his astute and unfazed personality in the "business" of "hot hands destroying flowers", he was finally defeated by the times: the stock market that had swept thousands of miles finally bankrupted him, his wife and children also died, he lost all the sustenance of his life, and when he was excited, he once again happened to meet Lasenie. The woman he had saved had become a rich woman because of her attachment to an arms dealer!
Raseni offers to repay Verdur, and Verdeau, who sees the cruelty of the zeitgeist in her life upheaval, refuses to continue running and crashes into the police. In his final statement at the trial, Verdou spoke of the absurdity of this society: "Killing one person is a criminal, killing millions becomes a hero." ”
Verdun was not a hero, he used darkness against darkness, only to get double the darkness. But Chaplin, through a figure like Verdeau, exposed the "cannibalistic" nature of the capitalist system – either eating or being eaten, "You have to learn ruthlessness to survive in this ruthless society!" ”