After the acclaim of The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries in 1957, Ingmar Bergman launched The Threshold of Life, which was attacked by public opinion as "too feminine", and the rhetoric was full of the patriarchalism and stereotypes that were prevalent at the time, and this criticism was by no means unique, which could not help but make Bergman begin to reflect on the relationship between art and the world, and try to answer it in a cinematic way.
Coinciding with Bergmann's favorite Jurgon Schulter's hit in Britain, Bergman not only adapted it into a film, but also incorporated it into a dramatic stage presentation, when critic Julgen Schürth accused him of "Do you have a face?" What's on your mind? Metaphorically for the huge discrepancy between its artistic abilities and its presentation, he changed the film's name from "The Liar" to "The Face" (called "The Magician" when it was released in the United States), borrowing different "faces" from all walks of life to satirize the malicious slander of film critics.
The film tells the story of the magician Vogler and his team before going to Stockholm, Sweden, who arrive in a small town, are reprimanded by the mayor, the police chief, and the health chief, asking for a live magic trick to verify the existence of a "soul", although Vogler has claimed to be a "deceptive trick", he still suffers all kinds of difficulties, he steals the corpses of others to play the health director, and at the summons of the king, he is able to leave the town and start a new journey.
When Time magazine asked Woody Allen to recommend five films, the first of them was the film, which was the only one that brought together Bergman's three male actors (Max von Suddorf, Gunnar Bujonstrand, and Erlan Josephson). In my opinion, this film, as a work of "carrying on from top to bottom", fully reflects Bergman's branching and extension of various film elements and philosophical themes, which is very suitable for audiences who want to understand Bergman's films.
Today, I would like to analyze this film in more depth, starting from the implicit three-layer game relationship (lies and truth, art and worldliness, face and human nature), so that the audience can experience Bergman's good intentions.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >01, The Game of Lies and Truth: Everyone's quest for truth is full of lies, and the essence of magic and movies is the presentation of "lies" and "truths"</h1>
Everyone's life is full of truth and lies, the name of this film from "liar" to "face" can understand Bergman's understanding of "lies", his life is full of deception and lies, and he likes to use lies to cover up the truth since he was a child, so as to win sympathy and pity, so that his mother should seek the help of a psychologist, and the doctor's final advice is: Do not listen to the child's lies, otherwise there will be more demands. As an adult, Bergman was in Vanity Fair and could better appreciate the impact of lies on life.
Lies in the film are everywhere, Vogeler lies that she can't speak, wives and women dress up as men, lie about assistants, Vogler's mother lies about being a 200-year-old witch, lies are often to cover up the truth, they enjoy the convenience of lies, just to avoid unnecessary trouble. Although Vogeler is telling the truth, such as denying the existence of the soul, magic is a game of props. However, this statement has aroused the interest of the mayor of the town and wants to find out. Truth and lies are superficial to each other, both for the purpose of deception, but the original intention is very different.
Lies and truth also have a deep meaning, corresponding to the delicate relationship between magic and movies, magic use of blindfolds is often popular with the audience, in Edward Norton's "Magic Supreme" is the magic of the magic to the extreme, not only can dominate the actions of strangers, but also can disappear in full view of the public. Although the audience knows that many magic shows use mirrors, props, psychological and other factors, they still relish the wonderful performances. This is the spiritual enjoyment that skill brings.
A good movie can also bring wonderful enjoyment to the audience like magic, and the push and pull of the camera, the wonderful interpretation of the actors, the atmospheric rendering of the soundtrack, and the editing can produce a dreamlike effect. In essence, both cinema and magic are enlightening and happy to the audience through skillful display, which is essentially no different from the truth under the cover of lies or lies under the cover of truth.
The mayor and doctor in the film firmly believe in science, and even though The Vogler team continues to explain, they never dispel his concerns, which seems to be a game between those in power and civilians, but in fact it is a game of truth and lies. When the mayor is convinced that the magician is lying, they have presupposed a hypothetical relationship: there are souls in the world, but the magician does not want to perform for it. So when they learned that the magician had died, they desperately tried to get rid of death from their relationship, which constituted another lie.
Vogler was disguised, and the drunk man could see through it at a glance, but in the face of a group of officials, they were unaware. Bergman uses this scenario to criticize critics who are ostensibly justified but are in fact reticent. He once bluntly said that "Dr. Wigglers was modeled after the film critic Harry Shah", which shows that the magician Vogler is the embodiment of Bergman himself. He clearly told the truth, but was accused of being a lie. When Vogler talked to his wife, he told the truth: "I hate their faces, their bodies, their movements, their voices, it's terrible because I'm powerless." When outside accusations come pouring in, how to use "lies" or "truth" to avoid disaster has become the focus of this film. The reason why Vogeler will cover up the truth with one lie after another is precisely because of the cowardice of his character.
Do lies and truth matter? I think it doesn't matter, the believer will always find a reason to believe, just as the skeptic will always look at it with colored glasses, lies and truth are related to the heart of the expressor, conveying a belief or strength, so the magician's death becomes a happy ending for everyone, and his resurrection continues to bear innocent accusations. Along with lies and truths, there is also a game between the artist and the world, and whether the art is elegant or not depends on the mentality of the viewer.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >02, the game between art and the world: there is no essential difference between artists and the public, art can be sunny and white, or it can be under the riba people, different presentation methods and thematic connotations determine the acceptance of the public</h1>
Artists are often maverick and untamed in the eyes of the public, and the film opens with Vogler and Manda leaning on wooden shelves, symbolizing the prophecy of Jesus' resurrection, hinting at the direction of the plot afterwards, indicating that the film is about the artist's "crucifixion".
The magician, as the representative of the artist and the representative of the health director, are in stark contrast, and Vogler advocates freedom, and when he and his wife bought a villa, they had to choose Manda to become emperor because of the intervention of the grand duke. Their wandering is more like a helpless act, reflecting the lonely heart of the artist. Their magic shows are loved by the people, and the word "soul" is more like a misreading. The denigration of hundreds of golds deprived the artist of the opportunity to argue, and the art seemed elegant but was worthless in the eyes of the director of health.
The health commissioner said to Vogler, "There is only one thing that interests me, and that is your physiological structure, and I would like to do a physiological dissection on you." Science is a belief, so is medicine, and the health director never believes in the idea that there is a soul in the world, so he did everything in his power to satirize, even when Vogeler "suspended death", he personally completed this dissection. It can be said that the director of health represents the general public's exploration of art, but his position has lost its fairness due to advance presuppositions, which also shows that audiences with different positions must have different attitudes and views on the value of art appreciation.
As an artist, Bergman never hid his subjective attitude, and in a vague way he clearly reflected his attitude towards criticism, and there were two forces in Vogler, the health director said, "one is an idealist, practicing medicine according to unconventional hypnosis; on the other hand, we see a less clever trickster Vogeler, who uses all kinds of deceptive tricks in his native ways, and his activities are shamelessly between these two extremes.". The film borrows from the director of health to tell the two sides of Vogler and the strong contradiction in art, which also exists in Bergman.
In detail, this contradiction is the dispute between Yangchun Baixue and the Xia Riba people, or the dispute between commercial and artistic. The art of light and shadow was extremely exquisite at the beginning, from "Train Station" as a faithful record of the image to complete the artistic processing and upgrading, bringing unprecedented image experience, and from silent black and white films to sound color films, the development of the film is long and arduous, but how to win the audience's love, but full of contradictions and twists, symbolizing the supreme honor of artists, such as Tarkovsky, Fellini, Bergman and other masters are few, but also confirmed that the elegance and spirit of art is not achieved overnight, It takes long-term thinking and accumulation, and this kind of inner game of artists is not often understood by the public.
The film is a metaphor for the relationship between art and society, critics and audiences, as Manda reads the novel "deception is so popular that anyone who tells the truth will be branded as the worst liar", injustice is in the hearts of the audience, the most talented liars often tell the most useful truths, and the humanity hidden under the face is the essence of the film.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >03, The Game of Face and Human Nature: There is a real human nature hidden under the face, and good and evil interact with each person under the influence of curiosity</h1>
The faces are full of rich Gothic style, coffins, dead bodies, mirrors, witches, blending the eerie atmosphere of "The Seventh Seal" and the dreamy colors of "Wild Strawberries", these thrilling ways reflect the hearts of the characters, good and evil, fear and greed, selfishness and dedication are all displayed on the screen, making it easier for the audience to understand the true meaning of "face".
Bergman once had an intriguing metaphor: "People who do our job often experience that as long as we wear masks all the time, we can be very charming." People see us performing under the lights and believe they really love us. But we don't appear without a mask, or worse, when we ask for money, we immediately become as worthless as grass."
Vogeler's story is a realistic version of this metaphor, his handsome face stained with beard and wig, like a bright and beautiful face, people cheer and worship it as a god. Even the mayor's wife came to visit late at night, changing her arrogant and unreasonable attitude before, and knelt down to pray for the arrival of the gods to comfort her soul that had just lost her child. At this time, Vogler's face twisted and deformed, not because he could not help it, but because he was too familiar with the face, and when people had needs, Vogler was the almighty god, and once the needs could not be met, they would fall into the mud from the sky, reflecting Vogler's pain for the selfish nature of human beings.
The next day, the mayor's wife flatly denied that her relationship with Vogeler said everything, human nature can not stand the test of the slightest, and at the critical moment of stake, it is often a pure-hearted person like Vogler who is hurt, who again and again dedicates his true heart to those who need help, and bears the pain alone. Bergman likened Vogler to himself and Manda to the sacred faith of mankind. Manda is constantly rescuing Vogler from his exhausted body and mental atrophy, taking him from the hypocritical man to heaven.
Unscrupulous power is like a tiger out of the bar, limiting the goodness of the conscience. Vogeler is always constrained by the power of the mayors, and this constraint relationship runs throughout the film, which is precisely the game between good and evil in the human heart, the human nature hidden under the face is detached from the heart because of madness, and the autopsy shows the irrational analysis of the nature of art driven by curiosity, exposing the strong impulse to try to peek into the inner world of human beings.
The actor Spiegel is a slave to the arts, and when he dies, he says, "You see others lying, but you are also lying, and the endless torrent is the only truth", such sincere fear shows the irreconcilability of human nature between different classes, and this ironic relationship also exists in the mayor and his wife, as well as other people in power.
Dubal is the spokesperson of the troupe, he can speak eloquently and provocatively, representing the duplicity of the advent of capitalism, on the surface he is the core of the troupe's success, constantly peddling hypnotherapy, in fact he is also inflammatory, decisively abandoning the troupe when encountering true love, this two-sided and three-knife image portrays a vivid image, which contrasts with Vogler's sincerity and strengthens the film's deep analysis of the beauty and ugliness of human nature.
"Faces" is extremely keen to describe the game between lies and truth, art and worldliness, faces and human nature, through the binary opposition assumption to unfold the contradiction layer by layer, reflecting the deep human nature represented by art, more than 50 years ago, Bergman for the trend of art commercialization has been clearly aware, in the way of film to tell the dissatisfaction and emotions in the heart. As he said, "Don't take the form of art very seriously, and strive to respect actors who are relatively pure in body and relatively complete in spirit", including Bergman himself.