1968 was a transition period for Bergman, and after Masquerade he made the only horror film of his life, The Jackal Moment, in which the cast was composed of Max von Suddorf and Liv Uman, and although the effect was not ideal, the lineup of royal cast members was continued in the following Shame.
At this time, Bergman has reached the age of knowing the destiny, whether it is in the face of marital feelings or career life are a little more frank, neither want to continue to dwell on the question of religious beliefs, nor do they want to express the intricate interpersonal relationships, at the time of the Vietnam War, he filmed "Shame", not like "Jackal Moment" focused on the nightmare of the madman, but was born in the dream of ordinary people. At the time of the script writing, the name of Shame was always "Shame Dream". Clearly, Bergman wanted to explore the catastrophe of war and the profound impact on ordinary people such as Bergman through the relationship between dreams and life.
The film excels in adopting a female perspective to present the ugliness of war, thus exposing the theme of the extreme environment from the test of war to the test of humanity, the relationship between the two violin artists falling apart in the face of war, and the final return of "Noah's Ark", rendering a real suffocating atmosphere of despair. Today, I will talk about the enlightenment brought by this film from three aspects: the realistic reflection of women's perspective, the transformation of human nature in the relationship between husband and wife, and the final hope of human survival. There are countless films about war, but Bergman is the only one who portrays human nature so vividly.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > female perspective to expose the violence and horror of war, a cruel reality of dreams and wandering to expose the innocence of neutral Sweden</h1>
The film begins with the dream of Eve's husband, Yang, and ends with Eve's dream, forming a typical end-to-end echo structure. The whole story is like a dream, the war changed the lives of Eve and Young, pervaded by the violence and horror of the war, Bergman said, "If Sweden were occupied by the Nazis in World War II, what would I do?" Will you take responsibility or be honest as a citizen? This reveals the original intention of the film: the innocence of the war on neutral Sweden.
Bergman tried to dilute the place, time and scope of the war as much as possible, and used realistic expression to set off the cruel war scenes, but in the picture, the audience can still clearly see the Swedish city beyond recognition, at the same time, their neighbors are also being invaded by the war, Finland is involved in the war, Denmark is occupied. Neutral Sweden is suffering at this time, and the film focuses on two young artists, stemming from the reflection of their superb artistic attainments and good humanity.
Bergman thought a lot about the impact of the war, saying, "When I was making Shame, I very much hoped to expose the cruelty of the war nakedly, but unfortunately I had more than enough at the time and I didn't have enough strength. "It's a very modest statement, and I prefer to understand it as a natural resistance to war as an artist. He did not dwell too much on the effects of brutal warfare, but rather created a more tragic and real tragedy. In particular, this perspective revolves around Eve, the only female in the film.
Eve and Young had moments of great happiness, and in Eve's eyes, the hovering fighters in the air, the constantly jumping paratroopers, and the burning bombs were all reminders of the horror that came, and she witnessed a series of interrogations, violence, lies, and betrayals. From a warm world of two people to a deserted escape, displaced from place to make a living. Since Sweden was neutral in the war, how did it end up in such a situation? Obviously, it still points to the violence and cruelty of war. There is no reason to speak in the face of war, and everyone's life is facing a severe test.
At the time, all war films depicted the atrocities of individuals or groups, but Bergman gathered on "small wars", unlike Hollywood's enthusiasm for real guns and Japanese films as a lofty and solemn ceremony, Bergman took Eve's family life as the entry point, letting all the stories take place in a dream-like atmosphere, expressing the cruel reality of war leading to the loss of self.
Eve gradually fell from food and clothing to starvation, from the diligent pursuit of high art to the endless wandering of survival, in the ruins of war, the value of the individual was compressed to humble, Eve trekked and groped hard in search of a few short sweet potatoes, the ugly branches of the branches in the burned woods were as terrifying as hell, and the infectious lens language did not spare any details showing the after-effects of the war, and the terrible dream effect was exerted to the extreme.
For Eve, everyone in the dream is both an executioner and a victim, when she asks her husband, "If we can no longer talk, how can everything continue?" Her subtext is that the continuation of the state of war has alienated us from each other, and communication has become a distant castle in the air, no longer of substantial use.
At the end of the film, Eve talks about her dream of "a white house with high circular arches and pillars on one side of the street, a park lined with trees on the other side, and a babbling green stream under the trees on the side of the street." I came again to a high wall where roses were overgrown, and a plane flew by and lit the roses, but the plane was terrified, because it was destroying beautiful things. I saw its reflection in the water and saw how the rose burned out. I was holding the child in my arms, she was our daughter, she was clinging to me, I felt her lips touching my cheek, and in that instant, I should have remembered some things and some words that had been said, but I forgot what it was", as long as the war continued, everything would continue to change, and the human trials caused by it were undoubtedly thrilling.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > test of human nature in extreme circumstances, from creative love to good and evil antagonisms reflecting fragile marital relationships in brutal wars</h1>
The severe scarcity of materials and the stalemate state of war constitute a challenge to human survival, and in such an extreme environment, the originally harmonious conjugal relationship has shown an explosive qualitative change, and a very important reason is the extreme closure of social relations. The lack of social function makes the human heart become an island, as a product of social relations, at this time, not only people's thinking ability and judgment ability are tested, but also values and emotional ability.
Eve shows the psychoanalytic psychologist Fromm's "creative love", which is not replicable, nor is it happening, but a self-sufficient spontaneous sexual activity, and in such a closed environment, the good humanity that Eve shows is the epitome of her inner subconscious. Through practical actions and emotions, she creatively connects with herself and the world, bridging the pain of separation from the world.
In contrast, the husband Yang's weakness and indifference retreat, after severing social ties, Yang's retreat became an effective form of destruction, and the impulse to destroy others arose from the fear of being destroyed by others. Not only did he deny taking Jacobi's money and push his wife's enemy Jacobi to the brink of extinction, he also killed a deserter with his own hands, turned from a victim of war to a moral coward, and he went from being a defender of art to an executioner who destroyed lives, and the subconscious demon showed evil to the fullest.
Eve and Young go down two extremes in extreme circumstances, one is a refined egoist, a life destroyer, and the other is a stupid devotee, a defender of life, and the opposition between good and evil is formed, reflecting the collapse of values caused by cruel war.
There is a profound scene in the film where the couple pushes a wheelbarrow out of the Island of the Dead, passing a burned-out church, and encounters several people carrying the coffins of the dead walking in opposite directions, indicating that in the war of humanity and value, the husband and wife cannot escape the tragic fate of the death knell jointly.
Jacobi is a friend of both husband and wife, witnessing the beginning and end of the relationship between husband and wife. When Eve and Young were interviewed on television because of the radio tampering, they were treated as traitors without any chance of pleading. At this time, the greed and ugliness of human nature are revealed, and Jacobi, as a friend of the two, provides help based on Eve's "sex" as a trading condition, if there is no war, who can think that this white-haired old man would have such a non-division of thoughts, and he is precisely because of his greed to lose his life.
When the war is over, the moment of real scrutiny of history begins, which is about the spiritual journey of the experiencers, corresponding to the exhaustion of Eve and Young. Bergman wants to reveal the fickleness and helplessness of human nature through war, and those who are dressed in the cloak of goodness and falsehood grow up according to their own internal logic, and only in extreme circumstances can they reveal their true faces and contrast their hearts.
Although Yang is still alive, in fact, he is dead, along with the only remaining sense of shame, this fragile husband and wife relationship can not be continued, the open-ended ending given by the film is not overly pessimistic, indicating that Bergman is still full of hope for the future.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the process of death means that shame is gradually lost, and the returning Noah's Ark brings the last glimmer of hope for survival</h1>
The war that did not know where it came from was actually the greatest shame in human history. However, compared with the fierceness of the war, the shame of human nature is even greater. The death in the film has no logic to speak of, people can survive like Yang without shame in order to survive, and shame just proves the last hope of human survival, as death approaches, the audience will find that shame is lost, and the hope brought by shame is becoming more and more dim, and finally human beings have become a worthless empty shell.
Without dignity, there is no shame. Passages in the film that reflect dignity and shame from the relationship between survival and death abound. When Eve and Yang bought a bottle of wine with the only money they had left, the boss said, "I don't know, will anyone remember me after I die", what he worried about before joining the army was not personal comfort, but property that had nothing to do with survival, if he had to die, the boss wanted to be a dignified dead man, and the ironic effect of this irony pointed directly at people's hearts and realistic bones.
When Eve and Young find a pilot on a branch in the suburbs, Eve wants to save him, but the sudden appearance of soldiers suspects that he is the pilot's killer, so the glare is aimed at Eve, at this time the scattered corpses are like thrown away waste, Eve said to Yang , "Fortunately we do not have children", death makes them realize the preciousness of life, but at the cost of giving up dignity, the death within reach always sets off the rest of the shame of the symbiotic relationship, but in order to live must give up dignity, there is no other way.
The violin in the film is broken, Eve's friends are dead, and the only remaining love in her heart is getting weaker and weaker, Eve feels that life has lost its meaning, and she desperately says, "Sometimes everything is like a dream, not my dream, but someone else's dream, but I am also involved." 」 Will the person who dreams of us wake up and feel ashamed? She hoped that it would be a dream that could be revived, just as she longed for survival, and war destroyed the confidence to live, and with it came the wear and tear of shame.
The atmosphere of death at the end of the film is so strong that it contrasts sharply with the meaning of "Noah's Ark" implied by the last lonely boat, in the last few days, the ship loses power, captain Philip can not bear this pain to jump into the sea to commit suicide, they drink the last of the fresh water, witness more and more corpses floating from afar, and finally walk on the congested sea, people seem to fall into endless despair.
Bergman uses the ending of the dream to express his final attachment to survival. It seems to me that this ark symbolizes a refuge for the human soul, and the bodies floating around it are like those shameful feelings that cannot be placed, and only by abandoning them can they be spiritually reborn. Noah's Ark takes on the heavy responsibility of saving the world's important creatures and civilizations, and more importantly, it symbolizes a kind of inheritance, as long as the flame of civilization continues to live, everything is still possible to change.
From the war to the battle of human nature, Bergman uses his familiar dream wandering story to explore the war between men and women, the sails of life raised on the sea represent understanding, responsibility and humanitarian care, as long as Eve is still there, human dignity will continue to be preserved, passed down from generation to generation, and the spark of life will continue to be passed on.
"Shame" carries Bergman's exploration of human nature through war, from the concern for individual life to the metaphor of the fate of the home country, and the greedy humanity exposed in the face of war is like a wake-up call. This film is about the disappearance of shame, people without shame will be like Yang in order to survive by any means, peace of mind, this cruel human tragedy is real and intriguing, as Bergman said, "When the external violence stops and the internal violence begins, "Shame" also begins to become a good movie."