Today is July 22, 2024.
is the 17th anniversary of the death of an actor.
His name may not be familiar to you, Ulrich · Mue.
But he's starred in a movie that we've seen almost all of us, and every once in a while we turn it over and watch it.
Why?
It is an echo of history, a reflection of the present, and a sonata written to all ordinary people who still have good hearts.
It's called
"Eavesdropping Storm"
The Lives of Others
01
screw
The story takes place in 1984, in East Germany under the rule of the Iron Curtain.
Weissman (Ulrich · Mue) is an agent of the Stasi, the intelligence agency of the National Security Agency. The Stasi was the most efficient intelligence and secret service in the world at the time.
The literal translation of the English title of "Eavesdropping Storm" is "The Life of Others".
Weismann lived a "life of others" – through interrogation, surveillance, stealing other people's secrets, and eliminating anyone who threatened the GDR.
Simply put, he is a sturdy and durable screw.
The film begins with a show of his cold professionalism.
He was lecturing, and the tape recorder was that he was interrogating a suspect and not sleeping in order to force him to confess.
The suspect almost collapsed: Please, just give me some sleep, just a little bit.
The students in the audience couldn't help but sympathize:
Why did he not get a break for so long
This is so inhumane
Weisman listened and quietly marked a name.
Apparently, this student was "knocked out".
Afterwards, Weisman calmly said to the crowd: the longer the time drags on, the innocent suspects will become agitated by the unfair treatment they have suffered, and the real criminals will become silent and even cry. The best way to know if a person is guilty or not is to keep asking.
Corresponding to his extremely professional business ability is his extremely dry self.
His home, everything is "empty".
At a glance, there is no trace of life.
Even for dinner, it's just a little ketchup.
Home is nothing more than an office at night.
His social connections are similarly void, and there are few ways to relate to people—listening to and interrogating hostile forces; screening of students; the neighbor's wife who threatens to interfere with the mission; Report to your superiors.
Every day, and so on.
It is conceivable that such a "tool man" who will only bury his head in hard work will definitely not be able to climb to the top in the organization.
On this day, his old friend, superior Grubitz (played by Ulrich · Tukul), invited him to go to the opera (patting horses).
Screws, it's rare to come to a new environment.
02
whore
Weisman was moved by the woman on the stage at a glance.
Actress Christina (Martina · Gerdeck).
But at the same time, Weisman also discovers the actress's boyfriend, and the playwright Deleman (Sebastian · Koch) may not be as "loyal" as he seems.
He took the initiative to spy on the other party.
Dleiman is what we often call a weak intellectual.
He still adheres to art, but in the face of the persecution of people around him one by one, he only complains verbally, and he has never been able to stand against the wall with firm action.
But.
Even such a weak "ordinary person" has an interesting and energetic life than Weissman.
Music, poetry, football.
These small but concrete happiness belong to a person's daily life, but it is a world that Weisman has never experienced.
Weisman's closed mask began to loosen.
Especially this scene in the film.
In the car, Christina was raped for the Nth time by the Minister of Animals.
Weissman rarely had an emotion.
He used the doorbell to call the playwright De Leman, who bumped into his girlfriend in front of him and got out of the minister's car.
But then the scene shocked Weisman even more.
Not only did De Leman not come forward to confront him, but he even hid behind the door, not daring to let his girlfriend bump into him.
If this is a knee-jerk escape.
But after returning home, the two did not break out into the quarrel that Weissman expected.
Christina curled up in a corner after taking a shower, and the playwright Deleman gently called out his girlfriend's name, and the other party replied, hugging me.
The writer didn't say anything, and hugged her intimately.
Pay attention to the next shot.
Weisman in the picture, imitating the movements of the writer, crosses his arms and gives himself a hug at the end of the listening end.
And that's not all.
After returning home, Weisman also took the initiative to "make mistakes" and found himself a prostitute.
When it was all over, he even said to the prostitute if he could-
Stay a little longer
This sentence shocked Sir more than 100,000 tons of explosives.
Undoubtedly, at this moment, both physical and psychological, Weisman finally had the texture of a human being.
He began to crave love, to crave sex, to crave warm emotions.
He realized that the power of life does not have to come from overwhelm and subjugation, and that acknowledging and revealing one's own weakness and incompetence is also part of life.
03
person
Weisman, who has been chiseled open, craves more.
He went to the playwright's room and stole a copy of Brecht's Poems to read quietly.
Beethoven's music came from the monitor, and he burst into tears when he heard it.
At this moment, Weisman's ego is no longer empty.
Slowly be filled with emotion.
But this does not mean that Weisman understands and agrees with the justice defended and upheld by the playwright Dleiman and his artistic friends.
In fact, until the end, it's hard to say that Weissmann understands politics.
He lacks specific interest and awareness of various sports.
is not like the old classmates who have clear secular ambitions, and will not hesitate to abandon themselves to cling to power in order to climb.
He doesn't even hate his "enemies".
Just subconsciously perform the work.
So when he caught the playwright's handle, the inertia of the "tool man" made him choose to report the playwright.
He came to the director with the evidence in his hand.
But as soon as I entered the door, I heard the director proudly show off a copy of the latest research results-
"The Law of Imprisonment for the Classification of the Personality of Reactionary Artists".
The one you listen to, belongs to the fourth category, they can't stand being alone, they don't need friendship and love all the time.
Therefore, they cannot be dealt with by means of interrogation, and they have to be detained.
Treat each other well, do not make things difficult, do not abuse, do not harass.
- After 10 months, they may even emasculate themselves with the creative desire to write and paint.
The more smug the director's expression became, the more frightened Weissman became.
He had been taught the "right idea" that we were to create a progressive, sophisticated, and orderly new world.
But if this new world has no poetry, no music, no cinema, and more importantly, no humanity.
Where is its value?
For the first time, Weisman's faith wavered.
He pressed the report.
The playwright's article was successfully published.
This completely infuriated the authorities.
How did he manage to publish articles under the monitoring of Tianluodi.com.
There are traitors in the ranks?
The secret police have nothing to do about it, they overturn the table, they arrest the playwright's girlfriend, and threaten her: where is the typewriter who confessed to the playwright, or your stage career is over.
The girlfriend eventually betrayed the playwright.
But when the secret police searched the door based on the confession, they found:
There is no typewriter.
Yes, hidden by Weissman.
Once again, he protected the playwright.
It's just that his girlfriend, who couldn't bear the pressure, escaped from the apartment, and in a panic, crashed into a truck and ended his life.
Her last words before dying were:
I was too weak and I could never make up for my mistakes.
04
Egg
Weak.
This word appears many times in "Eavesdropping Storm", and it is also a side of the character of many people.
The playwright Deleman is a weak man, as mentioned earlier, in the face of power, he has never been able to stand up decisively to resist, and finally decided to write an article to expose the sin, a large part of which also comes from self-blame that he cannot face.
- Because he kept retreating, his good friend Jeska finally committed suicide due to persecution.
Actress Christina is a weak person, and in order to have a play to play, she has repeatedly committed herself to the lewd claws of the minister.
When faced with the choice between her boyfriend's future (life) and her career (life), she struggled, but in the end she chose to protect herself.
In the movie, those "villains" are never weak.
Regardless of the superiors Grumbits and the superiors Bruno, in this political struggle that swept the whole country, they stood at the head of the bridge with enthusiasm and iron fists to form private parties and eliminate dissidents.
They have no sense of guilt for the victims, and they have no psychological burden on their own harmful behavior.
But, "Eavesdropping Storm" is good here.
It does not stand on the moral high ground, accusing the individual of being unfirm and unkind.
It is well aware of the helplessness of individuals in an era of great change, and the vast majority of ordinary people have no choice but to go down the river and join the stream.
This is also the reason why it does not portray the protagonist Weissman as a "hero".
At first, he asked to spy on the playwright, with professional sensitivities, but also selfish desires.
Later, through the playwright, he slowly touched the other side of life and self, but he didn't think that they were all doing the right thing.
And his final "betrayal" was not out of some lofty ideals, he quietly put away the other party's typewriter, not so much to save, but to empathize with the ordinary and the weak for the weak.
Weisman's "transformation" reminded Sir of a famous quote said by Haruki Murakami:
In front of the wall and the eggs, I will always stand on the side of the eggs.
Many people interpret this sentence as a kind of support and protection for the weak, the individual and the marginalized.
But in Murakami's speech, this sentence has the second half of the meaning:
"On a deeper level, each of us is more or less an egg."
Back to reality.
Actor Ulrich · Mue, himself a victim of the Stasi.
He had served in the East German forces guarding the Berlin Wall, an experience that left him traumatized and crushed his body.
His wife, Yanny Groman, was a secret informant for the Stasi and kept a 254-page transcript of his life under constant surveillance.
It is this resonance for the role that Mooe only received 20% of the salary under normal circumstances for starring in "Eavesdropping Storm".
In February 2007, "Eavesdropping Storm" won the 79th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
△ "Eavesdropping Storm" won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and the director took the stage to accept the award
Five months later, Moue died.
Muai is a reflection of "The Eavesdropping Storm" in reality.
And "we are everywhere", the slogan of Stasi still haunts us today.
Especially in recent years on the Internet.
Sir's feelings are getting stronger and stronger.
Oppression not only originates from the top and bottom, but also from the left and from the right, and reports come from all directions.
Social media has become a gladiatorial arena of estrangement and violence, where public expression is almost entirely dominated by emotion, and stratospheric hatred, fed by big data, is ready to devour anyone.
All are involved in a war against all.
The executions are sometimes targeted by a morally flawed celebrity or by a group of obscure-faced but decidedly incompatible villains.
Dressed beasts, cows, ghosts, snakes, gods, ghosts, ghosts, anyway, it can never be a concrete, living person.
For a long time, we believe that the equality, freedom, respect, humanism, and humanism that every ordinary person should uphold the most.
Today it is more and more like a joke.
What has brought us to this point.
Who is still laughing.
Finally, Sir revisited this scene in "Eavesdropping Storm".
The actress Christina was captured by her superiors, and although she was already suspicious of Weissman, it was decided that she would be interrogated because of the latter's professional abilities.
Before the interrogation, the door was opened, and the superior, who was about to leave, suddenly turned back:
Do you still have the right position?
The camera recedes like a ghost, spinning, and freezes on Weisman's face.
Faced with this sudden torture, Weisman subconsciously blurted out:
Yes.
Who do you think he is answering with "yes"?
He is absolutely correct and absolutely authoritative.
We are still as humble as grass mustard and as fragile as eggs.
The picture in this article comes from the Internet
Editor's Assistant: Xiao Yu, who doesn't like fish
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