The Pianist of the Sea was released in Italy in 1998, more than 20 years later. Recently, this classic with a score of 9.2, ranked 15th in the Douban movie [TOP 250] list, was re-screened in China.
This film has made countless audiences sigh the meaning of life in the touch, and sigh their own choices in contemplation. Many viewers said: I didn't understand it when I was young, but I understand it now.
So what do we understand?
The existentialist psychologist Frankl once said: "Modern people often have the means to make a living, but lack the meaning of life". Maybe this film is telling us a very simple truth: we live not only to make a living, but also for a meaning.
The protagonist of the film, 1900, is an abandoned baby from birth, with no parents, no nationality, no name, and is adopted by a kind crew member. A few years later the crew died unexpectedly and was orphaned again in 1900. By chance, he found a piano on the boat, self-taught, and his piano playing was ethereal and beautiful, hitting the depths of the soul. Since then, the 88 keys have become his only spiritual belonging, and he finally gave up the last chance to enter the flashy land. He said to his friend Max, "I was born on a boat, grew up on a boat, and died on board. "Land is too big a ship for me, too beautiful a woman, too long a voyage, too strong perfume, a tune I can't play... I don't exist for anyone. ”
Today, we will look at it from the perspective of existential psychology, 1900, why would you rather die than get off the ship?
What is existential psychology?
Wikipedia's definition of "existential psychology" is that Existential Psychology is a psychological theory that emerged from the influence of existentialism. Existentialism emphasizes the existential value of human beings, advocates that people have the freedom to choose their own life goals and meanings, attaches importance to the subjective experience of individuals in the real world, and emphasizes that people must be responsible for the consequences of their free actions.
Giuseppe Tornatore, the director of "The Pianist of the Sea", shows us a state of human existence in modern society through the story of 1900, reflecting on the psychology of modern people's pursuit of wealth, fame and status, as well as the psychological state of emptiness, confusion, anxiety and even fear.
<h1>01 About "existence"</h1>
"Existence" is a central concept in existential psychology. It was first proposed by Heidegger. The representative figure Sartre defined this concept in the book "Existence and Nothingness".
Sartre believes that "existence" is divided into two types, the existence of things and the existence of people. The existence of things is free, while the existence of man is self-made, that is, the existence of man can be chosen by himself, and 1900 is the best annotation for freely choosing his own existence.
At the beginning of the film, Max mentions the existence of 1900 more than once when telling the story of 1900 to the owner of the musical instrument shop: "If I say that the pianist never existed, I am not lying";
"No one in the world knows of his existence, he has no nationality, no birthday, no family"
Although Max repeatedly says that no one knows about 1900, he is actually emphasizing that 1900 once existed. What Giuseppe Tornatore wants to express is that each of us once existed as individuals, whether others knew it or not, and once left a mark on the world, like the record left by 1900 (hidden in the piano of 1900, no one knew, and later discovered by the owner of the instrument shop), but no one knew.
So, as a person, what are the signs of existence? Is it fame and status? Is it wealth and money? In the case of the masters of existentialism, I am afraid not.
The meaning of existence is a sober cognition of the self, is to know who you are and where you want to go.
Why didn't he get off the ship in 1900?
Because his greatest fear is that on the endless land he does not know who he is, has nothing, and loses control of his life.
He said, "That [the streets of the land, the cities, etc.] is God's piano... I passed by that world. So, 1900 made a free choice of its existence, that is, to become what it recognized, and to decide life and death and to stay by its own mind, rather than being controlled by external material wealth.
And that's what we modern people lack. We give meaning to the comparison of luxuries, to the chase of fame and fortune, to the overdraft of credit cards and flowers, but we don't know who we are.
<h1>02 About "loneliness"</h1>
Man is lonely, which is a fundamental point of existentialism.
The existentialist master Sartre believes that loneliness, trouble, fear, and pain are the basic states of human existence.
Tornatore created a lonely character in 1900. He was born lonely, abandoned by his parents on the ship Virginia, an unidentified orphan with no relatives. When the furnace worker who adopted him left him again due to an accident when he was 8 years old, he fell back into loneliness.
Since then, although the ship's passengers have come and gone in the thousands, and there have been friends like Max, he has always been lonely. His loneliness is not only manifested as his loneliness, but most importantly, his unusual way of thinking and life values.
When Max asked 1900 why he didn't get off the ship to earn fame and family with his musical talents, 1900 replied, "Why?" Why? People on land spend so much time on why. Winter is afraid of the late arrival of summer, summer is worried about winter is coming, this is why you are tireless, always searching for where is always summer, I am not envious. ”
In the eyes of 1900, the fame, beauty, and family that the land people pursue are not what he wants and envies, what he wants, this is the problem he has been living and pursuing. This was his greatest loneliness.
Thus, when the Virginia was finally destroyed by dynamite, he chose to leave alone between life and death, just as he was born alone.
Each of us thinks that we are living in the lively mortal dust, but we do not know that we are actually living in loneliness: classmates gather, mixed badly, we feel lonely; mixed too well, will also feel lonely.
At the annual meeting of the company, in the face of colleagues who compete in the relationship, we are lonely, in the face of the boss who decides our life and death, we feel lonely; in the face of our wives and children, thinking of the burden on our bodies, we are lonely, and we will still feel lonely in the face of our parents who can only report good news and not worry.
This loneliness is an innate emotional experience for everyone.
There is a lyric that sings very well, called "Loneliness is the carnival of one person, and carnival is the loneliness of a group of people." As Liu Tong wrote in "Your Loneliness, Although You Lost years of glory": "Not being in the group is the loneliness on the surface, and being in the group is the loneliness of the heart."
But it is this loneliness and the experience of loneliness that makes 1900 the only existence.
<h1>03 About "fear"</h1>
We know that when he was born in 1900, it was a kind crew member, Old Dan, who adopted him. He asked the crew, "What is Mommy?" The crew replied: "Mother is a horse."
The crew also told 1900: "Everything under the Virginia ship is bad, the turtles on land will eat you", "The orphanage is a big prison"...
Psychology believes that this fixed pattern of thinking that is presupposed in the mind affects a person's life. Danny Sr.'s words had the imprinting effect of "fear," which was irreversible and difficult to eliminate in the limited course of life in 1900. Therefore, 1900 always maintained a fear of land.
In The Pianist at Sea, 1900 had two chances to disembark. Once he met someone he liked and decided to get off the boat to try a new way of life, but standing in the middle of the stairs to disembark, he hesitated and finally chose to go back to the boat.
The other was when the Virginia was abandoned after World War II and eventually abandoned, and he had to get off the ship if he wanted to live. But he also chose to stay on board. We all can't help but ask, 1900 can fully rely on his musical prodigy, outstanding piano performance to earn fame and fortune, but why did he not leave the ship again and again, especially in the end he had to stay on the ship and die with the ship?
1900 himself replied, "That's not why I ended up on the ship, it wasn't what I saw that stopped me, it wasn't what I saw that stopped me." Do you understand?...... What I can't see is the future after I get off the ship, I can't see the end of the world. Using the piano analogy, the piano keys have a beginning and an end. As you know, the piano has a total of 88 keys,...... There is no infinite factor in it, you are the dominant factor of the infinite, and on those keys, the music you play is ever-changing.
I like this, I can only live this life, you get me on that springboard, and then all of a sudden you throw a keyboard in front of me with thousands of keys on it, and that's why I can't get off the ship, because they're endless..."
In fact, one of the reasons 1900 did not want to get off the ship was the fear in his heart. Because I don't know what that strange world is like, because I am afraid that there are too many unknowns in that strange world and I can't control my own destiny, because I am afraid that there are too many choices there and I don't know how to choose, because I am afraid that I can't be myself there... Fear, fear, in fact, is not just a state of existence in the 1900s, but actually an existential emotion that all of us have in common.
Heidegger, the founder of existentialism, proposed that fear is a fundamental emotion inherent in human beings.
People don't necessarily know what they're afraid of, but they're always worried, worried, and afraid. Not only people like the 1900s, but all of us have this fear in general – we are afraid that our goals will not be achieved, we are afraid of not getting what we want, we are afraid of losing what we have, we are afraid of our sense of control over the world... All of this shows that we have always lived in a state of fear. Man lives in the material world and in others, and he can neither influence the world nor others, nor even himself, so he is insecure.
<h1>Conclusion</h1>
Many viewers said that they could not understand "The Pianist of the Sea" before, but now they understand it. Perhaps it is because of the experience of a very wonderful metaphor for this film - the secular world is metaphorically the land world, and the self world is metaphorically referred to as the sea world.
1900 From beginning to end, in the world of the self, it is clear what you can control and what you cannot control. However, in the real world, secular people abound, and there are very few self-sober people.
The legendary existence of the 1900 self-pursuit is also destined to become a nothingness in the eyes of the world.