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The French philosopher Roland Barthes believed that the true meaning of photography was "this existence".
"I see that this thing was once there, in the place between infinity and that person (the photographer); it used to exist there, but it was soon separated; it was absolutely there, unquestionably existent, but it has been removed."
This view is not credible in today's computer retouching and one-click beauty. But in the last century, photography was a symbol of authenticity.
It's just that the truth of photography is still the reality of the surface after all, and as for the deep truth, the following movie gives a perfect answer.
"Unowned" 丨 2018
Work without author
Director / Writer: Florian Heinkel von Donas Mark
Starring: Tom Shirin / Sebastian Koch / Paula Bell / Sascia Rosendale / Oliver Masuch
The director is Florian Heinkel von Donas Mark, known as the "German Lee", and the name is difficult to remember, but you must know his past works.
His debut film "Eavesdropping Storm", filmed at the age of 33, won the 79th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, with a Douban score of 9.1, ranking top 44 in Douban.
The second work, "Fatal Companion", a typical Hollywood commercial suspense film, was released in 2011, the male protagonist Depp, the female protagonist Angelina Jolie, although the reputation is far less than "Eavesdropping Storm", but it is also decent.
These two films are also the only two feature films in Florian's first 20 years.
Until last year's release of "No Master".
Florian once again proved his super directing skills to the world with his third work.
The film not only scored a high score of 8.5 on Douban, but also received nominations for last year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Venice Golden Lion Award.
Unfortunately, in the competition for these two major awards, "Masterless" lost to the same film "Roma", but its own light was not weakened.
The Masterless chronicles the upheaval of modern Germany over the past 30 years, from 1937 to 1966.
These include the rise and fall of Hitler's regime, World War II, Nazi racial policy, eugenics, the division of Germany into East and West Germany due to its defeat, and the construction of the Berlin Wall by the East German government.
The time span is 30 years, and the duration is the same as 3 hours, which is difficult not to remind people of Wang Xiaoshuai's "Long Days and Long Days".
If "Long Days on Earth" tells the changing times with a family as the carrier, then "Masterless Works" tells a "real" history based on the growth experience of an artist Kurt from infancy to middle age.
The story begins in 1937.
At the exhibition "Decadent Art" in Dresden, Aunt Elizabeth pointed to a painting by Kandinsky and whispered to the young Kurt after no one had left: "Don't tell anyone, I like this painting." ”
What is even more surprising is that the staff of the art exhibition pointed to Kandinsky's "dotted line surface" work and told the visitors: "This kind of painting can also be drawn by children." "
Kandinsky was the founder of modern abstract art on the basis of theory and practice, and his paintings are recognized as symbols of art.
Why is such a pioneer of modern art so worthless here?
This is related to the social background of Germany at that time.
In the first half of the 20th century, modernist art was in full swing, but the Nazis hated it, believing that modern art was "pathological, immoral, Jewish, and anti-German."
Even as early as the 1920s, the Nazi Party had already charged modern art with a crime: Entartete Kunst.
In 1937, the Nazi Party collected more than 650 modernist works of art and held a special "Decadent Art" touring exhibition throughout the country.
In order to make the people dislike modernist art, the government-hired commentators did everything in their defamation in their commentaries.
What Kurt and his aunt Elizabeth watched was one of them.
In totalitarian systems, art has no freedom, which is about equal to skill. Artists are no longer artists, but laborers.
In this environment, Elizabeth, who can frankly say "I like this painting", undoubtedly truly understands art.
At the same time, she is also a "madman" in the eyes of the people around her.
Obsessed with music, Elizabeth would ask several bus drivers in the parking lot to honk their horns at the same time, while she herself waved her hands like a conductor and indulged in the concert of high-pitched "las".
La, in Elizabeth's view, is the highest level of notes that contain all the musical forces, the life forces, and the cosmic forces.
She was naked and played the piano.
"People are looking for the formula that makes up the world, but it's here, on the keys, on the table, even on my head."
Elizabeth showed off her beautiful body and face without hesitation, playing "la" with her ashtray and constantly tapping her head, completely oblivious to the blood that snaked down her face.
She found the truth of the world, but was also sent to a mental hospital, forced sterilization, and killed in a gas chamber.
However, no matter what cruel things happen, she always repeats a sentence to Kurt: never take your eyes off the truth, all real things are beautiful.
Elizabeth's 188-minute run is a small amount of time, but she is the core of the whole film, and it can even be said that the spirit of art lies.
Elizabeth dared to face herself, to face the truth, to be obsessed and crazy in art.
Just like in Li Cangdong's "Burning", the heroine dances naked in the glow of the sunset, Elizabeth waves her hands to the sound of the horn in the parking lot, and plays naked in front of the piano, they have reached the most primitive and real state of life.
Nietzsche drew inspiration from Wagner's performance to write The Birth of Tragedy, Schelling said that "architecture is solidified music", And Hauptmann also said that "music is fluid architecture".....
Many things in the world seem unrelated, but art can make them communicable.
Kurt, who has received Elizabeth's pursuit of the true transmission of the spirit of art, grows up and runs in the wheat field, ecstatically telling his father that he has discovered the mysteries of this world.
Even when he went to work in a printing house, he could write a standard print without a template.
During off-hours, I use the pen from the factory to secretly draw my favorite paintings.
Later, he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in East Germany and studied paintings of "social realism".
Even if Picasso becomes an "unscrupulous formalist" in the classroom, even if the paintings are all Wei Guangzheng's realistic style propaganda posters, Kurt can enjoy it.
Here, Kurt understands only one-third of artistic creation, that is, copying real objects.
Luckily, Kurt met a very beautiful woman in the course of her studies, whose name was Elizabeth, the same name as her aunt.
The two men and women, made in heaven, fell in love very quickly, went to bed, became pregnant, and got married.
The next third of the realization was initiated by his wife, Elizabeth.
Kurt and his wife fled East Germany to West Germany, where the art atmosphere was more open, entered the Düsseldorf Art Academy, and met the guiding teacher in life.
Professor Antonios told Kurt the two most important points in artistic creation: freedom and self.
First of all, the artist "does not choose a party, choose art."
Only in art is freedom not an illusion. ”
Secondly, artistic creation needs "personality" and "self", otherwise it is just "handmade work".
The professor told Kurt: "René Descartes used to doubt everything, to doubt all the things that gave rise to hallucinations, deceptions, imaginations, and in the end the uncertainty that all this thinking produced was called 'me.' ”
This passage inspired Kurt, who burned his former works and began to search for himself.
The last third of art was triggered by Kurt's artistic enlightenment aunt, Elizabeth.
Her phrase "All that is true is beautiful" reminds Kurt that he has finally found his own way of expressing itself.
That is, copy the real photo, and then blur it with a brush after it is completed.
Kurt found that people didn't like their own pictures, but they liked their own portraits, perhaps thinking that "the truth of the photographs is copied, but the truth of the paintings is the heart".
Therefore, Kurt also refuses to explain his work, because every viewer can be an author, and can project his own experiences and emotions onto the painting.
This is the origin and essence of "Masterless Works".
It is worth mentioning that the story of the film is based on the artist Gerhard Richter.
Gerhard has set a record for the highest auction price for a living artist and has been hailed as "the most influential contemporary artist".
His aunt Marianne was sterilized and euthanized by the Nazis in 1945 for "schizophrenia," and Gerhard's first wife was also called Marianne.
Like most of the real characters who have been adapted, Mr. Gerhard is not happy with the film, and he does not believe it is a qualified biopic.
In fact, it is normal for Gerhard to be dissatisfied, because from the perspective of characters and plot, "Masterless" is indeed not a biopic in the true sense.
It's so beautiful.
Some say that "Masterless" is "a masterpiece that can nail you to your seat for three hours and dare not look away."
This evaluation may be too prestigious, but objectively speaking, the film is really beautiful enough to make you unable to take your eyes off it.
The actor's appearance alone is enough to be "beautiful".
German Film Awards Film Emperor Tom. Shirin plays kurt as an adult, not only looks like a young "little plum" style (focus, young), but also has a very prominent acting skill, interpreting the artist's path of exploration from confusion to determination very well.
There are also two Elizabeths starring Paula Bell and Saskia Rosendaul.
The two actresses left the country naked, so beautiful that "everything becomes unromantic, and falling in love with you becomes too easy".
Similarly, the use of photography and lens in the film is enough to describe it as beautiful.
For example, the 360-degree rotating lens of Aunt Elizabeth in the parking lot brings the audience into the mood, making all madness a matter of course, becoming the ultimate reality, and the laughter is even more intoxicating.
For example, when Kurt is painting, the camera is shot in from the outside, and he instantly becomes part of the painting.
With the phrase "You stand on the bridge and look at the scenery, and the people who watch the scenery look at you upstairs." The bright moon decorates your window, and you decorate other people's dreams" has the same magic.
The cinematography and lighting of "Masterless" changes with the change of plot and content, and like the theme of the film, it transcends the surface reality and enters the deep reality, adding a freehand part.
The hero behind all this, the photographer Caleb De Chanel, also has to mention.
From 1984's "Space Pioneer" to 2018's "Masterless", he has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography six times.
However, whether it is the film's reference to Mr. Gerhard's life experience, or the exquisite actors, photography, lighting, and composition, they are just tools used by directors to reveal the truth of art.
"Only artists can regain the freedom they seek after this catastrophe."
The tragedies caused by the times will eventually pass with time, and only the spirit of human beings seeking freedom and self through art will be immortalized.
Text/Pippi Film Special Author: Tong Yunxi
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