If the transformation of God into a giant spider in 1961's "In the Mirror" is a spiritual dialogue between religious fanatics and God, then the second part of Bergman's "Religious Trilogy" in 1963, "WinterLights", highlights the embarrassing situation of God's messenger priest by marginalizing this giant spider.
"Still in the Mirror" as the starting point of "Winter Light", the priest's blessing evolved into a spider symbol of the devil, and "Winter Light" through the priest Thomas love and faith conflict and game to expound the fact of Jesus' defeat, through the continuous questioning of the icon, holy relics, the Holy Spirit, Thomas has the opportunity and conditions to communicate with God on the spiritual level, but it is such a person who believes in God is caught in the endless pain of "doubt". The film creates a sense of intensity and absurdity through the change of light and shade of the lens, in which the composition and editing of the shots are in a gloomy and calm style, and the narrative theme of "God derailment" is clearly presented to the audience, while the desolate church scene shows the weight and value of doubt. For a Swedish audience, a priest's questioning of God is clearly heavier, and the resulting reflections are more authentic and believable.
Today, I will talk about the artistic characteristics of "Winter Light", through Bergman's unique narrative style and scene construction to express his understanding of love, religion and life, the 80-minute film story is bland, but the connotation is rich and profound, showing Bergman's as deep and obscure as ever.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > unconventional language of gloomy melancholy shots, with the pain of questioning God behind every picture</h1>
The reason why the film can become an independent art form is inseparable from the lens aesthetic composed of camera movement, the picture can not only present the psychological changes of the characters, enhance the dramatic tension of the film plot, but also create things that do not exist in reality and give them unusual magical significance.
The film's cameraman, Severn Naviste, is Bergman's royal videographer and a master of black-and-white films. He particularly emphasizes the relationship between light and picture, especially for Bergman's discussion of "existentialism", often creating some non-existent things "out of nothing", so it is more necessary to guide the audience's psychology with a unique lens language, so that the picture and the theme are tacitly combined.
The question of religion belongs to the secular view that prevails all over the world, so the scene and light are particularly important, and after the location is determined as a church, the light problem becomes a factor affecting the "texture" of the film.
In order to set off the theme, in the most sunny afternoon, we can find that no shot can see the sun, which shows that the Western requirements for light are not ordinary. In the usual sense, the light of this weather does not change. As pastor Thomas's doubts about God deepened, some changes needed to be made in the light, so Severn sat in the church for several days, taking a picture every ten minutes to observe the change in the light, and finally found that the light that was best suited to this effect was the absence of a shadow. To this end, he built some special mirrors and large screens, mixing some large wax paper and indirect lighting. This innovative way of filming makes each picture have a unique artistic beauty, which has a qualitative leap from the previous Bergman's film texture. Like Spanish said, "Do you want to keep shooting the same thing over and over again?" Art needs to be borrowed, and it needs to be innovated."
In 1963, when Bergman took makeup photos for the actors, he did not hesitate to spend a lot of time and energy to ensure that the picture was perfect, and the actors were asked to reshoot the picture over and over again until they found the most suitable effect. Bergman's presentation of art was quite strict, and his standards remained unchanged for more than two decades. It is precisely because of the excellence of every detail, the relationship and thought of the characters in the picture that magically flow, the film without color can be so beautiful, and behind the magnificence is a metaphor for a deeper thought: because of the pain caused by questioning God.
Thomas confides the truth of his heart to Jonas in a dream, at which point the camera pushes toward Thomas's face, the iron fence behind him emits a soft light, the sun seems to protrude from the hazy clouds, shining on the walls, icons, and pulpits, and Thomas shouts out the most important sentence in the whole film, "I am free, I am finally free." The light of hope in the cruel winter makes it possible to abandon God, and this brilliance is the spiritual release brought about by the liberation of the shackles of the soul, Bergman said, "Only when filming 'Winter Light' can I freely release my psychological feelings from oppression, and at this time God, whether dead or alive, has disappeared without a trace."
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > a metaphor for a desolation and abandoned church, and the double torture of body and feeling exacerbates the degree of mental suffering</h1>
The most important scenes in the film take place in the church. The church is the original intention of the concept of this film, and it is also the place where spiritual shackles are formed and liberated. The reason for choosing a abandoned closed church as the story scene has a strong religious thinking meaning in itself. Bergman grew up witnessing his father toiling all his life as a priest in the pulpit, and in his father's later years, he wanted to take such an opportunity to reconcile with his father spiritually, for the priest, the physical fever and cold and emotional imminent death tested Thomas's will at all times, but more crucially, the church as a place of faith supported the role of the hint.
In the opening scene, Thomas says that "the world is cold and orderly, and man is only a weak and mutilated creature, a vague, deformed, sickly prisoner of instinct." The words revealed thomas's inner pain and numbness. A fisherman, fearful of the fear of war, asked for the Lord's comfort, but in the face of his own wavering faith, Thomas tried to speak several times, and God's advice kept echoing in the church, and in such a state of mind, Thomas said, "If God really does not exist, then what does it matter?" If that were the case, then we would have explained everything well."
In Sweden at the time, the mention of God seemed to be a blasphemy, but Thomas could neither face his own heart nor wanted to deceive his followers. The film focuses on his vicious facial expression, on the one hand, the physical discomfort makes the mood particularly melancholy, on the other hand, Thomas asks the fisherman, "Why do we have to live?" Unable to give an answer, his weakness and impotence looked comical in the face of God's grace. At this time, Bergman touched the deepest reflection of the soul, and the solemnity of the church was always associated with the tired posture and the lack of faith, thus rendering a sad atmosphere beyond the desperate situation.
The death of his wife after suffering from cancer is in stark contrast to his lover Marta's total disbelief in God, and in the church, Thomas's romantic faith is sought after by the faithful, and he accompanies the old man as a messenger of God and sings hymns, the satisfaction of which is self-evident. But after his wife's death, his faith collapsed, heralding God's departure. The appearance of the lover Marta is quite speculative, is this woman sent by God to save him or to torture him? Marta and Thomas are connected, but she does not approve of God, and every time she prays for love and security, she asks Thomas countless times about marriage but does not end. It can be said that Thomas would never marry someone of a different faith, but as the faith disintegrated, Thomas gradually realized that this power was gradually disappearing. He heard his inner voice" and said, "The most important reason is that I don't want you."
Through the game between Thomas and Marta, the film allows the audience to experience the struggle between love and spirit. Marta will always be the one to give in, and her life cannot be without Thomas, and Thomas is no longer god, but in the fear of professional ethics. He chose to stay away from this church and move to other areas. But can a change of location solve his lack of faith? Obviously not. The film's attitude towards this is obvious, for Thomas, the priesthood is no longer a messenger of God, but degenerated into a means of livelihood, the story has an emotional connection with the Passion of jesus, but the essence still points to the silent God, and the death of the fisherman continues to herald God's inaction, becoming the theme of Bergman's continued work.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > modern version of the Passion of the Christ destroys the value of God, and human beings are the masters of revaluing all values</h1>
The film condenses the truth of Bergman's heart that he has been working on for years, and he once said, "I made this film because I really wanted to make it, and the way I made it was completely uncompromising to the public." I know it's a difficult film, but I think I've managed to convey a number of truths, the truths of this crisis of the mind that I've struggled to describe for years."
Thomas believed in God in a cold, lonely modern society, but suffered from the three torments of the body, the ridicule and scorn of friends, and the silence of God, a process very similar to the Passion of Jesus, and even in time. The Bible records that Jesus was brought before the chief priest "about noon", and the film begins with the fact that one Sunday at noon, the tower bell rings 12 times thickly and clearly, and at the end of the bell ringer, Argot mentions that Jesus' crucifixion was "about 4 hours", and throughout the film, Thomas's torment lasted for 4 hours, and Bergman used this metaphor to show the inner world of two different time and space characters, and more importantly, the mental suffering behind the body.
The reason why Thomas is suffering is the incomprehension of others, the separation or estrangement of relatives, and the two women in Thomas's life have brought him pain. His wife let him experience the revelation of "God is Love" in "In the Mirror", allowing him to escape the ugly reality. But his wife still left him after the dream was shattered, and the church colleague said, "When she was really sick, no one believed her." Then she fell ill and died, probably not as a fake, but as obvious." Thomas's faith in God was thus clouded with dust. The lover Marta has a strong personality, and the "disgusting eczema" makes this sloppy woman ugly, and her views are even more contrary to Thomas's "God's silence, God has never spoken, because God does not exist, this is very simple", whether love is physical pleasure or spiritual enjoyment, this is worthy of the audience's reflection.
Jesus spent three years in communication with his followers, living together every day, only to be abandoned by the multitudes, and the same was true of the situation faced by the pastor, who abandoned him one after another, and the spiritual blow that Jesus suffered on the cross was no less than the pain that Jesus suffered on the cross. The lonely Thomas, like a symbol of Jesus, reminds people of Nietzsche's claim to "revaluing all values."
The greatest value of "God is dead" is to remind people that they are the masters of life. Nietzsche, who once saw the dawn in the darkness, called attention to the spiritual life of modern people, including the collapse of traditional values, the lack of faith, the mediocrity of culture, and the loss of self. Looking at these phenomena, which persist even in the present age and are becoming more and more obvious, Thomas's crucifixion is of deep reflection.
Everyone's life is unique and vibrant, when the long-suppressed spirit is liberated, the search for the meaning of life becomes the primary task, Thomas believes that "love is the proof of God's existence", but in a suffocating atmosphere again and again failed, for the meaning of love and redemption, "winter light" let him give up self-anesthesia, bravely face life, although God does not exist, but our desire for a better life has never changed, so revaluing all values is so important and urgent.
Bergman presents the profound connotation of the work of art with condensed film narrative and lens language, without too much dramatic conflict but condensed complex philosophical thinking, and the use of sound, the rhythm of light, the profound lines and metaphorical scenes in each place allow the audience to enter the heart of the priest and think about the relationship between God and mankind, bringing more than "God, why abandon me?" "Helplessness, but a re-identification with human self-worth." On this level, Bergman presents not a story of despair, but a feast of love.