Wen | nagging beans
In Bergman's "Faith Trilogy", "Winter Light" is one of his most proud films, and it is also an epic work that filmmakers must learn and interpret. Although the spatial modeling in this film is only a church and a small town, Bergman can make the network of characters connect together in such a closed space, and with the changes in the relationship between the characters, the film gradually rises to the spiritual level: "Faith" and "love" and other themes are also delicately revealed like flowing water.
Bergman's film style is extremely tense, and the obvious Nordic spatial shape, obsession with religion, and control of the inner world of the characters in the film have become Bergman's most prominent film labels. In "Winter Light", the director has played such a "personal" image style to the fullest.
Throughout the film, the whole film is more like a letter from Bergman's inner world, he focuses on the praying crowd in the church, although there is no ups and downs of the storyline, but in just 90 minutes, the director clearly presents the relationship between the characters on the screen, making the film rise to the "allegorical layer", poetically exploring the director's understanding of "God's love".
In "Winter Light", the director brings the film to a level of unity between heaven and man through the meticulous character relationships. If Karin in the "Faith Trilogy" is talking to God, then in WinterLight Thomas is talking to a silent God.
The plot of the movie is very simple, only interpreting the four hours of the characters in the church and the inner monologue, but it directly shows the helplessness of Thomas's inner world. Thomas constantly preaches Christian love, faithfully believes in God, and insists that love is the proof of God's existence, but what happens to Thomas is extremely cold, and Thomas is just talking to a silent God day after day.
It is this highly personal video style, from the perspective of constructing the relationship between the characters, that makes it easy for the viewer to enter Thomas's inner world, so that the viewer can perceive Thomas's helplessness in just 90 minutes, and it is the poetic rise of the film to the level of discussion of "faith" and "love". But watching this film repeatedly makes it difficult to perceive what the director really thinks. Therefore, I will learn from Bergman's director's notes to analyze with the viewer one by one from the four aspects of editing techniques, film themes, image styles, and lighting design, and feel the textbook charm of "Winter Light" together.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >01, the director uses the ambiguity of time and space to present a unique treatment method with meticulous editing techniques</h1>
When it comes to the blurring of time and space, it is handled very cleverly in Bergman's films, especially in "Winter Light", and Bergman uses this clever cutting technique to the extreme. This meticulous cut was also placed by Bergman in the first paragraph of the director's notes, and the book reads: "There must be some skill in the film, a strange skill."
For example, ten minutes after the start of Winter Light, in the church lounge, the priest and colleagues gossip, as the narrative montage advances to the fisherman couple enter the lounge.
In my opinion, this dialogue scene of just a few minutes is a great demonstration of the director's pure audiovisual design skills, and Bergman uses a unique and stylized cut to edit the scene in a unique and stylized way. This editing method cleverly blurs the time very much, in addition, the space is also cleverly compressed into a few simple actions. In the entire drama paragraph, the viewer can not see the slightest superfluous action of the characters, nor can he fully perceive the length and cumbersomeness of the lens cut. The overall scheduling of the actors and the coordination of the shots are delicate that all films in the ancient and modern Chinese and foreign film circles cannot do.
In addition, in Bergman's director's notes, he also wrote: "For example, the first scene received the Communion, I originally thought that the space hole, but also after several times to find that in Gryrlin's three shots suddenly became full of chasing and questioning meaning." ”
After watching "Winter Light" repeatedly, I have to admit that this is the innate editing method of director Bergman, as written in his notes, if the three shots of Ingriturn are really abandoned, the whole scene will seem boring, and it will lack a poetic beauty, and as Bergman said, the characters will not become full of chase and questioning and will not be strongly presented on the screen.
Throughout the history of film, whether it is "Twelve Angry Men" or "Rashomon" that is not as delicate as "The Light of the Winter Solstice" in the editing technique, director Bergman is like a precise measuring instrument, in "Winter Light" all the pictures and the rhythm of dialogue are precisely controlled by Bergman, which shows the director's superb directing skills.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >02, the film has a very poetic film theme, sublimating Bergman's inner world thinking</h1>
Throughout the film "Winter Light", it shows the director's exploration and thinking about the relationship between man and God. If Karin of "Still in the Mirror" can talk to God, then Thomas of "Winterlight" is having a difficult conversation with the silent God. As the title suggests, the winter light is only a short return, and it cannot dispel the reincarnation that time brings us.
The God that Thomas worships in the film is like this winter light, he proves the existence of God by preaching love, but in real life, what happens around him is like the ice and snow after the winter light has receded, and the indifference of human nature is vividly displayed in the film. The story told in "Winter Light" is very simple, only recording the four hours of life of the relevant characters. The whole 90 minutes have no ups and downs in the story structure, it is all the dialogue of the characters: there is a conversation and an inner monologue.
However, in my opinion, although there are no strong motivating events and contradictions in the film, it presents the viewer with Bergman's unique insight into "ideal and reality" and the essence of "human nature". Whether it was Jonas, who originally wanted to eliminate suicidal thoughts, accelerated his suicide pace under Thomas's advice or finally confronted Thomas, who was ruthless and lacking in faith, under Marta's pursuit. The director is expounding the theme of the film with the help of the mouth of the character.
I think on the surface, the film is exploring religious conundrums, but in fact it is more than that, Thomas's ruthlessness, emotional doom. The church is like Thomas's inner world, he encloses himself in the "pure land" of his fantasies, isolating all emotions. In fact, from Thomas's experience, the viewer can more clearly feel the spiritual journey of many people in the development of modern Western civilization, as the line says: "From traditional devout faith to doubt about God, to introspection and regain faith." ”
This poetic theme is also sublimated at the end of the film, and with the hymn of the church in the film, Bergman also evolves the religious problem of God's faith into the existence of philosophy and then into a psychological field.
In addition, the relationship between love and redemption is explored more deeply in "Winter Light" and is also one of the important themes of the film. Thomas proves the existence of God by preaching love, but in real life, people who love each other have the farthest distance. The death of his wife in the film also replaces Thomas purely. As the film begins, everything that happens here is meaningless, and as the title suggests, the winter sun can't really warm people's hearts.
Everyone escapes, as the closing line says: "When the problem is unsolvable, people can only deceive and even anesthetize themselves through lies" Just one line vividly expounds the theme of "love and redemption".
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >03, the plot is very personal image style, metaphorically the spiritual core behind the story</h1>
In Bergman's world of images, the ideas expressed in Winterlight have pre-emptively added strength and effectiveness to Karin's fantasy of God. In the film, Bergman exiles the imagination, incorporating elements of religious belief and speculation about God perfectly into the film.
The only connection between the two films is that the former is the starting point for the latter. It is this highly personal image style, religious film label that makes the film unique poetic spiritual core, condensing the "truth of the heart" that Bergman has been diligently seeking for many years. At the beginning of Winter Light, Bergman "rang the bell of the tower thickly and clearly." At the end of the film, Bergman also uses the words of the bell ringer Algot to indicate that the time before and after the crucifixion of Jesus was "about an hour."
In my opinion, the detailed handling of these two scenes opens up the inner universe of Thomas and Jesus, two characters of different time and space. Thomas suffered physically. As the plot progresses, Marta tells the viewer, "The silence of God, the silence of God, God never spoke, because God does not exist, it is very simple." The film also constantly shows elements of Jesus crucified. Such an obvious film label also elevates Bergman's "Winter Light" to a poetic allegorical layer, becoming a long monologue of Bergman's spiritual world.
The control of the light and shadow of "Winter Light" is also very exquisite, although it is a black and white film, but through the shaping of light and shadow, the picture highlights a rich sense of layering and depth effects at the same time, it also enriches the theme expression of the film.
For example, in a long shot of two-thirds of the film: the priest and the lover are in the car, in my opinion, in this dramatic passage, the camera accurately captures the twilight sky in the extreme day, using low-light illumination to make the picture present a unique beauty, this sense of light makes the film instantly have a sense of desolation, showing a tone of God's coming, delicately portraying the inner world of the characters at that time.
This film is not only a classic film that can be watched in the afternoon leisure, but also carries the guidance and enlightenment of the viewers on the road of life, and the director presents the interpretation of "Winter Light" in a superb way, bringing the audience a long history of life thinking.