I watched it over and over four times. From the very beginning, I couldn't understand it, but I was greatly shocked, and gradually began to understand it one-sidedly.
The montage composed of high-speed surreal shots, symmetrical structure, the unity of opposites of the two heroine images, and the interlacing of reality and dream imagination, cause difficulty and ambiguity in understanding.
But I still try my best to explain my shallow understanding.
1. The contradiction between self and society
Elizabeth, the actor in the film, decided to have children because she was said to lack motherly love. He wanted to have an abortion because he was afraid that the child would delay his career development, and then hated his son.
Nurse Emma is also because her profession as a nurse can only listen and suppress her natural desire to talk. And because she wanted to play the role of a pure girlfriend, she chose to have an abortion.
In this society, we all suppress our individuality because of the opinions or opinions of others, because of our work or family status. This is the core contradiction between self and society.
2. Contradictions of silence and speech
This is the theme of this film.
As Elizabeth, because she doesn't like her son, she has to pretend to be a loving mother. She became aware of the hypocrisy between people in society, plus her job was to deliver false truth to the audience, so she started to keep silent. She was immersed in darkness, and the darkness represented the dead silence that was her new face. She casts a high wall with silence, trying to isolate reality from the outside, so that she doesn't have to say false words, make false actions or expressions. So she laughs when she hears the drama on the radio, because the falsehood is true relative to reality. It's terrifying to see a battle scene on TV, but the real world is hypocritical.
But as the doctor said: "A hopeless nightmare, not on the surface, but in essence, every waking moment is always vigilant, the war between the two... What other people think of you and who you are? A feeling of vertigo A persistent longing to be finally exposed Hope to be seen through, knocked down, even submerged Every deceitful proverb, every false look, every bitter smile to commit suicide? That's unbelievable You won't Do that but you can be silent and sit still, so at least you don't have to lie, you can shut yourself up and shut the world out so you don't have to play any role, make any fake expressions and gestures, you think so, but Reality is cruel And your hiding place isn't airtight, life is full of scams, you have to react No one cares if you tell the truth or lie, that only matters in the theater or even there is not why silence, why not play"
There is no airtight wall, as long as she is still in reality, she will continue to be exposed to this kind of falsehood.
Later, on the advice of the doctor, she went to the beach for a vacation, and Nurse Emma continued to take care of her. Being isolated from the world, she temporarily left the hypocrisy of society and began to have a better trend.
Here, Nurse Emma opened her heart to her, and told her that she longed to be like an old nurse in the hospital with a fake face, that she could only listen because of her professional relationship, and her experience of a promiscuous abortion. Because she wants to play a good nurse at work and a good lover emotionally, she suppressed her nature and put on a mask. In the process of speaking to Elizabeth, she took off her mask and made it clear to her that she wanted to be her on the inside, to be someone who was not hypocritical. And Elizabeth was also healed, and she heard the real voice that she couldn't hear in the real world.
But when Emma delivered a letter for Elizabeth, she read the content of her letter out of curiosity, and Elizabeth was doing a psychological experiment on her. She was very disappointed and wanted to hear her true thoughts from Elizabeth, but she remained silent. There was a fight between the two. Elizabeth beat her twice. She wanted to splash her with hot water. The meaning behind this behavior was disfigurement, which meant tearing off her mask. Elizabeth smiled, because her experiment was successful, and Emma took off her mask, but this expression was a mockery of her in Emma's eyes. Afterwards, Emma asked Elizabeth, can't she break the silence and reveal her true self? Elizabeth was indifferent. Emma goes on to say that her inability to reveal who she is in this way is because of her depravity, because she wears the mask of silence. Elizabeth rushed out of the door angrily, and Emma apologized to her, but she did not accept it. Because like Emma said, she is arrogant, she doesn't give in, and doesn't think it's necessary. Emma could only cry on the reef alone.
Then came Emma's dream: she was treated as Elizabeth by Elizabeth's husband, reconciled with him, and had sex with him. During the trial of Elizabeth, Elizabeth bit her arm angrily, and then she slapped Elizabeth several times, and the two fused together during the trial. The last two reconciled in the ward. During the trial, Emma grabbed the air, which meant tearing off Elizabeth's mask. Then said to her: I will never become you, don't bother me again.
Elizabeth and Emma represent two ideas of Bergman, one is to hate the hypocrisy of the real world and use silence to protect oneself. The other is to wear a mask and use falsehood to make yourself comfortable in this world. So under Elizabeth's experiment, Emma took off her mask and began to reveal her true heart. Under Emma's trial, Elizabeth also took off her mask, broke the silence, and said nothing to Emma. The two finally reconciled and merged into one. We can neither face the world with false words, nor be incompatible with the world with silence. What we need is to reveal our true self.
Elizabeth has a total of three lines: the first "don't sleep on the table", which may be Emma's imagination, representing the intimacy of the relationship between the two. The second sentence, "Don't," signifies the breakup of the relationship. The third sentence "It's okay" represents the reconciliation of the two.
3. Conflict between mother and daughter
The film involves the "Epoulos" plot in the psychoanalytic theory, but it is a female version.
There is a huge identity gap between Elizabeth as an actor and Emma as a nurse, and they are destined to not get along as equals. So she wept beside her as Emma gradually confided, guided by Elizabeth. When you fall asleep at the table, you will hear Elizabeth say: Don't sleep on the table. It was what she longed in her heart to say to her from Elizabeth. This is Elizabeth becoming the mother image in her mind, so she wants to become Elizabeth. In the close-up of the two people in the dark, her image gradually moves closer to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth is also taller than her behind her.
When Emma knew that Elizabeth was experimenting with her, she fantasized about stabbing her in the foot with a blade, giving her physical punishment. But in reality, she can only question her mother, and when she can't get an answer, she wants to kill her mother with hot water. But afterward, I wanted my mother to forgive me, but I couldn't. Finally, in the dream, Emma finally married her father and had sex with him. Then a spiritual trial was carried out on the mother, and the final victory was achieved. But in the end the two reconciled.
The film also has some discussion about the nature of the film. For example, the picture taken by the photographer at the end, the picture of the film melting, tells us that this is actually just a movie. But unlike Godard's theory of alienation, the director is not trying to get the audience to make sense of the film. It's like the image on camera is actress Elizabeth, but it's actually nurse Emma. The film itself is also a mask, and the feelings we get may not be the same as those expressed by the director.
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