Several Notes on "Mask"

Ian 2021-12-07 08:01:40

Actors and nurses

Elizabeth is an actor, facing countless fictional scenes every day, it is her bounden duty to "true" express false feelings. Emma is a nurse who undertakes the duty of rescuing the dying and the wounded. Here, what she needs to "rescue" more is the gloom and trauma of the patient's psychology.

Elizabeth suddenly became speechless during the rehearsal one day. The strange thing was that there was no audience in front of the stage. She turned around slowly, from facing the stage to facing us in front of the camera, throwing the confusion and pain accumulated in her thoughts to the movie audience behind the "fourth wall". The silence began. This is where the self-examination begins.

When Emma appeared, she stood upright with her hands behind her back and a solemn white wall behind her, symbolizing order and rules. She is a little nervous about the upcoming job, and is far less confident in her personal life prospects. This anxiety stems from the unequal status of the two (a successful actor vs. a fledgling nurse), but also from her resistance to the silent instinct-it seems that silence will lead to the unspeakable ones in her heart. The demons of people, and the deeper anxiety behind the seemingly peaceful life. The later storyline also confirms that the process of Emma's contact with Elizabeth is exactly the process of "removing" her role as a nurse.

An actor is tired of being an actor, and a nurse finds that he is more than just a nurse.

Silence and speech

The most exciting part of the movie is the confrontation between silence and words. The two are both dualistically opposed and have the same root. If Elizabeth's (intentional) silence is to get closer to her own soul through the blockade of outside life, then Emma's endless chatter, isn't it a "fragmented" anatomy and digging of the self? The two are just trying to perceive and touch their souls in different ways.

At the same time, there is a wonderful thing, the film also shows the interdependence between silence and speech. Silence is a container of speech, and speech makes silence more comfortable and natural-the confrontation between the two is also a nourishment for each other in a sense. Just think about it, if the "letter door" didn't happen, the two of them could actually continue their state of "speaking and listening" forever.

However, silence and speech are, after all, two "very different creatures" and two different "rules of the game." Silence is communication giving way to self-indulgence, while speaking is calling for trust and honesty between people. Bergman juxtaposes the two in "Mask", and through the encounter between Elizabeth and Emma, ​​he describes the limitations of the two, and it is very possible that silence and speech are in a confrontation between "unarmored" , Will bring greater danger and disaster.

Social machinery and rules

Nurses, words, combine the two, behind which are the underlying social machinery and rules. The image of the hospital couldn't be more obvious, and the whole process of the story can be summarized as the "repair" of Elizabeth's aphasia. Regardless of the way, intentionally or unintentionally, letting Elizabeth speak again and return to the acting stage is the real "cure" and recovery for her.

Words appear in the film as a weapon of "repulsion" of silence, and this weapon is quite "relentless" because it is more "not allowed" for silence rather than filling in good faith, and the purity and sacred identity of the nurse's role is also for this. "Rectification" of a "treatment" method. At the same time, Emma's attitude towards life and fertility also represents a kind of "social voice". It is an education of Elizabeth, an accusation of "stains" in her personal life, and a silence for herself who belongs to Elizabeth. The resounding counterattack.

However, Bergman did not allow the film to remain on this single level. What is superimposed on Emma's breaking of Elizabeth's silence is the latter's attempt to "study" and watch the former from a higher perspective. Not to mention whether communication and sharing in the absolute sense between souls is possible, Emma's contrast before and after seeing the letter undoubtedly reflects the fragility behind the so-called sincerity and communication, and the fragility of the social relationship rules established thereby.

Women and motherhood

The film focuses on two women, one seems to be confident in their married life, and the other is actually struggling in their married life. Emma had an abortion decisively in her early years because she "knows" that she was not ready to be a mother; Elizabeth gave birth to a child under social pressure because she still wanted to be a "qualified" mother in the eyes of others. Emma confessed to Elizabeth about the demon in her heart. The unforgettable sexual experience on the beach was her deepest hesitation in front of the gate of marriage; behind Elizabeth’s silence was the separation and estrangement between her and her son. It was revealed mercilessly in the second half of the film.

In different stages of the film, Emma and Elizabeth were put on the "trial bench" to accept the definition and judgment of their female and maternal identity from the eyes of everyone. Emma said that the night on the beach was so different from her other talks, the light and dark of the scene, the sound of the boat flute in the background, and the distance between her and Elizabeth was also stretched very far. It seems that this time The film no longer presents the communication between the two of them, but Emma's silent trial for everyone, the masses and society. In this confession, for the first time, she specifically explained how she was upset about the upcoming marriage.

At the end of the film, Bergman repeated the accusation of Elizabeth's "lack of maternal love" twice with great arrogance, describing the plausibility of the accuser and the panic and consternation of the accused from two positions respectively. But don't forget that the two of them also share the identity of women and motherhood. Today's Elizabeth may be tomorrow's Emma. Even if it is not the case, their respective confusions and "faults", hesitation and perseverance all reflect and examine this heavy identity.

Mirror and face

Mirrors and faces are the most focused symbols of the director in "Mask." At the beginning of the movie, the face of a woman that the little boy wanted to touch, Emma's confession when she wiped her face before going to bed, the gaze of the two in the mirror, and the focus of the two faces when they were two identical complaints, and the final "fit", Interspersed with the entire Bergman storytelling process. The name of the movie "Mask" is also related to the face.

Face is not only a personal identity, but also an externalized expression of inner psychology, connecting everyone's inner emotions. The similarity of the two faces alludes to the fusion of the two hearts behind the chase. In front of the mirror, Emma looked at herself and Elizabeth fascinated, fantasizing that she became another person similar to her.

At the same time, the face also refers to the mask. The film focuses on the process of exploring the heart and self of the two after removing their masks. But when the mask is torn apart and two faces that are similar in spite of being pieced together, we feel extremely uncomfortable. Perhaps, the "reality" behind the mask was originally so unbearable and scary, so human beings need such a "mask" too much to face and bear the pressure of life.

The most horrifying scene in the movie appeared when Emma almost poured hot water on Elizabeth. Elizabeth screamed. Although the physical face was still there, the silent "disguise" was revealed, waiting for her. It is a further distrust and verbal attack. The horror of this scene stems from a deeper fear of "disfigurement" itself. Emma took his hand, and Bergman didn't cruelly tell us what we were left with after the face was completely ruined. Perhaps the residual horror itself was the meaning of "masks".

Reference: The Persistence of Persona By Thomas Elsaesser

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Extended Reading
  • Theodore 2022-03-26 09:01:05

    Three brushes. 1. Ending with the beginning and end of the film itself, the symbols of the old film are constantly interspersed and reproduced (penis, Jesus, lamb, child, old man), Bergman kneads his sincerity and all kinds of past experiences into a rubbing mask. Resurrection boy, looking directly at the most real suffering and suffering of human inner emotions in the incoherent and deep dream. The screen that is intended to be a mirror is the entrance for the audience to enter the character's thoughts. 2. Women are Bergman's favorite narrative carriers and anatomical objects. He is also used to depicting women as individuals and extending them to refer to the macro level of society. Two women who are placed in the same situation and reflect each other, the listener who refuses to communicate and the narrator who is eager to communicate, the faces overlap and the split personality. Society, family, stage, no matter where we are, we can't strip away the mask. | "Every time you wake up from a dream, be vigilant: how others see you, and who you really are; every deceitful saying, every fake expression, every bitter smile. You won't choose suicide, but you can be silent" . 3. Boiling water, glass slag. 4. The repetition of text paragraphs, high-contrast light sources set off the characters' thoughts. (9.5/10)

  • Angela 2021-12-07 08:01:40

    The story is simple, the theme is deep and heavy; the surface is calm, and the bottom is turbulent and shocking. I am also a temporary aphasia, but only temporarily, I still continue to speak, because I can't get rid of reality and the crowd.

Persona quotes

  • Sister Alma: At the hospital where I took my exam, there's a home for old nurses who were nurses all their lives and lived for their work and were always in uniform. They live in their little rooms there. Imagine believing so strongly in something that you devote your entire life to it. Having something to believe in, working at something, believing your life has meaning. I like that. Holding on tight to something, no matter what -- I think that's how it should be. Meaning something to other people. Don't you agree?

  • Sister Alma: He was married. We had an affair for five years. Then he got tired of it, of course. I was terribly in love, and he was the first. I remember it all like one long torment. Long periods of agony, and brief moments when -- your teaching me how to smoke reminding me. He smoked constantly. In hindsight it all seems so dreary. A real dime store novel. In some strange way it was never quite real. I don't know how to explain it. At least, I was never quite real to him. But my pain was real, that's for sure. But that was somehow all a part of it in some nasty way, as if that's how it was supposed to be.