"Money" is not an explicit nihilism, but a paradox of redemption consistent in Bresson's films

Angel 2022-01-23 08:01:45

Watching Bresson’s films requires not only an attitude of academic research, but also a study of his film notes to cultivate professional literary literacy and film theory. It is embarrassing from head to toe to judge what "director is going to nihilism" only from the plot.

His films do often criticize religion, but religion is not equal to belief. Bad religion can be composed of a bunch of inanimate rules, full of morality and hypocrisy, and to some extent anti-humanity. This is what Bresson opposed, and he also brought out what he really wanted to preach-faith, which he really wanted to express in the desperate plot and realism.

In his gloomiest movie "Muchette", even when Muchet was finally thrown into the river because she could not bear the pain of the world, she was wrapped in a white robe. The whiteness at that point did not make the movie desperate to the end, but opened a seam for Mouchet to go to heaven.

In his "Film Notes" he said: "You cannot show everthing. If you do, it's no longer art. Art lies in suggestion." If you interpret everything directly, it is not art. Art is by suggestion. He later found his own style and form, and has always been in his own system, consistent. Including the spirituality that his movie wants to convey. But you need to find out very carefully, don't just start from the word.

It was also mentioned in his interview that, for him, film is a medium for expressing truth.

Going back to this movie, from the surface, the explicit plot of "Money" narrates that the male protagonist finally killed an innocent woman's family and was punished by law, but the hidden plot refers to the paradox that he was redeemed until he was killed. Only 4 people like a lamb did he really stop the killing.

And in "Pickpocket", the male protagonist is imprisoned physically because of sin and punishment, he also paradoxically obtains true freedom on the soul level, which is essentially a truth. At last he said, "Jenny, what a strange path I have walked to be with you."

Many writers and writers like to present salvation in this way. For example, Shusaku Endo’s "The Silence". The missionary in the novel understands and grasps what true faith is when he really stepped on the icon, that is, when he gave up his faith. He experienced the suffering Christ and understood the profound meaning of suffering and sacrifice. It is a pity that the movie did not present the most shocking point with the same power of images.

Seeing from the plot that a protagonist has committed a heinous crime does not mean that the narrator affirms such behavior, or that the narrator has moved towards nihilism. The narrator arranges the plot in this way to tell people that the punishment for sin is great, but the grace brought by faith is even greater. This is often through the bloody death of an innocent image, or the suffering and sacrifice of a weak character.

In the "Diary of a Country Pastor" is the lonely death of a young priest, the final vague cross and the sentence "What does it have to do, everything is grace." In the "Sin Angel", it is a young nun full of passion and love. Paid the price of life for the soul of a sinner, and finally the female prisoner was arrested and the soul converted. In "Pickpocket", Jenny's image as a weak person finally waits for the return of a prodigal son. In "Money", the death of an obedient and silent woman aroused the last conscience of the murderer. Joan, who was martyred in "The Trial of Joan of Arc," disappeared on the stake in the final scene.

They all point to the image of Christ.

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