Author: Fang Hanjun
Somersaults of Life (2004), directed by Australian female director Kate Hutland, is delicate and ethereal, which impresses me deeply.
Her "Berlin Syndrome" (2017) is as meticulous and vivid, but with a bit more chill in the thriller. The unpleasant taste in the forbidden room is not pleasant. Claire (Tessa Palmer), a girl from Brisbane, Australia, flew to Berlin for the first time to shoot architectural works for a real estate company. Meet in a hurry on the street and fall in love at first sight, what is the result. Therefore, "Berlin Syndrome" (2017) is indeed a bit hanging.
The title conjures up "Stockholm Syndrome," the so-called hostage plot, but that's two different things. In the film, after Claire learned that she was imprisoned, she didn't develop deeper feelings for what he did, let alone rely on it. She only wanted to escape, so she couldn't get it together. The so-called "Berlin Syndrome" is just a simple intention, used by the bad guys and imprisoned. When she sees the truth, it will be too late to regret it.
Although there are many such films, "Berlin Syndrome" excels in details and is slow and slow. Both are English-language films, just like Canada, Australian and New Zealand films have their own unique flavors, and their unique literary and artistic temperament is obvious. Compared with Hollywood films, English-language films in these three countries have their own extraordinary characteristics. Of course, it is also very different from British movies.
In the film, the gentle Andy takes her to a private garden to play. When saying goodbye, Claire says that she is going to Dresden tomorrow, but I can stay. It seemed that they were saying goodbye, but Andy refused to stay, so she had to leave. The next day, Claire did not leave, but went to the school where Andy worked. So the two walked together on the streets of Berlin, talking and laughing, just like a pair of lovers. They talked about James Baldwin's 1958 novel "Joniva's Room." The question is, how is this Joniva's room different from the one that Claire is staying in. This is undoubtedly a foreshadowing. In relation to architecture, it is also connected to living.
Compared with Andy, played by German actor Max Remet, I think Claire, played by Australian actress Tessa Palmer, has a fuller and more refined interpretation of the role, and has a gradual sense of substitution. , it is this integration with the character that makes Claire, a girl crying alone, so we are very worried about her fate.
There is a detail in the film, she learned the "squeak" sound of cicadas from Andy, which is particularly brilliant, showing the helpless and anxious situation, because more often, she is in the process of coping, thinking hard about how to escape . This is reminiscent of the movie "The Hound of Love" (2016. See my micro-review) also from Australia. The same girl who is also imprisoned, also wants to escape, but it's easier said than done, she is destined to suffer from pain before she can meet. to free sunshine.
"Berlin Syndrome" seems to show a girl's process of escaping her life, but it actually contains more. It has complex elements for the interpretation of Andy's multi-faceted character. He looks like a good person, or a normal person, but behind the scenes, he is the most abnormal one. The person imprisoned by him is just a plaything for him to play with and enjoy. This kind of satisfaction is just a mutant normal for him. In fact, he has an experimental nature. While he is torturing others, he is also exploring his own super-perverted potential. . That is to say, the girl imprisoned by him has become an experiment for his psychopath.
Don't think that Andy is always complacent. In fact, he is nervous, lonely, and painful, but the excitement and satisfaction brought by the desire to imprison the disease far outweigh the risks brought by his wrongdoing. , he must give it a try. Contrary to his fondness for imprisoning foreign women, he is restrained towards female students, and even deliberately keeps them away. Only strange girls from afar can arouse his unscrupulous interest.
Andy's sensitivity is also different from ordinary people. On New Year's Eve, his male colleague invited him to a party. The male colleague's wife accidentally touched his hand. He actually said that you are shameless. Seduce a man like this, which makes her useless. It can be said that I was so angry that I just spit out a sentence please leave my house. This all shows that under special circumstances, his gaffe is enough to show his morbidity, but no one cares.
Every girl in the forbidden room has a simple past, and every perverted demon also has an unbearable past. Andy seems to be a talented person, and he does not borrow work, and he is also conscientious, but he had an unfortunate childhood (this does not mean that children in single-parent families have problems, there is no natural relationship), and his mother left home at an early age. , he grew up with his father who was a professor. It is true that the father-son relationship is still normal, and he regularly visits his old father, but the father is most concerned about his personal problems. Andy said that he had recently dated an Australian girl. My father said that all the girls you dated are foreign girls. Last time, it was from Canada. This left Andy speechless.
Yes, the unsuspecting Claire followed this handsome guy to his house in the dark that night, an old and uninhabited dilapidated building, and the two had a night of excitement. After Andy went to work, she didn't know what to do. It was found that she had been imprisoned in this room, and it would not help her to smash the window with a chair. She also found the photo album with the abused photos of the Canadian girl before, which made her even more frightened. When he came back, she questioned, and he sneered and said that you could have left, but you wanted to stay.
At this time, we realized that when we first met and said goodbye, she wanted to stay, but he didn't express his opinion. In fact, he was struggling in his heart, and he started or didn't want to imprison her, but the next day she came to the door automatically, his imprisoning disease He committed it again, but unfortunately she became another of his. As Andy said, Berlin is full of abandoned buildings like this. No matter how hoarsely Ren Claire shouted, it was empty. She also took the risk and resisted, and stabbed his palm with a screwdriver, but she ran downstairs, the door was locked by him long ago, but he was dragged back and his fingers were broken by him.
He wanted her to stay in the forbidden room honestly, and not to try to escape. His defenses against the forbidden room can be described as impregnable, but he just said that even if it fits perfectly, she has to find a way to escape. I don't know how many days I stayed like this, waiting for him to come back every day, putting on the pink clothes he bought, dancing in pain, and taking pictures of him constantly. But he never gave up to escape.
Andy has a gymnastics student Franka, he stared at her in class, let her think he was interested in her, and followed him, which surprised him, he told Franka to leave quickly, It terrified her to call the police, but Claire saw Franka inside. Andy was also extra-judicial. The only time she took her to the nearby woods, she secretly told a boy to help me call the police, but she scared the child to tears. It seemed too difficult to escape from his grasp.
Christmas Eve came, and Andy's father left quietly. Claire hasn't seen him these days. The pure white snowflakes made her yearn for a pure world, but now it will only make her more anxious. She doesn't know how long she will be imprisoned here. A strange man saw the lights out, heard her call for help and ran over, but he was beaten to death. Hopeless, making her completely hopeless.
Finally, an inconspicuous opportunity came. She secretly put a picture of herself being abused into Franka's workbook, and waited for Andy to send out the workbook the next day. Franka saw it. She excused herself to leave, but accidentally left the photo. Andy the guy saw it, and he chased after him frantically. It's not so much a race for time as it's a race to save lives. When he came, the two of them hid, and they ran out at the risk.
At the end of the film, slow motion is used, and everything is so comfortable and full of vitality. Good times require a slow pace. At the moment, Claire is sitting in the car, she is breathing the fresh air and enjoying the freedom of Berlin, it feels so good! But what I'm thinking about is what effect this event will have on Claire's life, and is it really that easy to get rid of that deep shadow.
The film brings viewers to think, perhaps much more than the film itself has to explain. Prevention is just an empty talk for a simple person. People will always make mistakes that their predecessors have made, and it can be said that they cannot be prevented. Similarly, after experiencing the rebirth of life, whether it can be relieved as soon as possible is also a psychological process of relief and reconstruction. These are the realities that they have to face, and also the more associations that such forbidden films bring to us.
2017, May, 31
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