"Masquerade" was intermittent, and I finished it three times. The first two times only stopped for the first few minutes, because I was timid and frightened by some terrifying scenes and a strange atmosphere. Bergman's films are very symbolic and symbolic, with deep spiritual connotations and unique visual processing, which are easy to confuse people, and even fear (like me) for the timid, but still deeply fascinated. So, I had to choose another day to continue watching this movie. (Movies are usually chosen at night, which is easy to remember.)
Masks, as the name suggests, are false faces that cover the true nature of people. So what is the most important material for this layer of mask? Bergman tells us that it is language. People tell all kinds of lies against their will, some people don’t care, some people believe it is true, and some finally can’t bear the lie’s intimidation on their hearts. Come and resist the real world, a hotbed of lies and lies--the intractable reality.
Especially for an actor like Elizabeth, her true self has long been confused by various roles. Emma, a female nurse who took care of Elizabeth the Silent, said to the doctor after her first meeting with Elizabeth: I am afraid that I will not be able to take care of her. If a person insists on keeping himself silent, he must have strong spiritual power. Sure enough, in the future, Emma and Elizabeth must continue to bear her spiritual power.
Elizabeth did not speak, but Emma spoke alone. The two of them were on a holiday island far away from people, which constituted a tilted imbalance of language. Emma has always been a listener, and this time she can be a full talker, and the other party is Elizabeth, who has already decided to be the silent one. So, Emma told Elizabeth the secret in her heart and wept bitterly in front of her. Emma's job was to get Elizabeth to speak as much as she could, and she was infatuated with Elizabeth's silence. But soon, Emma discovered that Elizabeth had written her unspeakable secret to others. She was greatly disappointed, and the relationship between the two suddenly became tense. Emma forced Elizabeth to speak again and again. When she tried to throw boiling water on Elizabeth, Elizabeth finally said "no".
When silence and words are seriously out of balance, the two have reached a state of blending. After a long time together, Emma and Elizabeth become one: Emma can tell Elizabeth's inner secrets, Emma makes out with her husband as Elizabeth, Emma struggles between "right and wrong", "she and me" ...At this point, I think it can be considered that Emma is actually the other side of Elizabeth, her true self, the film shows Elizabeth (or anyone) split personality, her self and true self wrestling. And this is not the wrestling of ordinary people, but the wrestling of "strong men" who have realized the hypocrisy and resisted. The speaker is the true self under the silent, and at the same time, step by step, he exposes the secrets of the silent who try to guard the real silent with silence.
Is silence pure? In a victorious attitude, the silent person refuses to make an account against the outside world, so that he refuses to make any account, but at the same time, he needs to absorb the information for him to fill his heart, play in his heart, and build his own mysterious charm and beauty. Sublime gesture. To a certain extent, there is even a kind of "all-knowing" self-satisfaction in it. This silence is dangerous.
Are the silent ones the victors? I do not think so. The silent person who will leak secrets is actually hypocritical and powerless. Elizabeth refused to speak because of lies, and in the end she did not get rid of the lies, and she was still exposed again and again.
As for lies, it is an innate accessory of language and cannot be avoided. Can the silent escape? It's just wearing a mask in a more subtle way.
Is it unprincipled to admit a lie? Is it a poison to the good life? Unless you have the courage to go beyond life and death, I think that's life. Life and people are definitely not something that can be solved by monism and a paradigm, not enough, not enough to survive life.
So far, silence and words can no longer be judged by their authenticity and the secrets behind them. I don’t want to ask the truth or falsehood. I just want to say that these two extreme struggles should perhaps compromise each other.
Finally, it's about language. I am well aware that language can easily lead to ambiguity and misunderstandings, but I keep babbling because I don't know how I express my true thoughts other than language. Thought is language, unless you are willing to let it dry, speak it. However, if you are willing to let yourself immerse yourself in the world of lies, either you will not notice it, or it will not matter, or please help yourself a little bit.
Is this a contradiction? Yes, life is contradictory. I can't say how much "how much" is, what degree, what standard, I can only say that only you know best, there must be an elusive degree in this. And being able to feel the contradiction is the first step.
I always remember Mr. Feng Youlan's last sentence in "A Brief History of Chinese Philosophy":
"People often need to talk a lot before they can be classified into silence."
I think this silence is not pain and resistance, but transcendence and peace.
View more about Persona reviews
