Kieslowski: See real tears
Krzysztof Kieslowski is one of the most prestigious art film masters of the 20th century. Born in Poland in 1941, he spent most of his life in Warsaw. Poland, a country that has experienced disasters, is the homeland that Kieslowski was unwilling to give up throughout his life. Even when he was famous throughout Europe for his works, he never recognized his status as a “citizen of the world”.
film poet
Late blooming and premature death are two facts that all artists are least willing to face, but Kieslowski did not fall behind either. He just made his mark in France at the age of 40, and he was at the height of his power in a very short period of time. He passed away hastily at the age of 55 (1996), leaving behind a few film dramas and TV shorts. However, the enthusiasm for discussing his films has not diminished with his departure, on the contrary, it has become more prosperous. Especially in the 21st century, his films have almost become synonymous with “art film”. Movies about people, things, and movies have been described as a kind of film culture by later generations, attracting more and more movie fans to join in.
Kieslowski was first discovered and accepted by European film circles and even world film circles, starting with the TV short series “Ten Commandments” (1988). This is a series of TV shorts inspired by the “Bible” but questioning European civilization in a modern spirit. It seems that “a flash of inspiration” has aroused long-lost collective discussions in the film industry. Kieslowski received almost unanimous praise, and a world-class film master turned out.
His appearance swept away the relative silence of art films in the second half of the 20th century. In the next few years, Kieslowski successively released heavyweight works such as “The Double Life of Veronica”, “Blue”, “White” and “Red”, which left this world-class film master without a doubt. In suspense, he took off the crown of art film master. Kieslowski’s film sequence has a distinctive style and is difficult to imitate. He is good at using exquisite film language to explore the status of individual existence, and deeply expresses the theme of modern civilization with a strong humanistic sentiment. He is known as “the deep purple narrative thinker”. .
Kieslowski’s films are good at presenting the ills of modern civilization in private narratives, full of doubts about the traditional European spirit, but they always show deep concern for struggling individuals in the film’s spiritual difficulties.
“Blue” is the most interpreted of Kieslowski’s films.
“White” is a film about “equality”.
“Red” is not a “Prince and Cinderella” love story, but a story of the constant discovery that “absolute love” is impossible.
The Antithesis of Civilization
Kieslowski’s most famous “Color Trilogy” – “Blue”, “White” and “Red” respectively represent the three most basic and important spirits in Europe – freedom, equality and love. However, what Kieslowski wants to present is obviously the “antithesis” of civilization, that is, the impossibility of freedom, equality and love in a practical sense.
”Blue” is the most interpreted one of Kieslowski’s films. In a sense, “Blue” is considered to be the film that best embodies his style. The movie “Blue” tells the story of a composer’s wife (Jasmine) who faces life alone after losing her husband and daughter. This is not a woman who has lost her “love” in the general sense, but a woman whose dual identities of “wife” and “mother” have been removed in an instant. The car accident at the beginning of the movie claimed the lives of the two most important people around Julie. The physically and mentally damaged Julie sold the country house, disposed of the family property, and moved to an apartment in the city without children. It was as if everything was gone. However, in reverse understanding, Julie, who has a good life, has gained unprecedented “freedom”-physical freedom, emotional freedom, and freedom of choice. But what is the use of freedom alone? At first, Julie was desperate. She cried to her old mother with dementia living in a nursing home: I don’t want anything anymore! Therefore, the movie presents an interesting proposition: man is a free and lonely existence. Thus freedom becomes a kind of captivity. As Kieslowski said: “The prison in “Blue” is caused by two things, emotion and memory. Jolie makes it clear at one point in the film that it’s all a trap: love, pity , friendship.” The emotions Julie struggles to grasp are her shackles, and the loneliness she struggles to shake off comes with great freedom. However, Julie has no choice about being free or not. The positive and negative propositions of freedom and imprisonment work together to become the “cage” of Julie’s life. What is even more helpless is that Julie’s unprecedented “freedom” is an irresistible and unchangeable fall. For her, it is “unbearable lightness in life” and “freedom without freedom”.
The plot reversal of “Blue” is the same as the tone of the movie-absurd in wit. Julie, who has gradually become accustomed to a “free” life, accidentally discovered that her beloved husband had a lover and a posthumous child during his lifetime. The vulgar plot has a great “lethal power”. Julie, who lost interest in everything, began to follow her husband’s lover, ask Olivier (her husband’s assistant) the truth, and even revisit old songs and continue writing the symphony for the birth of the European Union. Slightly soothe the hearts of the audience who have been entangled for a long time: Julie chose to reconcile with her husband’s lover, and gave the house and her husband’s surname to the posthumous child; Julie accepted Olivier’s love; Julie completed the symphony of the European Union . The unreconcilable reconciliation between Julie and the world, but the “resolved” Julie entered another cage: feelings and concerns, and Julie chose to give up “freedom” again.
This movie can even be understood as “Julie’s movie alone”. The director uses Julie, an abstract individual, to comment on the modern ethics of freedom. The movie does not have a closed ending, what will happen to Julie in the future? While telling the “story about Julie”, the movie sets up an obstacle: life is a “prison” that human beings can never escape. At the end of the movie, it took more than 9 minutes to explain to everyone: the mother fell asleep peacefully (passed away) under the eyes of the running nurse through the glass; the fetus in the womb moved regularly; Antoine wakes up; Julie, who has always been strong, finally sheds tears… It’s like an explanation to everyone at the end of a novel, and it’s like a long scroll of human existence: going through suffering but not changing your infatuation, you can’t escape suffering A life full of joy.
”White” is a movie about “equality”, or it is a movie about the impossibility of absolute “equality”. Carlo, a popular barber in Poland, went to France with the instigation of his beautiful wife Domini. However, there was a language barrier, unsustainable life, and more importantly, loss of sexual ability. His wife sued the court and was sentenced to divorce. Desperate, Carlo was consigned back to Poland in a suitcase by a “mysterious man”. After making a fortune, he missed his ex-wife Domini very much. Carlo and his partners conspired to deceive Dominy into returning to Poland to receive a huge inheritance by creating the illusion of death. In the end, Carlo and his wife reconciled as before. Carlo’s relationship with Dominique is an emotional seesaw in the film. I have to say that this movie with absurd plots presents the most realistic reality: even in the most intimate relationship between the sexes, “equality” is conditional, and love is the last “dessert of life” after all social requirements are met. “. Carlo, who has lost the ability to speak and live, must regain these abilities in order to return to the “hometown of love”. Regarding the “truth” of love, Kieslowski never shy away from it in his films, but in “White”, the social significance and cruelty of love are magnified. The most representative universal value in the West – “equality” is placed in the emotional vortex of a young couple for consideration, which is absurd and true.
”Red” is a movie about “love”. However, this is not a “Prince and Cinderella” type of love story, but one that keeps discovering that “absolute love” is impossible. College student and model Valentina gets acquainted with an old judge who eavesdrops on other people’s phones because she picks up a stray dog. The pure and beautiful Valentina dislikes the bad behavior of the old judge. However, when she discovered the dirty nature of the well-dressed people through tapping the phone, she was stunned. When she finds out her boyfriend’s lies all along, Valentina begins to realize that the world is not as simple and beautiful as she imagined. Movies always lead people to “peep” other people’s private affairs, and finally find that they only exposed one of their own private affairs. Valentina and the old judge become “year-old friends”, and the old judge tells the story of his young love and betrayal. Valentina’s ship to England was shipwrecked.
In the film, Valentina’s love affair is mixed in the “telephone hacking scandal”, which is naturally despised from a moral point of view. However, the hacked phone scandals are far more scandalous, and it is obviously cruel to accept and live with the truth. The movie still holds the “antithesis”, absolute and unreserved love does not exist, and to love in this life, one must accept the imperfection of love without hesitation. The old judge in “Red” is a character image that can arouse many moods of the audience. His “tapping” behavior will inevitably arouse people’s disgust and contempt emotionally. However, as the scandals of those he eavesdropped are exposed one after another, people begin to establish new moral judgments, and the disgust and contempt will be passed on to “those people” to some extent. body. As the “tapping” behavior was exposed, “moral people” angrily threw stones at the old judge’s house. Valentina saw six stones neatly arranged on the piano in the old judge’s house. Sympathy arises spontaneously. The six “stones of morality” that seemed to carry the “evil of mankind” were thrown to a person who discovered the truth. Even Valentina didn’t expect that the informant was the old man himself. The old man went to the court to “surrender himself”, where he met a young man and woman: a trainee judge and his girlfriend. The narration of this passage is almost the same as the old man’s telling his “story of the past”, and it is even difficult to tell whether the couple of young people was seen by the old man or his own story. Kieslowski’s films often have such unexplained plots. Maybe he thinks that just like this complicated world, some things don’t need to be explained, and they can’t be explained clearly. However, it is precisely this ambiguous plot that adds room for imagination to the narrative of “Red”. The young judge is like the old man (maybe the old man) who was betrayed by love and tried to abandon his pet dog to start a new life. In the shipwreck, meet Valentina who is going through emotional changes. This is the plot of the movie “Red”, but it is an emotional compensation. Their meeting made up for the “scars” of the old judge’s past, and healed Valentina’s current “scars”. The movie finally retains a warm ending in the cruel reality.
“The Double Life of Veronica” is the most romantic and saddest of Kieslowski’s films.
”The Double Life of Veronica” is the most romantic and saddest of Kieslowski’s films. There is a girl named “Veronica” in Poland and France. They have never met but are like twin sisters. At every major turning point in their lives, they can realize that there is another life in this world that is similar to themselves. perception. Girls in Warsaw pursue a spiritual life and an artistic life; girls in Paris pursue a life of pleasure and a secular life. They are equally lonely, yet equally happy. Veronica from Poland died on the singing stage. Veronica from France began to look for another “community” in this world, and finally found another girl who was accidentally photographed in the photos of her travels. , I am deeply moved. The film presents a unique psychological experience of human beings-“loneliness in this world” with poetic narrative and lens. People’s sense of being alive is often obtained through others. On a deeper level, the film metaphorizes two identical beautiful girls as ancient Europe that has been separated for a long time, and pours its long-broken cracks and sorrows on the two girls. , Let them recognize each other and pursue hard. Like “Blue”, this movie was filmed before the establishment of the European Union. Although the director himself did not have the chance to witness the long-awaited birth of the “European Union”, the movie “Veronica’s Double Life” can be regarded as the most important contribution to the “European Union”. Affectionate confession.
Freedom and unfreedom, equality and inequality, love and betrayal, these propositions and anti-propositions are transformed into vivid real life scenes in Kieslowski’s few but classic films, and Julie obtains unprecedented freedom At the same time, she had to endure great loneliness; Carlo lost her language and ability to live and her equality in the relationship between the sexes; Valentina witnessed the unbearable love but bravely threw herself into a new life. Life is never complete, and existential dilemmas and paradoxes always exist. However, the greatest courage of human beings lies in maintaining enthusiasm in the unbearable worldly life. Discussing freedom in the process of approaching death, discussing equality in love, and discussing love in betrayal, this is not only the cruelest side of Kieslowski’s film, but also the most direct face to the truth of life. He is not fond of telling the story of the tender and tender “Prince and Cinderella”, nor is he interested in the deliberate “happy ending”. presented to the audience.
