LIGHT AND SHADOW
JUN 26, 2010 – SITTING OPPOSITE THE MILDLY BEWILDERED sports journalist Robert Krohn (Hilmar Thate), Veronika Voss (Rosel Zech) does her darnedest to give a performance at a hotel cafeteria. The role is that of an actress, once the cynosure of flashbulbs, now dismissed to the shadows of memory. Veronika, of course, is too much of a narcissist to really be a recluse. She just needs an excuse to remain unflustered when not recognised, any more, in public. Referring to Robert’s gallantry in extending an umbrella when she was trapped in a downpour, Veronika trills, “Let me tell you, it was a joy for me that someone should take care of me without knowing I’m Veronika Voss, and how famous I am. I felt like a human being again. A human being.”
But almost instantly, she turns back into a star, complaining about the harsh light and insisting to their waiter that candles be lit instead. Her face now bathed in lambent flickers, Veronika instructs Robert about the two secrets of motion pictures. “Light and shadow.” As if foreshadowing this future revelation, the opening credits appear with a shadow beneath the text, and when they end, a curtain parts to reveal more light and shadow, this time in a movie theatre, where the light from the screen casts flickering shadows on the audience, Veronika amidst them. She looks at herself on screen, in a film titled Insidious Poison. Her pained reactions to the proceedings suggest more than just empathy for her character, an addict craving a fix.
On screen, the addict pleads with a forbidding woman in white, “Help me! Help me! I can’t stand this pain! It’s tearing me apart, devouring me, destroying me. I beg you! Have mercy! I’ll give you everything I possess. Everything I am.” The woman in white remarks, “Very well, then. Everything.” She goes towards her desk and begins to draw liquid into a syringe, as the addict stumbles towards a piece of paper and signs over her “everything.” The needle plunges into the addict’s arm and she finally begins to relax. “Thank you. Now I belong to you. Everything I have belongs to you. All I have left to give you is my death.” The woman in white remarks, “I can do without a cheap present like that.”
We’re no longer inside the movie screen but inside a studio, the last few exchanges having seamlessly transported us (and Veronika) from illusion to reality (and from present to past). She stands in front of the director of Insidious Poison reciting her lines. The shooting ends amidst an array of klieg lights, each one dazzling like a star. This is the lighting pattern that will inform the “past” sequences, with Veronika and her screenwriter-husband, who now says he’s proud of her. She tells the director, “It’s not just his screenplay. It’s his love that gives me strength.” They’ve split up since then. His love no longer gives her strength and she’s turned to morphine. That’s why, in the present, she reacts the way she does to that scene from Insidious Poison. It’s not just a movie. It’s her life.
Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss (1982, German, English; aka Veronika Voss). Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Starring Rosel Zech, Hilmar Thate, Cornelia Froboess.
Copyright ©2010 The New Indian Express. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
bran1gan
June 25, 2010
The last of this Fassbinder series. Next up, Bergman…
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Just Another Film Buff
June 25, 2010
Nice… And a trilogy for Bergman too? That “Faith trilogy”?
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BR_Fan
June 25, 2010
Sir, Do you write shorthand notes as you watch the film?
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bran1gan
June 25, 2010
JAFB: Maybe that too. But doing Wild Strawberries first, along with Scenes from a Marriage and the sequel Saraband. What’s your favourite Bergman, BTW (if you have one that is)?
BR_Fan: No, I kinda pop the DVD in the computer and pause and play and pause and play… (keeping a Word doc open to type out the scene breakdown). It’s slightly annoying because a two-minute scene take an hour to write about, but on the flip side, you notice a lot of things (gestures, editing choices) that you might not have while watching the uninterrupted film.
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Just Another Film Buff
June 25, 2010
My favorite Bergman would be the staggering Winter Light. As I said elsewhere, it is one of the handful of life-affirming films I’ve seen. Wild Strawberries would be my second Bergman.
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BR_Fan
June 25, 2010
Favorite Bergman: Spellbound by “Notorious”. (I’ll stand up on bench for speaking out of turn)
Thanks for revealing your technique. Still the description and level of detailing is matchless.
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bran1gan
June 25, 2010
I think my favourite Ingmar would have to be one of the following: Winter Light, Cries and Whispers, Magic Flute. Favourite Ingrid? Yes, Notorious, or even Under Capricorn (I have no idea why this is so underrated). I also have a soft spot for Bells of St. Mary’s, simply one of the sweetest films ever made. I love that kind of wholesome corn.
BTW, do you guys use a feedreader for comments? rameshram was asking how to go about it…
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Just Another Film Buff
June 25, 2010
No feed reader stuff. Good ol’ email notification.
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Just Another Film Buff
June 25, 2010
BTW, there are also a couple of other Bergmans that I know of who are directors! So yes, no taking for granted.
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BR_Fan
June 25, 2010
BR, All your Ingmar choices are great. Because visually also, Nykvist’s frame provides depth for Bergman’s thematic extrapolation that greatly adds to the subtext..
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rameshram
June 25, 2010
want to know how you structure a “all comments all threads” feed in br’s site like you can do on blogger.
I like ALL bergman films. he’s the equivalent of shakesphere to me in cinema.heck i even like woody allen’s bergmanesque ones.(he had a phase when debra winger was beautiful)
but if i were to choose, summer with monika, virgin spring( of the chess with death fame) , autumn sonata, passion of anna,le silence and his unikely comedy smiles on a summer night.
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rameshram
June 25, 2010
gah! mistook seventh seal for virgin spring. like both films.left out marionettes(thx imdb!)
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BR_Fan
June 25, 2010
BR
The choice of “Scenes from a Marriage” is scary. I think everything was foreword-ed in the very first segment. The break-up is foreshadowed well by the conversation between the rich couple over assets, body odor, sense of humor, etc..all the way up to sex, rather ‘sexuality’ itself – the couple, rather adult ‘children’ (which the rich plump man admits so himself) who only grew (in their relationship) to the point of having zero regard for each other, hurting one other through diatribes (far more ‘virulent’ than physical abuse). The man/woman (sarcastically) allude to domestic felicity of the lead couple, but at one point suggest their expositive fight pose a risk of poking ‘needle’ into this blissful balloon (the dialogues are of highest order in this regard) Which in deed it does. What we see, in ensuing events, is the deflation of the balloon. The actual altercation (‘mirror’ moment of the aforementioned couple) – vulnerability and exposure – happens in his office as they meet to sign the papers. The plump man quotes Strindberg earlier, “Is there anything more fearsome than a husband and wife who hate each other?” It’s a disturbing film.
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Venkatesh
June 25, 2010
BR: “Under Capricorn (I have no idea why this is so underrated)” – aah, so there is something we do agree on.
“BTW, do you guys use a feedreader for comments? rameshram was asking how to go about it…” – i just come in direct to the site and i must admit this layout has a better commenting box , making it easier to write longer comments.
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bran1gan
June 25, 2010
rameshram: I agree about Bergman. Much as I enjoy the work of modern auteurs, the 50s/60s art cinema directors were something else altogether.
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rameshram
June 25, 2010
branigan
there’s something about a bergman sequence that catches in your throat like a lump, as if someone gave kierkegaard a camera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=HybZq8vaYlY&feature=related
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rameshram
June 25, 2010
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BR_fan
June 25, 2010
BRangar,
Did I touch on the very scene you were about to write about? Got a bit ahead. Sorry thala..
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bran1gan
June 26, 2010
OMG! I was speaking of great 50s/60s directors, and now I learn that Resnais has a new movie out! Didn’t know he was still making movies 🙂
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Just Another Film Buff
June 26, 2010
Forget Resnais, that was last Cannes. de Oliveira! His Angelica is one of the three best of Cannes this year. 101 and still strong as ever!!!
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BR_Fan
June 26, 2010
Three best of Cannes? It competed for “Un certain regard”.
I thought Angelica got mixed reception in Cannes, and one assumes the praise would be somehwat condescending, considering his age. Still await its video release..
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Just Another Film Buff
June 26, 2010
Yep, it was in Un Certain Regard, but it was unanimously applauded by the best of non-American press. And going by the awesomeness of his previous film and the synopsis of Angelica, I just can’t see how this one can go wrong.
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S.Suresh
June 26, 2010
My apologies for posting this before BR actually writes about Bergman movie. Here are some thoughts that I penned down when Bergman passed away.
http://sureshs65music.blogspot.com/2007/07/ingmar-bergman.html
Since writing this article I had watched the Faith Trilogy. I subscribe to what Ramesh says that there is very little of Bergman that you cannot like. The only movies that didn’t really grip me throughout were the ‘Hour of Wolf’, ‘Passion of Anna’ and ‘Shame’. Very difficult to decide on his best movie.
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bran1gan
June 26, 2010
S.Suresh: No need for apologies dude. As for Bergman films I don’t especially love, Autumn Sonata comes to mind. I don’t hate it or anything, but there’s something very simplistic about it that annoys the hell out of me. Thanks for the link. And here’s my Bergman obit.
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rameshram
June 26, 2010
resnias’ lter films are pretty lousy.
i have been a huge fan of claude leloch’s recent work. I hear from friends who went that assayas’s film crashed in cannes. i dont know abt the olivera film.
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Just Another Film Buff
June 26, 2010
The funny part about the reaction to teh latest Assayas was that, at first, it was overwhelmingly positive, with Todd McCarthy stopping just short of marrying it. But then, there was a sudden group shift towards the end of the fest and it was deemed as a tepid genre movie!
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S.Suresh
June 26, 2010
BR,
Thanks for the link to your Bergman obit. I remember commenting on your writeup about Persona that it is one Bergman film that I keep watching regularly. I would also include Seventh Seal in that category. Haven’t seen ‘Autumn Sonata’ yet.
In one of the add ons given in a DVD, Ingmar says how difficult it was to get Ingrid to his style of acting. He says that the first day he saw her act, he almost gave up!! Waiting for your Bergman series.
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