A face that was calm and indistinguishable, and a pair of deep and calm eyes.
After watching the German movie "Eavesdropping Storm" (which won the 79th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007), this face and these eyes were always shaking in front of my eyes, and I felt the soul of the protagonist's expressionless face. Huge throbbing, feel the film's silent eulogy of the victory of justice over evil and the difficult return of human nature.
The protagonist Weissler is the secret police of the intelligence service of the GDR National Security Agency. He has superb eavesdropping, interrogation and other skills. At work, he is like a hound. He does not know what sympathy is, and tirelessly pursues his prey until it collapses and falls to the ground begging for mercy. His life is monotonous and boring, without family and hobbies, the spiritual world is like a desert. He was ordered to eavesdrop on the family life of the poet and playwright Dreymann and his wife, who had close ties with the West German art world. Once he found evidence of the so-called "anti-state", "he is finished!"
Seeing this, the audience will think this is a story A story of eavesdropping and anti-eavesdropping. Perhaps this generalization can also hold, but unexpectedly, the anti-eavesdropper is actually the eavesdropper himself. During the constant eavesdropping process day and night, Weissler, who was loyal to the country's violent machine, was both lean and cold-blooded, but in the most unlikely scenario, he became the protector of the eavesdropping target. Weissler self-destructed and took the risk to save Dreman from a catastrophe.
In order to make such a transformation convincing, to make the seemingly impossible "transform into a human possibility and an artistic authenticity," the film brilliantly recreates Weissler's psychic recovery. This process is delicate and meticulous, and it is woven together with the advancement of the plot just right. While ensuring the integrity of the story structure, it fully demonstrates the "complexity of human nature and its possibility of change".
Allow me to describe a few fragments in more detail.
Wearing headphones, Weissler curled up on the roof of the Dreymans' house, not letting go of any movement. What did he hear?
Eavesdropping is such an activity: sniffing other people's privacy in a vile and obscene way, taking care of every detail. Weisler received the enlightenment of life when he eavesdropped. There was love, beauty, friendship, and emotional mutual comfort in the lives of the Dreymans, all of which he felt unfamiliar. Although it is difficult to know exactly what he is interested in and what he is moved by from the pictures and expressions, one thing is certain, he is not satisfied with his own life, and he is eager to approach the spiritual world of Dreman . He stole Dreman's poetry collection and read it with relish in his empty home: "Every day in early autumn and September is blue / Young, tall trees stretch up / Like love grows luxuriantly..." read As he read, there was a "white and flawless" cloud "moving slowly" in his sunken eyes.
Weissler gradually understood that people can have their own will, their own wishes, their own preferences. Gradually understand that no one has the right to deprive and control the thoughts of others. Dreman and his friends discussed writing an article exposing abnormal deaths in the GDR, and Weisler listened, something he never knew or could not know. This is still enlightenment, about justice, fairness, justice and conscience.
Weisler wrote down a wiretap report, or avoided the important points, or "safe and sound", or fictional Dreman is actively writing the National Day script. He pretended to be a protector and eavesdropped on the whole process by himself under the pretext of preventing leaks. He is well aware of the consequences of doing so, "You know that this mission failed, and your surveillance career is over. I will transfer you to the letter monitoring department, and you will open all letters every day for inspection. This It's your job for the next 20 years, 20 years, a long time..." His boss was furious. He was still silent, he stretched his body slightly, and the wind of freedom had quietly passed over his imprisoned heart.
Weissler's heart has a deeper secret. An important reason why Weissler accepted the eavesdropping task was that he secretly liked Dreman's beautiful wife, the famous actor Sealand. Sealand in his eyes is a holy goddess, beautiful and agile, with every frown and smile like bright sunshine, igniting Weisler's dull and boring life. Sealand was insulted by high-ranking officials, and he made a cruel trick for Dreman to witness, in order to shed a nameless fire in his heart. But then the most moving part of the film is that Weisler suddenly appears in front of Sealand to prevent her from "selling her body for art." "You are the greatest female artist," Weisler made no secret of his admiration for Sealand.
"You're such a good man," said Zeeland, who was in a gloomy mood, regaining the confidence to live.
"You are such a good person." This compliment must be unfamiliar to Weissler. This compliment is nothing but a storm of souls, washing away the filth and despicableness in Weissler's heart. When human nature falls into the dark abyss, the sail of kindness stretches ahead.
The film sets the background of the story at the end of 1984, five years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, which is full of historical significance. At the time, the GDR had a million secret police and two million whistleblowers snooping on every detail of other people's lives. Such a life is comparable to the ignorant and dark Middle Ages. In the film, the works of Dreman and his friends could not be published, staged, or communicated with the outside world. Their words and deeds were recorded. Many people protested by suicide, "because they couldn't bear to live like that." November 9, 1989 , under the domination of the Cold War mentality, the construction of the Berlin Wall started in August 1961, collapsed in the cheers of the people, and the two Germanys were unified. When Dreyman saw a lot of files about himself: the wiretap report codenamed HGW XX/7 (Weissler), the whistleblower record of his beloved wife Sealand, and found the dense wiretap wire at home, it was really a hundred feelings. intersection.
What shocked me even more was the experience of the German actor Ulrich Müller, who played Weissler. After the film was released and won the award, people were surprised by Mueller's performance. "This is not someone else's life ("The Wiretap" was originally called "Other People's Life"), this is my life." Mueller said. Before the reunification of Germany, Müller lived in East Germany. In 1990, when the secret files of the GDR were released, Mueller learned that he had been under surveillance for 10 years before, and his close friends in the theater industry were not spared. The whistleblower was his ex-wife. With such a painful psychological shadow, Mueller died of illness in July 2007 at the age of 54 when he reached the peak of his film career.
The great changes in Eastern Europe and the reunification of the two Germanys have very complex backgrounds and reasons, and have a profound impact on the development of human history. Politicians and historians pay attention to the changes in the world order, but few people care about the fate of individuals and families involved or involved, as well as the psychological trauma suffered. Film artists have a deeper understanding of the entanglement between historical events and personal destiny, and more deeply reveal the importance of "the human spirit of freedom and moral courage to break through and subvert the prescribed situation and power structure". The unyielding struggle of Dreymann and his friends, and the help that Weissler provided without Dreymann's knowledge, were like silently drawing bricks from the Berlin Wall. When Sler also took action, the collapse of the high wall was in sight, and the cry of "Berlin Wall is down" was already sounding.
Weisler, a former secret policeman and now a mail carrier, saw Dreman's latest work "Sonata of a Good Man" in a bookstore. He turned to the title page and saw the dedication "This book is dedicated to HGW XX/7". There was a slight warmth in Weisler's cold eyes. He bought the book with money, "This is for myself."
From cold and evil to selfless justice, Weisler walked through the long night, and finished The self-rescue of the soul and the lofty respect of the conscience have been gained.
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