Steven Spielberg " Schindler's List " (1993) It has an important position in the world film industry. It is an epic masterpiece that reflects the tragedy of the Jewish Holocaust in World War II. However, the production process of the film was extremely twisted at the beginning. The film eventually achieved an amazing box office and occupies a pivotal position in the history of world cinema. It also exceeded the expectations of the film producer and director Spielberg.
The film story is adapted from the novel "Schindler's Ark" (1982) by the Australian novelist Thomas Kennelly , about the German Nazi Party member Oskar Schindler using his own special He opened a factory to hire cheap Jewish labor. After witnessing the cruelty and killing of Jews by Nazi Germany, Schindler had the idea of saving Jews’ lives. By bribing the Nazi SS commander 阿摩·戈斯 stationed in Krakow, Poland, more than 1,000 Jews were saved from being sent to concentration camps and survived the catastrophe. Schindler became The savior of the Jews is respected and loved by the saved Jews and their descendants.
Oscar Schindler 's righteous act was not known for many years after the war, until a Jewish survivor named 波德克·菲弗堡 met the Australian writer After Thomas Kennelly , his deeds were circulated through novels and were later filmed by Spielberg.
1913, 波德克·菲夫堡 was born in Poland, studied at the University of Krakow with a master's degree in philosophy and sports. Before World War II, he taught at the Krakow High School in his hometown until 1939, Germany People closed all Jewish schools. Later, Pfeifferberg joined the Polish army and fought against the Nazis as a lieutenant officer, but was injured and arrested. He managed to escape and hid in Crow's mother's house.
One day in November 1939, someone knocked on the door at home, and 菲弗堡 thought it was a Gestapo. As a result, someone came to find the interior designer's mother to renovate the new apartment. The visitor bought the German army. An enamel factory confiscated from the hands of the Jews, this person is a member of the German Nazi Party, businessman Oskar Schindler.
Oscar Schindler's personal profile photo (1908-1974)
After Germany's massive invasion of Poland, 菲弗堡's parents and sister He and his brother-in-law, including nearly a hundred close relatives, were killed in the Holocaust because he worked in Schindler’s factory and was lucky to survive. He witnessed that Schindler, who could have been wealthy and an enemy, spent all his money in order to save the Jews, even betting on his own righteous act. He called Schindler the "modern Noah" and determined to promote Schindler’s Great deeds are his mission for the rest of his life, himself is the 173rd survivor in Schindler’s list.
After World War II, Pfeifferberg moved to Los Angeles and opened a leather goods store. There are many writers, producers, and agents who patronize his store. He eagerly hopes that Schindler's story can be written into a novel or made into a movie.
In 1963, the wife of a MGM executive came to the store, and Pfeifferberg pestered her and finally met the executive. After his efforts, MGM planned to make Schindler's story into a biographical film, but in the end nothing happened.
Australian writer Thomas Kennelly
1980, Australian writer Thomas Kennelly I went to Italy to participate in the film festival, I wanted to go through the Persian Gulf and Singapore When he returned to China, he received a call from an American bookseller and went to Los Angeles. He came to Pfeifferberg’s leather shop while repairing his briefcase. He told SindLe’s story is very curious. The tall and handsome Schindler’s actions are inconsistent with his status as a member of the Nazi Party. How can he, who spends his time and speculatively, make such an amazing move? This self-contradictory character puzzled Thomas Kennelly, but he believed that this story should be told to the world.
Because he is a non-Jew, Kennelly is not fully sure whether the novel can be described accurately. He invited Pfeifferberg as a consultant for the novel, and at the same time obtained first-hand written materials to create "Schindler's Ark". After the novel was published in 1982, it quickly became a best-selling novel, and won the highest literary award in Britain that year-Man Booker Award .
Poldek Fefferberg died in 2001. He said before his death that Schindler protected them, saved them, fed them, and saved more than 1,000 Jews from the Holocaust. To survive the tragedies of suffering, disease, beatings, and killings, he must tell Schindler’s story to the world so that everyone knows Schindler’s fraternity and kindness. He explained: "Schindler gave For my life, I want to find a way to give him immortality." After years of unremitting efforts, Pfeifferberg’s Schindler novel dream has come true, and this novel has also aroused the director Steve·Spierberg s concern.
Spielberg’s determination
Steve Spielberg was moved by Schindler’s feat of using all his wealth to save the lives of Jews, But at the beginning, he was also very puzzled about Schindler's real motives. After he expressed his keen interest, Universal Pictures bought the copyright of Thomas Kennelly's novels.
In the spring of 1983, at a media meeting, Spielberg told Pfeifferberg that he would shoot the film in ten years. For the next 10 years, Pfeifferberg called Spielberg's office almost every week to inquire about the filming time and progress.
Steve Spielberg
Although Spielberg is of Jewish descent, he was able to film a successful Holocaust on himself. The film lacked confidence. He worried that his "guilt" about the Holocaust would affect emotional expression, and he had the idea of handing it over to the Jewish director Roman Polanski to direct him, and he would be the producer himself. Polanski’s mother died in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He himself survived a relative’s home in the countryside of Krakow and was a witness to the Holocaust. However, Polanski refused the invitation and finally filmed himself in 2002. The slaughtered film "The Pianist" has become a companion to " Schindler's List ".
Spielberg also considered giving the film to Sidney Pollack, who won the Oscar for Best Director for "Out of Africa" (1985), and was determined by Martin Scorsese in 1988. To direct the film. Billy Wilder, a famous Jewish director born in Poland, also expressed interest in directing the film to commemorate his dead relatives. Brian de Palma was also considered as a candidate, but was His kind refusal.
Spielberg finally changed his mind. He thought that once Martin Scorsese was asked to direct the film, he would miss an opportunity to make a film about the Holocaust for his children and his family. Considering the re-emergence of neo-Nazism in Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Spielberg felt obligated to show the tragedy of the Holocaust to the world audience and to alert mankind to avoid the mistakes of German Nazi racism during World War II. Therefore, he used thrillers. The directorship of "Corner of Terror" (1991) had a "deal" with Scorsese, and took back the directorship of the film by himself.
Spielberg was at the filming site
The producer and Spielberg both thought it was difficult for the film to achieve box office success, so he decided to finish the " Jurassic Park " (1993) later editing, the film was released in June, " Schindler’s List " will be released in November. Spielberg believes that the film’s budget is small, only 22 million U.S. dollars. In addition, films that expose the scars of human beings such as the Holocaust are usually not profitable. Therefore, he gave up the reward for directing the film and did not take any money, he explained. The reward for the Holocaust movie is "blood money."
In 1992, Pfeifferberg, who had been working on making Schindler’s deeds into a movie, received a call from Spielberg, telling him that the film would start shooting in 1993, and hired him as a technical consultant. Pfeifferberg was ecstatic. During the filming of the film, he followed Spielberg to film in Poland and Israel, and gave his valuable advice.
The film finally won seven Oscars. At the awards ceremony, Spielberg stepped onto the podium. In his speech, he first thanked Pfeifferberg. He said: "There is a man named Polder. The survivor of K. Feverberg... I owe him a debt, and he brought the story of Oscar Schindler to all of us.”
Spielberg’s realistic symbolism
In order to build a sense of authenticity and heaviness in history, Spielberg decided to tell the story in the form of a black-and-white documentary, which itself symbolizes the Holocaust. 40% of the 3-hour and 15-minute movie was shot with a handheld camera. Spielberg refused to use lens stabilization equipment to enhance the sense of realism of the picture. He also refused to use rocker equipment and zoom lenses. These methods added to the film. The texture and dignity of the realist style have the characteristics of German expressionism and Italian neo-realism. He tried to give the film a timeless style and quality, making it difficult for the audience to guess the era of filming. He tried his best to blur the time span and pursue a return to the original. His documentary atmosphere and sense of time and space in black and white tones allow the audience to follow his lens to revisit the unbearable past of mankind, and to "personally" witness a scene of humanity's tragic historical tragedy.
Universal Pictures’ chairman Tom Pollock asked Spielberg to shoot with color negatives in order to sell color copies in the future, but Spielberg categorically refused. He didn’t want it because of commercial interests. To "beautify" the fascist atrocities against humanity with colors.
Oscar Schindler played by Liam Nissen
In terms of character creation, Spielberg focused more on the suffering of the Jews In particular, in the scenes where Jews were shot and killed, the brutality of their crimes has reached the psychological endurance of the audience. He emphasized the gradual process of Schindler's thoughts, the character and psychological changes of the characters are more smooth and natural, ambiguous and unmarked, avoiding sudden insights and sudden changes in thought, making Schindler's thoughts and identity contradictory. The rescue operation was smoother, and it was reasonable that his factory eventually became a refuge for the Jews.
On the basis of pursuing the tone of realistic style, Spielberg used a lot of symbolism in the film to express the theme of the story, strengthen the ideological nature of the film, and give a deep depiction and strong condemnation of the Nazi genocide And complaint , The main symbolic techniques are candles, water, typewriters and trains, as well as the classic little girl in red .
☆ Candle
Although the positive film is mainly black and white, color film was used at the beginning and end of the film. Spielberg emphasized the present and the The concept of the past, and the transition from color at the beginning of the film to black and white, was undertaken by the extinguishing of the candle. At the end of the film, the color reappears, and the picture suddenly becomes brighter and revitalized because of the re-ignition of the candle.
Close-up shot of a Jewish man lighting a candle
The burning and bright candle 失, which represents the end of life, The candle itself symbolizes life . The extinguishing of the opening candle represents the fate of the Jewish people during World War II.When the dark hour came, the swirling smoke symbolized the death atmosphere of the burning of Jewish corpses in the Nazi concentration camp. When the color of the film is lost, it symbolizes the beginning of a sinful era. The Jews have no light and hope of survival.
When the ending candle was rekindled, it announced the end of the Jewish nightmare and the end of the Nazi rule. The red flame of the candle represented the warmth and warmth that Schindler brought to more than 1,000 rescued Jews. Hope, this bright color indicates the dark past and the dawn of dawn.
Amo Goss played by Ralph Fiennes
Actually, the scene where the candle is lit is the Jewish Sabbath, usually by a woman The owner lights the Sabbath candle, but in the film the role is changed to a male. This change on the one hand expresses the subordinate status of women in the film, and on the other hand it implies Jewish males’ forced submission to Nazi rule and killing. Especially the submission to the villain Nazi SS officer Amo Goss, but from the positive understanding, it can also symbolize the Jews' admiration for Schindler to save innocent lives.
☆ 水
水是源源, the symbolic use of water in the film mainly includes two plots:
First of all, a group of panicked Jewish women Rushing into the gas chamber, a woman told people around her that the Nazis would use poison to kill them. Many women said it was impossible, but the audience could see from their fearful and desperate eyes that they were trying to deny what they believed in their hearts. The fact is that they knew that the Nazis would poison them inhumanly, but they were afraid to admit this cruel reality.
Helen Heys played by Albert Davids
But the poisonous device like the shower nozzle spouted water, and the frightened Jewish woman was frightened. One game, this symbolizes that water is the source of life, and on the other hand, it shows that the Nazi army's wanton killing of Jews. The key to determining the life and death of dozens of Jewish women is just the difference of a button, but this time the executioner chose to spray Water button instead of poison gas. This deeply reflects the lightness of Jews’ lives. Life is completely in the hands of the Nazis. One thought is death and one thought is alive. The executioner can randomly orchestrate and decide. Helen Huis, a Jewish female character represented by the secretary and maid, suffered from the Nazis. The torture and humiliation of the officer Amo Goss, their fate is in stark contrast with Schindler's wife Emily.
Secondly, Schindler saw a train going to Auschwitz at the train station, and the Jews who were stuffed into the box train in the hot weather were overcrowded and the heat was unbearable. They stared at the small Car windows, looking forward to getting even a drop of water, many people are dying of dehydration.
The Jewish thirst for the water of life
Schindler pretended to ask the Nazi officers to wash the car with a hose, but took a hose to the outside of the car and sprayed it for the Jews Very extravagant water. In order to deceive Amo Goss, Schindler was pretending to be cruel. He seemed to be spraying water from a pipe to torture the Jews. Amo Goss on the sideline laughed wildly. He could not understand that it was Schindler's treatment. The pity and sympathy of the Jewish life, spraying water in his heart is just a joke and torture for the Jews, and this action portrays Schindler’s psychological activities, his beliefs and obsessions are incompatible with Amo Goss , Is out of place. Although they are all members of the Nazi Party, they are running on the track of different moral standards. In the face of human life, their conscience and belief are as different as heaven and earth.
In these two plots, water symbolizes the source of life, But given that the Jews can no longer control their own destiny, the water in the film to a large extent symbolizes a kind of relief for the Jews in the difficult situation .
☆ Typewriter and train
In the film, close-ups of two mechanical objects, typewriter and train, have repeatedly impacted the audience’s vision, as they pursue profit.Run's Schindler thought has undergone a fundamental change, the frequency of typewriters has increased, and the speed of typing has increased. The percussion of each letter and the carriage return after typing each name symbolize that a living life was saved by Schindler from the clutches of the Nazis. Schindler’s list is lengthening, and the fast typing speed symbolizes As Schindler was in a time race with the Nazis, the mechanical typewriter had the meaning of life, and every stroke of it was related to the fate of the saved Jews.
assistant Yitzhak Stein’s typewriter and Schindler’s list
is the opposite of the symbolic connotation of typewriters. It is also a machine, and a huge train Each appearance in the film means the death of the Jewish life. The train to Auschwitz symbolizes death and the doom of the Jewish people. Every Jew who steps on the train carries a "one-way ticket" issued by the Nazis. The train to hell does not return. Every time the train roars and the steel wheels turn, it means that countless innocent lives will suffer. The cruel killings of the Nazis, and the huge train and the compact typewriter formed a strong contrast, audience also felt that the root of goodness and evil is not the machine itself, but the person who operates and directs the operation of the machine .
The classic symbolic meaning of the little girl in red
The most classic symbolic image in " Schindler's List " comes from the red dress that appears halfway through the film Little girl, the idea of this role comes from the first narrative film in American film history, the hand-painted little girl in red film in "The Train Robbery" (1903) directed by Edwin Bout. Although the appearance of the little girl in red broke the black-and-white documentary style of Spielberg's film, and made the film lack of consistency in color, the little girl's red dress is the perspective of the protagonist Schindler, and the red is only Sind The illusion that struck his mind marked a complete change in his thoughts and values in life. Therefore, the symbolic meaning of the little girl in red occupies a prominent position in the film and has become one of the most classic scenes in American film history .
The little girl in red in Schindler’s mind
There are many interpretations of the symbolic meaning of the little girl in red. Red is the same color as blood, symbolizing The innocence and innocence of Jews shows that Jews are also human, and their lives are as important as other races . The little girl in red is the only color in the black-and-white documentary process. The bright red that appeared in the atrocities of the Holocaust awakened Schindler's conscience and kindness, allowing him to see the future and hope. When the red clothes appeared in the corpse truck, it aroused Schindler's inner anger at the atrocities of the Nazis, prompting him to accelerate the pace of saving the Jews, and strengthening his belief and iron will to risk saving innocent lives.
Spielberg once said that the little girl in red is the most conspicuous color on the street, symbolizing that the Nazi Holocaust took place in front of the public, but the US government turned a blind eye to it, that is, did not take timely action to bomb German rail lines. He did not take any measures to alleviate the disaster suffered by the Jews. This was his original intention to let the little girl appear on the streets of the Holocaust in red.
The little girl in red plays Olivia Brownska
The Polish child actor playing the little girl Olivia Brownska At the time of filming, she was only 3 years old. Spielberg asked her not to watch this film until she was 18 years old, but the curious Bronska watched this famous film she starred in at the age of 11 and claimed to be The brutal killing scenes in the film are "terrified".
There is a Holocaust survivor in the slums of Krakow, Poland. She was famous for her red coat in the early years. Her name is 罗玛·利戈卡. Many people think she is the film red. The character prototype of a little girl. After " Schindler’s List " was released, Roma Ligoka published a book titledThe book "The Little Girl in Red: Memoirs" (2002). No matter where the image of the little girl in red comes from, Spielberg's shaping of this role will surely be recorded in the annals of world movie history, and will be remembered by world movie audiences forever .
Summary
Steve Spielberg’s "Schindler's List" takes realism as the keynote and records in the form of a black-and-white documentary documentary of World War II Nazi Germany’s cruelty to the Jews The massacre created the heroic image of Nazi Party member Oscar Schindler who rescued innocent Jewish victims by all means. The film won 7 Oscars and was rated as the 8th in the "Top 100" classic films by the American Film Institute. The epic masterpiece depicting the Jewish Holocaust has made great achievements in both commercial and social benefits.
Spielberg (in the back row) took a photo with the main actors
Schindler’s 173rd Jewish survivor Poldeck Pfeiffer Berg played a vital role in the dissemination of Schindler’s deeds, the publication of novels and the shooting of movies. He fulfilled his promise to Schindler during his lifetime and realized the immortality of Schindler’s spirit and soul. aims.
Although Spielberg initially lacked the confidence to direct the film, his strong sense of social responsibility and mission made him choose to accept the challenge. Through symbolic expression, he deeply described the process of Schindler's major transformation of human nature, as well as his righteous deeds to save the lives of Jews at all costs, and criticized and flogged the heinous crimes committed by German fascists against Jews . The film has portrayed a series of characters with distinctive personalities, especially its successful portrayal of the little girl in red. Its symbolic significance is extensive, and it has enhanced the appeal and ideological connotation of the film, and has become one of the most classic images in American film history.
Spielberg and Liam Neeson are on set
The film focuses on the themes of justice and evil, kindness and cruelty, life and death, yes The most real and solemn Jewish Holocaust-themed film in history, with extremely high historical, cultural and aesthetic value .
Before the Jews at Schindler’s factory were liberated by the Soviet Red Army, they signed a statement for Schindler, proving his important role in saving the lives of Jews, and to show his innocence and hope You can avoid prosecution for war crimes in the future. The rescued Jews used gold teeth to create a ring and gave it to Schindler who was about to leave as a souvenir. Schindler was so grateful that he knelt down and couldn't cry. He felt ashamed and regretted for not saving more Jews. On this ring is inscribed a famous saying widely circulated in the Talmud:
To save a person's life is to save the entire world.
Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.
