BIRDSONG
寒假在家里看的 突然想写影评 断断续续的 直到现在才终于算是终于把影评写好了。。

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    This afternoon I watched the 160-minute-long film called "birdsong" which had an overwhelming impact on me when I finished my watching. The supporting roles of the movie are Stephen Wraysford and Isabelle Azaire - two lovers who are torn apart by the events of the First World War. The story was based on the adaptation of Sebastian Faulks' 1993 war novel of the same title which has been said to be Sebastian Faulks' best work of fiction.
    The film tells the story of a man called Stephen Wraysford at several different stages of his life both before and during World War One.
    The year 1910 witnessed the start of the story, it's the first stage of the movie, which is set before the war in Amiens, France. Stephen Wraysford is sent by his wealthy but disempassioned benefactor to work with René Azaire at his textile factory. He stays with Azaire and his family including Isabelle, Lisette and Grégoire. As time passes he senses an unease in the relationship between Azaire and Isabelle and is curious about her. Afterwards it is revealed that Isabelle is substantially younger than Azaire and is his second wife. Additionally Azaire is embarrassed by his inability to father a child with her and beats her in erotic-consolatory anger.Stephen and Isabelle engage in a passionate affair which they believe is 'right' and will last forever. When Azaire found their affairs Stephen and Isabelle run away together, but Isabelle, finding she is pregnant while Stephen doesn't want a kid, she then momentarily loses faith in the relationship. Without telling Stephen, she flees, returning to her family home and the one constant in her life - her sister Jeanne. From then on, Stephen hears no more of her and knows nothing of his child that she bears. The only thing he bears in mind is that despite such long time's effort, their affinity finally deserted itself.  
    The second stage, begins in the tear 1916 is quite sanguinary which is full of savage battlefields and deafening explosion. Stephen joins the British Army as a lieutenant and through his eyes, we can clearly get how bloody and brutal that war can be. During his time in the trenches, we learn of Stephen's mental attitude to the war and the guarded comradeship he feels for his friend Captain Michael Weir and the rest of his men. However, Wraysford is regarded as a cold and distant officer by his men. While Stephen got injured in a mission he refuses all offers of leave after he survives, so committed is he to fighting and staying involved with the war. His story, which is worthy of being mentioned, is paralleled to that of Jack Firebrace, a former miner, employed in the British trenches to listen for the enemy and plant mines under the German trenches. Jack is particularly motivated to fight because of the love he has for his deceased son John back home. Stephen meets Isabelle after meeting with Jeanne, Isabelle’s sister, and convincing her to let him, and finds that her face has been disfigured by a shell with scarring caused from the injury. He feels lonely just before the final attack and writes to Isabelle, feeling that he has no one else that he can express his feelings to. He writes about his fears that he will die, confessing  that he has only ever loved her. This stage ends with a bombardment leaving many soldiers wounded or dead in no man's land.
    The third stage ends with Wraysford and Firebrace being trapped underground; Firebrace dies but Stephen survives and as the war ends he is rescued by Levi, a Jewish German soldier. After narrowly escape with bare life Stephen go back to Amiens for Isabelle only to get the news of her death. Meanwhile, he saw his daughter left by Isabelle until when did he understand the true reason for her leaving--because he once said he didn't believe in children, and the movie ends here with beautiful birdsong.
    There are several dialogues in the movie that impressed themselves on my heart one of which is just before the finally attack Firebrace learned the news of his son's death, he is in the depth of grievance and gets as drunk as the fiddler, unceasingly saying:"what's it all bloody for, eh? Let's raise the glass to all those who were already forgotten. Everyone who died ...and my son." what Wraysford can only say to console him is just"sleep it off."----sleep it off? can it? I dout it. All the soldiers presents know it clear that sleep can never heal the pain they're undergoing which was brought by the war, however, none of them utters to answer back for they understand the war leaves them the choice of brave resistance which might be a slim chance of survival or the most abject submission which leads directly to disgraceful death. Given the cruel and unrelenting reality, they would rather pretend to believe his words to dream for fine results.
    From my point of view, the major themes of the movie is how fragile life could be when encountering with wars. No on can deny the fact that in face of violence and war, all the fancy and glory of love just withers away. Beautiful things can always be tender. Both of the lovers have tasted the extreme bitterness and sweetness of love. The title of the film is birdsong which can be found in the beginning and the end of the film. Nevertheless, in such war motion pictures birdsong is subtle and therefore is  hardly to be spotted, birdsong is supposed to be the crucial element in the movie, which reveals us the key subject of the film. The whole film is haunted by an atmosphere of depression and desolation except for the birdsongs in several rare occasions where the mood is captured to be easy and cozy. Here the birdsong stands for a specific embodiment combined the honey and purity of love with the happiness and tranquility of peace. In Wraysford's memory of their sweet love there are liquid birdsongs permeating all the romantic process, leaving a exquisite image as well as a sore scar in his heart for the birdsongs saw both misery and honey of his cherished love--birdsong makes him suffer rather than happy. However, the war and separation add to his pain. Love is not a cure but a kind of toxicant. Several years passed, Wraysford retrieves his hope and desire for life from the baptism in the flames of the war by realizing the goodness of life and the cruelty of life. Volatile happiness makes him to hold tight and cherish what one gets right now, just as what Firebrace told him before death when they're trapped under the gloomy tunnel: "There is nothing more, sire. To love and be loved."
    The director used montage which is a very classic film-making technique in this film to compress the passage of time. By connecting those events together we see clearly how life survivals and love suffers in the harsh time. one second the hero and the heroine are glued to each other with happiness and passion which moves every audience while the next second what roughly raises into our view is flames of the war ranging everywhere in the fronts. The heroes are tortured ruthlessly between the violence of the war and the betrayal of affections. That way, the director warns us constantly that it's the bloody war that seizes by the throat of innocent lives and delicate love.
    Wars come and go, but soldiers stay eternal. ----solders are the biggest victims of wars, solders carry all kinds of injuries embody the evidence of crimes that the war committed; solders have a sobering effect on all of us to treat war or even history properly.

Very nice. Thank you

wow     wonderful！！！！

I remember that you wrote a film review of The Boy in Striped Pyjamas.

It seems that you really like such kinda film about World War.

Again, this is also a awesome film review. I do appreciate it.