The most obvious menace in the film is that of the "Nazi werewolves” - those remnant members of the Nazi party who put up a sinister resistance to the reconstructive efforts of the occupying forces - since they represent a threat of bloody physical violence. Through Leopold, the immediate response seems to be that it isn't, yet the film's nuanced complications suggest that constructive orders, hypnotic propaganda and narrative revisionism are in many ways unavoidable in the modern era. In this way, the film is interested in the potential powers and forms of hypnosis: whether it ever be the case that an individual may be influenced to act in such a way that they are unaccountable for their actions. Although he receives a nauseating and contradictory series of orders, his desire to obey them is a responsibility of him alone. However, in each such instance, his actions are purely volitional. Or, if he wants to cherish the woman he loves, there may be certain rituals he is expected to participate in. Perhaps, if he wants to keep his job, he might be required to jump through a series of absurd hoops. Meanwhile, although Leopold’s autonomy is infringed on by the systems he serves, the film makes clear that the final decisions behind his actions are ultimately his alone. For all of these, it is Leopold’s position as an outsider that opens him up for exploitation. The crippling bureaucracy of the Zentropa railroad, the coercive fear-mongering of the residual Nazi party and the greedy overreaches of the occupying Allied forces each respectively hold further dominion over Leopold’s life and liberty. This puppet master-like role of the narrator, however, is only one of the several systems to which Leopold finds himself subservient. The first dialogue in the film, for example, is the narrator beckoning to Leopold with the lines, "you will now listen to my voice and on the count of ten, you will be in Europa." Rather than being a passive historian, the narrator takes up the mantle of an active hypnotist, enacting his will into being by inducing Leopold into mesmeric inundation. This narrator not only provides an expositional foundation for the film but also, using the same dictation, entreats Leopold to follow his hypnotic suggestions. ![]() Although Leopold is the film’s perspective character, a separate narrator also presides over the film. ![]() While the film’s plot is fairly rudimentary, being at its core a somewhat generic romantic period piece, its framing and presentation raise larger questions about personal interaction with ideology and art.
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