We'll start
with the one film, in which Mr. Bostridge (in addition to his singing)
delivers the most riveting, heart-wrenching portrayal
of the protagonist of Franz Schubert's song cycle
"Winterreise". It was directed by David Alden for British
television.
Poetic
cinema is a risky business: when the film is built entirely on intuitive
(as opposed to the narrative) associations, the result can be confusion
and bewilderment on the part of the audience. The blame for this is
twofold: no artist's intuition is absolutely perfect, since we are all
guilty to some extent of neglecting our spiritual development and
secondly, the vast majority of the film audience refuses to put out even
a modicum of inner effort to meet the artist half way, as they have
become thoroughly accustomed to having everything spelled out to them in
a way that insults not only their intelligence, but also their
souls.
Therefore, it is little short of a miracle, when a film
like "Winterreise" succeeds on all levels. The credit for this must
first of all go to the musical genius of Schubert, whose song
cycle of scorned love manages to penetrate to the souls of even
today's audiences, combining contemporary notions like "goth" and
"angst" with the eternal expressions of romanticism, idealism and just
pure beauty. It is evident from the start that the director, David
Alden, stands squarely in the tradition of poetic, high-art cinema. The
haunting opening of the slow tracking shot, the agonizingly slow
movements of the camera into tight close-ups (matching the inner
agony of the main character) are all reminiscent of the great Russian
director Andrei
Tarkovsky, yet they appear totally fresh and "new" and unexpected in
the context of the film. The inventiveness and, at the same time, the
astonishing simplicity of the mise-en-scenes throughout the film
continues to amaze even on repeated viewings. The middle part of the
film in the white space is particularly striking: this White
Light, with the main character (dressed in black) floating in
and out, lends an air of eternity to this whole journey of the
soul. The choreography of the camera angles, the gestures of the main
character and the edits show incredible sensitivity and reverence for
Schubert's score. The production has a touch of period detail, a touch
of modernism - yet it all has a feeling of timelessness about it.
The end of the closing song - in itself, a heartbreaker - is
given an ingeniously simple treatment (and greatness lies in such
simplicity): with the main character backed up into a corner, the camera
pulls back achingly slowly in complete silence, as the closing credits
roll and the white specks fall, like snow. In the force of its impact,
it is similar to the ending of Ingmar Bergman's
"Virgin Spring". When a beautiful young girl is raped and murdered -
and then snow begins to fall, it triggers some indescribable reaction in
the soul of the viewer. After all that youth and beauty is so brutalized
and wasted, the snow falling from above is like a catharsis, a
purification - something that one cannot quite
put into words, because it is moving beyond words. The same effect is
achieved here: the main character of the Wanderer has reached a breaking
point, an inner death, and yet he has to go on living. The falling
snow-specks are like a sign from
Above:
"The
many-sided indispensable value of everything that exists in Creation
always proffers the possibility of ascent again in some way
or other, even amid the greatest confusion caused by men. Whether or
not the soul recognises and uses these possibilities is its
affair alone. The lifebelts are there! The soul only needs to reach
out for them with a good volition in order to swing itself up on
them." ( Abd-ru-shin, "IN THE LIGHT OF
TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE", chapter "A Soul
Wanders".)
In this
type of poetic, personal filmmaking the choice of the right person for
the lead is critical; otherwise, the whole thing runs the risk of
falling flat on its face and appearing ridiculous rather than sublime.
Mr. Alden could not have done better than choosing Ian Bostridge.
Without Bostridge's total inner commitment, without his deep intuitive
understanding of the music and its drama, it would all have been reduced
to a pointless exercise in clever camera angles. It was the amazing
spiritual depth of his gaze that allowed Alden to do those phenomenally
effective (and affecting) slow tracking shots and zooms into tight
close-ups, as well as the unforgettable close-ups dissolving into
pure White Light. At the time of the making of this film, Mr. Bostridge
was just about the same age as Schubert, which makes the whole
experience all the more poignant. Here we also have a record of the
matchless musical partnership of Bostridge and his
accompanist/collaborator Julius Drake, which can be safely compared to
the legendary partnership of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald
Moore. It sounds almost too good to be true, but here indeed we
have the most enthralling performance of Schubert's "Winterreise" in a
poetic masterpiece of a film!
The main character of the Wanderer in
"Winterreise" is someone that every human being can easily identify
with, since every one of us is a wanderer in Creation, whose path lies
not only through several lives on earth, but also through various
supra-earthly planes, leading all the way back to our place of
origin, our actual Home, Paradise in the Spiritual
Realm:
"As the
lowest part of Creation the entire World of Matter hangs like a huge
wreath, rotating in an immense circle which it takes millions of years
to complete. Thus in the great cosmic happenings everything not only
revolves around itself, but the whole of Creation also
continually rotates in an immense circle. Just as this great cycle
resulted from the first union and developed to its present
perfection, so it continues unswervingly on its course in
the same manner until disintegration sets in and returns the
component parts to their primeval substance. The circle, however,
calmly continues to rotate along with this primeval substance in order
to form new worlds with new and virgin powers through newly-effected
unions.
Such is the
great process of evolution, eternally repeating itself on the smallest
as well as on the greatest scale! And above this rotating circle
there stands firmly anchored the first spiritually pure Creation, the
so-called Paradise. In contrast to the formed World of Matter, Paradise
is not subject to disintegration.
In this
Eternal Spiritual Sphere, which stands luminously above the rotating
circle, lies the origin of the unconscious spirit-germ of man. This
spiritual sphere again becomes the final goal of the human spirit
after it has become self-conscious and thus personal in the World
of Matter.
It comes forth
as an unconscious and non-responsible germ. It returns as a
self-conscious and therefore responsible personality provided that ...
it does not get lost on its necessary journey through the World of
Matter (thereby becoming entangled in it), but celebrates its
resurrection from it as a human spirit which has become fully conscious.
A joyful emergence from the World of Matter towards this luminous and
eternal part of Creation!
As long as the
human spirit remains in the World of Matter it joins in part of this
great and eternal rotating movement without, of course, realising it.
Thus one day it will at last arrive at the boundary line where that part
of Creation inhabited by the human spirits slowly drifts towards
disintegration!
Then, however,
it is high time for all human spirits which are still within the
World of Matter to make haste and improve themselves to such an
extent that they can ascend to the safe and luminous haven of the
Eternal Kingdom, which means to find the right way and above all the
shortest way of escape from the impending dangers in the World of
Matter before being overtaken by them!
If they do not do
so it will become more and more difficult, and finally too late for
them!
With all the rest
they will then be slowly drawn into disintegration, in which process the
personal "ego" they have acquired will be torn to
pieces.
Suffering a
thousand torments they will again become unconscious spirit-germs, the
most dreadful fate which can befall a spirit that has attained
self-consciousness!
This concerns
all those who have developed their personality in the wrong direction.
As their personality is both useless and detrimental it must therefore
again be forfeited. It should be noted that disintegration is not the
same as destruction. Nothing can be destroyed! It only relapses into a
primeval state. What will be destroyed in these lost ones is the
personal "ego" they had acquired up to that time, and this will be
accompanied by unspeakable torments!
Such lost or
damned ones then cease to be complete human spirits, while the others
are permitted to return home to the Eternal Kingdom of Joy and Light as
self-conscious spirits, consciously enjoying all its
splendour...
Such events,
however, cover millions of years, but even in the happenings extending
over many millions of years there comes one definite year which
is absolutely decisive for the necessary separation of what is useful
from what is useless.
And
the earth has now reached this point of time in the great cycle!
The human spirit still dwelling in the world of matter must at
last decide to make its ascent, or the World of Matter will clasp it
firmly for the ensuing disintegration. This is the eternal damnation
from which it will never be possible to rise as a conscious spiritual
personality and ascend towards the luminous eternal part of Creation
which stands above such disintegration!" (Abd-ru-shin, "IN THE LIGHT OF
TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE", chapter "I Am the Resurrection and the
Life, No Man Cometh to the Father But By Me." Also listen to the chapter
"The World" in MP3
audio, 26 min.)
"Then we see
that man is in no way what he prides himself on being. He can by no
means claim the absolute right to eternal bliss and eternal individual
existence! The expression: 'We are all God's children' is wrong in the
sense that man has given to it. Not every man is a child of God,
only he who has developed into one!
Man is sent
down into Creation as a spirit-germ. This germ contains everything it
needs to enable it to develop into a child of God, conscious of its
personality. The condition is, however, that he unfolds and cultivates
the corresponding abilities and does not allow them to
perish.
Great and
mighty is the process and yet quite natural in its every stage. Nothing
goes outside logical development, for there is logic in all Divine
activity, because this is perfect, and what is perfect cannot be wanting
in logic.
Each of these
spirit-germs carries the same abilities within itself, as they are all
of the
same spirit. Each of
these abilities contains a promise which will be unconditionally
fulfilled as soon as the ability has been developed. But only then! That
is what each
germ has in prospect when it is sown..." (Abd-ru-shin,
"IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE", chapter "Man and His
Free Will" - listen to the entire chapter in MP3
audio, 60
min.)
"... it is this spirit which alone turns man into a
human being - that man can only become a human being through the
spirit!
This again proves that all those
creatures on earth today who keep their spirit imprisoned cannot be
regarded by the Light as human beings either!
The animal has nothing of the spirit,
therefore it can never become a human being. And that man who buries
his spirit and does not let it work, which is just what makes him a
human being, is in reality no human being!
At this point we arrive at a fact which
has so far been observed too little: I say that it is the spirit which
stamps a man as a human being, which makes him one. The expression 'to
make a human being' contains the hint that only
through its activity does the spirit form the creature
into a human being!
Therefore to carry the spirit within
does not suffice to be a human being, for a creature does not become a
human being unless it allows the spirit as such to
work
within!..
...the spirit is the
real human being, which must develop in various cloaks from the
germ to completion, because it always carries the urge to do so within
itself...
Thus let us confidently assert that the
spirit is the actual human being, all else being only the cloaks.
By wearing them the spirit becomes strong, and the consequent
compulsion to bestir itself ever more increases its
glowing.
The glow into which the spirit is thus
transposed does not die down when the cloaks are laid aside, but
raises the spirit and leads it upwards into the Spiritual
Realm.
Just through being forced to bestir itself
under the weight of its cloaks the spirit finally grows so strong that
it can bear the stronger pressure in the Spiritual Realm and remain
conscious, something it was unable to do as a
spirit-germ.
Such is the course of its development which
took place for the sake of the spirit. The cloaks themselves are to be
considered nothing but the means towards the end.
Therefore nothing changes when man on earth
lays aside his physical body. He is still the same human being, only
without the physical cloak, with which there also remains the
so-called astral covering necessary for forming the gross material
earthly body, and which originates from medium gross
matter.
As soon as the heavy earthly body together
with the astral body has fallen away the spirit remains clad in the
more delicate cloaks only. In this condition the spirit is
called 'the soul' in contradistinction to the earthman of flesh
and blood!
In his further ascent the human being also
gradually lays aside all the other cloaks, until finally he only keeps
the spirit body with a spiritual cloak, and in this way enters the
Spiritual Realm as a spirit without any cloaks of other
species.
This is a natural happening because then no
alien cloak can keep him back any longer, and consequently he must
in the natural course of things be uplifted through the species of
his own nature.
Therefore this is the difference which
very often causes you difficulty in your desire to understand, because
you had no clarity and thus the conception of it remained
vague.
In reality only the spirit comes into question with
a human being. All the other designations depend purely on the cloaks
he wears.
The spirit is everything, it is the
essence, thus the human being. If together with the other
cloaks he also wears the earthly cloak he is called earthman; when he
lays aside his earthly cloak he is considered by earthman as soul;
when he also lays aside these delicate cloaks he remains spirit alone,
which he always has been in his species.
Thus the various designations are merely
adjusted to the species of the cloaks, which could themselves be
nothing without the spirit, which glows through them." (Abd-ru-shin, "IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: THE GRAIL
MESSAGE", chapter "Soul".)
From
this we see how imperative it is to concern ourselves with the
development of our spiritual qualities. It is quite literally a matter
of life and death for us, and not just something that we decide to do
after we've taken care of the "more important" things. The knowledge of
the survey of Creation also puts all genuine artistic activity into a
proper perspective: it is as essential as eating and breathing! The
truly great artists with a genuine Calling, therefore, help to lead
humanity upwards to the Luminous Place of Origin of our
spirits, Paradise. Ian Bostridge has become a shining example of an
artist in the process of fulfillment of this high
Calling.
