In the opening credits the film is said to be also known as The Wind Bloweth Where it Listeth. Later the priest gives Fontaine some lines from Nicodemus in the Bible and they are:the wind bloweth where it listeth and thou canst not tell where it cometh.
I was wondering what the significance of these lines are to the plot/themes and/or characters.
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I was wondering the same thing. Anyone?
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Good question; difficult to answer. "The wind blows where it wants (or pleases)", I guess it means something like everyone is the master of his own destiny, and everyone can change the course of his/her life. In the movie, Fontaine's (apparent) fate was that he was inevitably going to be killed by the Nazis; however, he managed to survive prison and finally escape. Fate is not something fixed or arranged, pre-established, you can always change it, just as the wind blows in the direction it wants. As I said before, I'm only guessing.
"You cannot tell where it comes"; no idea. The power of God, maybe?? i.e. God makes the wind move in the direction it wants. What happened to Fontaine was ALMOST a miracle, so maybe God's intervention has something to do with it.
Any new ideas????
@ cesarat37
Thanks for your reply. I agree with you that it's about indeterminate fate and the uncertainties of chance and fortune. The quote itself read as quite empty to me but I suppose it could inspire; if the wind can blow as it wishes and no one knows where it comes from, then a man be as the wind, perhaps.
Re-the power of God. A possible interpretation. The quote itself appeals to mystery regarding origins and existence.
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Only my view, but I think you're heading in the wrong direction if you believe the quotation is about «indeterminate fate», «the uncertainties of chance and fortune», and «mystery regarding origins and existence». On the contrary, these words of Jesus open a way to overcome fate and to pierce the mystery of existence.
Fontaine was given the power to escape the unjust sentence of the criminal Nazi régime, saving not only himself but also the mixed-up young lad Jost, who won a second chance in life. What happened in this film is not as important as why it happened.
@Charlot47
Can you say more? I can't hear in the words the meaning you're suggesting of them in relation to the film. Your view sounds interesting.
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I do not want to say too much about the words written over 1800 years before their use in the film for several reasons. The original Greek text is in places difficult to put into French or English, its meaning is multi-layered and mystical, over the centuries many people with far greater insight and scholarship than me have pondered over it, and ultimately you have to make up your own mind how to react to it. But I will try to offer a few personal thoughts.
In the original, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, a prominent Jerusalem rabbi. He tells him that in this life we have to be reborn. The material frame of mind we have grown up with and will otherwise die with, that is focussed on transient things, must instead be replaced by a spiritual frame of mind focussed on eternals. This spiritual life, like the wind, is not something one can predict or manage. Yet by accepting it we escape the constraints of space and time.
Do you see how Bresson was using the story of Fontaine as an allegory of the human condition? We are all in a prison on this earth and will die in it, unless we can be lifted out of it by some force beyond our control.
Thanks for your reply. It's been a while since I watched the film and I've seen it only the once, so my recall is hazy, but ... where you write:
We are all in a prison on this earth and will die in it, unless we can be lifted out of it by some force beyond our controlWhat force lifted Fontaine from the prison? He seemed in command of his situation and determined to escape from the outset. Would the force be his determination to escape and not accept his lot, as some others did?
I give my respect to those who have earned it; to everyone else, I'm civil.share