瘋人瘋語

「我離港前到過一間精神科醫院。當時有位病人禮貌地問,一個以作為世上最悠久民主政體而自傲的國家,如何能夠將此地交給一個政治制度非常不同的國家,且既沒諮詢當地公民,又沒給予他們民主的前景,好讓他們捍衞自己的將來。一個隨行同事說,奇怪,香港提出最理智問題的人,竟在精神科醫院。」彭定康 金融時報

“During a visit to a mental hospital before I left Hong Kong, a patient politely asked me how a country that prided itself on being the oldest democracy in the world had come to be handing over his city to another country with a very different system of government, without either consulting the citizens or giving them the prospect of democracy to safeguard their future. Strange, said one of my aides, that the man with the sanest question in Hong Kong is in a mental hospital.”Chris Patten Financial Times

Non Chinese literate friends, please simply switch to English Version provided by LOUSY Google Translation

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敬請參與在右下方的不記名訪客分佈調查問卷,你是: ?

Friday, January 23, 2015

坐看雲起時

坐看雲起時



梁振英 發表 施政報告 日,聽完他嚴厲文革式的謾罵,心情不佳在 IFC 遊遊逛逛,看到了電影海報,被中文譯名吸引著:


估計是一部全女版的女性電影吧,由三位老中青女星主演!

有過氣法國艷星:
Juliette Binoche 50歲


有改邪歸正的美國影星:
Kristen Stewart 24歲


還有當頭起的玉女明星:
Chloë Grace Moretz 17歲


導演是 張曼玉 前夫:
Olivier Assayas




Clouds of Sils Maria 港譯:坐看雲起時 臺譯:星光雲寂


很久未見過本港的外語片譯名有這個水準,查 坐看雲起時 出自:


《終南別業》 王維

中 歲 頗 好 道,晚 家 南 山 垂。

興 來 每 獨 往,勝 事 空 自 知。

行 到 水 窮 處,坐 看 雲 起 時

偶 然 值 林 叟,談 笑 無 還 期。


不過今次不是要談詩辭,因為海布吸引了 嗜悲,電影只隔一天就上畫了,不過我是等了幾天才決定入場看的,因為原來全港島只得 IFC Palace 放映,而且票價差不多一百個大洋。



別因為有個靚屁股錯過了 要留意預告片中 美麗山河湖泊景色 每次看我的注意力 都被山光帶離 要多重看幾次


以下含劇透慎繼續:


【維基百科】Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) has a successful acting career and a loyal assistant Valentine (Kristen Stewart).


Juliette Binoche as Maria Enders 演年華老去的紅星


She owes her career to having been cast in both the play and film versions of Maloja Snake by Wilhelm Melchior, which centers on the tempestuous relationship between a young girl and an older woman who is eventually driven to suicide.

Kristen Stewart as Valentine 崇拜 Maria 忠心的年輕得力助手


While traveling to Zurich to accept an award on behalf of Melchior, and planning to visit him the following day in nearby Sils Maria, Maria learns of his sudden death. His widow Rosa later confides in her that Wilhelm's death was suicide and that he had been terminally ill.

雲和山纏繞著羈絆著

During the awards ceremony, Maria is approached by a popular theatre director who is trying to persuade her to appear on stage in Maloja Snake again, but this time in the role of the older woman.

山是否為了雲而生的呢?

To prepare for the role she accepts Rosa's offer of the Melchiors' house in Sils Maria, which Rosa is leaving to avoid her memories of Wilhelm. Maria's discussions with Valentine and their read-throughs of the play's scenes combine to evoke uncertainty about the nature of their actual relationship.


Sils Maria (Sils im Engadin/Segl, Switzerland) 是 瑞士西南部近意大利的一邊 離有名的滑雪勝地 St. Moritz 不遠只是十公哩


A young American actress (Chloë Grace Moretz) who has been chosen to interpret Maria's old role in the play surfaces via Google searches, YouTube videos and tidbits of contemporary cultural knowledge as relayed by Valentine, are generally dismissed as irrelevant by Maria.


Chloë Grace Moretz as Jo-Ann Ellis 演年輕不知天高地厚的新進女演員


Questions regarding aging, time, culture and the thin line between the characters of the-play-in-the-film and those we are seeing on the screen multiply priming the denouement in London. The key to the resolution is offered by a young filmmaker who visits Maria by appointment 5 minutes before curtain on the opening night of Maloja Snake, but she seems preoccupied and dismisses the offering as "too abstract for me."


記得有位女詩人曾寫過:
沒有雲的繚繞,山是那麼沉寂。沒有山的陪伴,雲是那麼孤單。


The final scene of the film indicates however that the penny may have dropped 。。。。。or not; she is on stage, smoking and waiting for Sigrid to pass through the offices collecting outgoing folders.


我見:

嗜悲 有喜歡看女性電影前科,好像 “我和春天有個約會” 就看過話劇版多次不同版本,看過電影版本,更連由亞視前身拍的電視劇版本(鄧萃雯版)都有看過。


因為整部影片故事環繞,Maria 先演出戲上戲 Maloja Snake 中年輕 Sigrid 的角色一舉成名,但當她年華老去之後,就要演戲上戲 Maloja Snake 中慘被欺凌至自殺年長的 Helena。一前一後的演出,就有如生活中的 Maria 自己,也因為韶華不再開始星沉。


三位女星中 Juliette Binoche 當然交到好戲,不過有些驚喜是 Kristen Stewart 不再玩吸血殭屍和人狼,都是懂演戲的女演員不再是爛花瓶。至於,Chloë Grace Moretz 只是演回自己,不用很多調整演技,串串貢的年輕女演員手到拿來。


因不是動作片的 Drama 劇情片,講對白的時候多至貫穿全劇,嗜悲 需要很用心地去聽英語對白,盡量避免去如讓眼睛離開畫面閱讀中文字幕,才是最考驗 嗜悲 的難題。


Breathtaking view of Alpine scene 令人目眩讚歎的高山景色


又因為很多瑞士美麗壯觀的 Alpine Scenes 阿爾卑斯山脈湖光山色,若離開了畫面去看字幕,真的可惜也是浪費了 100個大洋的票價。因此,嗜悲 questioning myself 我是去看戲,還是去看風景的呢?



追加予的感受:

Maria 在電影中戲上戲,因為漸漸年長要演角色 Helena,又被年輕一代演 Sigrid 的 Jo-Ann Ellis 看不起串串貢。Valentine 對 Maria 忠心尊敬愛護,和 Jo-Ann Ellis 對 Maria 的輕藐不尊重,都令 Maria 自己心事重重,並且作出試探 Valentine 對自己的忠心。


在看電影時,我曾經有一刻想過,這會不會是 Jo-Ann Ellis 聰明,她是想要幫助 Maria 谷起情緒去演活 Helena 呢?但又不似年輕的一輩,會有這種情懷吧。電影中導演 Olivier Assayas,都沒有有甚麽的暗示。


相信在與我同是這一代人,已經在早幾年開始感受得到,早在公司內外 feel 到,就在進門口前和離開門口後的不久,會聽到一些閒言閒語。


好一些 90後的同事們,雖然人前口上表面還是對前輩恭恭敬敬,但在背後尤其是在開會時,往往總衝著一斑被稱為 “老屎忽” 的 70後 80後同事們說話,在這些時候 嗜悲 必要作出平衡。因為 嗜悲 自知,在我不在的時候,相同類似針對我的事情會發生著。



後記:

嗜悲一向有 Google search 網上人家寫的網誌,關於某電影的看後感,也讀讀一些外國的影評。以下是其中之一:





【Culturevulture.net】The movie’s title, “Clouds of Sils Maria,” refers to a natural phenomenon found in the Sils Maria municipality of Switzerland for which the fictional play within the film, “Maloja Snake,” is also named.

Both titles designate the same thing, spectacular clouds that snake around mountains in the Swiss Alps. Two different takes on the same thing is also a running theme in this latest film from writer-director Olivier Assayas, a fiction that runs in parallel to another fiction within the fiction.

Assayas starts off using a handheld camera on a shaky train, the film’s wobbly image reflecting the hectic life of renowned actress Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche). She is in the middle of a fussy divorce and on her way to accept an award for Wilhelm Melchior, the playwright who discovered her over 20 years ago.



Maria is stabilized only by her assistant Valentine (Kristen Stewart) who handles her stream of unending phone calls and micro-manages Maria’s daily life. Whereas Maria is tense, unsure, and frequently agitated, Val is decisive, clear, together, and even more knowledgeable and aware.

While still on the train, Maria discovers that Wilhelm has just died, a suicide after a long illness as it turns out. Maria’s breakthrough play by Wilhelm, “Maloja Snake,” also became her breakthrough film, leading her to a long career in European films and then to Hollywood to work with the likes of Sydney Pollack and Harrison Ford.



In “Maloja Snake,” Maria originated the role of Sigrid, a young ingénue who becomes the assistant for a successful older woman, Helena. Helena falls madly in love with Sigrid and her obsession destroys her (a similar story was told in the 1972 martial arts film “Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan”).

Now, a famous director, Klaus Diesterweg (Lars Eidinger) is bringing “Maloja Snake” back to the stage and wants Maria in the role of Helena while casting Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloë Grace Moretz) as Sigrid. Jo-Ann is a young boisterous hellion of an actress with a number of trashy antics captured on Youtube.



Maria is superstitious and does not want the part of Helena as the actress she originally worked with in the part died a year later in a car accident. She also identifies with Sigrid and not Helena and sees them as opposites.

Klaus disagrees stating that they are one and the same person and that Sigrid will grow up to become Helena, precisely what Maria now does not want to do. But Val loves the play and Jo-Ann is Val’s favorite actress, which makes Maria jealous.



After being intrigued by Jo-Ann from searching the internet, Maria consents to Klaus. On the internet, Jo-Ann comes off with a haughty disregard for what others’ think, but when she meets Maria, she is nothing but differential and showers her with flattery.

As the movie progresses, the parallels between the fiction of “Maloja Snake” and the events in Maria’s life become unmistakable. Though not romantically attracted to Val except perhaps her youth, Maria’s dependence on Val mirrors Helena’s on Sigrid.

Maria runs lines with Val in scenes of great intimacy and power, but Maria’s disregard for Val’s opinions begins alienating Val from her. Another distinguished actor, Henryk Wald (Hanns Zischler), worked with Maria when she was 18, had an affair with her, and abandoned her in a sort of role-reversal of the Helena-Sigrid dynamic.



Assayas throws in some parallels to real life as well with Jo-Ann becoming famous from being in a superhero movie just as Moretz did from “Kick-Ass” while the character of Jo-Ann is clearly inspired by the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. Maria herself is not that different in career trajectory from Binoche.

The movie gives a terrific sense of what the play “Maloja Snake” is like, and it makes one wish the play were real to experience whole. Despite establishing the play’s story and then the film engaging in a lot of life imitates art imitates life symbolism, “Clouds of Sils Maria” is not predictable.

Ultimately though Assayas’ heart is less in the narrative than the ideas being presented. The movie is held together by Assayas’ ruminations on people’s perspectives and how it plays out in dynamics of age vs. youth and maturity vs. innocence.



Maria’s perspectives are biased by her disposition for clarity, the high brow, and realism, and they clash with Val’s with her intrigue for ambiguity, the utility of low-brow genres, and fakery that can nevertheless get at deeper truths.

But Assayas also shows Maria plagued by contradictions. She complains about Google and the internet until she needs it. She likes Jo-Ann’s swooning over her until it stops. She rejects Val’s input but prizes her dedication.

Assayas consistently has the characters turn what starts off as subtext in a scene into text reflected in dialogue. This shouldn’t work, yet it does because the ideas are engaging and the acting so strong.



With all of the overt dialectics, the film could easily become too self-conscious or academic or obvious. Assayas walks right up to that line but never crosses it. He takes his time setting up the entire complicated scenario of the film’s plot, and the measured pacing could be off-putting if it wasn’t all so capably done.

Assayas’ style is a literary as well as a visual one. Most of his films include many small character details and a hefty amount of emotional complexity, which aptly describes “Clouds of Sils Maria” as well. His direction only goes haywire in one out-of-place scene merging imagery of Val driving to a soundtrack of some particularly awful acid space rock.



Binoche is in her usual strong form, but Kristen Stewart has never been better, possibly even overshadowing Binoche, which is high praise indeed. Stewart exudes a powerful lived-in quality in Val, a strong comfort in her own skin, and her presence matches Binoche’s in every scene.



For once however, Moretz, who was so good in “Kick-Ass” and “Hugo,” is the weak link in “Clouds.” She lacks the self-assuredness of her character, which admittedly is the most plot-contrived element in the story. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that an arty theater director would cast an infamously bad-girl movie actress, but it’s a stretch.



Yorick Le Saux does a masterful job lensing “Clouds of Sils Maria,” and it doesn’t hurt that he has the gorgeous Swiss countryside to work with. When the real Maloja Snake, the clouds of the title, finally makes its appearance, it’s breathtaking.



至於《大把戲》關於 坐看雲起時 @4:00

嗜悲 有些同意有些不同意 但無損 嗜悲 喜歡這套電影 可能先入為主




伸延閱覽:
Clouds of Sils Maria 維基百科
Clouds of Sils Maria culturevulture.net
王維 詩句:坐看雲起時 谷歌搜尋



我的舊文:
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