第八屆黑眼圈電影節(jié)在這個特殊的年景比較早的開幕了，第一觀影日為我們帶來的是英國導演喬納森.?格雷澤的《性感野獸》。 片子一開始很有地中海風情的，非常適合我們這個在暑期開幕的非主流電影節(jié)的時間節(jié)點，作為開場小菜，就憑片頭和開始一段基本完成了他作為開幕影片的作用。 開頭兒的地中海風情再加上這個片名，我以為這片子要走熱帶風情性感大趴體的路線（這也是我們特別期待看到的）。不過后面情節(jié)顯然也證明了黑眼圈電影節(jié)選片的調(diào)性注定不會那么可愛的乏味。感情這片子是一反高潮的非主流黑幫片，片名“性感野獸”斷句兒不是你想當然的“性感的野獸”，而是“性感和野獸”，或者是“一點兒也不性感倒霉催的曾經(jīng)的野獸”。 片子用大篇幅描寫了搪瓷盆洗手的前江洋大盜怎么憋憋屈屈的又被拉下水的故事。黑幫傳話人本?金斯利表演奔放，令人印象深刻。故事刻意把怎么被拉下水作為重點的安排也很有意思，緊張感制造的不錯，讓我想起了福爾摩斯探案集中的《四簽名》。兩個女演員風韻猶存，也是片中亮色。不過總體來講要是推薦的話我更推薦格雷澤的另一個片子《重生》。 開胃小菜表現(xiàn)尚可，清涼爽口為后面的片子打打底也挺好。拍黃瓜怎么就不能當頭盤兒上，畢竟人家可沒擱芝麻醬，而是點了幾滴芥末油兒給你端上來的……

2020.7.15

Title: Sexy Beast

Year: 2000

Country: UK, Spain

Language: English, Spanish

Genre: Crime, Thriller

Director: Jonathan Glazer

Writers:

Louis Mellis

David Scinto

Music: Roque Ba?os

Cinematography: Ivan Bird

Cast:

Ray Winstone

Ben Kingsley

Ian McShane

Amanda Redman

Cavan Kendall

James Fox

Julianne White

álvaro Monje

Rating: 7.4/10

Let’s assume you are a casting director, there are two roles: one is Gal, a retired safe-cracker enjoying the life of Riley in a beatific villa in Spain with his wife and friends; and the other is his former criminal associate Don Logan, a browbeating, invective-pelting psychopath who wills to recruit him to a new job and will not take no for answer. Then you are given two candidates: Mr. Gandhi himself, Sir. Ben Kingsley and a bovver heavy Ray Winstone, the choice is rather self-evident.

However, that is not the case for UK scenester Jonathan Glazer when he begins to work on his feature film debut SEXY BEAST, who does the obverse, fingers Mr. Winstone for the hapless Gal and Mr. Kingsley for the rivetingly menacing Don Logan, a delectable volte-face rewardingly earns him an Oscar nomination, meantime, Winstone also magnificently brings about an incarnation very different from his usual image, a rough diamond type, graced by the lovey-dovey intimacy between him and his wife DeeDee Dove (Redman), an erstwhile porn star.

It is a taut iteration in the UK gangster genre, the story is nothing too sparkling, it is Glazer's swift and impressive execution takes the full credit. The harbinger arrives in its opening, a boulder falls right in into the swimming pool of Gal’s villa (which betrays a sloppy CGI burnished effort), while he is sunbathing under the blistering heat, this portends an impending threat which will disrupt the placidity and imperil those who cannot get away, Don Logan is coming to visit, and he will not be in a pleasant mood if he knows that Gal determines to decline his very generous offer. So sparks fly, but not without a droll war of (swearing) words and things will inevitably get physical, Kingsley’s intimidating presence deviously pays off the looming dread simply elicited by the mention of his name, and after an ironical turn of events, he does manage to press-gang Gal into partaking in the action however reluctant he is, to break into a bank vault via water pressure, The suspense isn’t swelling during the action, but after, when the head of the criminals, Teddy Bass (McShane, another great villain, less showier but infallibly lethal), a character turns out to be far more ruthless than Don Logan, bluffly tells Gal that “he knows what they did in Spain” and promises he will come to visit in the due future. Well, why there isn’t a sequel to this?

Parlaying his reputation as an eclectic music video director into this breakout debut, Glazer has concocted up a stunning-looking fare seeped with robust characterization, pulsating rhythm of montage, scintillating chromatic disposition and optimal pop taste, ultimately transmogrified it into a beguiling conglomerate ofromanticism, perversity absurdity and bloody gallows humor like an arch cautionary take:there is no easy way of going straight, so think twice before you get your feet wet!

ps. accompany pieces: Glazer’s UNDER THE SKIN (2013, 8.2/10); Guy Ritchie’s LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS (1998, 7.9/10), SNATCH (2000, 7.1/10).

像這樣的作品，你很容易把它歸類為爛片。可是，隨著欣賞角度的不同，電影所呈現(xiàn)的感覺也會發(fā)生變化。在影片里，身處西班牙猶如身處熱帶中心，人的精神狀態(tài)被逼向極端，而在偏離常規(guī)之后，在這股耐人尋味的炎熱里，它不自然地就散發(fā)了另一種獨特的魅力，哪怕這種風格帶著失敗的味道，致幻度也還是很高，適合大量運動之后伴隨大量刺激性食物及廉價香煙使用。

確實是不同于那些流俗的犯罪電影，它聚集于前半段，實施竊案并非重點，反而將視覺放在“說服舊搭檔再次實施犯罪”的段落里。普通的盜竊類犯罪電影只是將這個過程放在影片開頭，再長也不過20分鐘，然而，這個編劇卻特立獨行，將常規(guī)的局部片段化作他的全部表達。于是，不同以往，觀眾在此看到了“犯罪電影類型”的另一面，那是漫長的拉鋸，是互相的磨蝕，是無法拒絕的焦慮，是大范圍炙熱里的一滴汗。

待全片結束之后，我又突然想起了影片的開頭：山上的某塊巨石滑落，剛好飛過他的頭頂，砸向他的泳池。這時我才發(fā)現(xiàn)了那個在故事開始就被注入的完美象征：西西弗斯的巨石落在了他的頭上，他自然要承擔西西弗斯的宿命。想退出，在拒絕，但不斷被“唐”這個角色（就是他要說服“我”參與下一場犯罪）所化身的夢魘要挾，他告知“我”：你不能逃脫你現(xiàn)在想脫離的犯罪生活。遠離并沒有那么容易。這里還不能成為你的藏身之處。除非死亡，否則西班牙就不是你認為的天堂。

在這個象征之后，就是剛剛所講的互相拉鋸了，“我”的精神狀態(tài)逐漸被逼向極端，身體變成了熱帶的身體，一場炎熱在局部內(nèi)醞釀，波動在看似無實際意義的對話上鋪開，壞情緒則不停聚攏。戲外的我已經(jīng)體驗到燒灼感了。

而按照這種表達，在我看來，自“唐”被一槍打死之后，影片就該結束了。導演沒有必要非得向觀眾呈現(xiàn)一個無法選擇之人的最后位置，這樣的位置不該有，即便有，也應該是呈現(xiàn)一種幻覺中的徒然，否則導演將親手打破他栽種于影片開頭的那個神話。

認知命運既然是電影所要表達的主題，更深刻的結尾應當就是“我”終于知道了“我”是西西弗斯。換句話說，在和夢魘拉鋸數(shù)日之后，“我”既然已深知自己是熱帶中心的西西弗斯，就不應該強求“你”再給“我”寫上一個新的結局。

各種經(jīng)驗告訴我們，認知是導致改變的前提條件，首要得認知，然后才會有改變。這沒有錯，可是，我們又都常常忽略了這么一點，實際上，開頭的自我認知往往要比日后的自我改變還要困難。

這部電影本來是有可能做到這個程度的：刪去各種形容詞之后，再去照鏡子，面對自己，我們將看到什么?？上В瑢а葑罱K沒能完成這樣的表達。在影片后段，它還是走上了另一條流俗的道路，而在那之后，觀眾所看到的熱帶也不過是尋常的熱帶風景罷了。