8.5。

明奈利最后一部歌舞片，浪漫得一塌糊涂，并且?guī)в幸恍┬潞萌R塢的痕跡。

美術(shù)上，常見的是還原時代或完全架空，這里卻將1900s前后，英國新藝術(shù)運動中“平面”領(lǐng)域流行的比亞茲萊風(fēng)格，自然地融進(jìn)1810s英國攝政時代的“立體”世界，非常震撼的體驗。（新藝術(shù)運動中，歐美藝術(shù)家與設(shè)計師積極展開了對舊日的綜合回顧，及對未來的前衛(wèi)探索，最終因無法真正適應(yīng)現(xiàn)實需求，而被現(xiàn)代主義理念所取代?？梢哉f是前現(xiàn)代主義時期的一場藝術(shù)夢吧。所以，正因為它的綜合性，它天然地適合被施用美化到各個時代，其實也呼應(yīng)了六七十年代之交，新舊好萊塢電影的境遇）雖然偶爾也能察覺到劇組缺經(jīng)費。

表演。史翠珊的歌技與歌唱的表現(xiàn)力是真好，演技與念白與形體在這里也是真糟（她甚至對不上口型?。；蛟Sstaff里多幾名給力的編舞和舞蹈教練能搶救一下糟糕的表演。回頭發(fā)現(xiàn)，音樂劇原作導(dǎo)演兼編舞是Herbert Ross，難怪結(jié)構(gòu)上有種強烈的《Pennies from Heaven》（正好也是米高梅最后一部舊制歌舞片）既視感。于是更加痛心疾首——要是后者的導(dǎo)演是明奈利；要是前者的cast有后者的水準(zhǔn)……也或許導(dǎo)演在為式微的歌舞片融入新好萊塢運動風(fēng)尚的嘗試中，對表演指導(dǎo)尚有些許迷茫。

劇情，略微擰巴的感情發(fā)展，朦朧的gay文本。常見的轉(zhuǎn)生題材多是戀人相約相守生生世世（阻礙多來自客觀），這里卻很特別的將今生不足的緣份寄期于某次前生或來世（阻礙多來自主觀）。電影版中的男主唱給女主的Come Back to Me唱段直接增加了一段"Come in pain or in joy, As a girl, as a boy"的唱詞。后來的部分音樂劇復(fù)排版本干脆將女主改寫成了gay主。很可能深柜的明奈利導(dǎo)演，這部難得深情的《on a clear day you can see forever》會有幾分他的內(nèi)心投射嗎？

回到戲外現(xiàn)實世界的時間軸，電影于69年1～5月拍攝，6月，朱迪嘉蘭意外早世，緊接著石墻暴動，8月補拍，70年6月11日電影試映版時長143分鐘，17日首映版削掉所有據(jù)說是制作上最精致的來世戲份，時長減至129分鐘。而傳說中的14分鐘就這么走過了導(dǎo)演去世，吊著影迷的胃口，失蹤到了今天……

Bookended by psychedelic opening/close credit sequences, ON A CLEAR DAY… is Minnelli’s penultimate feature, and rightfully captures the era’s fantastical ethos, based on Alan Jay Lerner’s own musical, it is basically a two-hander between a chain-smoking ingénue Daisy Gamble (Streisand) and a psychiatrist Prof. Marc Chabot (Montand), from whom the former seeks help to cure her nicotine addiction through hypnotherapy, which only opens a hornets’ nest laced with other parapsychological components like ESP and reincarnation.

Yes, Daisy is a clairvoyant, endowed with a magical green thumb and subconsciously remembers all her reincarnations (including future ones), and Chabot is increasingly fascinated by one of her previous incarnations as Lady Melinda Tentrees of the Regency era, who prospers a rags-to-riches ascendancy but eventually is betrayed by her husband and condemned for her “otherness”. Meantime, Daisy, who is kept from the acknowledgement of her preternatural condition, becomes smitten with an urbane Chabot, which threats the relationship with her bien-pensant fiancé Warren (Blyden). When the cat is let out of the bag, again, it is a persistently telepathic calling (when Montand crooning COMING BACK TO ME) that brings the pair together and squares up their respective disillusions, with Chabot perceiving a piece of tidings from the future to salve his compunction.

It is amusing to think that anyone is able to fall under the hypnotic spell of Montand’s English elocution with his thick French accent, and Minnelli’s cavalier direction of it doesn’t mitigate any skeptical glances, yet, Streisand is exceptionally versatile in her two roles, gussying and glamorizing herself up as she enchants us with those Burton Lane-penned melodies with such facility and emotion, they might sound a shade treacly, passé and over-sentimental, however, the timbre of her voice is supernal, and her unconventional beauty is emblazoned in such a florid fashion that can keep aesthetic fatigue at bay. Nonetheless, the underlined every-girl-fancies-herself-as-a-glamor-puss propensity feels antiquated.

A product of its own time, ON A CLEAR DAY… is unique in melding an above-board romance with the counterculture of parapsychology, but with a simper rather than a bang, too tame and cutesy for its own good (Jack Nicholson’s character is ruefully underutilized, he is supposed to be the right match for Daisy, right?), Minnelli’s picture tepidly sails through the less fathomed waters.

referential entries: Gene Kelly’s HELLO, DOLLY! (1969, 7.3/10); George Cukor’s MY FAIR LADY (1964, 7.8/10).