性感野兽

第八届黑眼圈电影节在这个特殊的年景比较早的开幕了，第一观影日为我们带来的是英国导演乔纳森.•格雷泽的《性感野兽》。 片子一开始很有地中海风情的，非常适合我们这个在暑期开幕的非主流电影节的时间节点，作为开场小菜，就凭片头和开始一段基本完成了他作为开幕影片的作用。 开头儿的地中海风情再加上这个片名，我以为这片子要走热带风情性感大趴体的路线（这也是我们特别期待看到的）。不过后面情节显然也证明了黑眼圈电影节选片的调性注定不会那么可爱的乏味。感情这片子是一反高潮的非主流黑帮片，片名“性感野兽”断句儿不是你想当然的“性感的野兽”，而是“性感和野兽”，或者是“一点儿也不性感倒霉催的曾经的野兽”。 片子用大篇幅描写了搪瓷盆洗手的前江洋大盗怎么憋憋屈屈的又被拉下水的故事。黑帮传话人本•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为重点的安排也很有意思，紧张感制造的不错，让我想起了福尔摩斯探案集中的《四签名》。两个女演员风韵犹存，也是片中亮色。不过总体来讲要是推荐的话我更推荐格雷泽的另一个片子《重生》。 开胃小菜表现尚可，清凉爽口为后面的片子打打底也挺好。拍黄瓜怎么就不能当头盘儿上，毕竟人家可没搁芝麻酱，而是点了几滴芥末油儿给你端上来的……

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 Baños

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).

像这样的作品，你很容易把它归类为烂片。可是，随着欣赏角度的不同，电影所呈现的感觉也会发生变化。在影片里，身处西班牙犹如身处热带中心，人的精神状态被逼向极端，而在偏离常规之后，在这股耐人寻味的炎热里，它不自然地就散发了另一种独特的魅力，哪怕这种风格带着失败的味道，致幻度也还是很高，适合大量运动之后伴随大量刺激性食物及廉价香烟使用。

确实是不同于那些流俗的犯罪电影，它聚集于前半段，实施窃案并非重点，反而将视觉放在“说服旧搭档再次实施犯罪”的段落里。普通的盗窃类犯罪电影只是将这个过程放在影片开头，再长也不过20分钟，然而，这个编剧却特立独行，将常规的局部片段化作他的全部表达。于是，不同以往，观众在此看到了“犯罪电影类型”的另一面，那是漫长的拉锯，是互相的磨蚀，是无法拒绝的焦虑，是大范围炙热里的一滴汗。

待全片结束之后，我又突然想起了影片的开头：山上的某块巨石滑落，刚好飞过他的头顶，砸向他的泳池。这时我才发现了那个在故事开始就被注入的完美象征：西西弗斯的巨石落在了他的头上，他自然要承担西西弗斯的宿命。想退出，在拒绝，但不断被“唐”这个角色（就是他要说服“我”参与下一场犯罪）所化身的梦魇要挟，他告知“我”：你不能逃脱你现在想脱离的犯罪生活。远离并没有那么容易。这里还不能成为你的藏身之处。除非死亡，否则西班牙就不是你认为的天堂。

在这个象征之后，就是刚刚所讲的互相拉锯了，“我”的精神状态逐渐被逼向极端，身体变成了热带的身体，一场炎热在局部内酝酿，波动在看似无实际意义的对话上铺开，坏情绪则不停聚拢。戏外的我已经体验到烧灼感了。

而按照这种表达，在我看来，自“唐”被一枪打死之后，影片就该结束了。导演没有必要非得向观众呈现一个无法选择之人的最后位置，这样的位置不该有，即便有，也应该是呈现一种幻觉中的徒然，否则导演将亲手打破他栽种于影片开头的那个神话。

认知命运既然是电影所要表达的主题，更深刻的结尾应当就是“我”终于知道了“我”是西西弗斯。换句话说，在和梦魇拉锯数日之后，“我”既然已深知自己是热带中心的西西弗斯，就不应该强求“你”再给“我”写上一个新的结局。

各种经验告诉我们，认知是导致改变的前提条件，首要得认知，然后才会有改变。这没有错，可是，我们又都常常忽略了这么一点，实际上，开头的自我认知往往要比日后的自我改变还要困难。

这部电影本来是有可能做到这个程度的：删去各种形容词之后，再去照镜子，面对自己，我们将看到什么。可惜，导演最终没能完成这样的表达。在影片后段，它还是走上了另一条流俗的道路，而在那之后，观众所看到的热带也不过是寻常的热带风景罢了。