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看电影《遇见乔•布莱克》

已有 3045 次阅读 2022-11-23 22:55 |个人分类:休闲阅读|系统分类:生活其它

周末中午与女儿共进午餐。回家后在网络上找电影看。推荐两部片子，经过磋商一致同意看《遇见乔·布莱克(Meet Joe Black, 1998)》。电影比较长，3个多小时。女儿说先看一半，另一半等她下次来再看。妻子看电影时打个盹，等女儿走后重新看，一看不可收拾，直到看完。后来还叫我一起看，我中间缺了些。下次另外选部喜庆点儿的电影。不然在生日上看个过了生日就死的电影，不是好兆头。

最后的致谢中说该片受Death Takes a Holiday (1934)启发。确实，该片的大背景就是死神Death来度假。亿万富翁William Parish(但被周围人称为Bill)在纽约有传媒企业超过40年。正要过65岁生日，他已近中年的大女儿在具体操办，但Bill本人有些心不在焉。他经常听到奇怪的声音，别人听不到。他的小女儿Susan是年轻的实习医生，开始时与Bill的得力助手拍拖。他父亲觉得他们缺少激情，Susan在咖啡馆遇到位一见钟情的年轻人，还没有互留姓名，但刚分手那位年轻人过马路时还在看离去的Susan，车祸身亡。Death用了那个年轻人的身体，找到了Bill家。Death与Bill相约，可以宽限几天带着Bill，但这些天Death要跟在Bill体验他的生活。在这个过程中，Death不仅尝到了人间的美味，也遇到了美色Susan，她以为Death就是在咖啡馆遇到的年轻帅哥。后来两人共坠爱河偷尝禁果。Bill被助手算计，企业要被强行并购。Death出手帮助Bill夺回企业。Bill离去的时刻身份在生日聚会之后。安排妥帖一切，Bill和Death共同走过一座小桥(暗合东方思想中的奈何桥)消失。Susan已经察觉到Death并非是咖啡馆遇到的帅哥，看他们离去还是追过去。这时候，Death一个人从奈何桥上回来年轻。Susan很快意识到这位才是在咖啡馆遇到的帅哥。两人携手回到生日庆典。

在Death借用帅哥身体并爱上Susan后，我就觉得唯一可能的结局只能是Death退场，帅哥复活。这是检验Love测试的标准答案。虽然该片大的结局在我预料之中，但有些具体的处理还是机智或有幽默感。Bill被人算计而非常愤怒时，Death让他息怒，否则You'll give yourself a heart attack and ruin my vacation. 后来Death出手帮忙时说，I've had the opportunity to be a witness to every kind and degree of deception but Bill Parish has been on the receiving end of machinations so Machiavellian that it has rarely been my experience to encounter and yet he has combated them himself stoically and selflessly without revealing my identity. Had he violated the vow of secrecy he took, his task would have been far easier; he could have turned defeat into victory. But he is too honorable of a man to have done that, because of me, he has lost his work, his company, his reputation, so now, given these losses, I'm compelled to end the need for secrecy. 我以为他要暴露身份，其实并不是。他自称是税务官IRS agent，这无疑是前面从到人间学会的习语death and taxes are the only things that are inevitable受到启示。

电影的主题是爱情。Bill对女儿选择他当时的得力助手(后来背叛)颇有微词，鼓励她听从内心的召唤，并宣讲爱情的非理性激情侧面。… love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. I say fall head over heels. Find someone you can love like crazy, and who'll love you the same way back. How do you find him? Well, you forget your head and you listen to your heart. I'm not hearing any heart. Because the truth is, honey, there's no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love, well, you haven't lived a life at all. But you have to try, because if you haven't tried, you haven't lived. 不过，当Death爱上他女儿Susan，听从自己内心的召唤要把她带走时，Bill又讲了爱的另一面，to take whatever you want because it pleases you. That's not love. 爱意味着trust, responsibility, taking the weight for your choices and feelings, and spending the rest of your life living up to them. And above all, not hurting the object of your love. 这两种视角都有道理，因此爱是艺术而非科学。

电影主题除了爱，还有死亡，毕竟有Death的参与。Bill似乎很淡定地面对死亡。在他的生日晚会上发表演说其实是告别尘世，I thought I was going to sneak away tonight. What a glorious night. Every face I see is a memory. It may not be a perfectly perfect memory. Sometimes we had our ups and downs. But we're all together, and you're mine for a night. And I'm going to break precedent and tell you my one candle wish: that you would have a life as lucky as mine, where you can wake up one morning and say, "I don't want anything more." Sixty-five years. Don't they go by in a blink? 还专门与女儿Susan告别并叮嘱，I love you so much. And I want you to promise me something. I don't want you to ever worry about me. And if anything should happen, I'm gonna be okay. And everything's gonna be all right. And I have no regrets. And I want you to feel the same way. 不过真上路时，Bill其实还是有些害怕，因此问Death, "Should I be afraid?" Death回答言简意赅， "Not a man like you." 所谓善终，或许就是面对死亡没有恐惧。

电影让我很感动的是Bill对女儿的爱。Death爱上Susan而想把她带走时，Bill有篇大段表白，I loved Susan from the moment she was born, and I love her now and every minute in between. What I dream of is a man who will discover her, and that she will discover a man who will love her, who is worthy of her, who is of this world, this time and has the grace, compassion, and fortitude to walk beside her as she makes her way through this beautiful thing called life. 去世前对Susan说，I want you to know how much I love you, that you've given a meaning to my life that I had no right to expect, that no one can ever take from me.

Meet Joe Black是部老电影，因此大帅哥Brad Pitt正在颜值高峰。演技是否高明不好说，但都是他饰演Death与死而复生的帅哥神态迥异，Death有股冷气，当然可能是我心理作用。女主角Susan的饰演者Claire Forlani在这部电影中有些像Angelina Jolie，我觉得眼睛和嘴像，身材hot方面有些逊色，但女儿说不像。只在美剧Camelot (2011)中见过Claire Forlani。如标题都城名字所示，是King Arthur的故事，但只有10集，故事刚展开就停播了。Claire Forlani饰演Queen，在最后一集已经被害死，这样King Arthur才可能与手下骑士争夺爱人。在那部戏中Claire Forlani不仅不像Angelina Jolie，而且远没有女反派Eva Green出彩，她饰演女巫Morgan，也是King Arthur的姐姐。饰演Bill的Anthony Hopkins以The Silence of the Lambs(1991) 和Hannibal (2000)中的吃人狂魔Hannibal闻名，还看过他的历史片Titus (1999)中的罗马将军Titus和神话片Beowulf (2007) (女主是Angelina Jolie)的老国王，以及侠盗片The Mask of Zorro (1997) (女主是女神Catherine Zeta-Jones) 中的年老力衰的佐罗。