曾经沧海难为水

《谁在敲我的门？》（1969）和《再见爱丽丝》（1974）是马丁·斯科塞斯早期的两部片子。《谁在敲我的门？》之前，老马丁只拍过一些短片，在一些小电影节上得过几个奖。《谁在敲我的门？》是老马丁的剧情长片处女作，讲一对男女的爱情故事，故事平淡无奇，但细节相当出彩！老马丁那时还是一个穷人，这个片子拍得不容易，前期拍摄完后，老马丁发现素材不甚理想，只好搜肠刮肚在剪辑上下功夫。事实证明，老马丁的想象力被贫穷和困窘逼出来了。《谁在敲我的门？》在剪辑上有许多化腐朽为神奇的地方，比如那段似乎无谓的激情戏，堪称神来之笔。这片子还“厚颜无耻”地把马丁的评论音轨插了两段作为正片内容，无伤大雅又让人小小惊喜了一把——原来“低成本”和“想象力”的反比关系是如此的！作为刚刚开始搞片子的我，该片给我启示甚多，我将会在《爱情福音》的剪辑中向老马丁致敬一下！
《再见爱丽丝》是老马丁拍完成名作《穷街陋巷》（《Mean Streets》，1973）之后执导的“女性电影”。在此片之前，老马丁被认为是一个只会指导男演员演戏的导演——他拿女演员没办法。老马丁用《再见爱丽丝》让那些持此偏见的人闭嘴了。《再见爱丽丝》讲一个丧夫的女人自立与寻找爱情的故事，一个很日常化的温馨小品。老马丁拍得最拿手的还是那些男性色彩浓厚的电影，《再见爱丽斯》证明的是老马丁的导演能力与功力，与天赋和个性没有很多的关系。
老马丁差不多是我最喜欢的美国导演——之所以差不多，是因为有时候我喜欢昆汀多一些。他的片子看得七七八八了，只剩下《纽约，纽约》、《蝴蝶夫人》、《金钱本色》、《纽约故事之》等几部了。到目前为止，老马丁的片子始终保持很高的水准，没有烂片。做到这份上的导演不多，不过塔可夫斯基、库布里克几人而已。
两部片子均有老马丁的评论音轨，所言和《斯科塞斯论斯科塞斯》一书差不多。

所有评论都会提到这是马丁难得的温情脉脉的电影。其实温情主要体现在结尾，让所有人如释重负的团圆。稍加改动，这电影还是会让人绝望悲惨的故事。
有不少提到这片子的镜头没那么的让人劲爆，我不很赞同。电影中大部分镜头都在运动中，即使在家里的戏，摄影机也会缓慢的横向移动。这也是这部片子看起来一点不觉得烦闷的原因。而另外一下运动是通过画面内容了。人的运动，车子的运动……总之画面中的运动无处不在。例外的地方是女主角和咖啡馆朋友晒太阳时……最后跳到大远景，风沙掠过荒凉的镇子，两个女人在路当间晒太阳。这绝对是导演的趣味……
明显的新好莱坞风格，不由得想起了《逍遥骑士》，哪里像又说不太出来。
这电影给自己最大的影响是关于怎么才“像电影”。经常和朋友聊起XX电影看起来像是电视剧……怎么才像电影？我觉得关键就是运动。不论是摄影机运动，还是人物运动……始终要在一种动态中。这样才能始终抓住观众的眼睛，将他们死死按在椅子上。
PS：另外的一种动是心动。诸如小津，杨德昌，利用画外的空间，在银幕上形成一种缺失感的构图，然后这种对于画面中缺了点什么（通常是人）的想法引导人去想怎么了（人呢？）？发生了什么？

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, A Warm Sad Singing.
再见爱丽丝，一首温暖的悲歌。

       《再见爱丽丝》讲述了寡妇爱丽丝带着她的儿子一起游历，决定开始新的生活，去追寻她为了婚姻而放弃的成为歌手的梦想。她带着儿子去了凤凰城，在小酒吧当驻唱歌手，她在那里遇到了本，不料本是一个外表迷人却十分暴力的已婚男人。她发现自己被骗之后迅速离开了这个小镇，去到亚利桑那州的一家餐厅当服务员，她在那里她与离婚的农场主大卫坠入爱河，可最终因为无法接受大卫对儿子的管教而选择独自和儿子生活在这个小镇。
       《再见爱丽丝》不是一部典型的马丁·斯科塞斯电影，它没有绚烂的场景，丰富的对白和直白的暴力，但它却是个人最喜欢的马丁的电影。最开始，我是被电影的名字所吸引。当我听到“Alice doesn’t live here anymore”这个名字，嗯⋯⋯意味深长的故事，有一点点的悲伤。其实“Alice doesn’t live here anymore”最初是另外一个剧集的名字，它根据1933年的一首同名歌曲改写。而《再见爱丽丝》也正是讲述一个寡妇歌者的故事。
       马丁·斯科塞斯对于音乐的品位让我十分着迷。当爱丽丝的丈夫下葬之后，爱丽丝回到家，坐在木风琴前，平静地弹唱起爱丽丝·费伊（Alice Faye)那首《你永远不会知道》（You’ll never know)。阳光洒在她身上，她的儿子在窗外的花园里悄悄地聆听。“You'll never know just how much I miss you/ You'll never know just how much I care/ And if I tried/ I still couldn't hide my love for you/ You went away and my heart went with you…”这段歌唱对于我是整部电影里最感人的部分，它展现了一个女人可以多么勇敢和温柔。
       马丁的脑海里总是有一堆的音乐存储量，而且他恰如其分地使用它们。马丁说“对我来说，每一段曲子都有关于它的一段联想。” 在马丁的绑匪片里，他常常使用布鲁斯和摇滚乐去衬托男子的粗犷气概；在浪漫情景时，马丁善用爵士去制造男女间暧昧的感官气氛。 最让我难忘的是他常常在暴力场面运用恢宏的古典音乐，如此巧妙地制造暴力的美感和张力。比如在《愤怒的公牛》开场和《出租车司机》结尾都有体现。得心应手地运用配乐也是使马丁电影成功的得力助手，而这一出色的能力也和他的天赋和年少起广泛的涉猎密切相关。
       《再见爱丽丝》是一个关于母亲的故事，一个仍然怀有梦想的母亲拥有一颗勇敢的心。但是她仍然需要来自男人的关怀，这也是她为何总是陷入麻烦。《再见爱丽丝》是马丁的第四部作品。 传记作家克利斯蒂 (Christie)还是认为“之于马丁自传式它是男性主导的电影，这是马丁的一次完全的起飞。”马丁认为他们是故意设计了爱丽丝的丈夫死于车祸，于是爱丽丝所谓的“独立”不过是出于没有其他选择的无奈，马丁并不认为他拍了一部女权主义电影。克利斯蒂评论说“这部电影有关自我责任和人是怎样一次又一次犯同样的错误”，《芝加哥太阳时报》 (Chicago Sun-Times)评论员艾伯特(Ebert)认为“它是最有见解，最有趣，一不小心痛苦地刻画了美国女性的电影之一。”对于本片是否女权的讨论有很多，关键还是在于观众自己的角度。我认为它还是包含了一些女权主义元素的。它表现了来自男性对于女性的暴力伤害，然后去展现女人如何去应对命运之中必须要承受的不幸，却一直没有放弃去追求快乐和独立。这并不是说女权主义题材电影里的女性角色必须通过独立去获得快乐，而是意味着女性不屈服于男权，而始终坚持她的信仰和去追求她所期望成为的。到底，这是女权骨子里对平等的坚持和追求。艾伯特用 “undefeated”（不被击败的）这个词去形容爱丽丝这个三十五岁的女人，她想要成为一名歌手，并且跟随她的梦。当爱丽丝在那个遇到本的小酒吧歌唱的时候，导演使用了一个360度的环绕镜头，这一刻，她是如此的美丽，而且你能感觉到她自己才是她生命的中心。不过，整体来说，《再见爱丽丝》的前半部分比后半部分更女权一些。在前半部分，我们可以看到一个拉扯着儿子的单身母亲尽其所能地与困难抗争，她和儿子之间的故事也十分有趣和纯粹。但是当她遭遇了男人，故事好似陷入了肥皂剧的危险：坠入爱河，争吵，然后分开。也许是因为大多数关系的确都是这样的，也可能因为马丁太了解男女了。
        马丁给我们上了一课，教我们女人在有梦想的时候是那么美丽动人，而且女人足够勇敢去追她的梦。他也了刻画了一个对儿子极度负责任的母亲形象，在一定程度上，这也表达了马丁对母亲的爱的感激。

- Is the film proclaiming a feminist statement or mocking people who did? If not, what is the conceptual nucleus? What is it demythologizing?

Ebert states that "...I think it belongs somewhere outside ideology, maybe in the area of contemporary myth and romance." I don't quite understand this sentence, but the film is certainly much more interesting than a speech of ideologies, the kind of speech Alice doesn't want to hear.
Scorsese's film is always about questioning, and always has so many levels of meaning. On the surface, this movie looks like a melodrama demythologizing the family value and women's social responsibility by an undefeated lady fights for her dream, but underneath this it is actually Scorsese demythologizing the whole process of women pursuing for dreams and independence. It seems to me that Scorsese is always exploring different genres and themes, while how he display his exploration is to demythologize whatever coat he is putting on.
I agree that not knowing what you want is a universal problem (Scorsese stated that it is not a feminist tract but "a human picture"). By addressing this to a widow, Scorsese is not trying to display the weakness of women, but more like to dramatize the problem, as he uses the stage of chaotic Little Italy to question whether a person can hold on to his belief while make a living (Mean Streets).
More than three reviews I've read said that Alice has always left in the care of others until her husband dies. While this sounds like a good reason of why a woman doesn't know what she wants, it is a misinterpretation. In the brilliant bathroom scene, Alice once says (in a very melodramatic way): "maybe I just felt like he was taking care of me." While back to another brilliant scene when she is sunbathing with Flo, she says: "I just like the idea of man, you know, strong and dominating." (thanks for the subtitle! Really helps a lot, I don't remember a single line from Mean Streets) Maybe in Scorsese's eyes feminism is a modern myth. There is no material power that is against women's free will, Alice is Alice since the very beginning.
In this film, Alice looks like a girl who has wandered a bit too far into Wonderland. She likes to sing and buys sexy dress while she is actually not a good singer and not that sexy. There are about four times she turns to her left and talks to the air: "you are a smart-ass kid", "It ain't Peggy Lee", whispers in Mel's cafe, etc.. It is certainly cute, but also daydreaming. She has a flat and childish fantasy of man: strong, beard, dominate. She is always self-contradictory: "I want to kill Tommy!" "He sometimes could be very mean." "No he is not mean...he is just too loud..." in the bathroom: "I don't love him! I do..." How Scorsese portrays her is cruel, but very interesting. A real woman is very interesting, honestly fool, realistic (when she says "I don't have to show off my emotion all the time", it might because she really does not have that much emotion at that point, women have the ability of being extremely anesthetic in order to solve the immediate problem), warm and undefeated. I actually don't want to use the word "undefeated", Ebert uses it, lots of critics use it. It is almost an eternal feminine charm (what we called Ying): to be undefeated, while blunt enough to make mistakes again and again. Overall the film does looks like a tender story about a woman being waking up from inside, but I can't help wondering if Scorsese has a crueler angle of viewing it.
We mentioned about the kids- adults comparison in class. The three men Alice met are traditionally masculine: Don an "ass" that prays sincerely (demythologizing religion/belief); Ben a sexy, passionate sadist (whom is almost a masochist in Mean Streets; he did the shooting gesture again in this film when Alice ignores him. Tommy also did that to Alice and David. Scorsese's suicidal obsession?); David a perfect farmer figure who punches kids. While Alice as the only female protagonist is very feminine. Compared to these adult conformists, kids in this movie are ground-breaking and intriguing. Besides Tommy and Audrey's ruleless words, Scorsese visualizes the complexity of their personalities by making Tommy blah blah blah all the time like an old lady (with some very funny feminine gestures when telling Alice the story in car), and Audrey acts like a total boy.
This film has too many things I want to talk about... Going back to that bathroom scene. As I said in class it is demythologizing "melodrama": she cries, "I don't love him...I do!" She turns her face around melodramatically, but the bathroom is too small that she knocks her head on the toilet paper box. While they are having the most serious conversation through out the movie, Vera is out there waitressing desperately. Look how much people pay in order to leave you time to be melodramatic. The sunbath scene opens up with a beautiful shot of two women's side faces. The framing and color (blue sky, sweat, white skin displays different shades under sunshine) make it looks like a postmodern painting. Suddenly it jumps to an establishing shot of them sitting on crappy chairs, saying what a nice weather/sunshine, then the next second a flurry of dust and sand comes towards them. For me this looks like a demythologization of Scorsese's blondes. He occasionally focuses the lens on woman's face, but this time is more intriguing.
Seems I haven't touched the conceptual nucleus...This film is complex! To sum up in a simple way, by demonstrating a modern The Wizard of Oz, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore shows how far a person can go for her dream and how undefeated he/she would be. And as ironic as The Wizard of Oz, no matter how brave she is, how far she goes, the protagonist will finally come back, and all she learned from the journey is to cherish her life in Kansas. This doesn't sound like conceptual nucleus...help.

没感觉这是一部喜剧。关于片名，感觉像是句反话，Alice其实一直都在这里，她一直在同一个地方犯同样的错误，没离开过。
影片一开始就是爱丽斯的小时候，场景色调极为夸张，很明显是不真实的，我觉得这是导演的一种暗示，暗示这就是爱丽斯脑中的小时候，那时候她陶醉在自己的世界里，一切都是美好的，想象着自己会实现自己唱歌的梦想。她就那样唱着，结果唱着唱着就唱到27年以后缝纫机前的自己了。她已经成为了别人的妻子，关于唱歌，27年后仍然只是一个梦想。一个很重要的地方就是，后来David 问她，你为什么离开Monterey，Alice 说：well, I got married, Donald wanted to live in his own hometown, I want to go on singing, but he said: No wife of mine is going to sing in a saloon. 结果Alice 就这样轻易放弃了自己的梦想，还说：“yes, master……” 这算什么？！因为男人的一句话就能轻易放弃了自己的梦想？只能说明她爱男人多过爱自己的梦想。
后来她的丈夫在13分钟意外死去，他们因此而离开，她想着自己还跟19岁时一样能在喜欢的酒店找一份唱歌的工作，但其实早就时过境迁了，她就靠着这个幻想开始了回Monterey的旅途。
现实是残酷的，她找工作到处碰壁，后来靠着眼泪才能勉强找到一份唱歌的工作。却在工作时遇到了Ben，很快就坠入了爱河，在发现Ben有家庭并且充满暴力倾向后，Alice立刻收拾东西闪人了。
后来Alice来到一个小镇，在现实的压力下当起了服务员，结果遇到了David，一个有着自己农场并且满脸胡渣的男人，Alice在与David相处过程中花光了自己为了回Monterey而攒的钱，却在一次争吵中因为David打了儿子而又一次选择了离开。
最后David在饭店真情流露说：“Pack your bags, I’ll take you to Monterey. I don’t give a damn about that ranch.“，Alice 立刻就失守了，影片的结局是Alice自己放弃了回Monterey。
对于Alice这个人物，我觉得首先是可悲的，她虽然有自己的梦想，但这梦想却没处在自己心目中的首要位置。处在第一位的永远都是男人和儿子。其次，Alice是单纯的，理想主义的，David 问她：你是想回家，还是想唱歌？ 她回答说我两个都想，我觉得Alice或许从没认真想过这个问题，她真正想回去的地方，是从前的自己。但是，她却总是会在男人面前迷失自己。
她真的想唱歌吗？我觉得她从一开始离开时就在怀疑自己，在回Monterey的过程中下意识地找着男人依靠，她不是想唱歌，她也不是想回Monterey, 她是想找一个可以依靠的男人。她说：我的生活里不能没有男人。Monterey 是她的梦，也许小时候她是真想唱歌，但27年以后她已经不是真的想了，她还是选择了男人。
以至于在洗手间里说好的要给David一巴掌，结果转眼就因为David的话扑到了他怀里。
最后还是因为男人，没能回Monterey。