崩溃边缘的女人

Author: Coconuttree666, a Chinese student who wants to be a serendipper in film studies and capture a kaleidoscope of colors in each frame

崩溃边缘的女人 (1988)

7.8

1988 / 西班牙 / 剧情 喜剧 / 佩德罗·阿莫多瓦 / 卡门·毛拉 安东尼奥·班德拉斯

The 1988 movie Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown movie, directed by Pedro Almodóvar Caballero, is described in the academia as highly stylized with the “colorful characters, vertiginous plotlines and rich intergeneric allusions” (Acevedo-Muñoz, 2006, p. 173). Just as West (2013) stated, Almodóvar is among those filmmakers who insert personal experiences as motives and features within their films. Although tons of critics have discussed the film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, I intend to specifically underline two idiosyncratic attributes of it in this film blog, namely the color and the references to Hitchcock’s work, within the biographical context of Pedro Almodóvar.

To start with, as the artistic director Antxón Gómez observes, “Pedro works with a very definite range of colors. He has trouble working with white, for example. He always says, ‘I don’t understand black and white.’” According to Oliva (2009), the recognizable use of color constitutes a dominant trademark in Almodóvar’s movies, frequently acting in concert with a neo-baroque aesthetic style that is prominent in Hispanic culture. From my point of view, the most astonishing aesthetical achievement in this film should boil down to the various outfit of the leading actress, Pepa Marcos cast by Carmen Maura (see the screenshots below).

In terms of semiology, the color can function as a signifier, which will denote deeper significance namely the signified, the process of which helps us to deconstruct the film as an aggregation of signs. In the first several scenes featuring Pepa, she is wearing a gray suit, which signifies professional and formal; yet after she feels extremely disappointed at her relationship with Iván, the frequent show-up of the color red could manifest that Pepa is the woman “on the verge of a nervous breakdown”, except for once she chooses to wear a blue suit pairing with a white shirt with black polka dots when she needs to be the adult for solving Candela (Maria Barranco)’s problems when seeing the feminist lawyer, where blue delivers a sense of calmness and intellect here (it can be somehow interestingly confusing with the same color constructing different meaning-making —— Candela, the character who represents irrationality and obtrusion, also wears a blue outfit when she shows up in the film for the first time). Furthermore, it is demonstrated by Oliva (2009) that the distinctive understandings of colors of Almodóvar might be triggered by his mother, Francisca Caballero, who made many cameos in his films before her death in 1999; as “bookish” as he could be, Almodóvar shows a sense of sensitivity through repeatedly claiming that his unlimited passion of narrative in the form of colorful visual compositions comes from his mother ——

As he said in a speech: “I like to think that my passion for color is not merely a function of the baroque style of my characters, but that it is also my mother’s answer to so many years of mourning, in which black was the dominant color. I was her extravagant reaction to the stultifying and excessive tradition of La Mancha (where Almodóvar grows up —— from the author)”.

…

“My mother was the territory where everything happened. I learned boldness from her, and something more: the need for certain doses of fiction so that reality can be better digested, better narrated, better lived… It was not a question of complacently accepting things, but of perfecting reality by adding a little bit of fiction.”

According to Zurian (2013) that when Almodóvar was eight, his family moved to Orellana la Vieja, a village with few traces of modernity, where he received the primary education under the religious supervision; at 17 he came to Madrid but never enrolled in the Official Film School since it ceased giving classes and gradually closed, then Almodóvar became an assistant in Telefónica, the national telephone company. Albeit lack systematic cinematic studies, he seems to be capable of expressing himself without any established rules; in the universe of narrative and film, his family, especially his mother seemingly leads him to a bigger illusionary world full of vivid colors that are conveying complicated connotations.

Moreover, it seems to have become a consensus in the sphere of film critics that Hitchcock should count as the primary textbook of Almodóvar, aesthetically and industrially; you can still tell new traces of the presence of Hitchcock in the form of appropriation in Almodóvar’s movies after accomplishing global success (Acevedo-Muñoz, 2007; Kercher, 2013).

Brill (1988) contended that many characters in Hitchcock’s films are victims of the inevitable and fatal traps of their past; conversely, Acevedo-Muñoz (2007) specifically argues that Almodóvar’s approaches are based partly on the unstable genre as a metaphor for national identity through direct quotations of Hitchcock’s oeuvre, but as a therapy to damage the social diseases from cultural and religious repression in Franco’s Spain.

For instance, at the end of Women on the verge, Pepa ultimately reach some emotional firmness when facing Lucía, the crazy mother, who also actively asks to be taken back to the mental hospital after the failed attempt to kill her ex-husband, which is allegorical of the nation’s process of recovery; therefore, Almodóvar determined to establish stability and positivity out of the melodrama’s natural chaos by making the women exactly be “on the verge” of insaneness, just as the title reads. To sum up, he is trying to pass the positive message that the national trauma could be cured ultimately, or at least offset by presenting that the negativity can be, “paradoxically, a redeeming force”, as Almodóvar himself mentioned in an interview: “I don’t want to let even the memory of Francoism exist in my films”.

(Word count: 942)

References

Acevedo-Muñoz, E. R. (2007). Melo-Thriller: Hitchcock, Genre, and Nationalism in Pedro Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. In D. Boyd & R. Barton (Eds.), After Hitchcock: Influence, Imitation, and Intertextuality (pp. 173-194). Texas: University of Texas Press.

Allinson, M. (2001). A Spanish Labyrinth: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar. London: I.B.Tauris.

Brill, L. (1988). The Hitchcock Romance: Love and Irony in Hitchcock's Films. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Kercher, D. (2013). Almodóvar and Hitchcock: A Sorcerer’s Apprenticeship. In M. D’Lugo & K. M. Vernon (Eds.), A companion to Pedro Almodóvar (pp. 59-88). Chichester: Blackwell Publishing.

Oliva, I. (2009). Inside Almodóvar. In B. Epps & D. Kakoudaki (Eds.), All about Almodóvar: a passion for cinema (pp. 389-445). London: University of Minnesota Press.

Townson, N. (1988). The Spanish Labyrinth. New Statesman & Society, 1, 40.

West, D. (2013). A companion to Pedro Almodóvar. Choice, 51(4), 644.

Zurian, F. A. (2013). Creative beginnings in Almodóvar’s work. In M. D’Lugo & K. M. Vernon (Eds.), A companion to Pedro Almodóvar (pp. 39-59). Chichester: Blackwell Publishing.

作者：Marcia Pally (Film Comment)

译者：csh

译文首发于《虹膜》

《崩溃边缘的女人》（1988）是一部公式化的影片，它像是用罐头来盛装情感，就像安迪·沃霍尔用汤罐头来盛装食物那样——它是一部坎普式的讽刺作品，在每一次的「崩溃」中，我们都能看到一个女人在情节剧式的情境下哭泣，它讥笑了每一种电视肥皂剧，甚至还涉及了洗衣粉广告。整部故事的情节是一张由陈词滥调构成的完美网络，影片中还充斥着经典电影老片的海报。在这一年，它轻易地抢走了马丁·斯科塞斯那部《基督最后的诱惑》（1988）的风头。佩德罗影片中的女人风靡一时，她们似乎处于精神崩溃的边缘，在愚蠢的兴奋情绪中尖叫着、互相推挤着。正如诺埃尔·科沃德咕哝的那样：这部电影令人耳目一新。

阿莫多瓦的幽默带有讽刺性。他将「最后的诱惑」戏称为「最后的卖弄」，当被问起他想要获得的奖项时，他答道：「如果（《崩溃边缘的女人》）拿到了最高奖项，那么文化部长可能就会把它禁掉了。」最终它赢得了最佳剧本奖。这部影片没有遭受世界性的非议，官僚们可能已经无视了阿莫多瓦。他目前为止的七部长片都是反文职人员的，它们驳斥了各种教条：宗教、女权主义、法西斯主义、同性恋自由主义等等，它们如同贝蒂·戴维斯扮演的女王，将蠢人们从酒吧里驱逐出去。政治思想太过粗鲁、拘泥于字句、井然有序，所以它们无法阐释我们的热情。阿莫多瓦惧怕政府和教会的压迫，惧怕弗朗哥和奥普斯·德（在西班牙和意大利很受欢迎的右翼天主教徒），但他也惧怕那些仅仅立足于性别角色、社会规范思考问题的群体，当然还有那些推翻上述两者的、「善意」的激进分子。正如他在威尼斯告诉观众们的那样：「重要的是要知道你的敌人是谁。」

在纽约电影节上，他向一位女士抱怨自己在政治立场方面的矛盾，他用了一种更为特别的方式来表述这一点：「我不喜欢任何激进分子，我也不喜欢电话。激情有它自己的非理性规则，就和冷漠一样。它可以推着人们抵达崇高的彼岸，或是危险的极端。社会沉迷于控制激情，因为它是不平衡的。但对个人而言，这无疑是赋予生活意义的唯一动力。」

阿莫多瓦着眼于制片厂电影和电视情节剧的那种华丽戏剧，他可以在这类故事中自由地展现欲望、背叛与宽恕。他会用那种坎普式的风格，重新组织这些情节，让它们变成一场狂欢派对，派对上有迷幻的布景，舞台上搬演着盛大的梦境，每个人都盛装出席，以便自相残杀。他的角色们——修女、无赖、斗士、被抛弃的女人、天真的年轻人——都携带着某种反讽意味。他们的情绪十分典型，这些情绪呈现在电影中的方式也十分轻快、极富讽刺性。阿莫多瓦在电影中的编排，就马克·莫里斯在舞蹈艺术中所做的那么精妙。阿莫多瓦将同性恋贫民窟孕育的那种讽刺态度——例如犹太人式的幽默——用作是一种逃避社会仇恨的明智手段，并用这种感知方式来体认整个世界。

「坎普让你用讽刺态度来观察人类的处境，」阿莫多瓦说道，「将坎普带出同性恋的语境，并用它来谈论任何东西，是一件有趣得多的事，但如果你要做到这一点，你就必须表现出你有多么热爱它、多么享受它，否则你看起来就会像是在取笑它。在坎普的世界里，你会同情他人在力量上的匮乏，例如那些感伤歌曲中的痛苦。这种痛苦是庸俗的，你也会意识到这一点，不过这种意识只关乎讽刺，不关乎批评。如果你像一个知识分子一样使用坎普，你就永远无法将它带离原始的语境。如果要在外部世界使用它，你就必须赞颂它，必须创造一场坎普的狂欢。无论如何，这就是一种感觉。你要么有，要么没有。」

阿尔弗雷德·希区柯克、比利·怀尔德和路易斯·布努埃尔可以算是阿莫多瓦的导师——他将他们称作是自己的「圣三位一体」。他们并没有因为自己的坎普色彩而闻名，但他们教会了他如何调和对立的双方，如何创造荒谬的并置，这些效果始终具有讽刺意味。希区柯克将「高级艺术」的影像推广到了广泛的观众之中，并将「难以置信之物变得可以置信」。怀尔德将痛苦的、现实的故事讲成了喜剧。在三人之中，布努埃尔是离坎普最近的一位，尤其是他那些墨西哥时期的作品，他将极为糟糕的剧本与演员转化成了动人电影中的复杂佐料。阿莫多瓦还指出，他将梦境与超现实主义的幻想注入了日常的场景之中，「他甚至没有改变灯光的效果」。

他私下里说，「当你开始幻想成为一名导演的时候，你幻想的是一些演员，而不是导演。关乎导演的意识随后才会出现。我的梦想就是贝蒂·戴维斯——我喜欢她性格中的那种强度、她的自主性——或是凯瑟琳·赫本和玛丽莲·梦露。当代演员无法给我这种印象。她们是制片厂系统的一部分，这种系统对于那些工作其中的人是可怕的，但它却创造了一些拥有超凡能力、能够超越自身生命的演员。」

「演员的『种族』现在已经改变了，这种改变甚至发生在身体层面。演员变得和正常人一样，但正常人无法成为丽塔·海华斯。在一部《斗牛士》这样的电影中，一部寓言性的、幻想性的作品中，我想要一些伟大的演员，作为整部影片的基座。我本该将年轻的艾娃·加德纳选作女主角的。」

「在我的情绪变得极端的情境下，我想要成为一个女人，」阿莫多瓦解释了《崩溃边缘的女人》的起因（还有什么新东西呢？）「所以我想到了让·科克托写的短篇《人类的呼声》，它仅仅讲述了一个等待在电话旁的女人的故事。于是我开始写作，而我自己的生活也融入了这个故事。我记得曾经有一天，我也坐在电话旁，等待着某个人打来电话，时刻准备着冲出家门。」

记者：那么，为什么要将主角设置为一个女人呢？这也是一种坎普式的同性恋情结吗？

「这不是因为我是同性恋。我只是对女人好奇得多。我总是在公交车或地铁上偷听她们的谈话。我正在成为这方面的专家。伯格曼（「根深蒂固」的异性恋者）也清楚如何与女性交谈、如何展示她们。在戏剧性主题中，女人要更具自发性、更令人惊讶，而我的自发性也更容易通过她们表现出来。」没有其他的西班牙男性导演提到过这种「女性宇宙」，阿莫多瓦说道，「实际上，在西班牙只有两位女导演。这也是一个拥有伟大的女演员，而非男演员的国家。男人太不灵活了，他们已经注定被锁死在那种西班牙式的男子气概中。」

记者：所以，你对女人的兴趣不在于你的性取向，而在于你的「自发性」？

「是的……嗯。」阿莫多瓦常常很激动，或是表现出孩童般的兴奋，但这是我第一次看到他脸红。「我们可以在电影中找到许多恶毒的女人，她们的体内有某种男性气质。但我的女性角色不是伪装成女人的男人，我只在《斗牛士》这部影片中做过一次这样的事情。恋人之间的关系就像是斗牛，而她就是斗牛士。如果一个女人仅仅因为自己的意愿，想要变得男性化，那么她需要强大的意志才能做到这一点。」

记者：但《斗牛士》中的男性气质是如此强烈。

「我希望如此。在她对男人的模仿中蕴含着一种绝望，那是一种源于社会环境的、徒劳地想要变得男性化的那种绝望，她就生活在这种男性气质之中。」在《崩溃边缘的女人》中，当女主角感受到绝望的时候，她与一般的女性化气质要接近得多。「男人不知道该如何离开女人。所以让他们真的想要离开她们的时候，他们还是会说自己爱她们。这种伪善令女人感到多么沮丧、多么困惑啊。在一段关系中，女人要比男人更有弹性，而且她们承受的痛苦要大得多。但当他们必须分离的时候，女人会面对这种别离。她们比男性拥有更多的常识，男人要更加懒惰。在西班牙，有80%的离婚申请是由女人提出的。

记者：为什么呢？

「你也可以想一想。我觉得这是因为女人更为务实。这是一种普遍的现象，不过男人对女人不诚实的现象，在西班牙尤其突出。这是一种遗传自拉丁恋人的特质。一个男人永远也不能说出女人不喜欢的话，所以他们会说谎。」

记者：对于同性恋情侣来说，有什么不一样吗？

「我觉得，在同性恋关系中，他们不会扮演男性和女性的角色。有时候同性恋人对彼此会更为诚挚，因为除了感情之外，没有什么东西可以把他们团结在一起——没有契约关系、没有家庭，通常在经济上的依赖也更少。不过你知道，什么事都不能一概而论。」

「无论如何，不管对谁来说，分离都是可悲的，因为它迫使你去开始一段新的生活，而我们都是如此脆弱、如此虚弱。当你觉得你要让自己发疯的时候，是不存在什么中间的节点的，但是……我们还是静观其变吧。」