不朽的园丁2005

极其压抑。在影片一开始，Tessa就成了一具肮脏的尸首。是残忍谋杀的受害者。但这绝不是丈夫寻找妻子凶手那么简单的故事。
Constant Gardener说的是Justin吗？摆弄花草的儒雅外交使节，富裕、矜持，但斯文得令人沮丧，像一帧全息的官僚肖像，但无论如何，即便他习惯了息事宁人、习惯了“外交的规则是保持沉默”，他不是太罪恶的。因而，直爽正义的Tessa会和他相爱。爱情当中，人对人的吸引力表面是互补的，其实也是预言：你会变成你爱的那个人。
Tessa随着Justin去了非洲。但她比他更像一个联合国的救援志愿者，热衷于艾滋病等疾病的防预治疗公益事业，她挺着大肚子走在非洲部落中，并从司空见惯的医疗救济活动中找到疑问，顺藤摸瓜，终于在发现了医疗公司在以人道免费救济的幌子下进行真人测试。因而，她必死无疑，杀死她的人，甚至不是个体的凶手。官商勾结的结果，便是她不得不向丈夫Justin隐瞒实情，以免牵连上他。这便令电影有了更柔和、更让人无语的主线：爱情。
我们爱上的人，经常会出乎我们的意料、超出我们自身的局限，做出令爱情不得不结束的事情。当Tessa心中想着保护非洲灾民的时候，Justin则说：外面有千万人需要帮助，我们做事要有原则，只能眼睁睁看着一个、三个人继续受苦，“我首先要保护的人是你。”
如同一切司空见惯的爱情，Tessa的死亡最先引发的是Justin对妻子不贞的怀疑，接着才发现事情太狡诈太黑暗太险峻。“我要去经历她受过的苦”，他隐姓埋名地追踪此事，最落寞的场景无外乎是当别人劝他放弃、回家的时候，他说，我没有家了，Tessa就是我的家。
Justin就这样，嫁接在Tessa骤死的爱之魂灵上，翻动整个世界黑暗阴森无情的泥土，翻找出正义和“规则”之后的性命交易。他会成为另一个Tessa。
我觉得这部电影的容量很平衡。在黑幕和爱情、外部世界和内心世界的平衡方面处理得很好。既没有夸张于失爱，也没有直面控诉，只有镜头在说话，在感受，在Tessa死后、Justin逃亡的时候，变得险恶。你感觉到勇敢，以及背后的恐惧和无奈。一个人的弱势。
一个人，只有在爱情当中是强大的吗？这个问题很傻吧。

Whoever has watched “City of God” would agree that the Brazilian director, Fernando Meirelles, is anything but mainstream.

Then we heard the plot line and review of the new movie “Constant Gardener”, positioned to be an international blockbuster. It was nothing but mainstream: John Le Carré’s best seller spy novel, today’s Kenya, Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, pharmaceutical Company, the poor, the rich, conspiracy theory, murder, revenge…

So how did the two look together?

The movie started rather slow, but I saw traces of Meirelles in the unusual rich palette, colorful background faded out like an oil painting–strike of blue and green; interesting camera angle and motion; a lighthearted love scene conjured together in clean lines and high contrast.

Just traces of him, made me wondering whether this would turn out to be another mistake. Another disappointment in the making…

Then came Africa, the ghetto of Kenya, living along the train track, and suddenly the camera and music and Meirelles were all came to live, they were lashing out with full force, alive, passionate, color, heat, rhythm. As an audience, I could feel the joy of the light, the liveliness of every smile, raw and simple.

Then we came back to the main story line, everything suddenly went back to the dead quiet. All that life, which was there a minute ago, suddenly was drained away. I could almost hear the sucking sound.

To be fair, Meirelles did a marvelous job, telling a mainstream story the mainstream way. And to be honest, I loved the story. I loved Ralph Fiennes. But it was so plain for all to see, Meirelles’ heart was not in it. This was not the story he wanted to tell. Or more precisely, this was not the angle of the story that he wanted to tell from. He would have been so much better if he could tell the story from within, from the heart of Africa, from the heart of the ghetto of Kenya. Rather than what he was given, to tell the story as an outsider, as a few white men and a white woman.

That said, oh, how I love the story.

I love the love story in the story. I love the subtleties of the doubt Justin had about Tesa, despite that he still loved her, and in that love he suffered so. He doubted her because he doubted himself. His insecurity and his ordinariness seemed so pale and feeble alongside the glamorous and passionate Tesa. In this world, is there a couple that loves each other mutually and confidently in equal share? Or is there always one that suffers the evil of insecurity?

Only in her death, he found out that she loved him truly, fully, and honestly. He felt guilty because he had doubted her but she never him. He continued to finish what she left behind, initially out of guilt, latter out of his own motivation.

It was not a feel good movie. Thanks to Meirelles. The ending made us all feel sick in our hearts. Like one viewer’s comment on yahoo movies.

    "I work for a pharmaceutical Company. Though others would tell me that posting something like this would be irresponsible, I’ve seen enough to know the quiet truth…In places we don’t dig deep enough to compel ourselves to accountability.

    "This film asks us to query what we do and who we are. It more importantly asks that we, in the West, search the importance of what we overlook."
    A Quiet Truth http://movies.yahoo.com/mvc/dfrv?mid=1808680118&rvid=255-548854&i=0&nn=1&spl=0&ys=45xJXdebwk9obpBKrHp2Zg--

I’m in doubt whether this will make as much money as the preview positioned the movie to be. Mainstream audiences don’t like to pay money to feel bad about themselves. But I hope this movie will make enough money for Meirelles, so he could go back to make the movies he wanted to make.

Let a lion run wild, don’t tame him, please.

 　　如果说英国病人是一个三十岁的青年，充满了激情与矛盾，本片则是一个四十岁的中年人，深沉而悲悯。
　　拉而夫的演技也更出神入化了，英国病人里冷峻激情的艾玛舒估计成为了不少女观众的梦中情人，本片中的男主一出场却如温吞水一般，但就是这样一个温吞水，在了解了妻子的所作所为后明白并认同了妻子的价值观，他毅然决然冒着被虐杀的危险完成了妻子未尽的事业，并选择跟随妻子共赴黄泉。拉而夫的表演中并没有太过悲痛的煽情，不动声色细微的表情却更显其表演功力。
　　说到其政治意义，与其说是政治意义，不如说是人文意义。令我感叹的是西方国家的电影能这样的自省，注意是对现代政府的批判，其本身就是令人敬佩的事情。片中流露出的对非洲大草原的赞美，对非洲人民深重灾难的同情，对价值观的拷问，无不显示出其深刻的人文意义。再加上导演，摄像娴熟而独特的的表现手法，本片均超过了五年前的英国病人。

关注这个片子纯粹是因为拉尔夫费因斯，只为一睹他绅士般的表演，可是看完片子后，不得不再赞一下本片的巴西导演费尔南多梅里尔斯，继《上帝之城》之后他再次大敢的将一敏感题材搬上了屏幕，佩服导演的勇气，同时我自己也被影片中所提倡的人道主义关怀所感动了。

“我在《不朽的园丁》中描写了第三世界国家制药工业惊人的内幕，临床医学上的药物滥用问题。”---------《不朽的园丁》原著作者勒卡雷

原著作者的这段话就是这部影片想反映的现实，拉尔夫费因斯在片中饰演一名英国外交官，因为他喜欢在自己的花园里种些花花草草，所以片名的“园丁”就是指他。雷切尔薇兹扮演费因斯的妻子，有着革命者般的正义感，对一切不公的事实都敢于揭露，正是她的耿直和正义感为她带来了灾难性的后果，在影片的开头她就被人枪杀了，随后导演采用倒叙和回忆的手法讲述了她遇害的整个起因，交待完这些细节后，便是我们的男主人公——拉尔夫费因斯接过妻子未完成的任务开始为正义而战的时刻了，虽然明知会有一死，却仍然敢于直面困难，这种勇气不是任何人都有的。影片的大部分场景都是在非洲拍摄的，在那里，我们见识到了贫穷，我们也见识到了商人为了利益不顾人生死的丑恶嘴脸，当我看见那个叫卡卡的小男孩走几十里路来为死去的薇兹献花的时候，当我看见那个叫阿布的小女孩因为不能搭上营救人员的飞机而跟着奔跑的时候，我哭了，也许我们要再一次感谢生活给予我们的一切，虽然我们不够富欲，但至少我们不贫穷，我们可以享受生活，而在遥远的非洲大陆，那里的小孩没有衣服穿，得了病只能等待死亡和陌生人的药物救济，我在心里一次次的诅咒那些没有良心和道德的制药商人，他们居然可以这样不在乎一个妇女和一个孩子的生命，用他们不成熟的药品去做实验，原因仅仅是为了获取更多的利益，可耻的是英国政府官员受郁赂后的加入，有这样一个庞大背景做支持，任何人想去揭露他们的实质只会带来死亡性的后果，一如“园丁”夫妇。我在想我们的国家有多少电影敢于这样去揭露真实的？又有多少电影人有梅里尔斯般的人道主义关怀去拍电影的？也许第五代之后的许多导演曾经让我欣慰过，一如贾樟柯，李杨，但在中国这样一个更为注重体制的国家，要拍这样的电影太难了，所以有了所谓的地下电影和地下导演，而在美国，这样的电影可以上映，可以去参加奥斯卡，这是谁的悲哀。。。