绿卡  绿卡情缘 / 绿咭情缘

The story is a simple but warm one. A Frenchman, Jorge, wants to get green card trough marriage, and an American girl, Bronte, who loves plants so much that she would marry a stranger in order to get a greenhouse. For mutual needs, they get married, and have to face the inspection from the USCIS together, which is a process from clashes, conflicts to reconcile and understanding, and finally to love. From this story, we can see that in a way it’s through clashes that two strangers get to understand each other and two cultures begin to accept and appreciate each other.

At the beginning of the film, there is the drum performance by a black child on the street, and I think the rapid and pressing rhythm symbolizes the beginning of the clashes between the two people and different cultures they come from. The restaurant “Africa cafe”they meet is also a place of cultural integration, where black waiters work together with their white colleagues. Just like the lie they make for how they have known each other: they clashed into each other.

The two are very different people. Bronte is a quiet girl, she has peace in herself. The first time she appears in the film, you heard a very tranquil voice pass through all the noises and chaos on the street.——“How much is it?” When she tells the landlords how she would take care of the greenhouse, she speaks out all those names of plants in a way like she’s reciting a poem. But Jorge’s life is just like his appearance—disorders, fighting, conflicts. He is fired from the restaurant because he makes troubles and he even has been in the jail. I think this is one way she’s different from Jorge, she’s quiet, but he doesn’t make peace.

One of the crashes is about Bronte’s love for plants. When Jorge plants a tomato tree for Bronte, she got quite angry because she thinks he destroys her greenhouse. And she tells him to stay away from her place——the greenhouse. And Jorge thinks that she loves plants better than people. Then they argue about her gardening group——a group that tries to plant trees voluntarily for the children in the slums of the city who don’t have trees to climb. Jorge thinks that’s useless, because he’s the one that comes from the slums, he knows how trivial significance those trees would make to those children. And he thinks that Bronte does this only to amuse herself, which is quite untrue from her point of view. The first time she entered into the greenhouse, it seems she has entered some fairy lands. She’s so happy, just like she has met an old friend. From this we know how deeply she loves plants. She thinks this is one way to help those children who live in chaos and despair.

And that’s another difference between them: Bronte knows quite well what she can give to other people and she takes giving as a basic principle of life. She’s kind to people and holds an attitude so gentle to the world around her. While Jorge has had a hard life and in some way he hasn’t learned to give, even he has got so much to give. He thinks Bronte’s kindness to others is unnecessary, and he doesn’t trust people.

Why there are such differences? That has something to do with their sharply contrast family background. Bronte has been well-educated; her father is a writer and wants her to be an artist. She’s a typical urban woman. She has friends and families, so she learns from birth how to care for people and sympathize with them, especially to those that have an inferior social class. But Jorge has no formal education and left school when he was ten and home when he was 12. His father has always dreams about being a gypsy——a tramp, and that’s exactly what Jorge was before he meets Bronte. And it’s hard to expect a tramp to care about someone else. Jorge’s not bothering about small matters and loving of being a tramp could be seen from his sloppy appearance and this do have a family origin.

So Jorge is quite free of all constraints and attachments in the world, while Bronte has families and friends and a boyfriend to care and hide from. She’s not free as he is, that’s why their attitudes towards life are so different：She wants the inspection over so that she can continue her life as before, a tendency to maintain what life already is and welcome no change; he’s always waiting his life to begin. Change is good. To live is to enjoy your life. “He has passion, he eats life”, as Bronte says.

Another crash we can see from the film is the crash of French culture and American culture. Jorge is a French man, and to be French is to be romantic, careless and sloppy. While Bronte is an American, her way is direct and simple. When Jorge and Bronte meet at her house and the USCIS is coming to ask questions, Bronte gets very panic, feeling rushed inside, but Jorge seems not worry about it at all. He asked for a cup of coffee, walked around her house and looked at her photos, humming still. Americans like to cut to the chase right away, while French want to create some atmosphere before really talk the issue at hand.

Jorge and Bronte know each other better though their study of each other’s habits. And the more they know each other, the more they are able to tolerate the other’s difference. And each crash and crisis makes them shift attitudes towards each other sharply. The same goes with two cultures, when a culture is alien to another, it is very likely that they “hate” each other because of misunderstanding. People are too apt to blame what they don’t know. The key to resolving conflicts is first to understand, and the way to understand is to clash. For through clashes, we see the differences and the reasons, and then there are possibilities for reconcile and a step forward to appreciate the differences of each other.

周末，一个人摊在沙发里看DVD，片名叫《绿卡》。一看到名字难免就会想到北京人在纽约想到姜文想到王姬想到孙楠的不见不散。看过片子，却原来为了取得美国的绿卡而假结婚其实并不是中国同胞的专利，法国人也玩这种游戏。看来不同种族的思维和智慧都没多大的差距，虽说是旁门佐道，但一样不谋而合。

  再说片中的一个情节：男主角德帕迪约饰演的落魄音乐家乔治与安迪迈克道威尔饰演园艺家白朗蒂因各自不同的目的而假结婚，而当时身为餐馆服务员的乔治在白朗蒂朋友的聚会上、在一阵不知所云的噪音之后突然亮了一手杰出的钢琴加朗诵的造诣，不但令白朗蒂大为吃惊、朋友们羡慕不已，还为白朗蒂赢得了她梦昧已求的树种和绿化植物——

  看到这，相信已经有些人觉得这个情节似曾相识了吧，尤其是《流星花园》的忠实拥趸和F4的fans 。不错，还记得杉菜在宴会上那个让所有人刮目相看的情节吗？惊人的相似，真的不知道是巧合还是抄袭，不，应该说是借鉴。因为在我这个普通观众看来，抄袭也好，借鉴也罢，一路看来都那么恰到好处、赏心悦目，这就够了。正像广告里说的那样，好的东西要大家分享、大家好才是真的好吗。

  说到广告，可真的回归现实了，而且更加证明巧合无处不在。作为一个广告人(当然是假冒伪劣)在举国上下都在抨击铺天盖地的佳洁士、高露洁、洁诺和牙防组、小学生和CD盒的时候，我却相信这是千真万确的巧合。因为在我的工作中真的是创意灵光乍现，巧合无处不在。每每项目小组一干人等躲在小会议里昏天黑地激荡了一整天的good创意，然而当我们再眉飞色舞地将自己的得意之作向总监提案时，却常常遭到迎头痛击：这个IDEA早有人用过了。什么？天地良心，这可是我们呕心沥血的原创呀！它它它怎么可能有人用过呢！可事实就是事实。也只能用“英雄所见略同”来安慰自己了。不免又想起了那个歪批三国的苏文貌，想起了他的自言自语：这个，这个也有人写了，怎么就不给我留一个呢？

  突然又想起了我的毕业论文，我在论文中为了证明自己的想法是旁征博引，写得把自己佩服得五体投地。可到了论文答辨，那个满头白发满眼昏花导师拍着桌子问我：这论文中哪句是你的？哪句是老祖宗传下来的？我说那论文后面不是有参考目录吗？我说不是说英雄不问出处吗？最后的争论结果是我必须在每一句引语的后面加上出处、页码和原创者的名字。当我把字里行间都贴满商标的论文毕恭毕敬地呈上时，导师才笑逐颜开。
  我无言以对。我是在读琼瑶小说《菟丝花》时读到了花非花雾非雾，夜半来天明去。后来虽然知道了那是白居易的词句。可仍然对琼瑶的才气毋庸质疑。连孔老夫子都说：述而不作，信而好古。何况我们呢？

  反证我照样有滋有味地听王菲的歌，照样会翘首企盼地等着《英雄》公演，照样翻着大师们的广告年鉴孜孜不倦，照样跑遍大小书店搜罗聂云岚的《玉娇龙》、《春雪瓶》，而对王度庐的《卧虎藏龙》《铁骑银瓶》嗤之以鼻。

经典爱情轻喜剧。麦克道威尔美得太惊艳，从《性谎言录像带》中就深被她气质打动。电影舒畅适合放松观赏，画面很赞，配乐经典。
即使看片名就能猜出情节大概，但给人的惊喜远远大于预期。两位演员选的太得当，憨厚又充满热情的德帕迪约，优雅又让人亲切的麦克道威尔，两人的配合真是火花四射。戛然而止的结尾恰到好处又不落俗套~
不错的一部电影，但总觉得男主角如果设置成第三世界国家的公民，会更有分量，也更现实。不晓得导演安排一个法国人，是出于观众接受度的考虑，还是避重就轻呢？

正在看伍尔夫的随笔，她讲到作为读者，我们往往不够认真，忽视了许多细节。我们未尽到作为读者的责任，应该去仔细思量作者的意图，看看他到底想让我们看到什么。
受此启发，对这部《绿卡》，这部几年以前早已看过，最近由重温的电影，我突然想好好看看，导演究竟想让我们看到什么？
首先是关于“非洲”，从影片一开始街头的击鼓表演，到非洲咖啡馆，再到乔治有关非洲的种种谎言，我的疑问是，为什么选择非洲？在白朗蒂看那个黑人男孩时微皱的眉头里，在守门人奥斯卡无比兴奋的向他的孩子们介绍乔治，对他们说这位先生去过非洲的时候，这个作为导演兼编剧的人究竟想传达什么？他似乎是在展露，在普通人的心中那份对非洲苦难现实的同情，和对那辽阔草原的无限向往。这种普遍的情怀被体现得这样不动声色，我好像有些明白他为什么能凭着这么一个看似普通的浪漫爱情故事拿到了金球奖最佳编剧了。十几年前的片子，没那么多的花哨，却细腻的像白朗蒂手中的那朵娇小的玫瑰一般动人。
说回我的主题：“暗示”。谎言也是种暗示，在我们编造谎言的时候，动用了想象，并首先潜意识的让自己接受，所以才会有弄假成真，所以才总有演员们在上演爱情故事的时候，真的坠入爱河。对于一个陌生人，在不得不假装与其是恋人的时候，在编造各种谎言的时候，这强大的心理暗示，在两个人互相伪造情书时，如同有一条看不见的红线开始缠绕在这两个不曾相识的人的脚踝上，其实爱情，一直是来源于我们自己，来源于想象，甚至是来源于自以为在爱的谎言。而现实，是爱情的大敌。在天台上拍照片时，这分明是两张洋溢着爱的笑脸，他们在想象里是那么快乐，可当现实来敲门的时候，一切，转瞬间便化为了泡影。我个人对结局是满怀着笑意看完的，当人们开始接受自己的想象，跟随自己的感觉的时候，迷雾散去，爱转成了相爱，这一刻幸福开始了，可这一刻与现实的斗争也开始了。电影中的人们在幸福那一刻定格，空留下我们羡慕的笑和苦涩的遐想。
一部好的电影值得一看再看，在揣测的过程中，仿佛自己也渗透进去了，与单纯被动的观影所感到的震撼不同，如此进一步的探究让我看到了其创作过程的可贵，经过自己想象的渲染，电影中的故事也不再仅仅是一闪而过的消遣，最大的收获是，这让我第一次在看电影时找到了与读书相似的乐趣。