Contrary to one’s received wisdom, Brigitte Bardot, barring her iconic curvaceous allure and bimbo vim and vigor, actually has acting chops ablaze in her, and H.G. Clouzot’s LA VERITE is an irrefutable testament.
A courtroom procedural is instituted and dramatized to get the bottom of the whys and wherefores concerning the death of a young promising music student Gilbert Tellier (Frey) at the hands of his former girlfriend Dominque Marceau (Bardot), who is hailed from a small town and instantly taken by the Left Bank’s modish atmospherics, only her liberated disposition can barely provide her for a living, when she finally caves in to Gilbert’s relentless courtship, little does she know, the balance starts to being tipped and soon she is the one being jilted with teary-eyed misery and abjection.
While the prosecuting attorney Eparvier (Meurisse, excellent as a hard-nosed, bloody-minded moralistic shyster) sets his mind to pin down the case as premeditated murder; defense attorney Guérin (a capable if underused Vanel ) counterpoises it by justifying the case is an act of passion, which could save Dominique from death penalty, but the truth (la vérité) sits vaguely between those two distinctions, it is the thorny middle ground that tests the legitimacy and equity of the legal system, and cannily the film finds a way to reach its coda without embroiling judicial verdict to the sticking point.
Splicing the ongoing procedural with chronological flashback unfolding the entanglement between Dominique and Gilbert in dribs and drabs, LA VÉRITÉ digs in its heels in giving Dominique a voice of her irrepressible fun-seeking temperament, unshackled by any moral obligation, she weaponizes her sex appeal to get what she wants but has a clear sense to distinguish between a flirtation and a relationship commitment, which only compromised by her fun-seeking caprices and mood swings, more often than not, precipitated by Gilbert’s straight-arrow, often Bach-infused jealousy.
Through Clouzot’s highly expressive modus operandi, the lowdown of this star-crossed pair’s undoing is unpicked arrestingly, the barrier between a highbrow music prodigy and a lowbrow soubrette, a Dionysian and Apollonian discrepancy thrusts in the different genders, a man falls in and out of his infatuation rather quickly, whereas a woman might like to play hard to get at first, but once her true feelings are entrenched, there is no way back.
A 25-year-old Bardot is a bona-fide barn-burner in the acme of her career and youth, Dominique is a full-blown character that twins Bardot’s irresistible magnetism with a defiant pervasion of vulnerability, despair and pathos, and Bardot holds it on her own from the stem to the stern without slackening. Also shining brightly is a young Sami Frey, whose callous about-face is so chilling and explosive that remarkably sustains a drastic contrast to his prior handsome shyness.
Finally, a sagacious advice from this exceedingly entertaining and truth-revealing Gallic crime-drama: always stick to your type when you choose the other half, it is safer and much wiser to handle the devil you know, than those you don’t.
referential entries: Clouzot’s DIABOLIQUE (1955, 9.2/10); LE CORBEAU (1943, 7.1/10).
Clouzot, avec une froideur cynique et une ironie impitoyable, fait de son actrice icône la véritable martyre d'une société puritaine et hypocrite. Elle la seule victime, nous les coupables. Imbue d'une humanité inouïe, la poupée française ne s'est jamais si remarquablement donnée à l'écran par l'ambiguïté de son personnage tourmenté à l'intérieur. « J'ai peur de rien. Vous êtes là, déguisés ridicules. Vous voulez juger mais vous n'avez jamais vécu jamais aimé, c'est pour ça que vous me détestez puisque vous êtes tous morts morts. » - sans doute l'une des plus bouleversantes déclarations de guerre envers le moralisme bourgeois.
I'm sorry, I was just born this way, it dizzied you in the beginning but after a while it started to disgust you. We just didn't love at the same time. 你甚至没有爱过，只是刹那间被她的光芒击中而中暑眩晕，你在说着爱情与承诺的时候，只不过是在热病中的胡言乱语，你准备好接受这样一个你驾驭不住的随性灵魂了吗？而她在犹豫再三思前想后以后，做出了认真去爱、拥抱一切好与坏的准备。性格截然不同的两人再相爱也不应该在一起，毁灭自己的人格是比失去爱情更加悲惨的事情。
Contrary to one’s received wisdom, Brigitte Bardot, barring her iconic curvaceous allure and bimbo vim and vigor, actually has acting chops ablaze in her, and H.G. Clouzot’s LA VERITE is an irrefutable testament.
A courtroom procedural is instituted and dramatized to get the bottom of the whys and wherefores concerning the death of a young promising music student Gilbert Tellier (Frey) at the hands of his former girlfriend Dominque Marceau (Bardot), who is hailed from a small town and instantly taken by the Left Bank’s modish atmospherics, only her liberated disposition can barely provide her for a living, when she finally caves in to Gilbert’s relentless courtship, little does she know, the balance starts to being tipped and soon she is the one being jilted with teary-eyed misery and abjection.
While the prosecuting attorney Eparvier (Meurisse, excellent as a hard-nosed, bloody-minded moralistic shyster) sets his mind to pin down the case as premeditated murder; defense attorney Guérin (a capable if underused Vanel ) counterpoises it by justifying the case is an act of passion, which could save Dominique from death penalty, but the truth (la vérité) sits vaguely between those two distinctions, it is the thorny middle ground that tests the legitimacy and equity of the legal system, and cannily the film finds a way to reach its coda without embroiling judicial verdict to the sticking point.
Splicing the ongoing procedural with chronological flashback unfolding the entanglement between Dominique and Gilbert in dribs and drabs, LA VÉRITÉ digs in its heels in giving Dominique a voice of her irrepressible fun-seeking temperament, unshackled by any moral obligation, she weaponizes her sex appeal to get what she wants but has a clear sense to distinguish between a flirtation and a relationship commitment, which only compromised by her fun-seeking caprices and mood swings, more often than not, precipitated by Gilbert’s straight-arrow, often Bach-infused jealousy.
Through Clouzot’s highly expressive modus operandi, the lowdown of this star-crossed pair’s undoing is unpicked arrestingly, the barrier between a highbrow music prodigy and a lowbrow soubrette, a Dionysian and Apollonian discrepancy thrusts in the different genders, a man falls in and out of his infatuation rather quickly, whereas a woman might like to play hard to get at first, but once her true feelings are entrenched, there is no way back.
A 25-year-old Bardot is a bona-fide barn-burner in the acme of her career and youth, Dominique is a full-blown character that twins Bardot’s irresistible magnetism with a defiant pervasion of vulnerability, despair and pathos, and Bardot holds it on her own from the stem to the stern without slackening. Also shining brightly is a young Sami Frey, whose callous about-face is so chilling and explosive that remarkably sustains a drastic contrast to his prior handsome shyness.
Finally, a sagacious advice from this exceedingly entertaining and truth-revealing Gallic crime-drama: always stick to your type when you choose the other half, it is safer and much wiser to handle the devil you know, than those you don’t.
referential entries: Clouzot’s DIABOLIQUE (1955, 9.2/10); LE CORBEAU (1943, 7.1/10).
天呐，看完了好难过啊，眼泪一直流下来。一个那么美丽那么有活力，就像她说的“只有我是活着的，你们都是死的。”这样的女孩儿，却被活活凌迟致死，而且不止是她，只要符合她这种特点的，越美丽、越有生命力、越忠于自我的女孩儿，越是会得到这样的结局。最终留在这世上的却是些虚伪到底的恶心男人和奴隶一样的没有灵魂的女人。
男人真的是最脆弱最脆弱的动物，为了分别满足安全感和色欲，他们把女人分成妻子和“妓女”，但没一个男人是只得到女人中的某类就满足的，他们的一生都既要妻子的顺从又要“妓女”的激情。他们以爱的名义追逐热情似火的女孩儿，玩够了就要找个老婆安定下来，这老婆还最好“干净”如处子，然后给热情女孩儿安上放荡的罪名，说自己都是被她引诱才犯下的错。这世上没道理，道理都是男人编出来的道理，全都是对女人的PUA。
女人很辛苦，妻子和“妓女”彼此瞧不起，互相攻击，都以为自己才是男人的真爱，把自己奉献给男人，可男人根本谁都不爱，他只是想满足安全需求就找妻子，想满足生理需求就找“妓女”，没有爱不爱这回事，女人都是工具人。
但这样做对男人也有反噬，为了控制女人，他们把“贞洁”这武器玩得如此趁手，但削弱女性的同时，也就意味着他们自己也永远不会爱上一个势均力敌的女人，只能和一个傻子或者一个疯子过一辈子，不把女人的武器（性）还给女人，你们得到的女人永远不完整不独立，这样一来，没有够强够好的女人，也不会有够强够好的男人，削弱一方的结果就是两败俱伤，相互拖后腿，相互牵制，最后谁都无法进步成更好的自己那一性。
拿一夫一妻制来说话更加搞笑，一夫一妻我觉得原理上是保护男人限制女人的，因为男人要保障自己的崽都是亲生孩子，为限制女人出去乱搞，男人偷了女人的武器，给女人洗脑，这武器不好，不能乱用，乱用就是坏女人，然后女人信了他的鬼话，在家相夫教子，可没想到男人这么坏，他把女人限制成这样，自己却到外头花天酒地，三妻四妾。然后就又有新说法出来，男人为保证家庭稳定，保护妻子的安全感也要遵循一夫一妻制。哈哈，搬起石头砸自己的脚，虽然如此，受害最多的还是女人，男人已经享用了几千年的好处。
现在看到女人们还在为脱衣不脱衣性感不性感的展开大辩论大运动，我只觉得可悲，贞洁这牌坊，性感这武器，说到底还没有被我们自己掌握好，控制权依然在男人手上。但有觉察好歹也是有进步了吧
« J'ai peur de rien. Vous êtes là, déguisés ridicules. Vous voulez juger mais vous n'avez jamais vécu jamais aimé, c'est pour ça que vous me détestez puisque vous êtes tous morts morts. » - sans doute l'une des plus bouleversantes déclarations de guerre envers le moralisme bourgeois.
#CineLumiere 之前一直想看是因为看到过一个碧姬芭铎脚部特写扭扭舞的切片（不知道是否有对费里尼在《八部半》中扭扭舞的创作产生过影响），后来看到有好几次放映也一直没有心气儿冲，刚好上周看了克鲁佐的《恶魔》还蛮喜欢的，所以把这部之前打算放弃的电影也“捡起来”了，看了个开始就觉得这电影在这个刚发生“有损国格”的时间点看可太有意义了。
电影感觉是对道德审判，女性欲望和社会偏见等问题的深刻探讨，真相其实已经比较清晰了，主要是以现实部分引发的思考。通过法庭审判结合插叙闪回的形式呈现了女主的生活经历，感觉女主是影片中最重要的部分，而为她演绎的实在太好了，那种随心而动敢爱敢恨的感觉非常有代表性，但是在这种面对社会道德审判的无力感感觉上次感受好像还是《黑暗中的舞者》，情绪从开始的热情自由到后续的坠入爱情再到最后的情感破裂与情绪失控每个阶段呈现的都非常好，在法庭戏的呈现也是十分出色，尤其是跟妹妹对峙的那段。
看了太多的法庭戏，不过这部如此清晰却也如此有指向性内容的作品其实也没有降低我对于现实的思考，影片呈现的真相，我感觉只有女主的爱意，其他一切仿佛都是虚假的，每个人心中都有自己的一套“真相”，似乎我们以自己的“真相”共同塑造了这个社会。片中的性解放的呈现放到现在社会还在经历，当“社会规则”还停留在旧保守时，那些以此为基础诉说“真相”的人是否真的不知道真相？还是为以污名化对方获得快感？亦或者觉得本就离他们太远，只需要维持着自己群体的利益？
视觉上，闪回的交叉叙事形式就很喜欢。镜头，剪辑和构图做的都很精致。深焦镜头后景的观众席还是蛮有压迫感的，仿佛那互联网背后的一双双眼睛，而且法庭戏上结合着固定镜头搭配剪辑效果也很不错，律师间对峙的剪辑效果也蛮好。回忆中的镜头则应该都是“真实”，也即是真相，这部分的镜头感觉更加的主观，有很强的情绪传递，手持的部分及跳切的呈现很精彩。这两种风格下呈现出的冷漠与温暖的反差呈现的张力还是蛮强的，尤其是在结尾处的法庭遗书与女主医院内的抢救的剪辑也是把影片推向了那悲伤的结局，而最后当法官宣布结案时陪审团，记者和观众的反馈似乎也呼应了她在法庭上大喊的话。
听觉上，回忆中的有源音的配乐太美了…整体也呈现的是鲜活的生活，搭配着音乐也在银幕上看到了那段经典的扭扭舞，法庭中多为静态环境声，对白的对抗性其实没有那么强，没有背景音乐制造了那种压迫感，有时候的嘈杂与哗然呈现的是社会的冷漠氛围。
她在陌生人面前撕心裂肺，不是为了辩白，只是为了说服所有人，包括自己，他真的爱过。如果他爱过，她便绝无独活的可能；如果他未曾爱过，她生命的支柱坍塌，便更无理由存活于世。横竖都是死。这是一部真正的关于爱与死的电影，比«巴黎野玫瑰»的小题大作强一百倍。
他在台上指挥，我和她一样屏息凝视，激动得热泪盈眶。她在小酒馆打情骂俏，轻巧地扭动着身体，那样鲜活的生命力。他们在各自的舞台熠熠生辉，这样的璀璨却是相互矛盾、永无交集的；他的古典乐让她崇拜仰视又感到无趣，她的恰恰勾起他的欲望与嫉妒。她是天涯浪荡女，地点在城市和男人之间；她只是骄傲又自由，只是敢爱又敢恨，只是对世界嗤之以鼻。
I'm sorry, I was just born this way, it dizzied you in the beginning but after a while it started to disgust you. We just didn't love at the same time. 你甚至没有爱过，只是刹那间被她的光芒击中而中暑眩晕，你在说着爱情与承诺的时候，只不过是在热病中的胡言乱语，你准备好接受这样一个你驾驭不住的随性灵魂了吗？而她在犹豫再三思前想后以后，做出了认真去爱、拥抱一切好与坏的准备。性格截然不同的两人再相爱也不应该在一起，毁灭自己的人格是比失去爱情更加悲惨的事情。
这样的审判让我想起了«复活»和«印度之行»。有点滥俗地想起那句歌词，“海鸟和鱼相爱，只是一场意外”。爱情没有逻辑，亲密关系却要找同类，橄榄树不可能生活在北方的雪原。