Flashback story of an escape from the lonely, high-security Dartmoor Prison. A jealous barber's assistant is enraged by the attentions that his manicurist girlfriend pays to a customer. He threatens the customer with an open razor and lands in gaol
Instant replay of the match, indexing towards a fact out there in the world, the film way of doing collage, a little piece of the objective world stuck in: we jump into the world inside the characters' brain but at the same time all the subjectivity is effaced. Like speech becoming speech act, the dialogue, or the shift between visual footages emphasizes how time is sculptured by the visua rhythm.
2. The red color
Five seconds of color! in a black and white film. The climax of the long sequence of a cacophony of images. The thought of killing is even more horrifying than the act of killing, but at the end of the film, the thought of killing is immediately softened and remained as a thought, and the film's narrative structure becomes a complicit in the final act of killing, as it smoothly parallels the ending of the film. Are we more forgiving to the action or the thought, to the person we have accessed his inside or to the person we hardly know?
3. A Talkie inside a silent film
How could the film inside the film changed the course of the film on the outset? Why wasn't the piano music enough to draw the two people closer? Do we need darkness so as to be transformed? How does the non-verbal speed things up (as the intertitles would slow things down) or create confusions/tensions (the loss of the card with text when the flower bouquet was sent)? How does the verbalization of inner thoughts spoil things (the discomfort of speaking into a megaphone)?
有了如此愉快的体验之后，寻找科恩电影的“原型”也成为一种乐趣。下个被锁定的目标是：《缺席的人》。还是从简单的开始：《历劫佳人》中的秃头矮胖再次出山，还有向威尔斯另部经典《公民凯恩》致敬的桥段（音乐老师被喜剧化了），搏斗中自卫杀人的手法隐约间有《讹诈》的影子……但整个故事框架呢？将理发师和杀人命案联系在一起是否属于原创呢？似乎也不是！英国人早在1929年就拍过类似的作品：A Cottage on Dartmoor
1. TV footage
Instant replay of the match, indexing towards a fact out there in the world, the film way of doing collage, a little piece of the objective world stuck in: we jump into the world inside the characters' brain but at the same time all the subjectivity is effaced. Like speech becoming speech act, the dialogue, or the shift between visual footages emphasizes how time is sculptured by the visua rhythm.
2. The red color
Five seconds of color! in a black and white film. The climax of the long sequence of a cacophony of images. The thought of killing is even more horrifying than the act of killing, but at the end of the film, the thought of killing is immediately softened and remained as a thought, and the film's narrative structure becomes a complicit in the final act of killing, as it smoothly parallels the ending of the film. Are we more forgiving to the action or the thought, to the person we have accessed his inside or to the person we hardly know?
3. A Talkie inside a silent film
How could the film inside the film changed the course of the film on the outset? Why wasn't the piano music enough to draw the two people closer? Do we need darkness so as to be transformed? How does the non-verbal speed things up (as the intertitles would slow things down) or create confusions/tensions (the loss of the card with text when the flower bouquet was sent)? How does the verbalization of inner thoughts spoil things (the discomfort of speaking into a megaphone)?
《黑帮龙虎斗》便是一部标准的回炉作品。虽然一开始只知道其中的某些元素在向经典致敬：那个秃头矮胖的黑帮老大就是威尔斯《历劫佳人》的角色翻版——两个演员长得很像；结尾处则明显在追求《第三个人》式的失落伤感的调调；甚至发现警官尸体的小细节也会让人揣测是否来自于《怪尸案》的灵感：小孩、尸体、诡异的黑色幽默？直到去年看过名不见经传的好莱坞老片《玻璃钥匙》之后才发现，不仅仅是借用经典桥段，甚至整个故事框架都是照搬他人——可即使如此，仍觉得此片很好看。这是科恩兄弟的魅力所在。
有了如此愉快的体验之后，寻找科恩电影的“原型”也成为一种乐趣。下个被锁定的目标是：《缺席的人》。还是从简单的开始：《历劫佳人》中的秃头矮胖再次出山，还有向威尔斯另部经典《公民凯恩》致敬的桥段（音乐老师被喜剧化了），搏斗中自卫杀人的手法隐约间有《讹诈》的影子……但整个故事框架呢？将理发师和杀人命案联系在一起是否属于原创呢？似乎也不是！英国人早在1929年就拍过类似的作品：A Cottage on Dartmoor
不过也只能“似乎”。因为剃头师傅持刀伤人的故事本身并不复杂离奇，不像《玻璃钥匙》那样有着清晰可辨的原创性在里面，所以你很难笃定《缺席的人》真的借鉴了它。
影片以逃狱开场，后面接大段的闪回。原来男女主人公本是理发店同事，男人负责理发，女人负责修指。男人性格内向自闭不善言谈，对女方有好感却难以启齿。好容易买了电影票开口邀约却阴错阳差没有去成。后来又订花送到女方家中，不巧示爱的卡片中途失落。女方不知原委，第二天随便摘了一朵别在衣襟上就上班去了，结果让男人产生了误解。误解使后面的心理失衡因嫉生恨变得顺理成章。当女方借着修指的机会与男顾客眉来眼去互递秋波时，他开始焦躁不安起来。而女同事们的八卦鼓噪则起到了推波助澜的作用。
导演在此以极具张力的视觉手法制造了出色的紧张和悬疑：镜头于左右两个眉飞色舞喋喋不休的女同事间反复切换，前景中却始终是正在磨刀的局部特写。磨布上，寒光闪烁的剃刀随着女人们对话时的表情变化，时快，时慢……
类似的前景悬疑法，曾在希区柯克电影中见识过：《贵妇失踪》中的餐桌上毒药瓶，《惊魂记》中收拾杀人现场时的床头柜。但说实话，效果似乎都没有本片来得强烈。
导演安东尼·阿斯奎斯，曾指导过《卖花女》《贵在真诚》等名著改编的英国喜剧经典。很难相信如此文艺的导演也能拍出一部具有强烈的希区柯克风格的惊悚片。而且还是在1929年！