黑人爱情

无独有偶地，跟查泽雷一样，巴里·詹金斯也是一位具有作者意识的导演，而且他的个人风格比前者更是有过之而无不及，这在追求商业娱乐的好莱坞也算是稀有动物。《月光男孩》可谓奠定了他独特风格之作，当年更获得“黑人王家卫”的外号，至于这种称谓是褒是贬则是见仁见智，毕竟王家卫不是每个人都学得来。《月光男孩》之所以获得成功，有几方面因素，段落式叙事令每个故事的展现空间不大，却有利于他标签式的气氛营造与美学建构；另一方面，无疑是他对黑人种族话题的强烈关注，这一点相信才是当年在奥斯卡上以黑马姿态击败《爱乐之城》的真正原因。

这部新片同样包揽了以上两个要素，然而这次他处理得不尽人意。简单地说就是完全沉浸在个人风格里，陷入过度抒情的泥潭里无法抽身兼顾叙事。本身这个剧本的表现空间就很有限，缺乏《月光男孩》里面那些夺人眼球的黑人同志身份认同等破格话题。透过剧本表达爱情足以对抗针对黑人的不公现象并非行不通，然而导演一直在肤浅的故事表层原地打转，却无意深入探究社会原因，点明美国其他种族对待黑人的歧视根源，实在相当可惜。很多个场景都可以单独挑出来作为美术及摄影教程，色彩与服装设计，台词与剪辑技术酝酿着极其暧昧的情绪，缓慢的节奏更直逼欧洲大师级艺术片质感。然而，这些场景组合起来后却无法制造叙事上的惊喜，逐渐沦为孤芳自赏的风格炫耀。詹金斯手上可把玩的似乎只剩下这些瞩目的作者标签，却无法像《月光男孩》那样，炮制出一部令人回味无穷的黑人自省作品。

去年，奥斯卡破天荒地把最佳影片颁给了与《绿皮书》在美学、情感和道德上大相径庭的《月光男孩》，今年《假如比尔街能够说话》在奥斯卡只收获了最佳女配，但这部片子我觉得是所有黑人题材里我最喜欢的一部。巴里•詹金斯把詹姆斯•鲍德温的原著小说中对爱的赞美，对家庭、社会和谐的渴望以及希望黑人与白人和平共处的渴望的主题完美嫁接到了《假如比尔街能够说话》这部影片中，难能可贵地是他并未刻意煽情地刻画黑人遭受的苦难，而是选择平静地讲述黑人面临不公的社会现实，即便是芬尼惨遭冤狱之苦，一家人也没有采取极端报复的暴力措施予以回应，而是理性地将自己受到的不公平待遇诉诸法律手段，商讨营救方法，聘请白人律师海沃德为芬尼做辩护。海沃德律师这个角色在电影中戏份减少了，原著中海沃德律师在营救芬尼的行动中起着重要作用，在权力机构和芬尼父亲强烈不信任的双重压力之下，海沃德律师统筹全局，带领蒂什一家分工协作，为营救芬尼各自努力着。这个角色在电影中戏份的减少很可惜，可能导演有意要将这个角色的光环加诸在租房小哥的身上，这也间接反映了导演主张用爱化解矛盾的愿望，而租房小哥的一番话使得这种愿望的实现成为可能。 值得一提的是，本片的影像和文本依然可以看到王家卫的影子，《月光男孩》拿了奥斯卡金像奖后，导演不只一次在公共场合表达过对王家卫导演的敬意，在《假如比尔街能够说话》中，无论是摄影还是美术抑或文本，都能强烈感受到王家卫对巴里•詹金斯创作的影响，可以毫不夸张地说，巴里•詹金斯的电影是王家卫电影美学在太平洋彼岸的超远距离水漂。

James Baldwin的原著让人心碎，尤其是停下来想一想， Tish和Fonny其实多年轻啊。拍成的电影得了三项金球奖提名，最佳女配角给了Regina King，但之前也看到一些对拍这部电影提出批评：立论在为什么要拍一个讲”虚假强奸指控”的电影，尤其是在现在的大背景下。

Rape crisis movement在美国的语境里是有深远的racialized history: 虚假的强奸指控常被用来针对性地攻击少数族裔（特别是黑人）男性。很多私刑（lynching）的发生背景是黑人男性和白人女性跨种族恋爱交往，两厢情愿的关系事后被白人家庭和社区定义成强奸（参见To Kill a Mockingbird），这背后是深远的种族歧视史。前一阵参加督导，大家也在讨论，如何在相信性暴力幸存者的同时，对这一段历史和特定语境保持足够审慎的自省敏感，而当我们服务的幸存者同时展现出一些成问题的种族观念时，如何在提供有效的服务的同时，不去validate那些成问题的观念。

或者说，一方面，即便是racist也是值得服务与支持的，但另一方面，任何致力于社会公正的机构和服务者，就不可能在反对一种压迫的同时，对另一种形式的压迫视而不见。我自己也没有形成很好的答案，大家讨论的结果最后落到实践上还是case by case的做法（当然可能很多事情上，最好的办法也就是case by case的做法）。

很多时候想要一个neat answer，发现其实是没有的：做学问没有，相比之下做advocacy好像更加没有。然后看到，即便如此，身边那些人还是在做他们的坚持，在这个过程种，有这样的书，dazzling brilliance with a soul, 好像这样也足够了。

我对黑人不是很了解，在国外学习生活时也没交过什么黑人朋友。我总感到黑人大多比较粗暴，不太会察言观色，不知道这是民族性格，还是我只感受到了人家一点儿外在的表现。但是我也注意到有些黑人相当文雅，心思也挺细腻。不管如何，只要人家不犯法，存在的都有道理，你可以不喜欢，但也不能无端指责什么。就象美国电影《假若比尔街能说话》中的台词，“你为什么去喜马拉雅”？“因为它就在那里”。

美国电影《假若比尔街能说话》里的那对黑人青年，就属于文雅善思类型的。他们想通过自己的努力过上好日子，有点理想也是平平凡凡，不属于什么奢望。平时打扮的漂漂亮亮，遗憾的是，这改变不了他们自己的肤色。从这部阴郁、沉闷的电影可以看出，自己不能决定自己想成为什么样的人，是相当不幸的；人间是非多，身陷人间无法逃脱，也是相当无奈的；人生最大的苦难，可能就是陷入电影里的这种冤狱。我为FUNNNY这类黑人抱不平，粗暴的黑人与粗暴的白人警察搞毛起来了，而所有的黑人都要成为白人种族歧视的牺牲品。FUNNNY身为黑人也很无奈，自己天生已被打上黑人的铬印，这就是这部电影的深刻之处。

种族矛盾已经成为美国社会的一大顽疾了，特别是白人与黑人的矛盾，要不然怎么近年来这么多反映这方面问题的电影呢！美国建国初期残酷的资本积累方式留下的祸根，身在美国的黑人如果认为白人以前作恶，所以永远该欠他们的，所以他们在美国社会做点儿出格的事也不过分；而另一方面，如果白人坏警察认为黑人是社会犯罪的根源，只要犯到我手上，我就往死里整你，这种以恶对恶成为恶性循环，再上升到全社会级别的矛盾，那这个社会就难治了。发展成全社会的种族矛盾，也是对美国自由和人权基本建国理念的极大践踏。我感到身在美国，必须走个人奋斗的人生路子，走精英道路，成为中产才行。看来这个社会也够崇尚金钱的，跟我们大陆差不多。

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The pace is extremely slow. The first forty minutes just tells one thing: two lovers are going to have a baby. The non-linear structure, or the flashback way is just unnecessary in this movie, making it rather chaotic. It is a pity that Barry Jenkins did not make any progress in the last few years.

Being the devil’s advocate and against his better judgment, your reviewer is considerably more underwhelmed by Barry Jenkins’s Oscar champion MOONLIGHT (2016), which is pervaded by a charmingly nostalgic aroma, but the central relationship falls on the cagey side as if the filmmaker is too wary about its daring subject matter. Ergo, a cautious eye is set on his follow-up IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK, visualizing James Baldwin’s seminal novel, a ‘70s Harlem love story impeded by the societal iniquity and inveterate racism, the story is on the ever familiar path (for the sake of the woke-ism), two young black people in love, with a baby expecting, their future blueprint is all but rosy, still, injustice catches up with them, the would-be father is wrongly prosecuted for a crime he never commits, why? blame it on his dark pigmentation and the corrupt legal system, if all above sounds familiar, because it is.

While it is formulaic fare down the storyline, Jenkins gins up the narrative with a non-linear composition that pinpoints many a crucial moments of the pairs’endearing relationship. Tish (Layne), a 19-year-old perfume saleslady, and her childhood sweetheart Fonny (James), a carpenter and budding sculptor, fall in love in the most natural way, certainly not everyone in their families are contented with their union, especially Fonny’s God-fearing mother Alice (a terrifically charged Aunjanue Ellis). Before they can tie the knot, Fonny is identified by Victoria Rogers (Rios), a Puerto Rico Ed immigrant abetted by the evil racist cop Officer Bell (Skrein, flaunting a veritable villainous smugness), as her rapist, although short of physical evidence (the distance between the crime scene and Fonny’s location of that time is too oceanic to cover in such a brief span), Fonny is incarcerated and waits for trial, and at that moment, Tish finds out she already has a bun in the oven.

Two families’ concerted effort to turn the tables of the lovebirds’ misery is weaved into the fragmentary threads of the pair’s prosaic life before the aggrieving incident: their tentative first sex and their growing bond after the earth moved; looking for an apartment and envisioning their own place called home; a brief reunion between Fonny and his old friend Carty (a poignant Brian Tyree Henry), whose didactic outpourings unsubtly foreshadow Fonny’s own impending plight. That said, the ineffacable vibes are solemn and desperate, it is a matter-of-fact account of botched happiness, a bit heavy on its self-seriousness.

Our two young protagonists, in spite of their expressive miens, lack in distinct characteristics in the victimized default mode, their tired images are too good, too rigid, too dignified so that Jenkins can shove his opprobrium down any guilt-driven audience’s throats, only if he could have known human nature all too well, because usually that kind approach scarcely works, the guilty party has been conditioned to unleash an intrinsic defense mechanism to stave off any burden on their submersed conscience.

Regina King, who plays Tish’s mother, wins the coveted Oscar BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS for portraying a stouthearted mother who pulls all the stops in fighting the corner of her daughter and future son-in-law, her motherly support is predictably heartwarming, but it is her sterling commanding presence during a jaunt in Puerto Rico that seals the deal (especially when facing a coyly contrived, unrecognizable Pedro Pascal, she is solicitous, distraught but also unostentatiously defiant), although King is consistently excellent throughout her career, it is somehow rewarding that she is the token recipient of Oscar love for the picture, which is too politically correct to be snubbed by the Academy’s collective mindset, although one can twig why it wasn’t a bigger player in the game.

Jenkins craftily douses the film in the bisexual lighting, that offsets the drabness and pedestrian sight of its period setting, a similar ploy can be discerned in his girlfriend Lulu Wang’s THE FAREWELL, meantime, Nicholas Britell’s Oscar-nominated string-heavy score surpasses the usual accompaniment role as it is full of momentum and vigor, that arguably becomes the most extraordinary feat of this self-serious, stylishly palatable, empathy-ridden tale-of-woe that might give movie pundits a pause about Jenkins’ hitherto overvalued legacy.

referential entries: Jenkins’ MOONLIGHT (2016, 7.6/10); Dee Rees’ PARIAH (2011, 7.5/10); Lulu Wang’s THE FAREWELL (2019, 7.8/10).