爱的甘露

这是一部获得赞誉无数的片子，据说也是第一部以描述同性爱恋为主题的片子，简单，直接，真挚，明朗，不矫揉，不造作的直描两情相悦，却丝毫未减浪漫色彩，有别于之前的影片，因各种顾忌而致的或犹抱琵琶半遮面，或隐讳难懂，或打着擦边球以求发行和生存空间。

这也是一部独立制作的小成本影片，根据Jane Rule 1964年出版的小说”Desert of the heart”改编，是导演Donna Deitch的处女作，花了她四年之久最后不得不卖掉住宅才筹集到1.5million美金涵盖其所有费用；而且，还是拍摄在同性并未成为时尚潮流的23年前的1985年，彼时，要找到好的演员肯大胆出演逆主流而行的另类实属不易，而且还得在影片中裸裎相向，在亲昵大胆的sex镜头中成功让人感觉激情四射的火花，更是难上加难。幸运的是，导演找到了正确的演员做了出色到位的演绎。

这更是一部屡获提名屡次捧杯的影片，被多家媒体公众广泛视为最初最好也是最重要的蕾丝边影片，因此在同性影片发展史上具有里程碑之意义，尤其是热辣自然的sex场景，更被捧为经典。据说在后来拍摄剧集The L word时，剧组人员还特地观摩了此片做为借鉴参考。

回到影片本身，情节其实相当简单：背景设置于观念相当保守的1959年，来自纽约哥伦比亚大学的英国文学教授Vivian为了结束一段持续15年的婚姻，来到美国西部有名的离婚城市Reno，住在一个专门接待在离婚冗长烦琐过程中煎熬的女性的农场，准备以6周时间换取自由和解脱。这是一个为沙漠环绕的农场，也象征她当时的心境，乏味，沮丧，压抑，烦躁，直到她遇到农场主的继女Cay，一个无拘无束勇敢无畏的工作在赌场的女子，一种奇异的联系在她们之间滋生，她的冷淡傲慢在她的微笑中春风化雨消弭于无形,她对她，象是荒漠中流淌的甘泉。女性之间的爱恋似乎总是如此，始于友谊，又象春雨，润物细无声中，相互吸引，依赖，迷恋；诱惑和困惑也在同比增长，直到她们在暴雨中辗转相吻，激情终于在长久酝酿后释放。

一直身处主流社会的遵循社会规则的Vivian并不能坦然面对内心疯涌的冲动渴望和生活从有序可控到无序失控，借助Cay的继母的驱逐，她把自己关在旅馆的房间里，审视另一个自己，也审视这一出其不意的发展。她不是没有抗拒没有逃避的，只是还有点自欺的以为可以控制情感的洪流；背靠墙，对Cay也是对自己强调各种弊端，却最终在转身面对Cay专注热烈的凝视和切切的等待之际，抵制不了内心真实的呼唤，双手改推拒为迎合，两具相同曲线的躯体缠绵在一起，从笨拙惊慌的试探到喜悦癫狂的享受，镜头很性感也很美，丝毫没有色情的感觉，相反，散发让人惊讶的震撼力量。

只是积习的力量仍在，Vivian还是瑟缩在众目睽睽下，停车场的一番争执赌气，下车，走路，再上车，让人莞尔：女人毕竟还是女人，再成熟世故，再自律，年纪再大，在爱人面前，还是会有任性得象个小孩的时候。当然，情感总是双向的，有被宠溺的时候，就有宠溺的时刻；有被依赖的时刻，就自然有依赖的时候；有需要的时候，就会有被需要的时刻；有胆怯的时刻，就该有勇敢的时候。舞步不一定时刻一致和谐，却一定是场双人舞。

居然，那样的时代，会有一个令人信服的happy ending，阳光积极，充满希望，但是影片高明处在于并不曾暗示任何”live happily ever after”的童话结局。前面有多少风雨等着她们，谁也不知道，不过，她们的生活从此被爱被彼此改变，从水乳交融那一刻起，再没有什么会和从前一样了，这却是确凿无疑的。人生，从来就是单行道，只能不断向前，向前；不过，有希望，总是美好的，不是吗？

花开于无声时，情深在无言处……

I was just back from this gay-themed movie. Surround by les couples(I mistook some of them for "man"& women) with flashes of seductive scenes, I was caught by a feeling which "took the form of hilarity charmed into stillness"(quote from The Bostonians, 中文大意是死憋住不敢笑出声，僵在那里), losing sense of reality.
After the shooting, one women told her friends she thought every one coming for this movie is lesbian, which made me sort of embarrassing. However,honestly, it's less embarrassing to be les than to be alone when it suddenly come over me that today is bloody valentine.
Note that this book/movie has been set in a particular milieu(1959) of America when the social conformities and laws made it uncomfortable for a woman to get a divorce(let alone seduced by another woman). In fact, the ranch in Reno where Vivian, an English literature prof, stayed during 6-week residency for divorce procedure is hosted by women caught in the same fate. This is exactly a desert of broken hearts, hardened by numbing pain yet more venerable to kindly attention("you make me cry""no, I wanna make you a cup of tea"), in this sense they're craving for rain drops(中文名“爱的甘露”).
Some conversation between these women and rough sketchy of them are quite provoking. One morning light-brained women sit around the sun-shine porch and gossip: "What you(Vivian just step down)'ve been doing in that room for last five days?"
Frances: “whatever is it must be too deep for us to understand”.
Despite poor skilled shots-yet some are utterly afresh and impressive, the country songs always creep in on time as you could expect for this kind of movie. Besides, characters' performance do catch up an atmosphere of sincerity.
The title of the original book is "Desert of the heart" which taken from a poem by W.H. Auden, his elegy for Yeats. "In the desert of the heart, Let the healing fountain start."
My appreciation of this movie has been deafened by the actor's strong southern accent and therefore fail to wake up full empathy. But I make up by digging it out of Tudou in which I marinated myself not just for a moment.