典当商 The Pawnbroker (1964)

Well,my friend, you have no land to call your own, to grow food on or to hunt.
You have nothing. You are never in one place long enought to have a geography or an army or a land myth.
All you have is a little brain. A little brain and a great bearded legend to sustain you ahnd convince you that you are special，even in poverty.
But this brain is the real key,with this little brain you go out and you buy a piece of cloth, and you cut that cloth in two, and you go out an...

On Miss Birchfield’s terrace, our somber, reserved hero Sol Nazerman bitterly uttered his ‘long lost’ experience: ‘It’s been a long time since I felt ... fear. ... There have been memories that I have ... Well, I thought that I had pushed them far away from me, and they keep rushing in. And then there are words that I thought that I have kept myself from hearing and … now they flood my mind.’ Indeed, the fear that overwhelms Sol is generated from his memories. And memory introduces two key issues in this film, that is, how does one live with traumatic memories that he intentionally tried to ‘push away’ and in what ways can the art of filmmaking approach them.

As for the first question, one may answer with the role played by memory in Sol’s ‘dead’ life: in fact, this debilitated character, who keeps himself remote from everyone, solely has his dire memories as company. …

在现代生活里，追逐金钱成为唯一解脱。追逐金钱的过程，需要摘除同情与爱。当冷酷无情开始占据上风，自我逐渐丧失，情感机能便也随之破碎。丧失自我的本我，攫取金钱的面孔，与纳粹又何异？这便是生活恐惧本源。

以为刻意麻木，便能甩开恐惧，殊不知恐惧如影随形，在生活的某个闪回空间里便会显现。现代城市生活，不过是另一辆通往集中营的列车。你去感知，它便以痛苦的方式存在；你若不觉，你只是一具可以行走的死尸。

想以死亡来了结这一切么？生活怎会如此简单便如你愿？它会在你未料的某个时刻，植入给你更大的痛苦。讽刺地，是以你最想要的死亡的方式，但那个死亡却是别人的。你需面对与担当的，仍是麻漠或恐惧。无所遁逃、无能为力。

这便是现代生活困境。

鑒于確實沒有好好讀過書也沒有好好看過阿倫雷內和羅布格里耶，因此只是看過之后閑扯幾句。
一定是受豬影響所以才會想到都市與現代性上面。 開篇和結尾的對比：戰爭之前的田園牧歌，現代都市的"條條框框"。主人公消逝于混亂的街道人群。
影片空間的選擇饒有趣味，閉塞，擁擠，到處都是網格。（與之對比的毫無疑問的二戰監獄的鐵絲網）
閃回并不是電影中的新鮮手法，即便在60年代也如此。勾勒串起全篇的實際上是現實與記憶。但是不同于我印象中看過的其它影片，閃回并不是為了推進現在的敘事，恰恰相反，閃回與現在并列。相似性的并列產生類比效果，回憶中試圖逃出集中營在鐵絲網上掙扎的人與現在被毆打的年輕人；擁擠的地鐵與運送猶太人的車廂；突然闖入的德國士兵與進到典當行搶劫的年輕人等等。有趣的是，有些地方的回憶饒富力量。比如Nazerman回憶在集中營以頭撞碎玻璃的下一個鏡頭剪接的恰恰是現在的自己(如同我注視著我自己)。
Nazerman這個家伙總讓我想起《對話》里面的Caul。一樣將自己關在一個密閉空間，躲藏在陰影處，沉默冷淡…