明日之歌

第29届法罗岛电影节第5个放映日为大家带来主竞赛单元的《明日之歌》，下面请看场刊影评人的评价了！

松野空松

6.0 总觉得这样的故事在东亚场景会吸引人很多，除了主角外的角色太美国化，并不普世。

消亡之人

与东京物语相比，一切的矛盾都那么刻意，感觉剧作不敢直面一个真相：子女不想与父母同佳，这件事不需要任何导火索，不需要任何代沟和观念差异，不需要年迈的父母惹出任何麻烦，这件事其实是天然成立的，是写就在人类天性之中的，无论这种天性指的是渴望自由还是懒惰、冷漠、趋利避害等等。

不肯蓝

美国人将家庭间本更微妙的情绪冲突表现得太直白，又过分强调冲突，失去了「家庭」叙事的复杂性，亲情纽带与现实冲突之间的互动中往往是遮蔽住不堪的微笑与沉默。

很好的题材，很好的表达，它的表达内核是一个永恒的议题，就是任何一个时代和家庭都会存在这样显得多余的父母和逃避赡养父母责任不孝的子女，对老年人的情感关怀缺失既是一个社会问题，也是一个亲情议题，但这个问题实际上没有任何方案去解决，所有的出口都在于老人们的内心，像电影里的两位老人他们是传统和保守的代表，但是我们当代也会有更现代化的代表，他们不依附于子女生存，活得更通透，归根结底，我们终归需要意识到，能够抚慰个体的永远是个体本身，个体既是问题的成因也是问题的结果。 此外，也不得不用更现代化的眼光更严谨的去看电影的问题，剧本的表达还有表演的表达都会有一些比较过的地方，它们加重了电影表达的某些力度，但也存在某些相对的不合理性，它是一种很戏剧并很个体化表达的融合，二者之间的平衡性我觉得还是不够的，它使得每一场戏之间都会有断续，最终拼连起来多少有些不圆融，当然电影最大的优点在于，每一场戏的表达我认为导演都非常充分的理透了他想要实现的效果，尽管当下来看，电影的思维逻辑以及技术层面都会有些不足，但是看看电影创作的时代，又不得不说，它很不可思议，它的创作非常传统但是议题非常超前！

Tomorrow is fancy, tomorrow is grand. The world wants to take you on a bullet-train ride and you can become the next legacy. Gazing back with tenderness and respect amidst the roaring tomorrows--to where your story begins--can never be easy. Safeguarding parents' fraying outlines and writing love and dignity into our pasts. I'll say that's a meaningful life.

Quotes from the title sequence:

Life flies past us so swiftly that few of us pause to consider those who have lost the tempo of today. Their laughter and their tears we do not even understand for there is no magic that will draw together in perfect understanding the aged and the young. There is a canyon between us, and the painful gap is only bridged by the ancient words of a very wise man — “Honor thy Father and thy Mother.”

Leo McCarey’s no-holds-barred tearjerker strips away the contentment of an elderly couple’s twilight years, lost their dwelling to foreclosure, New York residents Barkley and Lucy Cooper (Moore and Bondi), summon their four children (a fifth is absent for living far-off in California) to seek out a stopgap, yet none of them can host them both at short notice, so temporarily Barkley couch-surfs in the cramped apartment of their daughter Cora (Risdon) while Lucy stays with their son George (Mitchell), shared the bedroom with her 17-year-old granddaughter Rhoda (Read).

Filial piety is put through the wringer when an additional family member moves in, of course, it will disrupt the status quo, but in George’s household, no one seems to anticipate that, crimped by limited space, Lucy cannot simply have a place of her own to rock in her armchair when George’s wife Anita (Bainter) is hosting a bridge class at home, also inconveniently embroiled in Rhoda’s seeming white lie, Lucy will later be taken to task by Anita, who accuses her of stepping in her toes apropos of parenting, and simply impute Rhoda’s disgrace to Lucy’s unwanted presence.

Barkley’s situation doesn’t go any better, the only leisurely time he can get is to natter with Max Rubens (Moscovitch), a shopkeeper he newly befriends and expresses how he misses Lucy and envisions a way to get out of their predicament (but reality soon kicks in). When Barkley is afflicted by a cold, a grudging Cora not only gives a harsh brush-off to Max’s visit, but also connives to get rid of her father by making heavy weather of the doctor’s advice. Meanwhile, when another daughter Nellie (Gombell), backpedals her promise (due to both her and her husband’s selfishness, birds of a feather!) of taking in both parents after a three-month interval, George and Anita consider to send Lucy to an elderly home, an awkward tête-à-tête is sagaciously if sadly pre-empted by Lucy takes the decision on her own volition, only to alleviate George’s filial guilt.

Whereas Barkley is scheduled to stay with their daughter in California (warm weather is beneficial for his health, apparently), Lucy keeps a lid on her forthcoming relocation when they have one last afternoon to spend before he embarks on his westering journey. Together, they amble along the streets, reminisce their sweet old days and are gladsome to be welcomed by strangers, eventually they stiff the farewell dinner with their good-for-nothing offspring, and dine in the hotel where they visited during their honeymoon, sipping cocktails and dancing waltz. The question McCarey brings home to audience is clear as day, if a total stranger can ladle out their kindness to this senior couple who have been much in love for more than half a century, one may wonder why their own brood cannot divvy up some money to at least rent a little apartment for them to stay together? Their train station farewell plays up their heartrending mutual understanding but as life still goes on, they also must pretend that their separation is just au revoir, everything will be fine, a hard-earned gesture of wisdom at the mercy of becoming old.

Meritoriously, in the leading roles, Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore (both playing roles much older than their real ages) hold courts with their well-round delivery, heartfelt affection and spontaneous finesse that collectively and compassionately imparts a layer of naturalism that can transubstantiate even the most prosaic words into the button that turns on one’s waterworks. In comparison, Bondi has meatier fodder to play with, which she registers with an additional sense of unsentimental self-knowledge.

By the same token, Fay Bainter convincingly fleshes out a taxing role as Anita, who is assailed by the delicate balancing art of comporting herself between a caring daughter-in-law and a supportive mother, whenever those two clash, predominantly, people opt for the benefit of the latter, like the title says: make way for tomorrow, but she is certainly not the worst among the bunch of ingrates. Thomas Mitchell also has a daunting task to perform, as his George is explicitly Lucy’s favorite, his guilt-ridden inner struggle is eked out from the sidelines.

No one wants to be bothersome to their closest kin, leastwise, making allowance for the person who gives you life, this is a line in the sand for any human who is compos mantis, and McCarey’s admonitory masterpiece is a trail-blazing paradigm in projecting a realistic eye on geriatric problems, lachrymose is our default response, so leave nothing in check.

referential entries: Yasujirô Ozu’s TOKYO STORY (1953, 9.1/10); McCarey’s AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957, 8.4/10); Ira Sachs’ LOVE IS STRANGE (2014, 7.8/10).