捕鼠者1999

梦想中金灿灿的生活，和恶臭腐坏的现实之间的距离，可能比死与生之间的距离大得多。电影中阴雨不绝的格拉斯哥，垃圾遍地、老鼠四窜的居住环境，让偶尔的几个想象镜头显得尤其宝贵。镜头暗下去的时候我心一直揪着，喊着快起来啊！还好结尾看到了麦田中他的笑脸，一切美好的像什么也没发生过一样。男主角的演绎不错，给他点赞哦。

本以为James的父亲George成为救人英雄后一家人可以顺利地搬进新家，可救人之后偏偏迎来了检查人员，家中的凌乱及浑身的污泥使搬家的梦想泡汤。

试想George或者说一家人实际上赚到了什么呢，我第一时间想到的只有受颁的奖状与奖章，以及那件免费清洗的西服外套。这很难不让人联想起理想与现实的差距，有时你以为突如其来的“好事”能为理想助燃，不料却将火苗一把掐死。

《捕鼠者》在结尾前始终维持着某种动态平衡关系——于James而言，父亲的责骂、不良少年的欺压都可以与同受欺负的Margarita相互慰藉；幻想住进麦田后的新房也能些许抹平肮脏混乱的居住环境于身心的荼毒。但这就像是一个左右摇摆的天平，本质上是不稳定、不可持续的，因为天平两侧不同的质量终会导致有一侧先落地，以结束这一病态的平衡关系。当James发觉无法拯救“心爱”的Margaret，心底的秘密又被Kenny戳穿，自己也无法进入麦田后的房子时，混乱于James上叠加到了峰值，天平崩塌沉入水底。

In the two short films, it’s very impressive how simple the settings are, especially in SMALL DEATHS. Lynne made a bold choice to put three moments together to make a short film. These are three tiny moments at different stages of a girl’s life. But there’s a cohesion between these moments. As Lynne said in the interview, these are tiny moments when things will never be the same for kids. These kind of tiny moments play big roles in everyone’s childhood, as they influenced how we see the world, what kind of person we will become. It touches the audience in the short because they are so authentic, personal and emotional and people feel connected, even though Lynne cares nothing about rules such as “character’s wants/problems/arc” or “active protagonist”. The short focus only on the three moments, elaborating the moments and simplifying the settings as much as possible. If in a traditional way to tell the story, it would start much earlier to introduce the characters, show informations, back stories, set up conflicts. It shows the director’s confidence to just show what’s really necessary to tell the story. And it works very well.

GASMAN is told in a more traditional way with beginning, middle and end. It’s engaging throughout the whole film, focusing on the kid’s perspective, as the conflict progresses. I like how the conflict peaks at the middle part when the two girls fight for daddy’s knee. Lynn didn’t dramatized the conflict but it feels real and authentic with the two girls’ natural performance. I like the beautiful images in the end when they are on their way home and both the two girls are on daddy’s shoulder, and when the two complicated families walk toward opposite directions on the railway. Everything seems back to normal again but the visual and the girl’s attempt to throw the rock tells so much about the situation and the dynamic under it. I also think the beginning scene when the two kids were asked by their mom to dress at home is a smart way to level the story up, even the story is completed without it. It shows how the family looks like normally before the discovery. It could start when the father and two kids coming out from the house but seeing and getting an idea of the origin family raises the stake when the protagonist girl found that another girl is taking her father away from her. And Lynne’s choice to show the scene partly in the frame is also smart to give the audience just the enough information.

RATCATCHER maintains the subjectivity from kid’s perspective, the use of details. But as a feature film it raises the topic to social problems includes people’s living condition. I think the environment of the neighborhood is built up very efficiently in the movie and becomes a crucial character itself. The main spaces include the polluted river, yard full of black garbages and rats, and the street in front of houses where kids play together. The whole film goes back to these three spaces a lot of times and conflicts happen at these places to show how people’s lives are around and influenced by these pollution, garbages and rats. The only other space shown in the movie is the newly built houses James went by buses, as a comparison. Those scenes on the buses as James move around excitedly also works meaningfully as a transition to the new world.

But I think it doesn’t work as good as in the shorts in terms of building the protagonist emotional journey. It sacrifices when the director wants to tell the story from a bigger scale. The character is not as authentic as in the shorts. Some of his action feels out of the filmmaker’s intention. For example I don’t think James’s desire to live in the new house, and his motivation to take suicide is built up authentically in the film. I think the story is already strong enough to show these characters’ lives, including how James looks for help from an older girl who’s bullied by other kids after accidentally killing another boy, and his friendship with this idealistic boy named Kenny, and the complicated relationship of James’ parents. All these are amazing characters with believable problems and emotion. In the end when it cuts from the dream house to James suicide, it looks like an artistic but political image to show the comparison purposefully. But I don’t feel connected well with the characters. I would prefer the film end with the parents’ relationship and James and the girl’s relationship, kept within the characters, while life will keep going without significant change.

#BFI# #BigsScreenClassics# 现实主义作品，带有肯洛奇的风格，与《小孩与鹰》一样，以英国底层小孩的眼睛看这个全英范围内的大罢工，再看这个社会。

本片在开场就展现给观众了一场惨剧，让观众与小男主一样参与到了这次意外中，弱肉强食的社会中，谁有确定自己是那捕鼠人，而不是只老鼠，片中老鼠似乎就象征着小男主自己，垃圾在城市之中堆积，大量的工程停摆，老鼠在大量繁殖，那条承载了大量悲伤的河又一次送葬了一条生命，与开始呼应。

视觉上，构图和运镜非常棒，尤其是构图，画面分割，大量的前景遮挡，都让同样知道秘密的观众从视觉上体会到那种空间被大量压缩的窒息感。特写升格很大程度的放大了情绪。

听觉上，很多时候配乐还是偏欢快的，带有“青春成长”的节奏感，当然对于悲剧的烘托使用的耳鸣也很不错，让观众把注意力都集中在画面上。

不太喜欢超现实表达的部分，无论是小白鼠的升空和结尾处的处理，逃避现实的残酷再以超现实展现的笑容始终不如现实来的更有冲击力。

以写实的手法刻画： 孤独、压抑、敏感的少年内心世界， 成长的自我。 更何况还有恐惧和内疚， 只好将好像永远消耗不完的精力发泄在荒诞与暴力。 他们既是捕鼠者，也是被捕的鼠。 有着自己的生活，自己的个性，自己的境遇的父辈们， 他们也有他们的程度，也有他们的难处， 成长的家庭。 肮脏的社区，混乱的街道，昏庸的政治， 成长的环境。 … 但是， 少年的内心深处其实是温暖和柔软的， 他们渴望被尊重和了解， 不只是吃饱喝足，更需要精神与心灵的关怀，与爱。 父辈们虽可以理解，但也可以做的更多。 … 那窗明几净，那蓝天白云，那金色稻田， 和那少年的笑容， 是最美好的期许！