似是故人来1993

    不知从何时起，会常常鲜明的感觉到时间的流逝：大到好友结婚生子，父母逐渐老去；小到交报告考试的日子转眼到来，时间就像一堵墙，一座山，压在人的心里。甚至，一不小心，身边的娱乐明星都换过一轮又一轮，转眼间，许多片子都开始了所谓经典重拍，我们小时候的青春偶像，都成了中年男女。
    而我们，也长大了，变老了，开始喜欢追本搠源。就像看《色戒》，看过张爱玲的小说还不够，还得知道张的爱情故事，还要知道时代背景，还要知道主角原型郑苹如的家庭和爱情…..我们总想知道尽可能多的信息，然后给出一个判断。
    这几天偶尔再看《似是故人来》（Sommersby），里察基尔和朱蒂福斯特1993年的作品，了解到相关的一些资料，才知道这个看似曲折的爱情片原来也不是好莱坞的原创，而是根据1982年的法国影片《马丁戈尔的归来》（Le retour de Martin Guerre）改编，而这个法国故事在历史上则真有其事：16世纪法国Artigat的乡间，一个叫马丁的小伙子不喜欢农村的生活，在和父亲发生冲突后抛妻弃子参加战争，其间父母去世，马丁的叔父娶了他妻子的母亲，过了8年马丁返乡，继续和妻子及叔父生活在一起，这样一家人又平静的过了三，四年。后来马丁因为要查土地的明细帐目和叔父发生冲突，结果叔父认为他不是真正的马丁，告到法院。此案全法知名，假马丁凭借自己的口才几乎就要赢得官司的胜利，结果在最后一刻，真正的马丁返乡，假马丁被绞死。
    虽然脱胎于同一个故事，法国片和美国片由于拍摄的年代不同，文化不同，侧重也不一样。在法国片里，男主角由Gérard Depardieu 饰演，女主角则是Natalie Baye 。影片重点讲述了这场闻名全法的官司，采取了倒叙的手法，一开始就是法官询问女主角和他们过去的生活场景，上半部分里，法官的询问和男女主人公过去的生活交叉呈现。而归来之后的马丁之所以被怀疑，在影片中，是一个曾与他们共同经历过战争的游方乞丐揭露的，但关键问题是，马丁想要变卖土地和叔父产生冲突，他的行为与家族世代注重土地的观念不相符合。而他的妻子，则是自始自终支持他，认为他是真的马丁，最后由于真马丁的归来，假马丁才以通奸罪名被处死。而法官认为马丁的妻子是被欺骗的，她和假马丁生的女儿也可以继续和整个家族生活在一起。整个片子尽可能真实重现了16世纪法国农村的生活场景和伦理道德。
    在《似是故人来》里，则借用了马丁故事的内核----远离家乡几年的人重新归来后被妻子和乡邻接受，最后被与自己有直接利益冲突的人陷害----讲述了一个爱情和责任的故事，这个故事里的男主角为了保证自己的改革成果和爱人的名誉，最后为自己假冒的那个人所犯的过错死去。
    纯粹就影片来说，我更喜欢法国的这个故事，也更喜欢这个故事的男女主角。可能，我觉得法国故事的大鼻子情圣更真实，没有美国故事的里察基尔那么矫情。特别是在最后法庭聆讯的戏里，Gérard 为了证明自己是真正的马丁，一开始很兴奋，胸有成竹，在得到了妻子的支持后，有点小小的得意忘形，但真马丁出现时一刹那眼神灰暗，而后真假马丁对峙，他的对答如流和记忆清晰越发显得欲盖弥彰，当他说错了话，绝望的望着妻子的眼神，让法官见了都同情…… 相反，里察在法庭里就是一心求死了，故事到了这里，已经不是原来的故事，我个人觉得，太过高尚，也不是很真实。
    说起两位女主角也很有趣，马丁的妻子一直是柔弱的，逆来顺受的，面对法官的询问，叔父和母亲的压力，从前丈夫的冷淡和抛妻别子，她都没有激烈的情绪和意见。因为她的婚姻就是一桩利益婚姻，为了把两家的土地合在一起。丈夫刚回来的时候，她也显得很平静，甚至有一丝厌烦，只是回来之后的马丁带给她幸福的生活，她才有了真心的笑容。或许，她一直都知道归来的丈夫是假的，但是，她不想说，也没有必要说，她与假马丁之间有着全然的默契。在法庭上，她毅然举证，在起诉书上的签字是叔父和母亲强迫，甚至愿意说出隐私来证明马丁的真实性，此时，这个看起来柔弱，一直被要求服从的乡间女人是如此坚强。最后功亏一篑，她眼睁睁的看着自己的爱人被绞死，但是，对她来说，其后和真马丁一起生活下去才是真实残酷的现实吧。
    而朱蒂，这个女人从来都是坚强有担待，她与里察之间，有一个接受与被接受的过程，她掌握着主动权。她这么一个聪明的女人，不可能不知道丈夫的观点，对黑人的态度，一个顽固的奴隶主怎么会转变那么大，成为一个带领黑人共同致富的改革者？不同的时代，对故事有着不同的解读，美国故事里，朱蒂始终是和丈夫站在一起，共同做出选择。
    对这两个女人来说，重新归来的故人，或许才是自己真正的良人，只是最后终究失去。时间流逝，浮生若梦。

John "Jack" Sommersby left his farm to fight in the American Civil War but has not returned home afterward, and is presumed dead. Despite the hardship of working their farm without him, his apparent widow Laurel (played by Foster) is quite content in his absence, as Jack was an unpleasant and abusive husband. She even makes remarriage plans with one of her neighbors, Orin Meacham (Pullman), who despite his own hardships (such as a wooden foot, which he wears to replace one that was lost in the war) has been helping her and her young son with the farmwork.

One day, Jack (Gere) seemingly returns with a complete change of heart. He is now kind and loving to Laurel and their young son. In the evenings, he reads to them from Homer's Iliad, which the old Jack never would have done. He claims that the book was given to him by a man he met in prison, and that "War changes you; makes you appreciate things". Jack and Laurel rekindle their intimacy and Laurel soon becomes pregnant.

Displaced from his courtship of Laurel, Meacham immediately suspects this "new" Sommersby as an impostor. The town shoemaker also finds that this man's foot is two sizes smaller than the shoe template which had been made for Sommersby before the war.

In order to revive the local economy, Sommersby suggests Burley tobacco as a cash crop. He raises the seed money by selling parts of his own farm to people who will then work the land to grow tobacco. This raises further doubts in his old neighbors who believe that the "old" Jack would not be so hasty to give away his beloved father's land, as well as resentment among Confederate veterans about the inclusion of former slaves.

One black freedman living on Sommersby's land is brutally attacked and dropped at Sommersby's door, by men proclaiming themselves the Knights of the White Camellia (one of them is Meacham, distinguished by his wooden foot). Jack is threatened in an attempt to force him to exclude Black people from the landowning but he refuses, saying that they can "own what they pay for".

Upon taking the townspeople's money, he sets off to buy the tobacco seed claiming that the crops will raise enough funds to rebuild the town church. Great suspicion and skepticism falls upon him (and by association, Laurel and their son) when he does not return at the expected time. He does, however, return. All those that bought in on the deal set to work, transforming the dull and lifeless plantation into a breeding ground of promise and prosperity. Laurel gives birth to a daughter, Rachel.

Shortly after Rachel's baptism, two U.S. Marshals appear in town to arrest Jack Sommersby. He is charged with murder, which carries the death penalty if convicted. Once the trial begins, Laurel's attempts to save her husband quickly focus on the question of his identity: whether this "Jack" is who he claims to be, or a look-a-like who met the real Sommersby whilst in prison for deserting the Confederate Army.

Laurel and Jack's lawyer agree to argue that her husband is an impostor, not the same man who left Laurel to fight in the war. This would save her husband (or supposed husband) from hanging for murder, although he would still be imprisoned for several years for fraud and desertion. Meacham devises this plan in exchange for Laurel promising to marry him upon "Sommersby's" imprisonment.

Jack fires the lawyer and sets about re-establishing himself as the real Sommersby. Several witnesses are brought up to discredit this Sommersby as a fraud, and show that he is in fact Horace Townsend, an English teacher from Virginia.

One witness says that the man currently posing as Jack defrauded his township of several thousand dollars after claiming he wanted to help rebuild the schoolhouse there. Sommersby quickly discredits the man's testimony by identifying him as one of the Klansmen who had threatened him earlier. Jack also points out that Orin Meacham was another of those men, and that this is all a set-up to try and rob the new black farmers of the land they have bought. When the black judge confronts the witness on this charge, the witness snaps, "When the Yankees have all gone you'll be back in the field where you belong!" The judge silences him and sentences him to 30 days for contempt, increased to 60 days upon the man's protest.

As the drama unfolds, Jack asks Laurel to give the reason she knows he is not the "real" Jack Sommersby; she replies (after some berating) "…because I never loved him the way I love you!" With this her charade ends and she says that she believes the Jack before her to be her real husband.

The judge calls Jack to his bench to ask whether he wishes to be tried as Jack Sommersby even if it will certainly mean death by hanging. Jack glances at the freed blacks who have been farming his land, and then he glances at his wife and his daughter, who would be respectively condemned as an adulteress and a bastard child if he claimed the identity of Horace Townsend. He calmly states that he wants to be tried as John "Jack" Sommersby.

Jack is convicted of first degree murder and is sentenced to death by hanging. While awaiting death, he is asked by Laurel to tell the truth. She asks, "Are you John Sommersby?" Laurel mentions the book on Homer's works that he holds. Jack tells her the story of how he met a man who looked like him whilst in a prison and how he gave him this book. They traveled together until his friend died. He claims that he buried him under a pile of rocks on a hill top in Virginia. Laurel asks, "You mean you buried Jack?", to which Jack replies, "I mean I buried Horace."

Just then the jailers enter to transport Jack to the gallows. He asks Laurel to be amongst the crowds as he cannot "hang alone". She says she can't watch him die. As Jack Sommersby is fastened up ready to hang, Laurel makes her way to the front of the crowd. Jack calls for her, claiming to the executioner that he "isn't ready". She then calls back and the two see each other. The hood is pulled over and a trap door can be heard opening.

The closing scenes show Laurel walking up a hill with flowers. She then kneels by the grave of "Jack Sommersby" and lays the flowers down for him. It is revealed that work is being done on the steeple of the village church, as Jack had wished.

似是故人，不是故人，胜似故人；
执子之手，却又分手，相聚苦短。
俗世渺渺，天意茫茫，生死两隔；
恨台上卿卿，羡台下我我，不是你共我。
有缘无份，回忆不断，生命只恨长。
岁月深渊，终我此生，相思说不尽。

       （一）把好话说在前面。

    南北战争结束后一百多年的现在，种族歧视在美国那片所谓的人权自治的土地上依旧没有消失过。
    这部戏很刻意地展示了三个面：
    1、将KKK烧十字架、对黑人使用私刑的一幕展现了出来。在九十年代拍摄这一幕，我想制片人多少有点使平等意识已经生长起来的新白人对过去的“罪行”产生的愧意的意思。为票房而生的电影用到这样的题材，不管是否动机在于迎合新资本力量宽容的价值观，它至少是正面的。
    2、强大的宗教约束。不管人们是不是从来不说谎，至少人们表面上应该是不说谎的——这是基督统治的世界的社会契约。骗子的身份足以让你失去一切。在电影中，男主角宁可选择去死都不能承认自己是个骗子，私以为跟村民的利益真的没半毛钱关系，重点是一旦他被认为是骗子，他会被所有人抛弃，还会连累妻儿。
    3、法不容情。

   （二）开始吐槽了。
    
    1、为了让大家更容易接受女主的变节，故事让女主的前夫犯了错……丢下妻儿去参军。
    亲们，参军能算是犯错吗？南北战争是美国历史上的一个悲剧。像南军的统帅李将军，他亦赞同解放黑奴，但是却因为他是南方利益体系之下的一员，必须为自己所代表的团体去战争。战争对于一些人来说是历史给予的使命。
    试想一下，你为了保卫家园，出去抛头颅洒热血，得到的回报却是老婆先跟邻居勾搭上，后跟另一个男人生小孩，你情何以堪。真该庆幸你死了，不然有一天你突然回来，大家都不知道怎么收场了。

    2、邻居先生从头到脚都没有真正地犯大错，如果有错，一定是错在爱错了一个自私的女人。在不知道男主的面目之前，他默默付出，默默离开。在知道男主的真面目之后，他也只是纯粹地要求自己的付出有所回报。
    至少吧，他比男主正派。
    戏里却为使得男主的形象更加高大，硬生生地把邻居写成了坏人。

    3、至于男主……我真心觉得这人的行为完全不符合发展心理学。谁都知道，狗改不了吃屎的本性。
    再说了，这条狗原来吃了一肚子的屎，现在突然不吃了，就等于说他嘴巴干净了？我真心不知道导演想借此说明什么。

    这样一部片，居然也火了那么久，还被作为经典来评价。除了因为男主是帅哥，女主是美女之外，还有其它原因吗？
    尽管我现在特么吐槽，当初看到男主角在法庭上的表现时，还是忍不住掉眼泪。忽而想到，当主角是我们喜欢的演员来演时，真是一件危险的事。
    第一、他们做错了什么，我们都“可以理解”，“可以接受”，这等于允许了他们向我们传递不正当的世界观。
    第二、使我们不能客观公正地评价眼前的事，因为一开始就有感情的倾向。

    结论是：这部片基本是烂片。

明知道那人不是自己六年前抛弃家庭粗暴对待自己的枕边人。明知道的。
六年的时间，多么长，一个女人，独自带着小孩，抚养成人。
家里值钱的东西都给人抢走，经历战乱，然后生活一贫如洗，只剩下空荡荡的屋子，和仅存的胸针……
必须独自劳作，每天忙田里的事情。
有一个人始终默默的帮忙，那是一个退伍的军人，装了一只假肢，只是因为喜欢她，多年来默默在背后帮忙，并且等待守候。
其实都知道，女人一直都知道对方对他的心意。
就是差那么一点点，就答应了。
只差那么一点点。
六年以后，多年前去参军的先生回来。她第一个反应是去梳妆打扮……
紧张的样子，就像刚谈恋爱的忐忑模样。
不是没有感情的，她其实开始的时候爱他的丈夫的。
以为回来的真是自己的丈夫，在黑暗的房间里，手上只有一个风灯，淡淡的光影照在两人的身上，他们好久没有如此亲昵的坐在一起。
我那时候其实挺爱你的……她说。
但是，你后来的态度，你的个性，所有的这些东西……
他无语，谁知道他心里的感受呢，只有他知道自己的真相。
他说，没有想到，你是如此的美，笑起来这样的好看，今后，我一定让你时常开心的笑！
所有的人，都以为失踪了六年的人终于回来了，焕然一新，温文尔雅知书达礼……
只有枕边的妻子知道他不是。
但是，有什么关系呢。
他曾经很担心她会看出来。
他说，我……我都忘记了我们是怎么在一起的……
她答，有什么关系呢，这些都不重要。
是的，都不重要。
明知道这个人只是像自己的丈夫，但却绝不可能是自己的丈夫。
却不要紧。
她仿佛是第一次恋爱的女人，第一次发现原来在爱里面，自己可以这样的被人疼惜爱护和爱恋珍惜……
是的，只要这些，就够了。
她会爱上他，而他，也慢慢的爱上了她。
有时将错就错，不过是因为贪恋。
贪恋的东西，就像她说的。以前我们的日子很富足，但是，那时我时常觉得痛苦。现在，我们的日子一贫如洗，但是从来没有这样的快乐过。
有些人，可以把爱看得大于一切，不是因为幼稚，天真，只是他们明白，两人在一起，有愉悦的内心，时常满足于每天的日子，这样的生活，并不是每一个人都可以拥有的。

一个声名狼藉的人为了一个新的身份而宁愿被绞死的故事。

理查.基尔加朱迪.福斯特，阵容超强。两人表演上无懈可击，但这种组合注定了我的期望特别高，想想看“沉默羔羊”加“First Knight”是什么效果？带着接受强刺激的期待心情来观影，结果是如莫奈风景画般恬静的一段“爱情”故事，多少有点失望。而且故事结构的刻意戏剧化本身就会削弱演员的表现力。

当然如果你静下心来，还是一部不错的片子。Sommersby是个人名，中文按情节转译为“似是故人来”，非常传神。