Loveless—An Eerie Thriller of Hypnotic, Mysterious Intensity

By

Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev1俄羅斯導演、編劇、剪輯、制片人。2014年，憑借執導的劇情片《利維坦》（Leviathan）獲得第67屆戛納電影節主競賽單元最佳編劇獎。has produced another masterpiece in this apocalyptic2apocalyptic預示（未來）大災變的。study of a failed marriage and the subsequent disappearance of a child. 俄羅斯導演安德烈·薩金塞夫的又一佳作，對一樁破裂婚姻及其引起的兒童失蹤案件進行了末日預言般的探究。

Andrei Zvyagintsev’sLovelessis a stark, mysterious and terrifying story of spiritual catastrophe: a drama with the ostensible form of a procedural crime thriller. It has a hypnotic intensity and unbearable ambiguity which is maintained until the very end. This is a story of modern Russia whose people are at the mercy of3at the mercy of聽憑擺布。implacable4implacable不能改變的；毫不留情的。forces,a loveless world like a planet without the full means to support human life, a place where the ordinary need for survival has mutated5mutate變化。or upgraded into an unending aspirational demand for status, money,freedom to find an advantageous second marriage which brings a nice apartment, sex, luxury and the social media prerogative6prerogative 特權。of selfies and selfaffirmation. But all of it is underpinned,or overseen, by intensely conservative social norms of Christianity, conformism and nationalism.

安德烈·薩金塞夫執導的《無愛可訴》乍看好像一部刑偵驚悚片，實則一出表現精神危機的悲劇，冷峻肅殺中透著一絲詭秘，令人觀之不寒而栗。影片具有一種催眠般攝人心魄的力量，持續至終的未解懸疑幾乎讓人抓狂。這是一個關于現代俄羅斯的故事：在那里，人們聽憑生活的無情擺布；周遭世界無愛可言，宛若一個無力維持人類存在的星球；對生存的基本需求已經蛻變或升級為各種無休止的渴求：地位、金錢以及有利可圖的再婚自由。后者同時意味著高檔公寓、性、奢侈品以及社交媒體所賦予的自拍和自我肯定特權。然而這一切居然得益于各種極端保守型社會規范的維護與指引，例如基督教價值觀、因循守舊的思維方式以及民族主義情緒。

[2]Lovelessreminded me of the same director’sElena—and it also has the unflinching moral seriousness of Bergman’sScenes from a Marriage.The story of a disappearance which betokens some larger, metaphysical dysfunction has something of Antonioni’sL’Avventura—a film whose importance and example continues unabated—and the single, static shot of a school about to let the pupils out may have taken something else from that other touchstone: Michael Haneke’sHidden. The grim presence in this film of elderly mothers—secular7secular 現世的，俗界的。Buddhas of reactionary8reactionary 逆時代潮流而行的，復古的。cynicism who show every sign of inducing their children to become their duplicate—reminded me of Philip Larkin’s9（1922—1985），被公認為繼T.S.艾略特之后20世紀最有影響力的英國詩人。文中所涉詩句出自拉金詩作This Be the Verse（《這就是詩》）。lines about man handing on misery to man and it deepening like a coastal shelf.

[3]Lovelessis initially the portrait of a failed marriage in its awful final stages. Boris (Alexei Rozin) is a burly,bearded man with a look of a young Fidel Castro10（1926—2016），古巴國家元首兼政府首腦，絡腮胡子是其著名的外貌特征。who works in sales. He still shares the family apartment with his soon-to-be-ex-wife Zhenya (Maryana Spivak). They quarrel endlessly, united only in their mutual loathing: each has found a new partner, and are Aboth in the first flush of love and sexual infatuation which contrasts with their sour detestation11detestation憎恨；厭惡。of the existing encumbrance12encumbrance累贅；障礙物。. Boris has a girlfriend whom he has already got pregnant and Zhenya is with a well-off older handsome man who has a grownup daughter. But there is the matter of their son, Alyosha(Matvey Novikov) a shy and unhappy 12-year-old boy who is the basic cause or symptom of their relationship’s collapse. They got married too soon after an unexpected pregnancy.

《無愛可訴》阿廖沙

[2]《無愛可訴》讓人聯想到這位導演的舊作《伊蓮娜》，其堅定的道德嚴肅感則與伯格曼的《婚姻萬象》如出一轍。失蹤案象征著某種更大的抽象層面的機能失調，還有點兒安東尼奧尼的《奇遇》的既視感，后者在電影界的重要性和影響力持續至今、從未消減。對學校即將放學場景的單一靜態畫面呈現手法，則可能取自另一部經典影片：邁克爾·哈內克的《隱藏攝像機》。影片中出現的老母親死板嚴苛，如同“俗世佛”，一有什么看不慣就冷嘲熱諷，身上每一寸毛孔都在拼命想將孩子變成自己的復制品——這個形象讓人聯想到菲利普·拉金的詩句，說人類將苦難代代相傳，令其如大陸架般愈發深重。

[4] After Alyosha overhears a horrible argument in their cramped13cramped狹窄的。flat,he disappears. The moment when the bathroom door is thrown back after their ugly spat, revealing to us (but not them) Alyosha’s face in a silent scream of tears is utterly devastating: one of the most purely disturbing images imaginable. The couple had already been listening on the radio to news reports about a Mayan cult prophecy about the end of the world being at hand, doomy paranoia given a sort of credibility14credibility可信性。by the credulous15credulous輕信的；易受騙的。, tightly buttoned16tightly buttoned 直譯即“扣得很緊的”，引申為“刻板的，嚴格的”。commercial world that Boris moves in: he is terrified of revealing his impending17impending即將發生的。divorce to his deeply religious boss. This is their private apocalypse.

[3]《無愛可訴》開篇描畫了一樁破裂婚姻走到盡頭的種種不堪。男主鮑里（阿列克謝·羅金飾）身材魁梧，留著大胡子，神似青年時期的菲德爾·卡斯特羅，從事銷售工作。影片開始時他還與即將離婚的妻子珍雅（瑪麗雅娜·斯皮瓦克飾）同住在兩人共有的公寓里。他們無窮無盡地爭吵，唯一的共同點是相互厭憎：他們各自都找到了新伴侶，正初沉愛河，享受著性的激情，這與兩人尚未彼此徹底擺脫的膩煩現狀形成鮮明對比。鮑里的女友已經懷孕，珍雅的男友略年長，又富又帥，有個成年女兒。但是如何安置兒子阿廖沙（馬特威·諾維科夫飾）成了大問題。阿廖沙12歲，羞澀憂郁，他既是夫妻倆關系徹底決裂的根本起因，也是這種決裂關系的顯象證明。當年珍雅因意外懷孕，與鮑里過于倉促地奉子成婚。

[4]阿廖沙偷聽到父母在逼仄公寓里發生的一場可怕爭吵，然后就消失了。在那場丑陋的口水戰后，浴室門被撞合上的瞬間，影片向我們（而非他們）呈現出阿廖沙的臉：他淚流滿面，發出無聲的吶喊。這一幕非常震撼，是想象中令人極端不安的畫面之一。夫婦倆此前收聽過電臺報道瑪雅邪教關于世界末日即將來臨的預言，這個不祥臆測在鮑里所處的輕信又刻板的商業環境里，獲得了某種真實性——鮑里的老板是虔誠的宗教信徒，他因此非常害怕老板知道自己即將離婚的事。現在孩子失蹤無異于他們個體的世界末日。

[5] Another type of film might tell a story of human compromise, or of a kind of toughly realistic rapprochement18rap-prochement友好關系的恢復；和解。between the warring parents as they realise that they must join forces at least temporarily to find their boy. Nothing of the sort happens. The terrible calamity throws everything into a sharper, clearer relief19throw something into sharp relief〈喻〉使某物變得更鮮明突出。. And so far from falling into each other’s arms, or finding any kind of comfort in each other’s desperation, their existing unhappiness is exalted into an ecstasy of rage and self-hate.

[6] How will they find their son? The police are jaded20jaded厭倦的；膩煩的。and bureaucratic, like officialdom in another of Zvyagintsev’s earlier films,Leviathan; but while there is still hope of life, the police are happy to cede responsibility to21cede to 讓與。a highly motivated and efficient volunteer group which combs22comb 搜遍，仔細搜索。the neighbourhood putting up fliers and asking questions. (No dogs though, which is perhaps odd.)In one unforgettably eerie scene, they search a wrecked, abandoned building in woodland: the kind of interior features in “ruin porn” photographs of Detroit23“ruin porn” photograph 指以被遺棄的廢墟為對象的攝影作品。通常認為，廢墟攝影包含了美與毀滅、崇拜和羞恥，而且迎合了觀看者的偷窺欲，某種意義上與色情有關，因此也被稱為“廢墟色情”攝影。底特律因其汽車工業的沒落成為世界著名的“廢墟城”。or Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s documentaryHomo Sapiens. It is a parodic version of the slightly crummy building that Boris and Zhenya live in and the flashy apartments that they dream of moving to.

[5]換作另一類影片，可能會講述一個關于人如何向生活妥協的故事，或者沖突中的父母認識到至少在目前必須齊心協力尋找孩子，達成某種現實中的和解。但《無愛可訴》里根本沒這回事。相反，孩子失蹤這件可怕的事情發生后，矛盾變得愈發尖銳鮮明，結果他們不僅壓根兒沒有互相抱頭痛哭，或是在共同的絕望中得到任何慰藉，反而將當前的痛苦升級為狂怒與自厭。

[6]他們要怎樣才能找到兒子？警察麻木不仁、作風官僚，與薩金塞夫前一部影片《利維坦》所展現的極其相似。不過既然還有生還可能，警察也樂于將搜尋責任轉交給一個積極主動、富有效率的志愿者團隊，后者迅速張貼尋人啟事、問詢相關人員，在周邊社區展開全面搜救（很奇怪的是卻沒有使用搜救犬）。有一幕場景是他們在一棟殘敗的林中廢棄建筑里搜查，詭秘的氣氛令人難忘。建筑物內景恰似底特律“廢墟色情”攝影的風格，又如尼可拉斯·蓋哈特在紀錄片《沒有人的文明》中所呈現的圖景——破敗之中透著奢華，既有幾分像鮑里和珍雅現居的略顯寒酸的公寓樓，又有點像他們夢想遷入的奢華公寓。

安德烈·薩金塞夫

[7] Has Alyosha been kidnapped?Zvyagintsev allows us to suspect that with a weird moment in a fancy restaurant where Zhenya is having dinner with her boyfriend. There is an unex-

[7]阿廖沙會不會被人劫持了呢？薩金塞夫在影片中用一個詭異的片段暗示了這種可能。珍雅和男友在一間奢華餐廳用餐時，出現了一個毫無來由的主觀鏡頭：某位在此閑蕩的男性向一名應召女郎搭訕。這個男人會是綁架者么？他準備要聯絡孩子父母么？他最后一刻改變主意了么？plained point-of-view shot24影片此處，一名應召女郎面對鏡頭與疑似站在攝像機旁邊的男性交談，后者詢問她的名字并索要電話號碼，但男子始終未出現在鏡頭前。point-of-view shot〈電影術語〉主觀鏡頭，即從劇中人物的視點出發來敘述的鏡頭。相對地，從導演（亦即觀眾）的視角出發來敘述的鏡頭叫客觀鏡頭（subjective shot）。of someone hanging about there, trying to pick up an escort. Is this the criminal; is he about to make contact? Did he change his mind at the last moment?

[8] And then, more heartwrenchingly still, the couple are alerted to news from hospitals and morgues: boys dead and alive are reported roughly matching Alyosha’s description, and their ordeal is protracted and intensified. But of course there is a spiritual sense that he had already vanished before literally going missing.

[9] This is a film which confronts us with the most unthinkable of crises and perhaps also challenges the eternal piety255 piety 虔誠，虔敬。and complacency of family life,that having children is a moral verity and duty which is somehow its own reward, which elevates by its very nature and goes beyond the requirement to show and to give love. But the cultivation of love needs the right conditions,the right soil in which to grow, and the Russia of Zvyagintsev’s film looks barren.Lovelessmay not have the obvious grandeur and reach of his previous film,Leviathan, and is closer to the mordant26mordant刻薄的；辛辣的。domestic drama ofElena. But its brilliance and passion are compelling. ■

[8]接下來，更讓人揪心的是，從醫院和停尸房那邊傳來消息，發現有男孩大體符合阿廖沙的特征——活的死的都有。這無疑延長和加劇了他們的痛苦。不過話說回來，從精神層面上看，阿廖沙早在肉身失蹤之前就已從父母心中消失了。

[9]這部影片促使我們直面生命中最出離想象的危機，同時也許還挑戰了有關家庭生活那仿佛天經地義的虔敬信仰與自我陶醉，即：認為生兒育女乃屬道德真理與義務，認為某種意義上它本身已是一種獎賞，且自為高尚，甚至無須刻意表現愛或者付出愛。但事實上，愛需要合宜的環境來培育，需要適當的土壤來生長，而薩金塞夫影片中的俄羅斯在這方面顯得貧瘠不堪。《無愛可訴》也許沒有他前一部影片《利維坦》那般顯見的廣度與深度，風格更接近充滿諷刺的家庭劇情片《伊蓮娜》。但是它的精彩卓絕和飽含的深情令人難以抗拒。 □