堕落的偶像

This is an immemorial conundrum for a middle-aged married man in our monogamous society: whereas his wife becomes more and more embittered and insufferable, out of a stroke of luck (or desperation), he finds a possible new lease on life with a younger, beautiful woman, the strategy of bailing out from a dead-end marriage often goes awry when running afoul of a misery-needs-company retaliation from the deserted and begrudged. This is what happens in Carol Reed's THE FALLEN IDOL, adapted by Graham Greene from his short story THE BASEMENT STORY.

In London, Mr. Baines (Richardson) is the butler of the ambassador of an unspecified francophone country, whose wife (Dresdel, snarky, fierce and uncompromisingly obnoxious) also works in the embassy, but he is chastely enamored with a younger colleague Julie (Morgan), when the latter gently hands him her ultimatum, Mr. Baines decides to reclaim his freedom, only Ms. Baine is anything but a soft touch, she will fight her corner until her last breath, but is her falling to her death is an accidental windfall for Mr. Baines or his crime of passion?

In the eyes of an audience, the whole act is plain as day, but through the lens of our main subject, a young boy Philippe (Henrey), the son of the ambassador who is left alone in the palatial residence, Greene’s mordant tale points up a child’s innocence getting embroidered with the falsehood of the adult life, and who is the titular“the fallen idol”? It is Mr. Baines, an avuncular father figure to Philippe and entertains him with his tall-tale adventures in Africa, which doesn’t necessarily mean it is true. After incidentally discovering Mr. Baines’ assignation with Julie, whom he refers to Philippe as his niece (the jumping-off place of a concatenation of lies which would perniciously compound Philippe’s inchoate worldview), Philippe is subjected to an untapped territory of keeping secrets, firstly from the idolized Mr. Baines, then from a harpy Ms. Baines, until he has been caught between defending a murderer (at least from his perspective, no one would blame him for his conviction) and grappling with the horrific happenstance, although, the film dramatically blurs the moral line by depicting Ms. Baines as an utterly unpleasant creature (she is the one dispatches Philippe’s pet snake, an apt symbol of the reptilian treachery among adults), so much so that no one is supposed to feel sorry for her upshot, a broad stroke emanates a ghost of misogyny albeit conveniently enhancing the credibility of Philippe’s dithered reaction.

Yet by and large, the film is a cracking allegory taps into a grey area and ushered by a convincingly elicited child performance as our undivided focal point from a young Henrey, who is not exactly an acting prodigy and the end result should be equally attributed to Mr. Reed’s patient guidance as well as to this boy's expressive reaction shots.Ralph Richardson, establishing an impermeable veneer of decorousness and presence of mind nonetheless, carefully carries an undertow of cravenly helplessness writs large in the latter part before a rushed revelation saving the day. As for Michèle Morgan, as svelte as an indubitable attention-grabber, her part is thinly written and largely sidelined.

Against the grain of an arrestingBildungsroman, THE FALLEN IDOL potently accentuates Reed’s directional prowess and his impeccable knack of frame composition and handsome chiaroscuro, the shots of a nocturnal street-scape tellingly anticipates his defining pièce-de-résistance THE THIRD MAN (1949). For all its aesthetic inclination and profound perspicacity, when Philippe exasperatedly hollers that it is him who upset the vase, one feels unable to refrain from thinking that here is a step too far of Reed’s indoctrination, a conspiratorial contemplation in silence might have worked better under this circumstance.

referential point: Carol Reed’s THE THIRD MAN (1949, 8.3/10).

第10届#法罗岛电影节#主竞赛单元第9个放映日为大家带来《堕落的偶像》，下面为大家带来前线天真孩子的世界坍塌的评价了！

果树：

剧作的胜利。每一个人物与部件都被有机调用，合力拼接成这部佳作。

我们敏熙：

好一出捉迷藏，孩童的旁观视角带来对房子空间感、纵深感的细致描绘。

法罗岛岛主：

绝妙的构图，阴差阳错的剧本构思，儿童迷失在成年人道德坍塌的世界里。

野凡：

绝对不要低估孩童的感知能力。影片从孩童的角度出发，讲述出于他那充满天真的善良而穿梭在谎言中的故事。可惜的是影片采用了平铺直叙的叙事方式，未免有些缺乏惊喜。

Bob Chow：

从孩童的视角看谎言这个主题并没有被扩张而是限定在了一个既定空间内的事件，且视角切换的时候并没有通过影像给予必要的衔接和身份。孩童的逻辑充斥着不合理性而不是非合理性，落入了纯粹的叙事和推进而不是共情。

kc512：

道德灰色地带、情欲引发罪䅁，广义上的黑色电影，只是黑色电影不会有小孩，因为无罪符号不会出现在犯罪世界。因此以小孩视觉出发成了双面刅，一方面小孩看待事情的无知产生戏谑，有讽刺效果；但另一方面也灭杀了一个有潜力发展成风格化黑色电影的点子，最终导致无论是讽刺或致郁都不够力度。影像倒是很有力量，Carol Reed招牌Dutch Angle惊艳。

子夜无人：

对孩童视角的捕捉极具开创性，很多的镜头调度和语言设计都启迪到了后来的电影，但更重要的是那股被内化的窥私、挟制的气质得以被具象呈现出来。在他们对于黑白还是简单分明的世界里，秘密是糖果而不是毒药，天真往往因为无知而得以左右判断，阴暗面仿佛并不真正存在而是幻化为童话故事里的恶龙、巫婆，谎言出于一厢情愿的保护而不是成人用来自我周全的欲望，竭尽全力的呼叫依然微弱到不值一提、因为被太过自然而然地无视掉而就此失语。最后他走向了始终没有面目也没有存在感的母亲，看上去皆大欢喜，但没有人知道发生了什么，有些东西已经开始崩坏、紊乱。

#FIFF10#DAY9的主竞赛场刊评分稍后会为大家释出，请大家拭目以待了。

偷窥者，説謊者，傾聽者，保密者。 一位孤独的孩童因為崇拜者的私密情事所引發的惨案在無意中扮演着多重角色：他窥探，当他想得知“秘密”的意义；他説謊，当他被'厭惡'的人逼迫或想捉緊喜愛之人時；他傾聽，当他迷迷糊糊闖入婚姻的禁地時；他保密，当他逝言順从并守口如瓶時。他还想充当大人的保护者，為他镸久以來的陪伴者，尊崇者及私自以為的“謀殺者”辯护，他采取言听計从的态度却又不堪盘問；他撒謊，反而颠倒黑白，适得其反；然後他决定吐露真言，又被当成麻烦以致被彻底無视。当谎言與真实纠缠不休，把懵懵懂懂的孩子弄得無所适从，搅得頭晕目眩，最後他帯着理不清的思绪投入到了陌生媽媽的桎梏與懷抱里。