这周关于母职的音乐电影《妈妈咪呀！回来了》上映，里面也有英国演员Dominic Cooper饰演新手爸爸，刚好就在今天英国也正上映他另一部演新手爸爸的新片 "The Escape" ，我就暂译为《逃离》。此片由英国电视剧《真爱》的编导 Dominic Savage 来编导，事实上看他片单有好多迷你影集与电视电影，大多都在谈家庭与两性关系，这次要在大银幕上谈母职应是个中好手。这部《逃离》中演爸爸的 Cooper 只是配角，演妈妈的 Gemma Arterton 才是主角。
我是从 2018/7/26的卫报文章注意到这片，这篇文章并不算是影评，却是一种电影题材的讨论也开了片单。这位卫报影评 Cath Clarke讨论了当代电影对强壮女性的理想描绘、也谈了女性形象强壮化后反被遗忘的脆弱苦难那一面，尤其是母职的现实，然后开了个母职电影片单并给了点短评。我觉得还挺有意思，就来翻译一下全文。
新片 "The Escape" 预告 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx05E-99DPA
卫报文章连结：https://goo.gl/bXNZdM
以下开始全文翻译：
标题：How cinema embraced the silent agony of being a parent
《电影如何拥抱身为父母有口难言的苦》
作者：Cath Clarke
发表时间：Thu 26 Jul 2018 13.00 BST
摘要：In the British drama The Escape, Gemma Arterton stars as a mother who walks out on her family, unable to cope. It’s one of several new films about parenthood with which many women will empathise
在英国剧情片《逃离》中，杰玛阿特顿饰演一个无法面对亲职而从家庭中逃离的母亲。这是近来几部描绘亲职到可以令女人们感同深受的新片之一。
Never mind Lars von Trier torturing women and ducklings. Some of the most shocking scenes I have seen on screen this year arrive next month in a low-budget British relationship drama set in a suburban semi in Kent. The film is The Escape, starring Gemma Arterton as a 30-year-old stay-at-home mother, Tara, who abandons her family in a fug of depression and dissatisfaction.
拉斯冯提尔虐女人也虐小鸭已经不稀奇，我今年在电影院看到的一些最令人震撼的镜头，就由一部设定在肯特郡郊区的小成本英国亲情关系片呈现。此片片名《逃离》，杰玛阿特顿饰演一个三十岁的在家全职母亲名叫Tara，她为了逃出忧郁与不满而抛弃了家庭。
I almost couldn't watch one excruciating scene, in which Tara, eyes glazed, voice flat and distant, tells her husband (Dominic Cooper) how she feels about their kids: “I don’t care about them. I don’t care if they finish their dinner. I don’t care if they go to school or don’t go to school. I don’t care, but I make myself care. I make myself be funny and happy. I think they hate me.” Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again it ain’t. In fact, The Escape is a candidate for feel-bad film of the year, possibly
the decade.
我不忍卒睹的一幕是：Tara带着呆滞眼神、行尸走肉的语气、告诉丈夫（Dominic Cooper饰演）她对孩子们的真实感觉：“我并不在意他们、我也不在意他们是否乖乖吃完晚餐、也不在意他们有没有乖乖上学。我不在意，只是强迫自己在意，我还强迫自己看来逗趣又开心。我想他们其实恨我。”妈妈咪呀！又来了，但这并不是回到乐观电影而是回到悲观现实。事实上，《逃离》恐怕是本年度最悲观电影、甚至是十年以来最悲观电影。
I mean that in the nicest possible way. Spending 101 emotionally draining minutes watching a marriage disintegrate with documentary precision isn’t everyone’s idea of a fun night out. But The Escape is superbly acted and unsqueamishly tackles an unspoken taboo: women who regret having children. The film industry is jumping on the bandwagon of “strong female characters”. But at the expense of how many other stories? Because, while Charlize Theron badassing her way through action movies in six-inch
heels is inspiring, it doesn’t say much about the daily reality of most women’s lives.
我说悲观电影，是对此片的最正面描述。花上情感纠结的 101分钟看一个如纪录片般精准的婚姻崩解故事，恐怕不是人人能吃得下的夜晚休闲。不过《逃离》高明地演出也大胆地处理了不能说的禁忌：后悔生子的女人们。当今影界正跳上一个“强壮女性角色”的光鲜取向，却埋没了多少其他的故事？尽管莎莉赛隆穿着六吋高跟鞋在动作片大杀四方很振奋人心，但它并没说到什么大多数女人面对的日常现实。
In a study published in May, 81% of women said they had felt overwhelmed or unable to cope at some point over the past year (compared with 67% of men). But, while there are plenty of mums from hell in the movies – characters whose main function is to royally eff up the emotional lives of their kids – fewer films are interested in the reality of life for the 81% – in particular, the exhaustion, frustration, self-doubt and boredom that can accompany motherhood.
五月发表的一份研究中指出，81% 的女人说她们在过去一年某个时点曾感到心力交瘁或是无能为力（相较之下男性只有 67%）。不过，当电影中有数不尽的恶妈妈专事毁掉孩子感情生活时，只有少数电影对这 81%的生活现实感兴趣，尤其是关于枯竭、挫败、自我怀疑、空洞等与母职不可分割的负面情绪。
What surprised me about The Escape is that it is written and directed by a man, Dominic Savage (although the dialogue is improvised). Savage wrote the film for Arterton, shooting it in her home town; one scene was even filmed in her mum’s garden. Talking to him on the phone, I find out the story is partly autobiographical. When Savage was a child, his mother announced that she was walking out when she picked him up from school one afternoon. “She told me she wanted to go; that she was going to go,”
he says, thoughtfully. “But at that time, women had very limited options. She didn’t go. Maybe she should have. She was very unfulfilled for the rest of her life.” In the film, he frames Tara in front of windows as if she needs oxygen – as if family life is suffocating her.
《逃离》令我惊讶的是它竟是个男人 Dominic Savage 编导的（尽管对话有许多即兴）。Savage为杰玛阿特顿写了这故事、在她的家乡拍摄、甚至有一幕还在她妈妈的花园拍。透过电话访谈他，我发现这故事有一部分自传性质。当Savage童年时，有个下午他母亲接他放学时冷冷宣布即将离去。“她告诉我她想走、她也准备要走了”他沈吟说道“但在那时代，女人的选择极为有限。结果她没走，也许她该走的，她接下来的余生有志未酬、郁郁寡欢。”在电影中，他总是安排Tara站在窗前仿佛需要氧气、仿佛家庭生活令她窒息。
Tara’s unhappiness is in part down to her circumstances; she had kids young and now feels as if she is living the wrong life. She wonders if could do something in art; she was good at drawing at school. I do the maths: Tara would have been 24 or 25 when she gave birth to her first child. At that age, I had just landed my dream job in publishing. Fifteen years on, when my daughter arrived, much later than expected and much longed for, motherhood really was all fulfilment, joy and love. But I sympathise
with Tara. Anyone who has been in the trenches for 14 hours with a toddler will recognise her thousand-yard stare.
Tara的不快乐一部分来自她的境遇：她很年轻就生了孩子、现在则感觉她过著错误的人生。她想着她是否本来可以走上艺术之路，毕竟以前在学校画画很不错。照我的估算 Tara 恐怕 24 或 25 岁就生了第一胎，我在她这年纪时才刚刚找到出版业中的理想工作。我工作了 15 年后迎接第一个女儿，远比我期待的晚、也令我等待已久，这样的母职真是成就、喜悦与爱的结合呀。但我同情 Tara ，任何在战壕里带宝宝 14 小时的人都认得她那如战争创伤的无神双眼。
Perhaps the mother of all dramas in the canon of films that do explore family life for women in turmoil is A Woman Under the Influence, the 1974 film by John Cassavetes starring his wife, Gena Rowlands, as Mabel. A stay-at-home mother bringing up three children in a one-bedroom flat with no room to breathe, Mabel drinks too much, is always saying the wrong thing and trying too hard to please. She loves her kids and her husband, but he is off working all hours. Mabel is briefly sent to a psychiatric
unit, but you suspect that she is not mad, simply a woman who has been ignored; whose spirit has been crushed. In an interview with the Guardian, Rowlands joked about how hard the film was to get financed: “Why does anyone want to see a picture about a crazy middle-aged dame?” It’s one of those films I watch more or less once a year.
探讨女人在家庭动荡处境的经典电影中，其始祖也许是《受影响的女人》(1974)，约翰卡萨维帝执导、其妻吉纳罗兰兹饰演女主角 Mabel。身为一个蹲在单卧室公寓养大三个孩子的妈妈，Mabel 没有空间呼吸，只有酗酒，她总是拼命取悦别人却又一直说错话。她爱她孩子与丈夫，但丈夫全天工作都不在家。Mabel
短暂地被送进了精神疗养机构，但你猜得出来她并不是疯子、而只是个被忽视的女人，她的精神被彻底击垮。在与卫报的一次访谈中，罗兰兹自嘲地回顾此片筹资如何困难：“为什么有人想看一部中年女疯子的电影？”但这是我平均每年都要重看一次的电影之一。
One of the Oscars’ greatest crimes was giving the best actress award to Nicole Kidman for wearing a beaky prosthetic nose as Virginia Woolf in The Hours, while her co-star Julianne Moore went home empty-handed for her role as Laura, who, like Mabel, is a square-peg housewife. At the start of the movie, set in the late 1940s, we see Laura attempting an impersonation of a happy housewife, baking a cake for her husband’s birthday with disastrous results. In an inexpressibly sad scene, we get a glimpse of
her authentic self, as she kisses a female neighbour on the lips. The Hours cranks up compassion for Laura, even as we watch her son howling with despair as she walks out.
奥斯卡史上最大的遗珠之一是把最佳女主角给了《时时刻刻》(2002) 里戴了假鼻子演维吉尼亚吴尔芙的妮可基曼、却没给同片饰演（像 Mabel一样）格格不入的家庭主妇 Laura的茱莉安摩尔。电影开始的 1940s末期，我们看见 Laura努力试着扮演一个快乐主妇，兴冲冲烤蛋糕给丈夫庆生结果搞一团糟。在一场隐晦的忧郁戏里，当她吻上一位女性邻居的唇时，我们才瞥见一眼她的真我。《时时刻刻》为 Laura累积了观众的巨大同情，尽管我们仍看见她离去时孩子哭嚎多凄惨。
When Meryl Streep made Kramer vs. Kramer, playing a woman who leaves her husband and seven-year-old son in search of fulfilment, she asked for rewrites to make the character less of a villain. When researching the role, her first port of call was her mother, who told Streep: “All my friends, at one point or another, wanted to throw up their hands and leave, and see if there was another way of doing their lives.”
梅莉史翠普也拍过《克拉玛对克拉玛》(1979)，饰演一个离开丈夫与七岁孩子以追求自我实践的女子，她还曾要求编剧把她角色的反派味道降低一点。她在研究这角色时第一个得到的经验分享来自她妈妈：“我所有的朋友，或迟或早都曾渴望袖手离去，想看看她们的人生是否还有其他可能。”
Recently, we have seen more films that bring a healthy dose of reality to the myths of motherhood, portraying the loneliness and exhaustion of work combined with kids and the emotional labour of having a family (all the other stuff women do. Because, while most men change nappies, few of them notice when stocks are running low, let alone which size to buy). In Tully, for example, Charlize Theron is the mother of three mourning the loss of her old life.
这几年，我们也见到更多电影为母职神话注入一剂现实，描绘母职在结合养育孩子与家庭感情劳动下（还有其他女人的琐事，尽管现在男人们多会参与换尿布，但很少数会注意到要购买什么尺寸或库存还剩多少等后勤）如何精疲力竭又孤独。譬如在《厌世妈咪日记》(2018) 中，莎莉赛隆饰演一位一打三的妈妈，哀悼着她过去生活的逝去。
Horror films hath committed innumerable crimes against feminism. But two recent scary movies directed by women are exceptions, breaking more motherhood taboos. Jennifer Kent’s terrifying The Babadook portrays a mother who dislikes – possibly even hates – her son. She is Amelia (Essie Davis), a single mum whose husband was killed in a car crash while taking her to hospital to give birth. Now, she is drowning in the business of raising their difficult seven-year-old son. In an interview, Kent had this
to say about the fantasies of having it all: “We’re all, as women, educated and conditioned to think that motherhood is an easy thing that just happens … But it can also be the other stuff because you don’t have any time for your own life any more and you have to give up everything for this child. It’s also a great difficulty for a lot of women and it’s not spoken about.”
恐怖片这片型中曾有无数电影反女性主义，但是最近有两部女性执导的恐怖片做出了例外、打破了母职的刻板印象。珍妮佛肯特导演的《鬼敲门》(2014)描绘了一个不但不喜欢甚至可能恨儿子的母亲。她是 Amelia（Essie Davis 饰演），一个丈夫在带她去医院生产时死于车祸的单亲妈妈，而今她沉没在母职中拉拔那难搞的七岁儿子长大。某场访谈中，肯特谈到了一种女性一肩双挑的幻梦：“我们女人全都被教育也被设定，去认为母职如此轻松容易要来就来...
但是现实可能完全不同，妳可能再也没有任何时间属于自己、甚至必须放弃一切只为了孩子。这是众多女性面对的巨大困境，只是没人提。”
In her deliciously warped black comedy Prevenge, the British actor and director Alice Lowe exorcised her own fears about pregnancy and motherhood (she was eight months’ pregnant during the shoot). Lowe plays a woman who believes her unborn baby is telling her to commit mass murder. (A bit disconcertingly, the baby has a voice like Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films.)
在扭曲得饶富兴味的黑色喜剧《帮宝弑》(2016)中，英国演员兼导演艾莉丝罗薇驱除了她自己对怀孕与母职的恐惧（拍摄期间她自己正怀胎八月）。罗薇饰演一个孕妈，她相信自己腹中胎儿会说话、还告诉她要去杀人。（有点令人不安地，这宝宝的声音好像《哈利波特》的爱哭鬼麦朵。）
In an odd way, The Escape is more terrifying than either Prevenge or The Babadook. There’s nothing abstract or metaphorical about its portrait of motherhood, the mental, emotional and physical cost of having kids. I ask Savage if he has had any negative feedback. He laughs wryly. “I get the feeling that men are less enthralled with it in general. It’s not a film for misogynists. I think that really would be a horror story for a lot of men … to be left literally holding the baby [and] the idea of a
woman finding herself by leaving.”
很吊诡地，今年这部《逃离》(2018)恐怕比《鬼敲门》和《帮宝弑》还要恐怖。此片没有抽象也没有隐喻，就是写实地呈现母职拉拔孩子所付出的心理、情绪、与物质成本。我问导演 Savage 他发表这片后有没有得来负面回响，他挖苦道“我有种感觉，大致上男性比较不受这题材吸引，这片不是拍给厌女人士看的。我觉得这故事对许多男性来说是恐怖噩梦：当你被一人留在家里抱着宝宝、意识到这回是女人离去追求自我了，很恐怖。”
The Escape is released on 3 August
《逃离》将于八月三日上映
翻译结束
最后列一下以上提到的片单：
片名 年份，出产国 导演 母职主角
《受影响的女人》 (1974，美) 约翰卡萨维帝 吉纳罗兰兹
《克拉玛对克拉玛》(1979，美) 劳勃班顿 梅莉史翠普
《时时刻刻》 (2002，美) 史蒂芬戴尔卓 茱莉安摩尔
《鬼敲门》 (2014，澳) 珍妮佛肯特 艾丝戴维斯
《帮宝弑》 (2016，英) 艾莉丝罗薇 艾莉丝罗薇
《厌世妈咪日记》 (2018，美) 杰森瑞特曼 莎莉赛隆
《逃离》 (2018，英) 多明尼克萨瓦吉 洁玛阿特顿