情难自制

19 十九

多诺万的脑袋

　　一个诚实的科学家把死去的百万富翁(多诺万饰)的大脑保存在水箱里。多诺万成功地把他强大的意志强加给这位科学家，并利用他来谋杀他的敌人。

坐稳车，泰欣娜

　　这是一部寓言般，反浪漫的公路电影，男青年瓦尔特是个裁缝，每天帮着母亲缝制衣服，可是他向往外面的世界，于是他乘着母亲不备将母亲锁进屋子并偷了母亲的钱物找了一个哥们驾车兜风，在路上遇见了来旅游的泰欣娜和其女友，他们四人结伴而行，沉默寡言的两个男人和随心所欲的两个女人产生许多 戏剧冲突，他们一起住店，一起听摇滚音乐会，折腾许久以后，瓦尔特决定回家，回家后他若无其事地坐回缝纫机边继续他的裁缝生涯，仿佛一切未曾发生过。

上海快车

 故事发生在一列行驶在中国大地的火车上，背景是中国内战时期。黛德丽扮演“上海莉莉”，从事茶花女式的职业。她在列车上跟旧情人邂逅，由此引发出一些故事。对于这位她一直念念不忘的英国军官，她百般示好挑逗，他却妒恨交加，不肯重拾旧爱。在半途被军阀拦检时，他为了阻止军阀对她动手动脚，出手打人；她则为了救他，同意委身军阀。往上海的路上，对生命跟爱情，都是一场严酷的考验。

假日旅馆

 影片由一系列音乐片断构成，由擅长歌舞巨片的马克·桑德里区执导。其中每一首插曲都以美国的节假日为线索，又都巧妙地集中到一对情敌的身上。本片获1943年第15届奥斯卡最佳编剧和最佳音乐奖提名！一家开设在公路边的旅馆，两个年轻的合伙人哈迪和海诺沃同时爱上了一位姑娘。海诺沃（由著名舞蹈家弗雷德·阿斯泰尔饰）尽管在爱情的追逐中连连占先，但最终还是败给了哈迪（由著名歌星宾·克罗斯比饰）。哈迪是位酷爱音乐的懒散的人，他退休回到新英格兰农村，每逢节假日，他的农场就成了娱乐总会……

等待方舟

　　Set in an underground dungeon inhabited by bundled, ragged human beings, after the nuclear holocaust. The story follows the wanderings of a hero through the situations of survival. People wait for the Ark to arrive and rescue them while their habitat falls apart.　　Delving deep into the dusty and long abandonded vaults of b-cinema in search of lost gems always leaves me with a bittersweet taste. On one hand the discovery of unexpected gems where no one would think them possible is a rewarding experience. On the other hand though it makes one wonder how many of these remarkable low-budget oddities, personal love affairs of directors never quite famous and now all but forgotten, have almost forever slipped from memory?　　n any case what we have here is a little post-apocalyptic gem from Poland that is really better than it has any right to. The dystopian near future of O-BI, O-BA finds a group of survivors of the nuclear war that ravaged the Earth inhabiting an underworld concrete bunker and biding their time as they wait for the mysterious Ark, an air ship of some kind that will come and save them. The Ark proves to be an elaborate hoax, carefully designed to give hope to the malnourished and desperate denizens of the bunker, while in the meantime the dome that separates their miserable existence from the nuclear winter outside is slowly caving in.　　What first striked me about the movie is the design of the bunker and the depiction of the survivors. The survivors are gaunt, filthy and terrible-looking penitents, dressed in rags and aimlessly wandering the neon-lit halls of the bunker like automatons. The bunker is a rundown, seedy place, with bright neon lights peering from all sides like the eyes of malignant beasts.　　On one hand it is a slightly 80's depiction of the dystopian future but the movie never stoops down to MAD MAX cheese. Instead it combines biting political satire with the bleak outlook of a world with no future, black comedy with barbs on apathy, religion and power. The survivors, for example, are fed some kind of flour dropping from a tube that hovers in the air - later on we discover the food supervisor uses books and the Bible itself as filler for this meagre meal. There are many such short symbolic touches, perhaps not life-changing or faith-restoring, yet playful, clever and inspired.　　One thing is for sure; O-BI, O-BA is not your run-of-the-mill sci-fi schlock. It overcomes its modest budget with creativity and has genuine artistic aspirations both from a writing and directing perspective. My opinion is that it should have been filmed in black and white instead of colour though. The director uses atmospheric light and shadow to great effect and it would have registered even better in stark black and white. The blue-green neon on the other hand outstays its welcome after a while. Just a minor gripe in an otherwise solid b-movie with its heart set in all the right places.　　Imagine a less bleak THE ROAD (Cormac McCarthy) being injected with the satire and humour of DR.STRANGELOVE and you're getting there. See it if you can find it.