来自远方2015

Propitiously won Venice’s Golden Lion in 2015, FROM AFAR, the debut feature of Venezuelan filmmaker Lorenzo Vigas, ostensibly purports as a queer relationship drama exploring the class discrepancy in a sink neighborhood of Caracas, when a middle-aged, well-off denture manufacturer Armando (Castro) pays a street yob Élder (Silva) to quench his libido.

But Armando has an unorthodox proclivity, physical contract is strictly off limits, he is perfectly satisfied by a distanced wank, echoing the title “from afar” (even no need of visual genital aids from a youthful body), as if he is both aroused and repulsed by a young man’s body, which underlines his own troubled past, it is a transaction solely thrived on monetary terms. But Élder appears different from his usual biddable commodities, he is more recalcitrant, incandescent and restive, which challenges and intrigues Armando to take a different approach aiming to tame this beast, ergo, go-arounds of earning one-upmanship pan out in Vigas’ self-contained narrative with staggering restraint and unrelieved elisions, for instance, the missing father is an obvious vacuum in both men’s lives, but Vigas has no intention to expound what happened between Armando and his estranged father (sexual abuse?), without even a medium shot of the latter, what we see is only the action of Armando dogs him relentlessly, and coolly articulates that he wishes him dead.

Eventually, it is Élder’s bruised dignity, inherent impressionability and have-nots status altogether that puts him on the back foot, after Armando’s munificent gesture of rescuing him from bovver, paying off his debts and contest of superior manliness, Élder avails himself of physical capital (the only thing he possesses) to show his gratitude, but is rebuff with a slap in the face. At that point the balance tips towards Armando, he now has Élder completely at his beck and call, who finally find a father figure to fill that missing hole, yet to Armando, Élder is nothing but a perfect executioner of his long-gestated vengeance.

After that, Armando vouchsafes Élder the physical satisfaction the latter hankers for as a thank you, then throws him as a spent sidearm to the mercy of police force in the gritty finale (like father, like son, Élder ends up exactly like his own father), which even triggers viewers to second-guess the verity of the man we assume as Armando’s father, a telltale shot of both men in an elevator shows no apparent recognition from a father to his son might suggest the older man could be a target Armando is assigned to rub out, a theory supported by him being the same killer from Pablo Larraín’s TONY MANERO, also played by Alfredo Castro with a peculiar gusto of perversity, and this time, he cunningly finds him a perfect whipping boy.

Castro gives an unforgiving, enigmatic impression as a victim-turned-victimizer out of a vicious cycle passing from fathers to sons, who is capable of projecting a soul-searching gaze that is smolderingly pregnant with manifold rays of emotions. Youngster Luis Silva, on the contrary, invests a throbbing directness that salts the masculine tug-of-war with his own macho swagger, perplex and conflict, vividly. Habitually playing up with his in focus/out of focus perspective, Vigas makes a big splash with FROM AFAR by intelligently excoriating the core of a cankerous male mentality concerning what constitutes the masculinity as we know it today, a scope well above his genderqueer front and accomplished with a refined difference.

referential entries: Pablo Larraín’s TONY MANERO (2008, 7.2/10); Sebastián Lelio’s A FANTASTIC WOMAN (2017, 7.7/10).

2015年的威尼斯电影节是属于拉美电影的。银狮最佳导演给的是阿根廷帕布洛·查比罗的[犯罪家族]，金狮给的则是洛伦佐·维加斯的处女作[来自远方]。有趣的是，在前者从宏观上把阿根廷臭名昭著的犯罪家搬上银幕的同时，后者也从微观的角度揭露了家庭的丑恶。[犯罪家族]的表现手法相当张扬，甚或有影评人称其为“拉美魔幻现实主义”，而与之形成有趣对照的[来自远方]则表现出令人惊奇的克制，大量的留白加之人物之间感情的淡漠，亦让人从生理层面感受到强烈不适。

从表面上看，[来自远方]讲的是一对男同志的故事。中产的老男人包养了街头小混混，两人的关系从对立到同一，再到彻底分裂。如果单看这个爱情故事，[来自远方]并没有讲好。因为两位演员的极度克制的“无表演”，两人感情的每一次转折都没有足够的细节去支撑，感情硬邦邦，也很廉价。

但[来自远方]的出彩在于它并没有明说的地方。先看看两个人的差异，阿曼多已人过中年，从来不缺钱花，独身很久，是个同志。而艾德不过十几岁，家境贫苦，只能靠敲诈度日，他有个女友，性取向很“正常”。他们遇见彼此时应有的碰撞，洛伦佐·维加斯点到为止，只要艾德一句“基佬”和忍不住撇阿曼多手里的一叠钱的眼神就足以。这是他们的不同之处，擦出了并不意外的戏剧效果，而他们的相同之处却是故事继续讲下去的推力。他们的童年都不快乐，这不幸都是父亲所赐。

阿曼多的童年阴影表现得很直白，从故事开端就一吐为快。我们从他与姐妹的对话中知道那种“宁愿父亲死了”的恨，这种恨里也带着畏惧。自始自终，镜头都没能让观众哪怕是看一眼这位父亲的正脸，我们仿佛是与胆怯的阿曼多站在一起，用他的眼睛只远远地看着父亲的侧脸与背影。而艾德的父亲则着墨较少，我们只能从他对阿曼多的抱怨里略知一二，他用混混的话语模式好让观众更能感受到父子关系的紧张。有了父爱的缺失，才能进一步解释艾德的“被掰弯”。

阿曼多之所以恨父亲是因为幼时被父亲性侵，这直接导致了他对性的极度冷漠，在艾德不惧世人眼光大胆示爱时，阿曼多却给了艾德一记耳光。在性冷淡的背后还有阿曼多对爱情的不信任，这种冷漠激怒了开始依赖阿曼多的艾德。他做出了杀害阿曼多父亲的举动，至此整个故事像是一个“俄狄浦斯”悲剧，只有扫除了横跨在他俩感情之间的障碍，这段难得的同志之恋才能得以继续维系，这个障碍最直接的来源就是阿曼多的父亲。

影片结尾道出洛伦佐·维加斯的真正用意，在艾德蛮以为障碍扫除后终于可以收获爱情时，他爱的对象阿曼多却给警方打了举报电话，而此时艾德的呼喊声响起，阿曼多回过头来，脸上什么表情也没有。哀的倒不仅仅是被背叛的艾德，而是艾德所做的一切都是徒劳，对于阿曼多来说，父亲性侵对他一生的影响绝不是杀死父亲就能抹除的，他依旧用冷漠将真爱挡在外面。

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个人公众号：电影少女放浪记

"深情若是一桩悲剧，必定以死来句读。"有些故事你从开头就可以预见结尾，而你却心甘情愿的任由飞蛾扑火，是因为火焰的炫丽而让你目不转睛吗？其实你的内心也不敢承认，你只是想让那只傻傻的飞蛾靠近你，就算只是自私地靠近一会，就像你会亲手结束飞蛾的生命一样，这难道就是爱吗？

我向来不认为简洁是评价一部好电影的标准，但是《来自远方》让我觉得或许这种无声的白描才是这个故事最正确的打开方式，屏幕外的焦急和疑惑从头到尾都没有等来一个解释，因为这是一场没有目的的侵略，一场没有理由的战争，你从受害者变成独裁者，他从侵犯者变成情迷者。细微的变化却带来了雷霆万钧的连锁反应，没有人知道下一步会发生什么，因为这段关系早已渐渐失控了。

爱情从来都不是遥不可及，而是不敢触碰，因为你知道有些东西一碰就碎了，而你的东西本来就是碎的，它不能再碎了。你给了他最想要的欲望，然后亲手打碎了他。毁掉一个人最简单的方法就是让他爱上你，就算这是一种两败俱伤的结局，就算你最后也变得支离破碎，就算是屏幕外的人过度解读，但是我承认你赢了，你让我在这段扭曲的感情中窥探到自己的情感轨迹，我和你一样，都在不知不觉中红了眼眶，变成了一个压抑的野兽，狂怒而无法释怀。

不管你是否承认，影像的力量都是无穷无尽的，你可以因为一次欢爱而目瞪口呆，那种感觉就和你第一次和你爱的人做爱时那种情不自禁的生理反应一样，羞怯而珍贵，美好而铭记；你可以因为绝望的凝视而痛哭流涕，那种感觉就像洪水终于决堤、大坝终被冲垮一样，你不用再掩饰和忍耐任何情感，因为终于把它们释放出来了，你不再是一个懦弱的人了，你开始正视回忆的尸体，然后亲手把他埋葬。