赤足天使

非常冗长，平铺直叙，靠旁白推进剧情。50年代的美国电影非常大而不当，手法显得越来越陈旧。最后竟然是打秋风引发悲剧结尾，有点低俗。

艾娃加德纳在现在看来太大只，已经不符合审美了。香港的林黛和台湾的葛兰也是这样的形象，翻篇了。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

简而言之就是野鸡飞上枝头成了凤凰，却又被人当做猎物打死的故事。艾娃扮演的西班牙乡土女郎被好莱坞大老板挖掘，经过的调教成了大明星。她习惯于周旋在男人中间，越爬越高，爬到了伯爵的身边，谁知道伯爵是个活太监，只是利用她做个摆设，在新婚之夜才讲这个底细告诉她。正值盛年的少妇哪能受得了这个，她竟然自作主张找了个野男人妄图传宗接代，她不懂贵族对名誉看得比生命还重要！最后伯爵毫不犹豫地枪杀了她和那个倒霉蛋。

剧情很耸动，如果 拍能成一部很好看的melodrama，可惜导演非要用旁观角度叙事，废了很多力气，加了很多旁白，显得特别累赘，尤其是雨中下葬一场戏就浪费了很多时间，反复出现，毫无用处。

本来也能拍成黑色电影，但50年代的电影人已经动则求变，尤其是本片还是彩色片，就更不能落入黑色电影的套路。

现在看来，艾娃加德纳演的还是太正派，没有那种交际花的妖媚，最后的结局铺垫不够，显得太突兀。

最近刚好买到了萨冈的《心有戚戚》来读。最开始在书店，一眼便看到封底上出现了艾娃加德纳的名字。萨冈与艾娃，两个颇具传奇色彩却仿佛在不同世界的名字，立马就对她们的交集产生强烈好奇心了。

喜欢旧坞这么久，对艾娃的了解却十分有限。还记得从前，以为旧坞的种种“性感符号”只是时间交替的代际传承，如今倒深刻认识到了，每个人都有无法被替代的个人特色：珍哈露，丽塔海华斯，艾娃，梦露，用同一的“性感符号”来一并概括实在是太辜负各位女神。

艾娃，世界上最美丽的脊椎动物，还有从前在贴吧里在她的写真下有人评论：“精气神从骨子里透出来！”，但当时受困于局限的审美，起初是没意识到她的美丽的：太阳穴微微凹陷，外扩的脸颊，欧米茄下巴......万万没想到有一天，这些都成为了她身上最最迷人的特征，成为她雕塑般的面容上最让人难忘的细节。

前段时间为了欣赏艾娃年轻时的美颜下载了《维纳斯的一触》。剧照里，盘起发髻、披挂洁白丝绸的艾娃果真如爱神一般，浑然如她幻身的那座雕塑；然而，到电影之中跳跃着看了几个片段，却在动态影像里更直观地感受到了从前发觉的那些“缺陷”，心存疑惑，难道爱神果真就只是如此？还好，我看到了这部《赤足天使》。

感谢博主冰红深蓝的分享，博主的介绍、高清修复的画面和修订的中字让观影的动力倍增。影片画面色彩非常饱和，同往常的technicolor修复效果似乎有所出入，或许是在画幅改革之际，影响了画面色彩？但影片看下来，发现艾娃完全能驾驭这样艳丽的色彩。有人说，影片节奏拖沓、结构松散；然而，在我眼里，艾娃的存在就足够吸引我坐下、牢牢地抓住我的眼球。

就如短评所说，艾娃的性感是致命而脆弱的——我最喜欢艾娃的，是她侧面或者45度斜侧面时完美的面部轮廓，鼻尖、嘴唇、下额、脖颈，更在于她眼眸低垂时流露出的脆弱与忧愁，张扬的五官和精巧的下巴充满着原始小兽般的野性，但眼角眉梢又流露出无限缱绻，这样对立的特征在艾娃的面容上竟完美地调和融汇，使得原本雕塑般的面容在银幕上、在观众面前鲜活而具有强大的生命力。

Has fear gone?

眸光低垂、嘴角牵动，致命又脆弱的性感

最美丽的脊椎动物

风光无限的大明星

看完电影，我立马想起从前看到的一张艾娃的电影截图，一幕黑白电影中的，艾娃躺下的面部特写，也是那样朦胧微合、眸光流转的勾魂眉眼，慵懒、缱绻，种种透着致命气息却又难以抵御的字眼忍不住都加诸在她身上。

看完《心有戚戚》中艾娃的那篇，作为冲着艾娃去看有些失望，客观的描述记叙较少，更多是萨冈自己的个人发挥，两人似乎也只是短暂的接触和交集。印象深刻的，是说艾娃“美貌胜过一切，除了美貌，还是美貌”。也记得说，艾娃晚年淡出荧幕，过上了放荡混乱的生活。也许，艾娃自己就是“赤足天使”，脆弱而幻想，曾经拥有而又经历幻灭。“灰姑娘”贯穿了电影的始终。曾几何时灰姑娘的美梦几乎就要成真，极致的幸福与温暖的微光里把人捧上云端。现实又如同lousy script一般荒谬。

怀揣梦想的灰姑娘

　一个出身底层的女子被电影导演发掘并成名，却始终保有豪放不羁的吉普塞作风，不为金钱和阔老们所左右，一心等待自己心目中完美的爱情和王子。终于，她遇到了一个看上去很有骑士风度的贵族，并爱上了他，却岂料成为了这个衰落的贵族家庭最后的女伯爵。由于丈夫无法生育，她与人私通并希望为贵族家庭生下孩子，最后被丈夫杀死。 　　 　　影片采用了多角度和倒叙的结构，以女主角的葬礼作为中心舞台，从三个男人--她的导演，制片人和丈夫的回忆中，观众拼凑出一个模糊的女人形象，一个泼辣狂放，追求自由和爱情，却最终被毁灭的美丽女人。曼凯维奇写作台词的天分十分高超，本片中的许多台词都具有哲学与文艺深度，在娱乐化的美国电影中实为罕见。而我以为，这些闪烁着老练智慧的台词是本片最大的亮点，值得人们深思。 　　例如，影片的初场，女主角向导演讲述自己贫寒悲惨的童年，说道，象很多穷孩子一样，我买不起鞋，所以恨鞋，就总赤着脚，我的脚只有踏在泥土里才感到舒服，穿上鞋反而觉得很不适应了。

Maria Vargas (Gardner) is dead, this is the premise of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Technicolor extravagance THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA, in her ceremonious funeral, erected with an alabaster statue of her, several men’s voiceovers reminisce the gone-too-soon Spanish bombshell who starts as a saloon dancer, then a short stint in the Tinseltown and finally, the titular contessa to an Italian count.

The first man is the veteran Hollywood director Harry Dawes (Bogart), who, at the peremptory behest of producer Kirk Edwards (Stevens), a scion rolling in money, earnestly ropes Maria into Hollywood and after three pictures together, she becomes a red-hot star, but their relationship remains strictly platonic, he becomes a father figure and eventually sends her down the aisle, Maria opens to him about her Cinderella dream, to love and be loved on her own terms. Soon she falls out with the haughty Edwards, and opts for leaving with Latin American playboy Alberto Bravano (an eyebrow-enhanced Goring miscast as a bloviating Latinx high-roller), equally wealthy if not more, also jumps ship is Oscar Muldoon (O’Brien), a perspiratory publicist who gets fed up being Edwards’ unctuous lackey, and he becomes the second voiceover recounts his side of the story, as plausible and effervescent as his role requires, O’Brien’s Oscar win might feel like a head-scratching fluke.

Clear as day, Alberto is just another interim provider for Maria, finally, it is the blue-blooded Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini (Brazzi), the tertiary voiceover, that catches her eyes and encaptures her heart, only their fateful encounter has a sting in the tail, hinted by the disconcerted reaction from Eleanora (Cortese, expressive and memorable as ever during her succinct presence), Vincenzo’s widowed, childless sister, in response to his brother’s seemingly normal decision to marry Maria, which would make the latter the last contessa in their pedigree, but what does the “last”mean? And what the siblings’ conversation alludes to would only strike like a bolt out of the blue for Maria on her nuptial night, and Mankiewicz’s peregrinating script decidedly does not furnish the aristocratic impotence with a fig leaf, not so much as a scintilla of decency resides within any ordinary human being (the secret has been withholding until they tight the knot), moreover, to say nothing of Vincenzo’s own outrageous, macho final act.

The victimology of Maria Vargas befits Hollywood’s (and by extension, Mankiewicz’s) traditional objectification of an impeccable female presentation, free-spirited and drop-dead gorgeous, an unbridled soul unsullied by the showbiz depravity, yet, her pipe dream of living happily ever after with a royal prince comes unstuck like a slap in the face (in hindsight, Grace Kelly would have been a more apt choice in this role for obvious reasons), and it is also morbidly at her own life’s expense, that fantasy indwells long and entrenched in a straight man’s noggin.

Gardner asserts herself ravishingly as the glamorous puss with an untainted heart, even against the script’s infantilization, her Maria comes off as more multi-faceted, mysterious and unattainable as one assumes, yet her male-costars fare less well, especially Bogard, bogged down by the lurid cosmetics and somewhat verbose voiceover, his avuncular persona fizzles out cravenly in the end. THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA, however old-fashioned and untimely in its female-gazing perspective and idealization, retains its stunning wow factors as a gorgeous-looking picture enfolded with poise, gravitas and pathos, that can live down its maker’s own jaundiced view and shed a chink of light on the treacherous nature of living high on the hog, though hardly a reverberating cautionary tale material.

referential entries: Mankiewicz’s SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (1959, 7.4/10); CLEOPATRA (1963, 6.3/10).