The film review was originally posted on DeepFocus in Chinese with 1714 views

2018-05-17 Written and translated by Jiexiao Ying

The Fugue(2018) was premiered in Cannes’ Critics’ Week. The Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska also directed the horror musical The Lure (2015). She is known for her ethereal and psychedelic music, dark and cold tones, and weaving suspense into artistic expression. However, the suspense of Fugue has nothing to do with the Hitchcockian time bomb ticking at the bottom of the car but lies in the possibility of “her” – whether a woman who has lost her memory can lead a new life.

The Fugue is a mysterious movie. The fragmented story is disrupted by the flashback of traumatic memories. The hints of past emotional scars are dropped in Alicja’s daily life. The final confession of the woman ultimately invites the audience to connect the dots, know the most important event to her, and understand her bizarre behavior and personality. Alicja couldn’t remember what happened during the past two years, except that she woke up lying on the rails of the train. Later she recalled she had a car accident with her child two years ago. She ran away from home with the child because her husband got custody after their divorce.

However, the story wasn’t clear until the end of the film. On the one hand, we are as confused as her family: why would she suddenly leave home two years ago. On the other hand, we are as confused as Alicja. She has not regained her memory, does not know whether she should return to her past self and her previous life.

In the foggy chaos, the film impressed me with Alicja’s manners. In the beginning, she was a ghostly figure emerging from the darkness of the railway station. She climbed onto the train platform, staggered around people carrying the luggage, and pulled off her stockings regardless of it being a public space. She squatted, and the urine drizzled between her high heels. It is not the smelly urine but her indifference towards the rules in the clean and open public space that marks her behavior extremely obscene.

Returning home two years later from nowhere makes her more an intruder than a homecomer. She kept her hair short. “You look like a rebellious teenager,” said her ex-husband. She is naked in her lower body and wears a coat only. “Are you from Auschwitz?” asked her mother. “You dirty woman. You shouldn’t swear!” yelled her son. She opened her closet and coldly glanced the skirt and high heels. Then she met a woman who took care of her child and claimed to be her best friend in high school. “Huh, impossible,” said her, sharply sensed the extramarital affairs between her and the ex-husband.

She is a downright “nasty woman.” Her behaviors, while extremely aggressive towards the conventions, can make people realize the social expectations over women: long silky hair, decent and pretty dress, friendly conversations, and an obligation to maintain beauty and elegance. Women are expected to function as a lubricant in human interaction, and never says something harsh or satirical. However, she is not conforming to the conventions. She is free, impressive, unique, and in a way, enviable.

In fact, her behavior is only the tip of the iceberg, and her biggest crux lies in the new self-identity. The hospital diagnosed that she had a “dissociation disorder,” which means she feels disconnection and lack of continuity between thoughts, memories, and identity. Now that she lost her past memories while entangled with the past events, here come many unsolved cases: Can she establish a new identity on her own? Will she reunite with her husband? Will she mind her bond with the child? These unsolved cases lead people to follow the story, imagine the different endings, and they are also thought experiments for the possibility of a woman.

Her identity is initially named by other people. On the hotline of the TV station, her father recognizes her and says her real name, Kinga. This is reminiscent of the usual establishment of female identity, which is usually not determined by the woman herself, but by people around her, for instance, the patriarch in the family. However, she repeatedly emphasizes that she is not Kinga, and she sticks to an aesthetic style and makes choices different from her previous self. Even though the initials of her signature are KS, she remembers the safety plug of the gas stove at home, and her scar left by the childbirth surgery is recognized by her husband, she chooses to put the body memory aside and stubbornly leads a new life.

When we see her with her husband, we incline to imagine that she falls in love with him once again. One of the most beautiful scenes in the middle of the film is the improvisational dance of this couple. The lazy voice sings “lovers are strangers…”, and the two swims in the light beam like a fish as if their passion is rekindled. While taking care of the child together, they increased their intimacy and made love at one night. However, the film does not allow the two to bond deeply in the deepening mutual understanding and strong feelings. She cannot get over the trauma. She always remembers the loss of custody rights after the divorce. She is no longer Kinga. She is Alicja.

Children are usually the reason for mothers to stay. Mother is usually regarded as the most important identity of women. “Motherhood” is too often praised as the greatest virtue of women. It seems that a woman’s life is not complete if she never becomes a mother. But Alicja is indifferent, complicated, and yet ever-changing. When she watches the breastfeeding footage on a family videotape, she is indifferent at first, but her eyes are filled with tears the second time. The child hostilely scatters pins on her bed, and she gently puts the pins back to the child’s board. She plays with her children by deliberately misplacing the word stickers, which are used for restoring her memory as suggested by the doctor. When the child gets lost on the beach, she is crazy looking for him. That night she lovingly watches the child falling asleep.

Just when we believe Alicja, for her love for the child, will fulfill her conventional role at home and ceases her wandering, she leaves home after plays the last game. Perhaps her husband has told the child that the mother is dead and she does not want to disturb the child’s life. Maybe her husband has a new lover, and she doesn’t want to complicate his feelings since she has never loved her husband. However, I would rather believe that she is trying to let go of the past, give herself freedom, and self-invent an Alicja to take a new path. Maybe she has to trod on the road alone, but she looks back at the family and finds no suitable place for her. At least, the child’s words give her comfort: “You can go out to play and have fun, as long as you return in one piece.” Maybe she will come back and have a chat about her adventurous life?

The author of IndieWire doesn’t like The Fugue because its concept based on amnesia is cliche and boring, and the revelation moment is not surprising. However, I like the suspense of the narrative, the discussions of women’s behavior, and thought experiments on women’s identity, even if the film resorts to “extemporary amnesia” in its basic design. The loss of memory not only explains her behavior, but also complicates the experiment. In the same way that Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s novel Yellow Wallpaper delivers feminist messages through “crazy women,” Alicja in The Fugue is both a patient and a rebel. She challenges the social discipline with her “madness” and condemns the sources for her madness. If memories carry the burden of the past identity, disciplined and restrained––

Can she gain another possibility of life after losing her memory?

“她“的另一种可能

——影评人周《FUGUE》

 

《Fugue》在戛纳的影评人周首映。导演是波兰的阿格涅斯卡·斯莫克钦斯卡（Agnieszka Smoczynska），曾执导恐怖音乐剧《魅惑》（The Lure）。她擅长空灵迷幻的音乐，灰暗阴冷的色调，以及编织在艺术表达里的悬疑色彩。不过《Fugue》中的悬疑不是车底的定时炸弹，而是“她”的一个可能性——一个丧失记忆的女性能否获得新的生活。

《Fugue》是一部神秘的电影。陆续穿插的创伤记忆，日常生活的裂痕暗示，以及最后的自白，让人串联起先前的剧情碎片，到最后才明白女主人公Alicja生命中最重要的经历，理解她的行为和个性。她不记得离家两年内发生了什么，只知道醒来时躺在列车的铁轨上，后来回忆起两年前她带着孩子出了车祸，而抱着孩子离家的原因是接到了孩子判给男方的离婚协议书。

然而，在临近片尾之前，这一切都在迷雾之中。我们像她的家人一样不解她为何在两年前突然离家出走。而她尚未恢复记忆，不知道能不能做回过往的自我，该不该回到从前的生活，我们和她本人一样困惑。在这片混沌中，影片最初给我留下的深刻印象是Alicja的举止。

影片开头，她是从混沌的黑色中浮出的人影，爬上列车站台，摇摇晃晃走在手提行李的人身边，旁若无人地褪下风衣下的丝袜，蹲下，尿液从踩着高跟鞋的两腿之间淌出。在干净敞开的公共空间的映衬下，她的举动有着强烈的下流意味，要命的不是尿液的肮脏，而是她对规则的无所顾忌。

两年后回到家，与其说是归乡的游子，不如说是闯入他人生活的异客。她留短发，丈夫说像青春期的躁动青年。她光着下身只穿外套，母亲问她是不是来自奥斯维辛。儿子对她愤怒地喊叫，你这个脏人，不能说脏话！她打开衣柜，冷漠地看了一眼里面的裙子和高跟鞋。她见到一个照顾她孩子的女人，自称是她的高中密友，她敏锐地看出婚外情的猫腻，冷哼一声，呵，不可能。

她是彻头彻尾的”nasty woman”。这些举止尽管极端，却能让人猛然反观社会对女性的仪态约束：柔顺的长发，得体的衣着，礼貌的谈吐，还有“义务”保持美丽优雅，在人情世故中充当润滑剂角色，不放狠话不咄咄逼人不冷嘲热讽。她是出格的，自在的，让人瞠目结舌的，也是特立独行的，让人暗自佩服的。

其实举止只是冰山一角，她最大的症结在于全新的自我身份。医院诊断她得了“解离性障碍”，是一种身份、记忆的整体性扰乱，让她难以控制“自我感”。她丢失了记忆的新自我与往事纠缠，产生了许多的悬案：她可不可以自行确立新的身份？她是否应该与丈夫破镜重圆？她是否需要顾及与孩子的纽带？这些悬案让人紧跟剧情，想象故事的多种结局，同时也是女性角色的思想实验。

她最初被确认身份是因为外部的指认。电视台的热线电话里，父亲认出她并说出她的本名。这让人联想到女性个体身份的建立，通常不是女性本人决定，而是取决于她周围人们的判断，尤其是家庭中的男性。然而，她一再强调自己不是Kinga，而且做出了和以往自我不同的审美和道路选择，哪怕她签名的首字母是KS，记得家里煤气灶对应的保险栓，被丈夫认出生产的伤疤，她也要把肉体记忆放到一边，坚持过新的生活。

当我们看到她丈夫的时候，很容易想象她与丈夫重新相恋。影片中部最优美的场景之一就是她和丈夫的即兴舞蹈，慵懒的曲调吟唱着“lovers are strangers…”，两人像鱼一般在灯光中游动，像旧情复燃的征兆。在共同照顾孩子的过程中，他们还增进了亲密感，有一晚上的鱼水之欢。可是电影没有让两人在不断加深的相互理解和不断升温的感情中重修旧好。孩子归丈夫的离婚协议给她造成的创伤似乎是不能修复的。她不再是Kinga，她是Alicja。

孩子是最常见的羁绊。“母亲”常被当做女性最重要的一个身份，“母性”也被颂扬为女性最伟大的品质，仿佛没有育儿经历的女性就没有完整的人生。可是Alicja是冷漠的，复杂的，变化的。观看家庭录像带的哺乳片段时，第一次她无动于衷，第二次她的眼中噙满泪水。孩子充满敌意地在她床上撒图钉，她温柔地把图钉扣回孩子的木板上。她陪孩子玩耍，把医生叮嘱用于恢复她记忆的词语便条贴在错误的地方，玩语言游戏。她疯狂寻找在海滩边走丢的孩子，晚上看到孩子熟睡时，脸上浮现出难得的温情。

正当我们觉得她会因为母性回到了家庭中的传统女性角色，为了孩子的纽带放下迁徙的脚步的时候，她和孩子玩了最后一场游戏，离开了家。也许是因为丈夫告诉孩子妈妈已经死了，她不想搅乱孩子的生活。也许是因为丈夫有了新的恋人，她不想干扰他的感情，既然自己从未爱过丈夫。不过我更愿意相信，她是为了放下过去，给自己自由，重塑一个她自己喜欢的Alicja，走一条新的路。可能前路孤独，但是她望向家庭，知道没有适合自己的位置，而孩子的话“你好好去玩吧，只要完完整整地回来就可以了”，也足够慰藉余生。也许她还回来，一起聊一聊这边的那边的生活？

IndieWire的作者不喜欢《Fugue》，觉得失忆的桥段老套无聊，剧情谜底揭开的时刻也没有多让人惊喜。可是我喜欢它带来的种种悬案，关于女性举止和身份的讨论和实验，哪怕这些得以“短暂失忆”为借口。失意的疾病不仅让她的行为得到了合理的解释，也让人物的背景变得复杂。正如吉尔曼的小说《黄色糊墙纸》里通过病态女性来传递女权思考，《Fugue》里的“她”既是反抗者也是病人，她以疯狂攻破社会的规训，也以疯狂谴责疯狂的制造者。如果记忆是过去的重负，是规训和束缚，那么——

丢失记忆以后，她是否能获得生命的另一种可能？

-FIN-