格洛丽亚

Rightly tapping into the cliché of middle-age solitude, GLORIA, the up-and-coming Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio’s Golden Bear contender (rightfully won its leading actress Paulina García a coveted BEST ACTRSS gong), is a brutally honest take on our titular heroine’s stagnated status quo and her inexorable endeavor to break it.

A petit bourgeois divorcée, Gloria (García) is in her 50s and has stayed single over a decade, she has a stable office job, the relations with her grown-up children have become distant inevitably through time and she frequents a club tailoring maturer clientele to seek some new spark in her inert life, that’s where she meets Rodolfo (Hernández), a retired navy officer and a blow-in of the divorcé club. Physically, their sparkle is incandescent, by way of a daringly hardcore directness in their one-night-stand (and many intimate occasions would follow), Lelio brings home to audience that as unprepossessing as their act seems by the standard of common aesthetics, that is what sex looks like at that age: flabby flesh, furrowed face, unwieldy posture, yet, nothing can possibly take away the carnal sensation the process engenders, and granted not everyone is bestowed with that privilege in their autumn years.

That said, there is always a catch in the passion-kindled romance when it passes the initial stage of purely physical attraction towards something more personal and complicated, something is detrimental to the budding relationship. In this case and according to Rodolfo, it is his over-dependent adult daughters, but in the event, after being wantonly stiffed by him not once but twice (the first is a misstep to bring him to her son’s birthday party where her ex-husband is also present, and the second is a much more invidious hammer blow), Gloria realizes that this umbilical cord is bilateral, or even worse, insinuated by the last appearance of Rodolfo, decked and peppered by Gloria’s vengeful paintball pellets, maybe his side of the story is a total whopper, that is what one calls a superbly orchestrated open-ending eliciting a viewer's afterthought.

Through and through, Lelio levels his camera to the indefatigable Gloria, accentuates the emotional spectrum through a much trodden path, and crystallizes the cathartic moments with sublimely figurative strokes (let it be the dancing skeleton metaphor, a thinly-veiled political snapshot in the background or that precious white peacock knockout), often with optimal diegetic music choices (sometimes played lyrically through real-life musician Hugo Moraga),culminated by Umberto Tozzi’s erstwhile hit GLORIA, trenchantly hits the bull’s eye with its rousing tempo and significative pertinence, that is the damn theme song and a tribute to our heroine and gazillions of women like her in the real world, sidelined and often slighted by this ageist and sexist society, but never subjugates themselves to victimology, instead, they are absolutely faithful to what their hearts desire and never flinch back by the sporadic impediments.

Meanwhile, it is also a hard-won victory for the central players, Paulina García deserves all the acclaim she garners for a bold but minutely precise, unmannered yet immensely visceral tour-de-force, which sets a high bar for its slated USA rehash, directed by Lelio himself and starring Julianne Moore. And last but not the least, Sergio Hernández, impresses viewers with equal dedication and beguiles us with his seemingly benevolent and passionate efforts, which speaks volumes about a callous male ego, there is an abuser underneath a commoner’s camouflage, soundly punches above its weight in this emphatic feminist chord-striker.

referential point: Kleber Mendonça Filho’s AQUARIUS (2016, 8.3/10)

2021年的第一个Wellness Day

我一边复习我的Value Framework Coaching 课程，一边在看剧《葛洛莉亚》（2013年第63届柏林国际电影节银熊奖）。

Gloria开车时伴着音箱节奏有一搭没一搭的哼唱，大胆的破音走调；我有一搭没一搭的在课程和电影片段之间自由切换，也大胆的不做任何准备就直接视频裸考。结果14道多选题来来回回做了2小时一直到电影结束才侥幸通过。

人到中年，我们都是Gloria, 有的就是不怕失败的勇气和不断尝试的胆识。

一场孤独的舞蹈

影片开场，随着镜头的推移，在人潮涌动的舞池中，我们发现了站在角落里的葛洛莉亚。她因患有青光眼，所以必须佩戴厚厚的大眼镜。在舞池中，她总能以她的微笑吸引一个个男人的注意，她喜欢随着音乐纵情舞蹈，享受舞蹈中的那份美好和激情。

“你总是那么开心吗？”

“不是”

Gloria (葛洛莉亚)一个58岁已经离婚10年的女人，青春已离她远去，单调枯燥的生活里，偶尔意外闯入的猫咪，和这只猫的主人，住在楼上的“疯子”成为她生活中仅有的波澜。一潭死水的生活、一个在空虚中寻找希望的女人，她就是用微笑迎接挑战的葛洛莉亚.

葛洛莉亚的的生活，表面上就像她本人看起来一样成熟而光鲜，具有中产阶级独有的稳健感，但事实上她住在租来的公寓里，家里的嘈杂和纷乱，内心的孤寂和落寞，才是葛洛莉亚生活的真相。

孤独的开始 孤独的结束

这部电影在一种平淡的叙事与碎片化的剪辑中相当契合的表达了关于寂寞的主题。电影把视角对准了一个名叫Gloria的中年女子，她与子女的链接、对爱情的欲求、对生活的感悟，对自我的反思，这位58岁的女人，在镜头之下时而是16岁，时而是60岁。然而掩饰不住她对爱的渴望和饥渴。在这里年龄不再是她的标签。缺爱才是她最大的困扰。

所以她才会被舞池中主动出击的鲁道夫一击即中，所以她才会对鲁道夫的无故离开抱有幻想，所以她才会听着鲁道夫轻吟的几行诗句就感动得泪流满面。

鲁道夫是她生活里的火花和救命稻草，她以为开始了全新的生活，重新开始了一场如16岁少年男女般炙热的恋爱。他们约会、一起参加射击类游戏、蹦极，然而好景不长，鲁道夫接二连三的不辞而别终于让她明白，这不是她的真爱，只是一场虚幻的一厢情愿。

生活在她心里又掏了一个洞。

她不知如何去填补。

当葛洛莉亚看到街头的跳舞骷髅的时候，停下了脚步，骷髅在舞蹈，一幅跃动的骨架，没有了血肉，再美妙的动作都会变得那么忧伤而滑稽，小骷髅祈求路人赏金的卑微姿态，似乎触动了葛洛莉亚的内心，她蹲下来丢下赏金的同时，突然有一种觉醒，与其祈求别人的关爱不如自我关爱。内心的窟窿只有靠自己填补。

葛洛莉亚选择了一种戏剧性的方式结束了与鲁道夫的关系。她用彩弹枪射向了鲁道夫。那是他们初次约会时一起玩过的游戏。鲁道夫说，男人喜欢战争游戏。而最终一个女人用男人喜欢的方式了结了他们的过往。既宣布了两人感情的终结，也是她对不是真爱的宣言。当看到这里的时候，我们也会发自内心和葛洛莉亚一起在回程的车上放肆大笑。

影片结尾又回到舞池。坐在舞池外的葛洛莉亚，看到一只在黑夜角落里独自绽放的白孔雀，这时那首热情奔放的《葛洛莉亚》随着微风踏着音符飘然而来，葛洛莉亚挽起礼服，第一次拒绝了男人的邀请，再次跃入舞池，独自舞蹈。

在影片那个充满希望的结尾中，葛洛莉亚唱着属于她自己的歌，又一次穿梭在舞池中，不过这次她更加自信，葛洛莉亚用她的笑容战胜了孤独，战胜了生活的重重压力，从现在开始，她要过真正属于她自己的生活了。找不到真爱，至少可以自爱。

爱自己，强于很多人爱你

塞巴斯蒂安的电影风格极为自然，像不是电影的电影，没有过多美化和剧情波折，只是真实还原，用一组组片段串联起Gloria这一个栩栩如生的女人形象。

在这些碎片式的场景里，你会忘记这是在看电影，这分明就是我们周围每个人的生活镜像。

荧幕上的人物就是现实中你我的投影，角色的日子就是你我的生活。

楼上的邻居每天都在吵架，迎来过往的路人一个个看似平静的外表下其实是另一种压抑的冷暴力，要么漠然要么聒噪，表面开朗奔放跳着广场舞的中年大妈，有多少真的是喜欢舞蹈，无非只是想摆脱寂寞打发时光而已。

中年人的世界都是一地鸡毛。区别就是有些人可以让鸡毛飞上天。有些只能一直在一地鸡毛里沉沦。

现代人害怕孤独，总是拼命为了他人而活，极尽所能的博人眼球，在别人的世界里寻找存在感，渴望来自外界的慰籍。但回到万籁俱寂的夜晚，冷暖自知，哪里来最后还是回到哪里去。

当葛洛莉亚陷入与鲁道夫的情感纠葛时，她完全失去了自我，无数次失望过后，一直到最后她用彩弹枪射向了鲁道夫，她才恢复了真正的自由，得以重拾自信再度出发。

真正治愈自己的永远不是时间，而是内心真正的释然和明白：爱自己，强于很多人爱你。

有感如上。