演员的尺度

法国导演Alain Guiraudie2013年的凶杀情色片《湖滨陌生人》（L'Inconnu du lac） 在今年的戛纳电影节《Un certain regard》单元中获得最佳导演奖，其实整部电影除导演因素外，最令人吃惊的是两位男主角的大胆演出，形同毛片，难怪它在法国被限制在16岁以上成人观看。

法国今年因同性恋合法化引发社会骚乱，令世人对这个国家产生“浪漫但封闭”的感觉，本片中两位男演员Pierre Deladonchamps和Christophe Paou 的表演，纠正了人们对法国社会开放程度有限的错觉，大胆描述男同性恋者在赤身裸体在湖滨和树林中寻欢作乐的《湖滨陌生人》进入法国的主流院线，还在戛纳获奖，不禁令我想到在不同时代不同国度里，演员演出尺度的迥异。

37年前，日本导演大島渚以电影《感官世界》惊世骇俗，两位“打真军”的男女演员藤竜也Tatsuya Fuji 和 Eiko Matsuda 因承受不了巨大的社会压力而消沉，Eiko 最后不得不离乡背井，不知所踪。

当代中国还没有出现具有现代意义的挑战演出尺度的演员，中国演员们都像乖孩子一样依偎在党和中庸传统的怀抱里，行为举止中规中矩，一派和谐景象。唯一另类的是刘晓庆，她不时以整容化妆术刺激一下年龄的界限，但远远没有达到颠覆传统和革新社会的地步。

再回到法国，尽管《湖滨陌生人》里两位男演员的色情戏比起《感官世界》要露骨的多，但时代毕竟是过了37年，况且是在西方世界，从他们在戛纳电影节自豪从容地获奖拍照可以看出，他们在法国感受到的是骄傲，而非难堪。

附一篇法国和一篇美国媒体对他们的采访报道：

«C’est étrange, de jouer à jouir»

Recueilli par Clément Ghys 16 mai 2013

INTERVIEW
Pierre Deladonchamps et Christophe Paou : les deux interprètes de «l’Inconnu du lac» d’Alain Guiraudie
Dans l’Inconnu du lac, présenté aujourd’hui à Un certain regard, vous êtes les protagonistes d’une passion criminelle dans un lieu de drague gay dans le sud de la France…

Pierre Deladonchamps. On a été approchés par le directeur de casting. Après plusieurs essais, on a trouvé la bonne combinaison : Christophe et moi pour le couple principal du film, et Patrick d’Assumçao pour Henri, un personnage isolé. Nous avons beaucoup répété à Paris, les premiers moments étaient assez timides. Et puis une complicité s’est créée, surtout grâce à la confiance que nous donnait Alain Guiraudie, qui a toujours respecté nos limites.

Christophe Paou. Il cherchait à mettre en scène une simplicité. On n’est pas dans un jeu baroque, mais pas non plus dans le minimalisme. L’idée était d’aller à l’essentiel. Dans une scène, mon personnage poignarde quelqu’un. Je pensais devoir incarner une certaine animalité. En réalité, il fallait être le plus simple possible, jouer avec les codes du thriller en quelque sorte.
L’acte sexuel est très présent dans le film. Quelle était l’ambiance de tournage entre ces scènes, avec la présence de figurants nus ?

P.D. Sympathique ! Les plans d’éjaculation ou autre étaient doublés. Mais, quand on tourne une scène comparable, on vit la relation sexuelle d’une certaine manière. Tout est très évocateur : les baisers, les étreintes. L’idée était de voir le sexe comme un jeu, au sens propre, «enfantin» du terme.

C.P. Le plus grand stress a été de tourner en lumière naturelle, avec la pression de louper le crépuscule pour les scènes nocturnes. A force de se préparer et de risquer de rater la bonne prise, on frôlait l’éjaculation précoce, au sens figuré. Sur le sexe, c’est étrange de jouer à baiser et jouir, avec quelqu’un qui prend le son à 20 cm de soi, ou de quelqu’un qui interrompt la scène pour envoyer du faux sperme. Mais la crudité du contenu est surtout synonyme d’un côté libertaire, qui nous a tous uni pendant le tournage, que l’on soit homo ou hétéro.


New York Film Festival 2013: Stranger by the Lake Review
By Gerard Raymond on September 30, 2013 in Festivals,

Stranger by the Lake

The opening overhead shot of a wooded car park adjoining a shimmering lake establishes the tightly circumscribed world of Alain Guiraudie's Stranger by the Lake. A marker for the passage of time in the film, this shot acquires more menace each time it's repeated in Guiraudie's hypnotically seductive thriller. The story follows Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps), a good-looking and easygoing young man who drives to the lake each summer day to enjoy the hedonistic pleasures of swimming, sunbathing naked, and cruising. Guiraudie captures the seductive thrills of the age-old gay ritual, which seems to occur wherever there's sun, sand, and secluded woodland. The men—many of them regulars from the nearby town—all play the same game: watching, following, and then getting off with each other in the bushes. We get glimpses of sundry couplings through the foliage and observe the typical cruising rituals of invitation and rejection; most of the sex scenes are simulated, but Guiraudie doesn't shy away from a couple of close-ups of clearly the real deal. Stranger by the Lake never leaves the naturist playground in and around the lake, mirroring the almost single-minded focus of the men who go there, though we get some occasional hints of their lives outside this microcosm.

Franck is currently out of work and looking for quick hook-ups, romance, or both. He has an endearingly sweet disposition, gently compassionate even toward the persistent admirer who won't take no for an answer. He strikes up a friendship with Henri (Patrick D'Assumçao), a portly middle-aged logger who's just broken up with his wife and has wandered over to the gay side of the lake. Something of an anomaly, Henri sits alone and talks to no one other than Franck; he doesn't swim, nor does he seem interested in participating in the priapic activities around him. His relationship with Franck blossoms into a genuine, platonic friendship, which comes as a surprise to both men. The younger man, who keeps scanning the lakeshore for potential tricks, has his sights on Michel (Christophe Paou), a stud who looks like he might have stepped out a 1970s porn flick, complete with Tom Selleck moustache. But Michel seems to be partnered already. "How come the guys I like are always taken?" Franck complains to Henri.

The lake, which takes on different hues in the changing light of the day, is mesmerizing. Danger lurks, but it isn't because of the 30-foot silurus, a variety of European catfish that, according to local lore, inhabits the waters. One evening, when spying on Michel and his ostensible boyfriend cavorting in the lake, Franck witnesses the latter's drowning. The idyllic mood of Stranger by the Lake turns immediately creepy. With a flair worthy of Hitchcock or Chabrol, Giraudie ratchets up the suspense, expertly using the darkening shadows of dusk and the natural soundscape of wind, water, and animal cries. Franck doesn't let on to anyone that he's witnessed a cold-blooded murder, and over the next couple of days he and Michel become lovers, though Michel insists on keeping their relationship within the boundaries of the lake, refusing to spend the night with Franck.

What draws Franck so inexorably to Michel, despite his friend Henri's advice against hanging out with the hunk, and to his own better judgment? Is he turned on by the possibility that he could become the next victim? Apparently the young man's need for sex, companionship, and romance trumps morality or even self-preservation. Giraudie, who also wrote the film's screenplay, is clearly drawing parallels between the unprotected sex that takes place in the bushes and Franck's heedless flirtation with a killer. Early on, in one of sexual encounters, it's established that Franck regards the use of condoms as very much of an optional thing. The lone police inspector investigating the crime scene articulately questions the moral and ethical values of the men who cruise there even after learning of the murder. But Franck's behavior is all too believable and his conflicting impulses only too real. Even the seemingly balanced Henri has his own inner conflicts, which are hinted at in the course of the movie, but only surface toward the end. Having built up the tension to a breaking point, Giraudie doesn't let down the audience. Stranger by the Lake moves toward a startling and bloody climax and then, as night falls on the lake, leaves us with a disturbing conclusion.

The New York Film Festival runs from September 27—October 13.