亲爱的妈咪

"No wire hangers, forever!"（不许用铁丝衣架，永远不许！）当费·唐娜薇对她那被收养的、可怜的女儿声嘶力竭地咆哮的时候，她脸上擦的白色面膜已经一塌糊涂。《亲爱的妈咪》简直是一部恐怖片，片中的恶魔就是大名鼎鼎的好莱坞明星琼·克劳馥。这句可笑又可怕的台词长期被评为美国电影学会电影台词top100之内。


如果您看了《宿敌》对琼·克劳馥的凄凉晚景还有一丝同情与怜悯，那看了《亲爱的妈咪》之后这种感觉会荡然无存，只剩下惊悚和气愤。这部电影是根据克劳馥的收养女儿克里斯蒂娜的自传改编的，可信度很高。片中的克劳馥真可谓一无是处，她卑鄙无耻，暴力虐童，经常歇斯底里，还有病态的洁癖，简直是个重度精神病患者。


克劳馥对两个收养的孩子非常凶残，她颐指气使，神经兮兮，经常半夜醉酒之后发疯，因为克劳馥的母亲是个洗衣工，她又非常恨她母亲，所以也连带着恨铁丝做的衣架。当她醉酒后去孩子的卧室乱翻，看到女儿的衣柜里混杂了一个铁丝衣架的时候，她竟然马上癫狂了，把衣服全都扔在了地上，还要女儿半夜擦洗手间地板。我看到这里的时候倒吸一口凉气，琼·克劳馥真的这么可憎啊，怪不得贝蒂那么恨她！


恶心的事情层出不穷，女儿每天在克劳馥的耳濡目染下，也变得矫揉造作，她在母亲的梳妆台前拿腔拿调地过家家，结果被克劳馥看到恨的咬牙切齿，她拿起剪刀就把女儿的秀发来了个“鬼剃头”。


克劳馥人老色衰被米高梅解雇后，一肚子怨气无处发泄，竟然在半夜拿着大剪刀在花园里发疯，她剪了所有的玫瑰，扎的满脸是血，又把两个小孩从床上提溜起来，让他俩和佣人一起收拾残枝。这一刻克劳馥彻底成了疯子，她甚至举起斧头砍树，嘴里还不停怪叫，真让人惊悚。


克劳馥为了上位而换了一个又一个的男人，她嫌女儿碍事，就把她扔到了寄宿学校，还哭穷要她自己打工赚学费，后来女儿发现，克劳馥根本没有破产，而是继续在买买买，家里的地上散落一大堆拆开的衣服、包包，这让她对这个养母的气愤到了顶点。终于在又一次冲突中，长大的女儿鼓起勇气质问这位大明星，你为啥要收养我？克劳馥总算说了回真话，“也许这样可以得到额外的宣传效果。”大实话啊！现在的好莱坞也有不少明星收养孩子，比如安吉丽娜·朱莉，比如麦当娜，她们听到这句话不知道会不会杵到肺管子。

片中的克劳馥比《宿敌》中的可怕多了，费·唐娜薇在外形上更像克劳馥，行为动作也模仿的惟妙惟肖，但就是表演的太用力了，但这也可能是最贴近原形的状态。尽管《亲爱的妈咪》惨遭金酸莓的差评，但这并不是一部烂片，只是观众难以容忍这样德高望重的大明星，在真实生活中竟是如此不堪！（imdb中本片的评分为6.7，据说是评分最高的金酸莓电影，可见差评不是源于电影质量。）


2个小时的折磨，是对克劳馥女儿的，也是对观众的。终于克劳馥死了，两个可怜的被收养人手拉手聆听律师宣布遗嘱。不出所料，克劳馥没有施舍一个子儿给他们，还说“他们自己知道原因！”可怜的女儿如释重负的笑了，观众也跟着松了一口气。还好克里斯蒂娜写了这本畅销八卦书，后来又拍成了电影而赚了一大笔钱，也算是克劳馥留下的遗产吧！

Faye Dunaway’s Joan Crawford biopic MOMMIE DEAREST is a torpedo that completely deep-sixed the Oscar winner’s hitherto exalted career and after which her status never recovered. The film is mocked as a stinker of high camp, a mean-spirited ridicule of Ms. Crawford and a star’s vanity project hitting wide of the mark.

Indeed, the film is ghastly to look with its brassy production design under its televisual lighting (the Crawford mansion is a holdover of Hollywood golden era’s studio construction, but without the usual treatment of a silver sheen, it is grossly unappealing), which presents a glitzy drabness that is the antithesis of one’s preconception of Hollywood glamour. Its script, based on Crawford’s adopted daughter Christina’s massively popular tell-it-all autobiography, implies in the ending that the book could be Christina’s ultimate tit-for-tat after being disinherited in her mother’s will.

It stands to reason that there is a faint but distinct ghost of vilification and willful exploitation behind the whole story, which goes for the jocular to expose child abuse and bad parenting, the imbalance between careerism and parenthood, a movie star’s imponderable hubris and her throat-cutting aggression against patriarchy. In retrospect, MOMMIE DEAREST never intends to be pretty and glamorous, but grotesque and tumultuous, baring all its bad blood, petty grievances and accumulated rancor, which audience promptly takes as a scandalous exposé trying to color Ms. Crawford as an abomination of a mother.

That is when factual relativism kicks in, the account from Christina may not be the whole truth but it panders to the public’s curiosity of espying a celebrity’s personal demerits behind the closed doors, of which both Ms. Dunaway and director Frank Perry decide to make a production. Taking the example of the notorious “wire hanger” scenes, in default of any explanation of Joan’s aversion to wire hangers (something could be linked to her childhood hardship as her mother worked in a laundry shop, they rumple up clothes), MOMMIE DEAREST is guilty as charged to intentionally conjure up a freaky, irrational, hysterical monster out of Ms. Crawford.

Graced by the undiminished spotlight, Dunaway proves, once again, to be a screen powerhouse that can grab audience by the throat with her sheer presence and if eyebrows can kill, hers must be the most lethal. Her emotional intensity is up to the eleventh in objectifying Joan’s delusion, frustration and fighting spirit. And when Joan takes it all on a young Christina (Hobel is a feisty cherub does a cracking job of feigning being disciplined, wounded and traumatized), it is a cogent corroboration that motherhood isn’t for every member of the fairer sex.

As the adult Christina, Scarwid braves herself stoutheartedly to stand up against a Dunaway going apeshit as the two go physical in front of a visiting journalist (Brando, the last time she graces the silver screen), a flimsy plot machination cannot be credible. But how Christina’s horrid childhood experiences have altered her mentality and what are the consequences? That is the thorny essence conspicuously left untapped in Perry’s over-sensationalized melodrama.

referential entries: Frank Perry’s THE SWIMMER (1968, 7.0/10); James L. Brooks’ TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983, 7.8/10); Sydney Pollack’s THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (1975, 6.7/10).

Title: Mommie Dearest

Year: 1981

Country: USA

Language: English

Genre: Biography, Drama

Director: Frank Perry

Screenwriters: Frank Yablans, Frank Perry, Tracy Hotchner, Robert Getchell

based on the book by Christina Crawford

Music: Henry Mancini

Cinematography: Paul Lohmann

Editor: Peter E. Berger

Cast:

Faye Dunaway

Diana Scarwid

Mara Hobel

Rutanya Alda

Steve Forrest

Howard Da Silva

Harry Goz

Michael Edwards

Jocelyn Brando

Priscilla Pointer

Xander Berkeley

Rating: 6.7/10

Joan Crawford has worked hard all her life. However she has not left a single cent for Christina or Christopher, quoted "for the reasons well-known to them". My first reaction is to doubt whether her net worth is negative, given her pursuit of certain glamourous kind of lifestyle.

Well jokes aside, I do believe people are born with different worldviews. Allowing me to be a little bit judgemental, Joan is more like a man than a woman. She values respect, reputation and career-related achievements more than love or family. Nowadays it is common to see a woman like that. But back in the 30s, she was definitely rare.

Cliché has it that one must have loved reallly hard before she could hate somebody so bad. Joan was definitely toughtest on Christina, not sure if Christina is the naughtiest one though. Joan must have loved Christina so much before she hated her so without leaving any inheritance to her. The funny thing is that Christina seems to be the one most alike her with a similiar multi-marriage history. Maybe it is due to Christina's rebellious character, or her chosen path as an actress, or even her presence to prove that Joan's failed as a mother. It is human nature that the things one cannot obtain are what he/she wants most, especially for people like Joan. She is widely loved and has earned an extraordinary life. The one thing she cannot have is Christina's love. She cannot handle the fact that she was so emotionally instable when dealing with young Tina that it has caused permenant damages to their relationship. There is an inerasable scare in the heart of both Joan and Christina. This is one thing Joan has failed in this life, which she can never really admit.

By leaving nothing in heritance for Christina and Christopher, Joan has ruined her last chance to repair their relationship, which led Christina to tell her side of story and made this movie possible. Maybe Tina and Christopher will forgive their mother one day. But by putting a higher price sticker on fame than other stuff in life, one would always end up in vain and never have made it as a qualified mother.

Eighty years ago when Joan decided to be a mother, she thought she wanted to be loved as mommie dearest. She thought that she needed family love for her life to be complete. But in fact, she never did. Deep down in her heart, she just wanted to be admired and obeyed. Society may tell you so and so. But sadly, no one can change what his or her own heart truly desires.

为什么大家都在骂这片子，金酸莓奖还拿了好几个，我看完怎么如此震撼！