小大人2016

Checking out of the genderqueer bracket, American indie urban aesthete Ira Sachs’ LITTLE MEN continues with his concern of Brooklyn’s gentrification, in LOVE IS STRANGE (2014), a senior gay couple cannot afford their apartment and has to live separately, a temporary arrangement eventually plunges into a precipitate farewell, here, it centers around a nuclear family, Brian Jardine (Kinnear), a seasoned thespian struggling to pay the bills, his wife Kathy (Ehle), a full-time psychotherapist, and their 13-year-old son Jake (Taplitz), move into Brian’s father’s two-story building, inherited after the latter’s death. They have a tenant, the Chilean immigrant Leonor Calvelli (García), a single mother who operates an artisanal dress shop in the ground floor, by dint of a very low monthly rent arranged between her and Brian’s father for many years.

Brian and his sister Audrey (Balsam), both need money to support their families, revises a new lease demanding a treble amount of fee (still, considerably cheaper than the ballooning market price), which builds a tension between the two families, and what is also at cost is the newfound friendship between Jake and his coeval Tony (Barbieri), Leonor’s son, when their quotidian proximity is discontinued.

More than anything, the two kid actors are phenomenal, both first-time actors, Theo Taplitz remarkably imbues an adorable appearance of sensitivity and androgyny to accentuate Jake’s painter’s disposition, not to mention his heart-rending plea in the climax. Whereas Michael Barbieri is totally on the opposite of the spectrum, with his convivial, animated verve and a naturalistic elocution that betrays his age, which is fit as glove as Tony’s aspiring actor identity. Their friendship seems very organic, albeit their polarized make-ups, mercifully and perspicaciously Sachs doesn’t make a heavy weather of Jake’s budding affection towards Tony, which is tacitly suggested but as in reality, like as not, those little torch-carrying secret is mostly saved for its originator to savor and wallow, bless Sachs for not sensationalize a young boy’s vulnerable, inchoate sexual awakening.

Grownups are also a cracking cluster, almost 20 years after his Oscar-nominated breakthrough in AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1997), Greg Kinnear matures with an understated complexity that is given a full range here, he is a grieving son, a frustrating breadwinner, a glowing actor on stage, a devoted, grateful husband and a caring father, who is saddled with a daunting task to negotiate an unpleasant business deal with a tough-nut in the form of a magnificent Paulina García, nothing is above her Leonor to get what she intends, emotional manipulation, outright humiliation, tactical evasion, even if a child’s innocent, heartfelt plea can do the trick, she has no qualms about leveraging it. García has so many strings to her bow, and each one adds a tangible layer to her character’s humanity, warts and all, which is such an exceptional achievement that defiantly flouts the atrocious typecast of a downtrodden immigrant woman struggling in the land of freedom, here, she fervently digs in her heels and brazens it out in fighting a losing battle.

Sending out a well-meaning message of “letting go the past”, Sachs’ LITTLE MEN is the whole package, a school of hard knocks for an adolescent, a critical looking into the miasma of gentrification and a hyperreal examination of ordinary beings’ interrelations.

referential entries: Sachs’ LOVE IS STRANGE (2014, 7.8/10), KEEP THE LIGHTS ON (2012, 6.8/10).

导演在处理故事时非常克制，没有引入激烈的戏剧冲突，但其干净的视听语言自带情感张力。

影片中第一次讨论房租问题时，很多观众想必能自然而然地预感到后续的冲突：双方父母未达成一致，孩子因此关系破裂。但至少令我意外的是，导演把冲突平和化、理性化，没有想象中剧烈的争吵与情感宣泄。想象一下在我们当下，有多少父母面对孩子的沉默抗议，能够做到数天（至少4天）还没有情绪失控，还能与孩子相对理性地沟通。这些理性与克制，反而让影片的表达没有被戏剧冲突所淹没，而是聚焦在了经历一些无奈时刻的记忆与感受，可能更能促进我们与生活的和解。

父亲首演后驾车回去的路上，杰克得知父母们处理房租的结果，这是两个情感爆发的时刻。它们都未引来“受众”的对抗，以引向激烈的交锋，而是述说着成人与孩子各自的弱点与无奈（想一想父亲和杰克在各自情绪失控时刻的独白）。现实生活不是童话世界，并不是总能按照我们的意愿发展，也不能满足每一个人的诉求，更多的是会伤害到一些人但又不得不做的决定。于是，妥协与无奈不可避免。

不过，这是生活的一部分，并非生活的全部。致那些无奈时刻，也致那些通过成长与努力而避免的伤害。

杰克是一个内向敏感的男中学生，梦想是成为一个艺术家。在祖父的葬礼上，他认识了阳光开朗的拉丁裔男孩托尼，托尼的梦想是当一个演员，两人一见如故，很快成了好朋友。托尼的母亲雷奥娜租住着杰克祖父的一个临街店面，经营着一家服装店。由于和杰克祖父关系很好，房租也多年未涨。祖父去世后，他的房产由杰克的父母和姑母共同继承，他们决定给雷奥娜涨房租，而雷奥娜无法承担上涨后的房租，只能搬离，杰克和托尼的友情也戛然而止，杰克由于失去了唯一的好朋友而怅然若失。所有的难能可贵却抵挡不住成人世界的算计。

艾拉·萨克斯（Ira Sachs）曾执导《爱很怪》《点亮灯光》《蓝色的40道阴影》。他有着很强的人文关怀和人性洞见。《小大人》突出了纽约的城市风光，讲述了两个家庭冲突之中男孩们影响一生的友谊。

《小大人》的取景地主要在布鲁克林的日落公园，湾脊和威廉斯堡，拍摄于2015年的夏天。

主创选择纽约布鲁克林的夏天是想突出童年的气质：快乐单纯的时光，充满活力和冒险的夏日。在这里的孩子们非常自由，可以在家里认真地讨论游戏，也可以乘地铁到繁华的曼哈顿岛参加孩子的舞会，或是骑着滑板车到附近公园溜达。这些冒险的日子会让人飞速成长。

同时，布鲁克林也面临着绅士化*的困境，这个情况已经持续了十几年。街区里有各式各样的移民，意大利，波多黎各，亚裔家庭都混杂在一起，各移民的版图也在不断更新。这是纽约大熔炉的魅力所在，但是不同文化之间也容易产生冲突。

*绅士化（Gentrification）又译中产阶层化或贵族化或缙绅化，指一个旧区从原本聚集低收入人士，到重建后地价及租金上升，引来较高收入人士迁入并取代原有低收入者。

导演萨克斯一直对代际关系很感兴趣，关注父母和孩子之间的互动。2015年的时候，他已经是孩子们的父亲，于是总在想自己和孩子的关系是什么，怎么当好一个父亲。所以他决定拍摄一部关于童年的影片，但是以成熟电影人的身份来制作，采用成人视角。

萨克斯觉得生活中的细小瞬间能改变许多东西。父母声称的原则和信念，在日常生活中往往备受考验，在一些情境下做的选择甚至不是孩子的正确榜样。

故事里的孩子13岁，是一个夹在孩子和成人之间的年龄，你打算弄明白自己是谁，未来要做些什么。Jake原本文艺又害羞，还不明白未来的道路，直到遇见外向有乐观的Tony，才慢慢代开心扉，对自己有了几分笃定。Tony想当演员，Jake想做艺术家，两人互相扶持，鼓励彼此的梦想。

艾拉·萨克斯和编剧搭档毛里西奥·扎克瑞亚斯和以往一样，先看电影再开始动笔。观影的过程中，小津安二郎的两部电影对本片影响最大：一部是默片《我出生了，但……》（1932），另一部是《早安》（1959）。

这两部影片都讲述了孩子们因为种种原因反叛父母的故事，这也成为了《小大人》的叙事核心：孩子们与父母产生了冲突，决定不再和他们说话。

杰克（左侧男孩）由洛杉矶的Theo Taplitz饰演。著名选角导演Avy Kaufman找到了他，Avy曾发掘了《冰风暴》《少年派的奇幻漂流》里的儿童主演。

托尼（右侧男孩）由Michael Barbiery饰演。他在Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute的海选中脱颖而出。这是他的长片处女作首秀，被《纽约时报》评为“夏日电影季中有突破性表演”的演员，后来他又出演了改编自史蒂芬·金的电影《黑塔》。

导演说，《小大人》由两位第一次拍长片电影的孩子担任主演，孩子们必须能吸引观众注意，在银幕上有突出的个性表达。幸好Theo和Michael都做到了。

萨克斯说：“人是由跟“爱”以及“金钱”的关系定义的”（We are defined by our relationship to love and our relationship to money）。人们如何看待爱，如何对待金钱，这些都让他很着迷。

对于13岁的男孩们来说，在自己不肯说话、与好友一起对抗父母的时候，外部其实有着更大的力量在改变两个家庭的关系：金钱。男孩们对金钱的重要性还茫然无知，直到他们在家庭的压力下突然成人。

不过，钱不能阻挡一切。尽管友谊随着距离的增加而结束了，但是他们都不会忘记这段纯真的时光，这是会影响一生的情谊。

雷奥娜的角色是为了智利知名演员宝琳娜·加西亚（Paulina García）量身定制的。她曾在柏林国际电影节上，凭借其在电影《葛萝莉亚》中的出色演出，斩获最佳女主角银熊奖。最初她不知道这一点，直到导演和别人交谈的时候提及这件事，她表面强装镇定保持微笑，其实内心开心得快晕过去了。

她觉得电影对于人们之间的误会和日常的小恶挖掘得很深，这是一个关于爱与金钱的故事，而我们就是围绕这两个东西日日奔忙。萨克斯的电影里有一些捷克电影的气息，关注人们的生活，爱，人际关系，痛苦情绪，也就是每个人都经历的事情，而金钱问题一直让人物烦恼，可这就是生活啊。

宝琳娜表现出了雷奥娜的多重情绪，气愤，恐惧，爱，她就好像被逼到角落的母狮子，不知如何破局，总是做着错误的决定。

《小大人》的摄影指导Óscar Durán，曾经拍摄过海梅·罗萨莱斯的《一日时间》,影片荣获第56届戛纳电影节导演双周单元的费比西奖，以及《荒凉的碎片》，曾荣获第60届戛纳电影节一种关注大奖提名。

Óscar相信中景的力量，将人物周围的空间都容纳为图像的一部分。他的影像风格比较欧洲化，擅长在叙事的小瞬间中找到美与戏剧冲突。

电影不完全是按照剧本拍摄的，有天剧组拍到了Theo Taplitz（杰克的饰演者）和Michael Barbieri（托尼的饰演者）在地铁上深入的谈话，结果导演就用到了电影里。

萨克斯有时让大家按照自己的习惯对给定情境做出本能的反应，带有一些即兴的成分，把自己对角色和情节的看法带到电影里，这样表现出来的对话和日常动作就非常的自然，让人觉得可信。

原文链接：//mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzIwNDc3MDY0OA==&mid=2247485114&idx=1&sn=3f779992d1a9a024fae7705c7378d59c&chksm=973a5a8da04dd39b86267134698a0248c656ad82dab9dd3f2f3b2e279725f79421d0d09e5842&token=1406609086&lang=zh_CN#rd

This part beginning from a dark movements, From the back view, a group of students entered the painting, and the protagonist followed the paintings of everyone. The director's handling of this picture deliberately makes the backlight of the scene brighter than the foreground, so that the audience can shift their attention away from the students who have passed the foreground.Then the lens is very slight, and it is very imperceptible to push to the Jake.

Other students have a good exchange and itobviouslyseems that he is lonely and quiet. From Jake's back shot to Tony in the middle of others and withclassmates for a lively communication, andwith just previous shot thatJake just walked quietly in stark contrast.

The director gave Jake a reaction lens that placed him at one-third of the picture. At the edge of the picture, he formed a protagonist with a sense of inner crisis, and the state of the protagonist looked up, which added to the expression of the protagonist'semotion.After the camera washorizontalshaken to the left, after Tony and the others walk out of tjepicture, Jack returned to the center of the screen.Using painting as a transition, it seems that the character's emotions are cut off here, making the emotions extremely restrained and the lens expressionseemsmore objective.

With the beginning of background music,director added a close-up of Jake's classmates with four different scenes and different positions. Finally, it is a close-up of the main character. It is very interesting to convey that the people around Jake have changed, just like the people around everyone in the real world are constantly changing, sometimes spreading outand getting together.

The background music is only repeated for a whilein the same way, and it can clearly hear its editing points, as if it implies that everything is actually circulating.

I am very appreciatethat the director described the emotions of the characters with an extremely cool lens movement.Most of them are fixed lens.Using a fixed lens can make the audience move away from emotions and turn into thinking.The friendship of Jake and Tony in "Little Men" carries that kind of bittersweet weight. Jake and Tony hold hands over the growing abyss between their parents. They're only 13 years old. Do they know that relationships are fragile and need protection? Do they understand how precious their friendship is, how much they need to hold onto it, how much they will miss it if it ends? These questions carry intense reverberation long after the film ends.

In the class,wealsoreadthis part of the script. In the front part of the script, the screenwriter used the enthusiasm of the guest to describe the alienation of their relationship, echoing the scene of their mother's first meeting.From the lens or the script are deliberately creating a distance between them.But after the script, it was too straightforward. The director simply used the movements and the lens to sublimate the whole movie.Using gestures to describe mental activity is the most difficult task in terms of scriptwriting.I thinkfilmsmainly needs to use the lens language to show the theme and emotions. I think this is the place where fabulous in <Little Men>.The director knows how to do appropriate subtraction in the film.Its smallness makes it grand and moving. These are the things, these little moments, decisions and consequences that most human lives are made of, after all.

This film is very different from the general run of ingratiating middlebrow indies that pop up on screen periodically, drenched with implausibility, sentimentality and lame bet-hedging humour.It is composed with scrupulous observational intelligence and Care. It is really engaging.