二月最值得一看的國外佳片

春節期間，國內電影市場火爆，國外也有不少佳片趕在“春節檔”上映。無論是溫情的家庭故事片《米納裏》，驚險的偵探片《蛛絲馬跡》，米歇爾·菲佛主演的《法式出口》，還是安東尼·霍普金斯主演的《父親》，都能給你帶來難忘的觀影感受。

The Little Things《蛛絲馬跡》

The Little Things was a contemporary neo-noir detective mystery when John Lee Hancock (Saving Mr Banks, The Blind Side) wrote the screenplay back in 1993. Almost three decades later, Hancock has finally directed what is now a period drama set in the dark distant days when the police didn't all have cell phones and DNA-tracing technology. Its three Oscar-winning stars are Denzel Washington as a burnt-out sheriff, Rami Malek as a straitlaced sergeant, and Jared Leto as the creepy prime suspect in a Los Angeles serial killer case. Robert Daniels at Polygon says that "Hancock, in what might be his best film, grazes with greatness by constructing an enthralling thriller".

導演約翰·李·漢考克（曾執導《大夢想家》和《弱點》）在1993年編寫劇本時，《蛛絲馬跡》原本是一部當代新黑色偵探懸疑片。近三十年後，當漢考克終於開始導演這部故事發生在遙遠的黑暗時代的電影時，它已然成了歷史片。那時候，不是每個警察都有手機，也沒有DNA追蹤技術。三名奧斯卡獲獎者出演了這部電影：丹澤爾·華盛頓飾演精疲力竭的警長，拉米·馬雷克飾演刻板的警察小隊長，傑瑞德·萊託飾演令人毛骨悚然的洛杉磯系列謀殺案頭號嫌疑犯。Polygon網站的羅伯特·丹尼爾斯評價說：“這部電影可能是漢考克的最佳作品，在該片中，漢考克舉重若輕地呈現了一個扣人心絃的驚悚片。”

straitlaced ['streit'leist]: adj. 嚴格的；固執的；刻板的

Released on 29 January in the US and Canada, 12 February in UK and Ireland

該片於1月29日在美國和加拿大上映，2月12日在英國和愛爾蘭上映。

Minari《米納裏》

Lee Isaac Chung's autobiographical drama has had glowing reviews, but it has also been the source of controversy. Most of the dialogue is in Korean, so the organisers of the Golden Globes put it in the Foreign Language Film category. But Minari is also the tale of a US family working on a small farm in Arkansas in the 1980s, so some commentators have argued that calling its language "foreign" is outdated and insulting. Glenn Whipp in the Los Angeles Times says that the film "feels like a balm right now, a gentle, truthful and tender story of family filled with kind people trying to love one another the best they can. "

李·以薩克·鄭的這部自傳式電影收穫了熱烈的好評，但也引來了不少爭議。該片的大多數對話都是韓語，所以金球獎主辦方將其歸爲外語片類別。但是《米納裏》也是一部關於上世紀80年代在阿肯色州一家小農場勞作的美國家庭的故事，因此一些評論人士表示，將其稱爲“外語片”不僅過時而且具有侮辱性。《洛杉磯時報》的格倫·威普稱，這部電影“在當下能給心靈帶來撫慰，這個溫和、真實而柔情的故事講述的這個家庭裏都是全心全意愛彼此的善良的人。”

Released on 12 February in the US, 18 February in Australia, and 26 February in Canada

該片於2月12日在美國上映，2月18日在澳大利亞上映，2月26日在加拿大上映。

French Exit《法式出口》

French Exit offers us a precious gift: an all-too-rare lead performance from Michelle Pfeiffer. In this quirky but poignant comedy, adapted by Patrick DeWitt from his own satirical novel, Pfeiffer plays Frances, a widowed New York socialite. Having spent all the money her husband left her, she moves out of her swanky apartment and relocates to Paris with her son, Lucas Hedges. And then the trouble starts. Frances is the kind of person who sets fire to a restaurant's flower arrangement to get the waiter's attention, and conducts a seance so that she can communicate with her husband via her cat.

《法式出口》帶給我們的一個珍貴禮物是米歇爾·菲佛很難得地擔綱了主演。該片改編自帕特里克·德威特的諷刺小說，由德威特親自擔任編劇。在這部離奇又心酸的喜劇電影中，菲佛飾演了喪偶的紐約社交名媛弗朗西斯。在花光了丈夫留給她的所有錢後，她從奢華的公寓中搬了出來，同盧卡斯·赫奇斯飾演的兒子一起遷居到了巴黎。麻煩就是從這裏開始的。弗蘭西斯是一個什麼樣的人呢？她可以爲了吸引服務員注意而放火燒餐廳的鮮花裝飾，也可以爲了通過自己的貓和已故丈夫交流而舉辦降神會。

swanky [ˈswæŋki]: adj. 時尚的；奢華的

seance [ˈseɪɑːns]: n. 降神會（人們設法與亡靈對話的集會）

Released on 12 February in the US, Canada and Italy, 26 February in the UK and Ireland

該片於2月12日在美國、加拿大和意大利上映，2月26日在英國和愛爾蘭上映。

The Father《父親》

What's unique about The Father, is that it shows dementia from the perspective of the person who has it. Anthony Hopkins stars as an 80-something man who is content to live alone in his London flat, but who thinks that the people and possessions around him keep changing: in some scenes his daughter is played by Olivia Colman, and in others by Olivia Williams. Florian Zeller's film currently has a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, partly due to the writer-director's ingenious cinematic trickery, and partly due to the extraordinary acting. "To play a man who's begun to lose his mental faculties, Hopkins methodically strips away every quality we've come to expect from him – the refinement, the silver tongue, the imposing intensity – until there's nothing left but frailty and distress," writes AA Dowd in AV Club. "The final scenes of the movie are among the most heartbreakingly vulnerable of Hopkins' whole career."

《父親》的獨特之處在於，該片是從癡呆症患者的視角來描述這種疾病。安東尼·霍普金斯飾演一位八十多歲的老人，他滿足於獨自一人在倫敦的公寓裏生活，但是他認爲自己身邊的人和他擁有的東西總是不停地變化。在某些場景下他的女兒由奧利維婭·科爾曼飾演，在另外一些場景下，他的女兒由奧利維婭·威廉姆斯飾演。這部電影現在的爛番茄評分高達100%，一部分要歸功於編劇兼導演佛羅萊恩·澤勒構思巧妙的電影拍攝技巧，另一部分要歸功於演員精湛的表演。AV俱樂部網站的AA·多德寫道：“爲了飾演一個大腦功能開始退化的人，霍普金斯有條不紊地將我們期待的他身上的每一個特質一一剝離：文雅的舉止、流利的口才和讓人肅然起敬的威嚴，直到最後只留下脆弱和悲痛。在電影結尾，我們見到了霍普金斯整個演藝生涯中最令人心碎的脆弱形象。”

Released on 26 February in the US and Italy, 12 March in the UK

該片於2月26日在美國和意大利上映，3月12日在英國上映。