Martin (John Amplas), a young man who looks around 20-years-old, boards a train in Indianapolis, Indiana for New York. At night, he breaks into a sleeping car and sedates a woman with a syringe full of narcotics. She struggles, but he tells her not to struggle or be upset because she wont feel pain. After a few minutes, the woman falls asleep, and Martin has sex with the unconscious woman. Afterwards, he slices her wrists with a razor blade so he can drink her blood. The woman bleeds to death in her sleep.
In the morning, the train stops in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where Martin disembarks. He is met by Tata Cuda (Lincoln Maazel) an elderly and hostile old man who claims to be his cousin from the Old World. Together, they travel by another train to the town of Braddock, a dying industrial suburb. They walk to Cuda's large house where he shows Martin his living quarters. Cuda then accuses Martin of being an 84-year-old vampire from his old country. He has taken in Martin because he is family, but tells him, "First I will save your soul. Then I shall destroy you." Martin denies being a vampire and implies that Cuda is merely his uncle rather than his cousin. Cuda then puts up strings of garlic on the doors to his and his granddaughter's room, and then holds up a small cross when Martin approaches him. Martin takes away the cross, and even takes a bite of the garlic mocking these attempts by saying bitterly, "There's no real magic... ever". Cuda tells Martin that he can come and go as he pleases. But he also warns Martin that he will kill him if he kills anyone in Braddock. He also tells Martin to stay away from his granddaughter Christine (Christine Forrest), whom arrives home from her job that evening.
Cuda introduces Christine to Martin, but also warns her to stay away from him. But Christine instead strikes up a friendship with Martin who confides in her about his vampire heritage. When Cuda later confirms Martin's claims to be a vampire, Christine, not surprisingly, refuses to believe either one. She thinks that Cuda and the other members of her family have driven Martin to insanity by making him think that he is a vampire. It is never revealed if Martin really is a vampire, or just a shy and lonely youth with troubled issues. Christine is the only person that Martin gets the courage to talk to. When Christine's boyfriend Arthur (Tom Savini) arrives at the house for dinner, Martin stops talking and backs away despite Arthur's attempt at a conversation. Christine later confides in Martin that she hopes to leave Braddock someday with Arthur, even though Martin points out that Arthur treats her badly and is both verbally and physically abusive towards her.
When Christine sees that Martin won't talk to anyone else, she buys him a phone which he installs in his room. Martin begins to repeatingly call a radio talk show where he describes what it's like to be a vampire. He becomes known on the radio as "the Count" to all the listeners. But the patronizing host (Michael Gornick) thinks he's just crazy.
Martin gets a job at Cuda's grocery store of stocking shelves, hauling boxes around, and even gets to be a delivery boy for some of the customers. One of his customers is a certain Abby Santini (Elyane Nadeau), who becomes taken in with Martin. She is a very friendly young woman who is depressed when she tells Martin that her husband is unfaithful. But Martin still does not have the nerve to talk with her, so she is happy to have someone to confide in with her life problems. Martin phones the radio show host to describe his infatuation with the housewife and senses that she wants to have sex with him. When the radio show host asks Martin if it is a sexual problem that he has involving women criticizing him during sex, Martin replies that he has never had sex with a woman who was awake.
One day, Martin travels by train to outside Braddock to look for victims. At a supermarket, he follows a young woman (Sarah Venable) home to her posh suburban house. He sees the woman's husband (Richard Rubenstein) leave for a long business trip, and Martin decides this would be the right time for more feeding. Martin returns to the house after dark and breaks in through the garage door. But it is Martin who gets the surprise when he bursts into her bedroom to find her in bed with her adulterous lover Lewis (Al Levitsky). After a vicious struggle, Martin jabs both of them with hyprodermic needles with narcotics, and waits for the drugs to take affect. He drags the unconscious body of Lewis from the house to a clump of trees across the street where he kills him by shoving a broken tree branch into his neck and drinks his blood. Martin returns to the house where he has sex with the unconscious woman. But out of compassion and pity, he decides to let her live.
Martin begins to have romantic monochrome visions of his vampire past (real or imagined), where he drained blood from a young woman and was chased through the streets of a nameless European town by a torch-lit mob.
During one Sunday at church, Cuda brings home Father Howard (George A. Romero) who asks him about the possibility of exorcism and demon possession. Father Howard calls upon the elderly Father Zulemans (Clifford Forrest, Jr.) over at Cuda's request. Together, Cuda and Zulemans confront Martin his bedroom and attempt to perform an exorcism on him. At this point, Martin remembers (another real or imaginary flashback), in the Old Country of people trying to perform an exorcism on him, and he flees them. Martin then flees from Cuda and Zuelmas as well. A little later that night, Martin terrorizes Cuda in a children's playground when he puts on a Dracula cape and puts false fangs into his mouth to pretend that he really is a vampire.
One day, Martin finally musters the courage to talk with Mrs. Santini during a routine delivery to her house where he tells her that he's aware of her attempts to seduce him and wants now to have sex with her. After having sex for the first time, Mrs. Santini becomes more depressed for she tells Martin that her husband just left her because she discovered that she cannot bear children, and that her desires towards him are based on sex and nothing else. But Martin wants to stay with her and help her move on with her life. Martin tells the radio show host about his affair with the housewife and that he no longer has the urge to attack other women.
Meanwhile, Arthur meets with Cuda and tells him that he wants Christine to leave town with him so they can get married and start a family. But Christine becomes angry at Cuda when he tells Arthur that insanity runs in their family and he shouldn't consider having children with her. Shortly afterwards, Christine packs up and leaves Braddock for New York with Arthur despite Martin telling her that Arthur is abusive towards her. But her mind is made up. Before leaving, Christine tells Martin that she really has no ill feelings towards him and just wants to make a fresh start with her life. She says goodbye to him and promises to write. But Martin knows that with an abusive and possessive man in Christine's life, she probably won't.
Depressed over losing his one true friend, Martin phones the radio show host and tells him that he's getting "shaky" and wants to go out looking for more victims. That night, Martin travels to a rough crime-ridden area of Pittsburgh and attacks two derelicts in a alley, injecting them with narcotics. He kills one of them by silting the bum's wrist and drinking his blood. Martin is about to kill the second one when a police car shows up and gives chase. Martin narrowly escapes during a long chase on foot which leads from the garbage strew streets and through a local store. Martin runs into an old warehouse where a drug deal is going down. A shootout between the two cops and the three thugs begins where all of them are killed, leaving Martin as the sole survivor who casually walks away from the carnage.
One day, Martin finds Mrs. Santini dead in her bathtub, after she had slit her writs with a razor blade. Martin anonymously calls the police to report the body and leaves. He phones the radio show host one final time to say that he really doesn't need friends or people to talk to for he is his own person. But when Cuda learns about Mrs. Santini's suicide, is mistakenly thinks Martin killed her and made it look like a suicide as he's done before. Cuda walks into Martin's room while he is asleep and kills him by hammering a wooden stake through Martin's heart.
Cuda buries Martin's body in his back garden, while over the closing credits various voices from people are heard talking to the radio show host asking the whereabouts of "the Count".
是的，当一名有“责任”的妈妈，是必要放弃许多，这本身就非常的矛盾和不公平。
表演上应该是今年五个提名里难度最高的一个角色 Colman恐怖的技术又再拔高了演绎难度 把一个不太讨人喜欢活在过去阴影里的高知女性演得很出彩 Maggie的编剧和执导看不出是第一次 平静尖锐 转场老练 主题上感觉对女性困境的描述不是主要的 而是作为一个女性 可以跳脱出妻子母亲的传统身份 作出不负责任而忠于自我的决定 即便是错的 但是能自主选择的就是好的
剧情的发展有拖沓，剪辑要是能重制一下就好了。
美国中产知识分子反思“自我”和“母职”矛盾的故事，切入点很西方，这在中国大多数女性思维里是不存在的问题。电影用平行叙述的方式展开，散落了很多潜意识的碎片剪辑，奥利维娅·科尔曼表演的不错，是一部真实且话题严肃的电影。不过越真实越显得过于像日式的“私小说”，对有触动的人效果增幅，对深处电影话题探讨外的局外人观众很可能无感。三星半。
愤怒迷茫又不知所措的青春，用流星烟火或匆匆开过的花来形容都不贴切，它并不美丽也不特殊，就像一团野火一簇野草，倏地开过，不知所以。
不错的片，带有显著的情绪，聚焦女性的生育困境、家庭责任以及精神创伤，全片女主视角，虽是海边度假，危险不安却一直围绕，有点儿惊悚片的味。手持摄影及大特写，人物情态刻画细腻，颇为流畅。结尾（可能是有所暗示另一走向的结局）的调子再灰暗一点，兴许会更犀利。Colman 还有 Buckley 的演技上乘。
在另一位母亲的身上看到自己过去的影子，连带回忆起曾经的困境与矛盾。电影释放出了勒达面对母亲的责任与向往的独立而彷徨下的负能量，也揭示了没有做好准备却开始抚养孩子的现实问题，暗处的女儿既是家中被冷落的孩子，亦是内心深处渴望爱却又害怕爱的自己。
从心理剧转向惊悚片，做了类型的变化，这反过来又给侦探故事提供了导火索。主要元素是莱达在海滩发现的一个玩偶，这既是连接主角的对象，也是一个重要的隐喻。拥有娃娃后，丽达也变成了一种玩偶：能储存记忆却无能为力的躯壳。不断的计划和对不存在的生活公式将她带进死胡同。影片的问题是编导把一个人的心理创伤变成了一部关于女性如何受苦的电影，这就远没有前者深刻了。
作为玛吉初执导筒的作品，影片的完成度还不错，虽然故事背景发生在阳光明媚的海滨，但女主内心的焦虑与隐秘却是弥漫开来，以至于外部的喧闹都构成威胁，比如同来度假的一大家人以及影院打闹的小鬼，最后透过达科塔·约翰逊以及女主回忆两条线索对不安解密，一切源自对母亲身份的叛逃，松塔砸伤背部和被针刺伤两次肉体伤痛都不及余生的愧疚来得狠。
同届威尼斯的这部更配《平行母亲》的片名。多种母性具象在不同时空 平行剪辑中形成对照，娃娃-红杏出墙的欢愉；观影-罔顾家室的独食；水蛭-偷欢后的负作用；松果-遭遇惩戒的痛楚……隐喻借代一一对应女主内心对曾经迷失母性的内疚和愧对。梦魇往事主题的电影做不出特定的花样就不好看了，不过很显主角的演技，《算牌人》是这样，这部也一样。
台湾残酷青春物语，与《艋舺》比起来，该片要接地气得多。香港有个徐小明，台湾也有一个，一个擅长动作片，一个专情青春片，一个成了影视大亨，一个转而当了制片。
右声道粤语、国语、闽南话……这做压制的人真是…… 黑涩会+台湾迷茫青春。用以给《南国再见，南国》或《牯岭街》爱好者解馋的片子
影片开始十几分钟，管家和服务员will多次重复一句话：如果你需要帮助，告诉我。这也许是一句服务行业的话术，但是女性真正的需要无法言说，男性也很难给予，最终这句听起来很温暖的话都沦为某种正确但无意义的陈词滥调。
居然把这部忘了，补标。
#2022金馬奇幻影展# 3.5 榮幸看到修復版的世界首映，原聲帶太優秀以至於全片最搶戲鏡頭是林強跟羅大佑的特別演出，太純正的台灣黑幫電影，音質跟顆粒感真的太棒，依然看到很多影圈熟悉的大人物：陳松勇、李天祿、游安順、高捷，但裡面的人被問話都死不開口，西咧靠北膩😍😍😍🔪（勇伯口吻）
ps:此位台湾徐小明导演并非香港那位拍陈真的徐小明
风格类似《南国，再见南国》，无比贴近现实而且又带有鲜明的时代特征，相比前者还多了一层对于青春无畏的伤怀，阿国的死既是时代的悲剧又像是一种宿命，唉！少年阿，何时才能让骚动的内心安静下来……
这个比开我车好，尤其是剧本也是Maggie自己写的，简洁得恰到好处。缺点是依然落入了某种疗伤电影的俗套，以及剧中角色、环境的神秘感都不太够。日常被拍得太平常。选角我持个保留意见，虽然大家都演得不错（包括Dakota这种本来不怎么好的女演员），但气质仿佛没有一个人是对的。Vulnerable但优雅的Jessie Buckley如何完全变成一个英国菜场大妈（no offence to Olivia, 她演菜场大妈是绝活）？我不太相信。虽然这个角色的确变了很多，但她基本的一些气质和manner还应该是持续一致的。现在两个演员扮演的两个阶段太分裂以至于我已经不相信是同一个人了。Paul Mescal也是，看似好像很符合这个角色，但实际上他没有那种seductive的气场，他还是演自己的乖乖男，那就不太对了。
改编自埃莱娜·费兰特的小说，依旧是她自己说过小说永恒关系的主题“母亲”。到了这部里，比在天才女友里放大和专注很多。永远紧绷的女主，说起来那些事都是很久以前了，可是只有女性明白那些隐秘的联系，是一张永远都兜住的网。看完后有点庆幸，没有孩子，否则我会疯。适合那些有孩子的女知识分子们看，都是痛点。看完时，我手边也有一个橙子。
悬念十足，同时也懂得给观众留给遐想空间，不至于像《Drive My Car》那样过于直白。其次，也许Maggie本身也是一个演员的缘故，里面演员的神情、状态、感觉都比较细腻，令人深刻。电影给了一个不一样的“坏”母亲，赋予了不一样的可能性。PS：因为是同一个作者，里面Nina和Elena不自然由想起了那不勒斯的四部曲的宇宙（笑）。 / 2022.6.11 家
Copyright © 2015-2023 All Rights Reserved
