助理

仍然是关于“哈维·韦恩斯坦事件”的一部电影。但不同于之前的影片，这一部是从他的助理的一天的角度记录了一些不一样的事情。

电影就是真实的记录了一个助理的一整天：天不亮上班，打杂兼职整理卫生清洗盘子，无休止的电话，老板的发疯以及书面道歉，安抚老板妻子带孩子…一个半小时的电影让人觉得这一天怎么这么长啊…而最窒息的就是投诉的部分：当女主认为可能有女生遭到侵害时暗示的言语，投诉部门的故意曲解和老板的要挟，简直把工作最令人窒息的部分完全展现了！

高学历，有经验，从众多竞争者中脱颖而出之后呢？被困在小办公室里，早出晚归，似乎永远实现不了的制片梦，每天停不下来的重复和道歉，社会责任感被无情抹杀，用工作威胁你闭嘴…而这样看似体面的工作真的是人在追求的吗？

整个电影的颜色有点莫兰迪的感觉，淡淡的，灰色的，压抑的。时长不长的电影却看的人有点难受有点烦躁…不能说很喜欢，但视角和审美还是可以接受的，社畜看完更抑郁了……

擅长纪录片的导演在拍摄虚构剧情片时免不了会带入不少纪录片的表现手法，比如冷静观察的视角与纪实的叙事风格，这部出自导演基蒂·格林的剧情片处女作《助理》自然是一个典型例子。基蒂·格林此前因拍摄乌克兰女性题材的纪录片而名声大噪，这部新作同样以女性为焦点对象。影片以巨细无遗的笔触描绘一位初入职场的电影公司女助理漫长的一天工作内容，简单重复和无聊乏味的情节就像在看一部纪录片似的。由于我事前并不知道这是根据哈维·韦恩斯坦事件改编的，因此在观看的过程中偶有疑惑，不过平淡真实却又细思极恐的情节让我逐渐感受到创作者暗流涌动的控诉欲望。

这是一个被男人掌控的公司，三组重要的男性角色对应着女性在职场环境里的压力来源。首先是从头到尾只闻其声不见其人的老板，带来隐形的压力和威迫感，从他在电话里的粗言责骂足以让观众感到阵阵惊悚的效果；同办公室的两个男同事也摆脱不了帮凶的嫌疑，两人不仅将棘手的工作交给女主角完成（应付老板的太太的来电），还在她被老板责骂后，主动教她写道歉信恳求老板原谅（但事实上她根本没做错事！）最恐怖的莫过于人力资源总监，他明知老板生活不检点，还纵容其对新来助理施加的丑恶行为，甚至暗示并劝导女主角收回对其的投诉，还说她不是老板喜欢的类型……这个公司算是当下男权社会的缩影，女性承受着来自种种不公和刻薄对待，甚至遭遇性侵犯。作为沉默忍让的女性终于选择大胆发声捍卫自己的权益，女主角在影片后半段的醒悟也印证了这一点。尽管结果并未如人意，但这种女性觉醒的潮流正是前两年MeToo运动在欧美爆发的重要原因。

作为MeToo时代的真实写照，这部影片算是一部另类的恐怖惊悚片。片中似乎有一双无处不在的眼睛在监视者女主角在上班时的一举一动，有好几个垂直俯拍的镜头画面就有类似的强烈意味。女主角的第一人称视角更不断渲染这种不知不觉的压迫氛围，而身在其中的她却求助无门，从后半段她身上那件外套也能反映出她缺乏安全感的内心想法。当作是一部职场新人的恐怖题材来看也许有点乏味，而从平淡的细节里延伸出更多的对比联想，则明显带有着较为严肃的社会控诉意味。相信这才是影片的真正力量所在。

这部片子让我很有共鸣。

我也是一位助理，在一家电商公司的视频部门当影视摄影助理。做的事情很琐碎，清洗东西是一件再正常不过的事情了，拍辅食类的产品用到的一堆锅碗瓢鹏、模拍时宝宝用过的奶瓶、还有它弄脏的衣物。除此之外，还涉及到搬重物——每次模拍外拍都有一堆摄影器材还有道具产品需要带。模拍的时候还需要帮着一起哄宝宝，以调动宝宝的最佳状态。

习惯了服从，习惯了说“好的”，不知道拒绝两个字怎么写。被制片训、被策划凶、被主摄嚷嚷，是公司里食物链最底层一般的存在。很辛苦很卑微，每天也是很晚才回到家，累到对男朋友胡乱发脾气，而且，我已经很久没有见到落日了。

之所以还没有离开，是想在这家公司混个资历，毕竟之前那么辛苦都坚持下来了，总不能干了一年多出来还是个助理吧？

工作里，最常出现的事情是：你做着很多不属于你职责份内的事情。

制片忙，你就得跑腿去拿定好的一群人的午餐；导演渴了，你就噗嗤噗嗤跑去搬瓶装水；美术忙不过来，你就得帮忙置景收拾；经纪人不在，你就得跟外模沟通。对了，拍摄里会用到的道具的采购也是你。助理就是担任这么多琐碎工作的一个存在。

如果只能用一个词来形容这部片子，我会用【真实】。

电影跟随女主Jane的视角，用一种近乎emotion-less的方式记录了Jane一天的助理生活。女主没有设定太多台词，刚开始的几十分钟感觉仿佛在看vlog，我想这就是导演想要达到的效果吧——记录Jane工作的一天，而不加以渲染自己的价值取向。我个人非常喜欢这种叙事方式。

随着Jane工作的展开，我发现这个工作大部分时间是处理babysitting一样的琐碎又接连不断的小事。这份工作唯一的指南、标准，就是是否让你的业巨擘老板满意。如果你稍有不合老板心意，老板直接电话过来骂的你狗血淋头，他强势的要你承认自己的错误，并发道歉信给他。这时候已经能发现Jane处于一个时刻贬低你的环境中，这真的非常糟糕。影片让我印象深刻的一点是，当Jane第二次道歉后，老板回复邮件说：“i’m sorry, you are great. I was tough because I am going to make you great”。包括老板的司机也对Jane说过：“老板说你聪明又努力，觉得你很棒”。被贬低惯了的Jane听到这些话时，露出了感激的神态。看到这一幕我冷汗在背，这是已经被破坏了自信心的Jane,一个想要留住这份工作的Jane，她已经分不清这种攻击似的称赞和虐待其实没有区别了。

整部片子，没有直接提到sexual harassment,但你无时无刻不感受到这种骚扰和权利压迫的存在。这也是我认为真实的一点。Sexual harassment就像elephant in the room，每个人都看的到它，你也听得到同事捕风捉影的谈话，但没有人真的谈论它。关于Jane在和HR见面时表现出的犹豫的状态，我也觉得非常真实。当Jane意识到老板和新助理在酒店时，她去找HR是一种下意识的状态，我想她对新助理更多的是一种同为女性的关心（或许有些许嫉妒心但我想这不是她主要的感受）。HR的反应也很有意思，半威胁的说了一番话后，貌似安慰的说：“don’t worry you are not his type”。在这样的系统中，每个人只是doing his job，没人对一个年轻女孩脆弱的担忧感兴趣。

为什么我说这部片子真实，因为我想这部影片呈现的，就是一个女性处在这样的职场环境中，所表现出的状态。真实世界中没有上帝视角，我们或许会感到周围的环境不对劲，这份工作让你不舒服，也知道离开或许是最好的选择。可是在行业老大手下工作opens doors for you，离开了就会更好吗？当这些“不正常”的事情变成了一种文化，是不是尽量适应这个环境来保护自己更实际呢？还有让我印象深刻的一点是，Jane在和别人对接事务时，一直很有礼貌，有商有量的语气。可是当她和HR谈过以及见到新助理从酒店回来若无其事的坐在自己对面，她对老板司机的语气bossy了起来。环境改变人真的很快。

整部影片，Jane的老板都没有露面，但是通过让老板的笑声和说话声从关闭的门和电话线中渗出，导演成功的塑造了一个控制欲极强、极其自大、极其不尊重女性的老板形象。这也更烘托了Jane工作环境的真实性。压迫、恶意和虐待像幽灵一样，无声无息的实现着他的罪行，将员工也变成事实上的帮凶。

最后，again，这真的是我看过最好的#MeToo影片。

匆匆看了下短评，大家原来对这部片子真正主题理解有这么大的偏差。这片子的标签是Harvey Weinstein movie，它讲的不是简单的打工人打工魂，社畜，职场小白什么的，而是Harvey Weinstein性侵案的一个十分独特的视角。它聚焦于他的私人助理，但这个助理又并不是他的type，而且聚焦于一天的时间（entry-level的职员难以置信的漫长的一天），而这一天正是助理拼凑起了Weinstein性侵证据的一天。从这个角度来看，这部电影必须联系所反映的真实案件，不然对它的理解会完全浅表或者偏差。

从摄影方面来讲，整体的色调非常冰冷，后思极恐，大量的脸部特写和俯拍镜头突出了主角的孤立感和无助感。在声音处理上，主角的声音也是微弱的近乎被淹没。

本片的高潮无疑是Jane和HR的对话，从体谅到压制到批评，观众也不得不考虑到底Jane应该如何抉择，或者说她到底有没有选择。那个遥不可及的制作人梦想值不值得一次次卑微的道歉邮件和一次次良心的谴责。

看的时候在想，如果Jane和两个男助理去吃个晚饭会不会好些呢？她会得到一些support？还是会觉得大家都知道却心照不宣而更加幻灭呢？答案似乎是后者。

Two 2019 feature debuts from aspiring filmmakers that hold fast our zeitgeist by putting a female character in the dead center. Kitty Green’s THE ASSISTANT is exclusively lensed from our titular heroine’s perspective to cast a startling light on a salient social issue in the wake of the notorious Weinstein effect; meanwhile, Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ SWALLOW, doggedly builds up a reductive dissection of a young, gravid bride’s eerie disintegration, by dint of uncomfortable body horror tropes to reify her pica affliction.

Adhering to her technique developed as a documentarian, Green adopts an uncharacteristic angle to tackle her unsavory subject matter. In THE ASSISTANT, Garner plays Jane, a junior assistant in an unspecified NYC film production company, and the film takes place during her overlong working hours on a hectic Monday. We watch her being picked up by a limousine to work long before daybreak, and follow her in clerical drudgery, see the big shots from her peripheral vision and hear things only within her earshot. By doing that, Green risks narrative clarity and leaves the scandalous skinny in connotation or off-screen, consequently the film rather invites an immediate revisit to suss the implications of every casual dialogue and throwaway joke, and for better to piece together what is going on.

Green’s strategy, not audience-friendly, but totally chimes in with Jane’s grunt-level existence in the company, but felicitously, do we really need to see those sordid goings-on with our own eyes? We shall all be thankful to Green for being so considerate in her approach, because such a canker, condoned systemically by the industry and beyond is better limned as this immaterial, omnipresent force of vileness, penetrating every couch and behind every closed doors in every office and hotel room, it is everywhere therefore it must be put paid to.

Carrying the entire film on her slender shoulders, Garner exhibits strenuous stamina and restrained body language as the doormat (Jane is a sponge absorbent of the negative outpourings of the boss’ wife) and the dogsbody (she is virtually invisible in front of her superiors and other colleagues), even the two male assistants callously exploit her newness (only being there for 5 weeks), or maybe also because she is a she, and let her bear the brunt of blame and verbal abuse. Yet, in her position, she has no right to say otherwise.

Jane aspires to be a producer, and she knows all too well that she must pay her dues and turn a blind eye on the seedy matters, if she wants to make it. But on the off chance when that actually happens, she will have already become one of the silent connivers in that toxic working environment (implied by the unseen boss’s sinister motivation). Moreover, she should considered herself lucky, according to the head of Human Resources (Macfadyen), simply because “you are not his type”, it’s all so reassuring! Macfadyen has that peculiar air of faux-earnestness, mixed with veiled hubris, to express the warped normalcy as if it is the most commonplace words to utter, whereas Garner is so utterly disconcerted and anguished in her botched worm-will-turn rebel, their exchange is the crescendo of this gritty film.

Incredibly, THE ASSISTANT plays up the working place’s drabness, impersonality and functional symmetry to keep us absorbed with its coded message. However, SWALLOW is so stunning on the eye level, the young couple, Hunter and Richie Conrad (Bennett and Stowell) are gorgeous, their affluent, minimalistic upstate NYC residence with a killer view, is often filtered through prismatic hues to emphasize the magic power of money.

But what happens inside is far less majestic, Hunter, hailed from a lower class, is maladaptive to her new ascendancy as the cinderella, who has a bun in the oven and develops an anomalous appetite for inedible things (including some small sharp objects, those swallow scenes are fastidiously arranged, and not for the squeamish). Does she subconsciously want to lose the baby? and why is that? A thought never occurs to our prince charm Richie, instead, his family hires a burly minder Luay (Nakli), a Syrian immigrant, to keep an eye on her minute by minute to forestall any self-inflict harm, solely for the safety of their precious progeny.

If the plot is piled up with unmitigated clichés (cruel, senseless rich people, good-hearted immigrants, a fable of perfect family of origin, the psychological manipulation of negging and nonpology, the list goes on and on…) and Mirabella-Davis might be a lousy fabulist, what gives vitality to SWALLOW, besides Katelin Arizmendi’s stylish cinematography, is Bennett’s metamorphic performance. A frail flower distressed by her parentage (the cat will be let out of the bag later) and conjugal negligence, Bennett, who looks like a poor girl’s Jennifer Lawrence, grandly inhabits Hunter’s compulsion, disorientation and exasperation with such astonishing finesses, one cannot take eyes off her. Even when we cannot relate to Hunter’s weird condition, we are compulsively intrigued by Bennett’s nuanced delivery and delicate mannerism, hoping some deus ex machina can materialize to save her.

Eventually, Mirabella-Davis grants Hunter a touching closure (Denis O’Hare’s brilliant cameo is exactly what the doctor ordered, he can proficiently pull off a complicated emotional range in meager minutes, though on paper, the reconciliation is still a mawkish cliché) and the final shot statically looking at a lady’s room with people come and go writ large the film's emboldened stance: pro-life and pro-woman.

When all is said and done, both THE ASSISTANT and SWALLOW are promising works well wrought by their emergent creators, together, they paint a vivid picture of the wrongs (in the working place or in one’s own home) inflicted upon women by faulty, haughty, selfish men, but they are not just reproachful to the stronger sex, their artistry underlies more hope in women’s resilience, Jane might walk the plank the next day, she can at least have peace with herself and knows better of her goals, as for Hunter, starts anew and puts aside a failed marriage, together with her psychogenic malady, scrumptious comestibles are beckoning and cinderella can get stuffed!

referential entries: Darren Aronofsky’s MOTHER! (2017, 6.6/10); Cory Finley’s THOROUGHBRED (2017, 6.5/10); Leigh Whannell’s THE INVISIBLE MAN (2020, 6.9/10).

Title: The Assistant

Year: 2019

Country: USA

Language: English, Mandarin

Genre: Drama

Director/Screenwriter: Kitty Green

Music: Tamar-kali

Cinematography: Michael Latham

Editing: Kitty Green, Blair McClendon

Cast:

Julia Garner

Matthew Macfadyen

Noah Robbins

Jon Orsini

Kristine Froseth

Dagmara Dominczyk

Alexander Chaplin

Purva Bedi

Juliana Canfield

Makenzie Leigh

Patrick Wilson

Rating: 7.4/10

Title: Swallow

Year: 2019

Country: USA, France

Language: English, Arabic

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Director/Screenwriter: Carlo Mirabella-Davis

Music: Nathan Halpern

Cinematography: Katelin Arizmendi

Editing: Joe Murphy

Cast:

Haley Bennett

Austin Stowell

Elizabeth Marvel

David Rasche

Denis O’Hare

Luna Lauren Velez

Laith Nakli

Babak Tafti

Zabryna Guevara

Rating: 6.9/10