The story appears simple on the surface, but is revealed, especially after multiple viewings, as more multi-layered and textured than Cassavetes at his best. Ostensibly it concerns a 14-year old Catholic girl, Wynne (Agutter) growing up in this post-modern wasteland, who develops a crush on her much older adoptive brother (Marshall)- a crush which perversely deepens and grows into infatuation once she starts to believe he is the local sex killer. This is in itself an idea that makes you sit up and jolt, but as the narrative develops, it continues not necessarily along a linear path but in several confusing and fascinating directions the family's history, (detailed effectively in chilling flashback during an improvised seance) is a chequered one, and has suffered at least one major relocation and upheaval in the last ten years. At the crux, however, it's the depiction of socialal changes that make I Start Counting so fascinating and elevate its language far beyond the confines of the standard horror film. The major subtext- that teenage girls were maturing more quickly than before, and developing full sexual and romantic appetites (even if in thought rather than deed) but were not possessed of enough discretion to make the right choices- was a step forward for a genre in which its young females had previously been portrayed as bimbo victims (Cover Girl Killer and The Night Caller spring to mind), but not one that all viewers would necessarily agree with. But most striking of all, and possibly the most enduring image which the viewer will take away with them, is of the masterful symbolism with which director Greene invests every shot. Every inch of the Kinch family's world- their house, their walls, their TV, Agutters underwear, bedroom furniture and toys, Sutcliffe's clothes, Marshalls van, the local Catholic church, their town centre, their record shop) - is painted a bright, scintillating white- a white which, by inference, is slowly becoming smudged and corrupted with the dirt of the outside world. White also symbolises, of course, purity and innocence (two qualities Catholic schoolgirls are supposed to hold dear), and it is into this world of innocence that the ever-present red bus (a symbol of violation and penetration), conducted by the lecherous yet similarly juvenile Simon Ward, makes regular journeys. The allegory is further expanded in one scene where Agutter believes she sees the Christ figure in church weeping blood by the time we acknowledge it, its gone, but the seed has already been planted. Rarely in a genre production has the use of colour and background been so important or effective in creating a uniformity of mood. I Start Counting is as near-perfect an end to a decade as one could hope for, and exactly the kind of film people should be making now- which is, of course, exactly why they never will. A genre essential. by D.R.
阿尔(小弗雷迪·普林兹 Freddie Prinze Jr. 饰)和艾莫根(朱丽娅·斯蒂尔斯 Julia Stiles 饰)是一对年轻的恋人,他们志趣相投心性相似,是旁人眼中天造地设的一对佳偶,就连他们自己也坚信,他们就是彼此命中注定的那一个人。 在车水马龙的繁华大都市伦敦,有很多人像阿尔和艾莫根一样处于一段稳定的关系之中,但有另一些人,他们流连于灯红酒绿的欢场内,徘徊在个性迥异的伴侣间,享受着年轻和激情带来的肆意自由,从无定数。而目睹这一切的阿尔和艾莫根,渐渐对自己的生活方式产生了怀疑。就在这个节骨眼上,一场意外的发生成为了两人关系的转折点,是继续携手还是分道扬镳,他们无法做出选择。
Scared of life and lacking the courage to be himself, Ludovico lives hidden away in his grandmother's old apartment. One night, the wickedness of the world goes to visit him in the form of Jack, a boy who is Ludovico's age but has the opposite character hard, determined, perhaps criminal. The forced cohabitation of two human beings who couldn't seem more different from one another turns into an initiation rite to adulthood, the discovery of their true and respective personalities. And when the harsh reality that is mercilessly stalking them appears to present the bill, they will have to face it, bolstered by a new awareness and unhoped-for courage.