
"My darling. I'm waiting for you. How long is a day in the dark? Or a week? The fire is gone now. And I'm cold, horribly cold. I really want to drag myself outside but then there'd be the sun. I'm afraid I waste the light on the paintings, and I'm not writing these words. We die. We die,we die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have...entered and swum up like rivers. Fears we have hidden in ---- like this wretched cave. I want all this marked on my body. We're the real countries, not the boundaries drawn on maps with the names of powerful men. I know you'll come and carry me out into the Palace of Winds. That's what I've wanted: to walk in such a place with you, with friends, on the earth without maps. The lamp has gone out and I'm writing in the darkness."
长到两小时四十分钟的电影,叙述的方式让我想起了The Curious Case of Benjamin Button。同样是执子之手却不能偕老的故事,在硝烟弥漫的背景下,The English Patient更让人感慨。
初见之时,他是个不愿被情感羁绊的伯爵,她却已为人妇,带着英国政府的命令,与自己的丈夫来到沙漠。然而就在寸草不生的沙漠里,在他第一眼望见她的那一刻,这两个生命注定会紧紧纠缠在一起。他们在开罗的小旅馆里拥抱,偷欢,肆无忌惮的释放自己的情欲。故事到这里,他与她的爱情,夹杂着占有欲控制欲和以及对婚姻的背叛,本该是受人唾弃的,却又觉得他们爱的理所当然。
他将受伤的她安置在山洞,许诺一定返回沙漠,之后遍不顾自己的生死,独自一人穿越沙漠。然而故事若只到这里,自我牺牲也不过是大多电影中常用的桥段。英军将他看做是德国间谍,不但不帮助他,反而将他押送走。他逃下火车,为了救她性命,把测绘地图交给德军,换取飞机汽油。这一次,他为了她,牺牲的不仅仅的自己的命。他爱她,可以不顾他的国家,不顾究竟会有多少人为此送命,更不顾世人对他的唾骂。当所有人都认为他是间谍的时候,他只是说,我遵守了我的承诺,我重返沙漠。其实,爱情不本该就这么自私的么。不是英雄,也不是战士,只做为她爱的他,只为了他们之间渺小的爱情。
Every night,I cut out my heart,but in the morning,it was full again.