デヴィッド・フィンチャー「ソーシャル・ネットワーク」のためのノート

公開日の1月15日（土）、新宿ピカデリーのレイトショーで「ソーシャル・ネットワーク」を観てきました。

動機としては、僕自身が学生時代からFacebookのユーザーであること、マーク・ザッカーバーグが同じ1984年生まれであるということ、そして題材と監督イメージのギャップが挙げられます。「ファイト・クラブ」や「ベンジャミン・バトン　数奇な人生」で知られるデヴィッド・フィンチャー監督がFacebookの映画を手がけると聞いたとき、多くのファンが違和感を覚えたことと思います。僕もその一人でしたが、観終わった感想は「最高にクール」。派手なアクションも、流行りの３D映像もありませんが、心地よい疲労感と高揚感を覚えました。

筋書きはいたって明快

Facebookがハーバード大学の学生寮で生まれ、爆発的なスピードで5億人のユーザーを集め、やがて原題の通り"The Social Network"と定冠詞がつく存在になるまでの「サクセス・ストーリー」が一方にあり、もう一方には、世界最年少の億万長者になりながらも、いくつもの訴訟を抱える孤独な天才プログラマー、マーク・ザッカーバーグの「どこにもたどり着けない物語」があります。

「クール」と感じた点は大きく3つ

まず、台詞がとにかく多い、長い、そして圧倒的に速い。モノクロ時代のスクリューボール・コメディを彷彿とさせる言葉の応酬は、「ファイト・クラブ」のバイオレンスに匹敵する迫力があります。特に、冒頭のやりとりは、アクセルを床まで踏み込んで、ギアを2段階上げるようにGeekでNerdな世界に「聴衆」を引き込みます。日本の映画館では珍しく、ちらほら笑いが起きるほどでした。思い返せば僕の中学高校の友人にも、話したり、文章を書くのが途方もなく速い人がいます。彼らに不得意だった数学を教わりながら、数式を一気に組み立てる頭の回転の速さもさることながら、それをアウトプットする指の動きからして叶いっこないと思ったものです。

次に、「ソーシャル・ネットワーク」には「ドキュメンタリー」を謳う作品にありがちな、「これが真実だ」と押しつけるダサさがありません。原告と被告のFacebook黎明期のやりとりをフラッシュバックさせながら、それらが本当に起きたことなのか判断できないように、脚本に故意に矛盾を残しています。したがって、観ている側で（勝手に）「本当はどうだったんだろうか？」と想像力を働かせる妨げになりません。クール。

最後に、善悪の判断を下さないまま前例のない現象を描こうとする、どの登場人物からも一歩引いたクールなスタンスが貫かれている点がすばらしいです。「ソーシャル・ネットワーク」には（予想に反して） 説教臭さがありません。「どれほど優れたスキルを持っていても、大切なのはコミュニケーション能力です」とも、「アイビー・リーグのスノッブな慣習なんぞクソ食らえ」とも言いません。ザッカーバックの顔アップに大きく「天才/裏切者/危ない奴/億万長者」と白抜きで書かれたポスターも印象的ですが、英語版ではさらに肯定とも否定ともとれない"You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies."という一文になっています。

まとめ

「ソーシャル・ネットワーク」は「ドキュメンタリー」である以前にエンターテイメントとして成功する作品です。技術系にそこまで興味がない方にもオススメします。

“Just like my Dad”: Notes of East is East

East is East

George Khan first came to the United Kingdom in 1937. Although he had a former wife left in Pakistan, he got married to a British woman, Ella, as his second wife. 25 years later, their seven children are marching cheerfully with their neighbors for a Christian celebration. Their only daughter Meenah is carrying the Christ on the cross, and the youngest boy Sajid is strewing flowers on the road. They are totally accepted by the community; however, the children had to deceive their father’s eyes, when Ella informed that he came back home earlier than they had expected. Since George would not be happy seeing his children joining in a Christian parade, they ran the backstreets while the band marched in front of the Khan’s house.

The next scene started with a close-up shot toward the pictures of nine members hanging on the wall. Though their apartment was too small to hold a large family, and their incomes were limited, the Khans seemed satisfied with their life. Furthermore, it was a special day for the family; the eldest son Nazir was going to get married to a Pakistan wife. Even the non-Muslim neighbors gathered around the decorated van, giving them their blessings. Everyone except for Mr. Moorhouse, an enthusiastic adherent of Enoch Powell and yet unaware of his daughter and son hanging around with the Khans, seemed delighted, until the bridegroom ran out of the mosque in the middle of the marriage, and that was when the problem which the family was involved became obvious. The picture of Nazir was taken off from the wall, and George regarded him as a dead child.

What differentiates East is East from other stories having the similar structural outline of adolescent rebellion against parental authority is the distinguishing construction of the family. As mentioned above, George is an immigrant who married a British woman. Therefore, the family is half Pakistan, half Britain, which made the problem more complex than other immigrant families. The second generations of immigrants are likely to have conflicts between the different standards at home and the outward society. However, the seven children are forced to behave differently depending on the father’s presence, not by the location of themselves. For example, the children attempted to run away in sight of a van coming from the mosque to their house; however, once they were caught by George, who was actually watching them from the beginning, they obeyed him without making resistance. Moreover, Tariq, Saleem, and Meenah served themselves pork sausages and bacon while their father was leaving the house. It was not the first time, and perhaps they were getting used to it, though they had to destroy the evidence in great haste on the sudden return of the patriarch.
Among the children, Tariq is the character who seems to be most frustrated by the religious restriction. This good looking young man is a rock music fan, a secret boyfriend of Stella Moorhouse, and a regular visitor of a night-club. Therefore, it is needless to say that he was infuriated at George when he heard about his secret engagement with a Pakistani whom he had never seen. After coming back from a temporary run away from home, he gathered his nerve and asked his father, “Then, why did you marry Mom?”

Since it was a crucial question, it got George into rage, and made the food chopper shudder in his hand. One of the essential problems with George is his inferiority, complex toward the Muslim community. He persists in his home country and Islamic religion, but since he became an emigrant and married with a Christian, he could no longer be a representative of either his country or religion. There was a scene of George getting excited while he was listening to a radio news program reporting the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, which led to the liberation of Bangladesh. He seemed to be worrying not only about his first wife, but also about Pakistan as his home country. As a historical fact, however, Pakistan was formed as a modern state in 1947, thus it should be ten years since George had left his home country. His poor relation with Pakistan was exposed by Mrs. Shah who crossed sword with George about the clothing of Meenah. George insisted that she should wear a traditional sari, and Mrs. Shah denied it by telling that sari is not a traditional costume of Pakistan. Therefore, George became a father of seven children in Britain, and yet he can be regarded as an “orphan” without a home country from this point of view. His inferior complex is also evident by observing the names of his children. Although his own name is a typical English name, all of his children’s name—Nazir, Tariq, Abdul, Maneer, Saleem, Meenah, and Sajid—are chosen from the names of the Islamic world.

Another problem, which is deeply related with the former, is his simplistic dichotomy between the two values; i.e. Pakistan and Britain, Islam and Christianity, parent and child, etc. As long as George persists in Pakistan and the Islamic world, he and his family living in Britain are doomed to be the outsiders. On the contrary, their interracial marriage can be regarded as irresistible evidence showing the mobility of the ideas and concepts of tradition or nationality. Those ideas have influence upon people for they are beyond the comprehension of individuals, in the meanwhile unjust for the same reason. In addition, the position of parent and child is the most shifting among the examples. Marriage is the diverging point of a son being a husband, climbing the first step of becoming a parent, a reproduction of his father.

To sum up, George had two problems. First, he had an excess inferior complex toward the Islamic community, and second, his dichotomy between the two values lacked flexibility. In the meantime, it is noticeable that he repetitively claimed that what he was doing was intended for the family benefit. Therefore, George is not the only person to be responsible for the crisis which the Khans experienced, neither is this merely a problem of a certain individual being mentally unbalanced. As George had done, it is not unusual for migrant workers, emigrating from colonial regions to suzerain states, to leave their family in the home country, since they could not afford it for financial reasons. This tendency leads to an unbalanced population of immigrants, and once the men leave their home country, finding a partner from the same nationality become exceedingly difficult for them. Thus many migrant workers will rather attempt to find a partner from a different nationality, which will give rise to many interracial marriages and children of mixed parentage. Consequently, East is East is a film filled with exotic music and images, and yet it did not end with only introducing the life of British Muslims, but it is highly suggestive about the intricate conflict, which includes the search for their identity, between the interracially married couples and the second generations.

ぼくの国、パパの国 アユーブ・カーン=ディン ダニアン・オドネル オーム・プリー

"Could be Sisters": Notes of Bridget Jones’s Diary

Bridget Jones's Diary

The story begins with Bridget Jones, a 32 year old unmarried woman who works for a publishing company, starting to keep a diary. It is an attempt of self-organizing, thus she sets out a list of New Year resolutions on the first day; reduce in weight, quit smoking, restrain in alcohol, etc. Saving money may be commonly added to these lists, though financial problem has never been mentioned in the whole film. Both of the Bridget's boyfriends, Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy are people of fortunes, and yet she does not seem to be fascinated by their wealth. Each of her urban friends, Jude, Sheila, and Tom, who are all remaining single, is also making their own living in one way or another. These middle class "singletons" in Britain are self-reliant, and old enough not to choose a partner only by his earnings, which append a tone of purity to this comedy. It does not mean that any men could be the one; they have strict criteria, while they are anxious in some measure. Bridget is the first one to be conscious of marriage among the friends, thus they give several advices in frequent meetings, as a successful career woman, a stubborn feminist, or a sympathetic gay.

Motivations of Bridget for getting married can be roughly divided into three groups. The first one owes it to her family and relatives who asks her about the present love life every time they meet up. In particular, her mother has been introducing Bridget a new prospect for years, but for the person in question, it has been nothing but a burden, and has even been embarrassed by it. The second reason is the physiologic anxiety, which occasionally appears as an image of her dead body lying on the floor of her apartment without being noticed by anyone but hungry dogs. She simply feels lonely, and wants someone to share her life with. The last but not least is the desire for obtaining the social status by being a wife and mother, since the idea of Victorian virtue that women should be responsible for the children is still remaining among the British people from the middle class. Bridget is especially conscious of the latter, since child-bearing period is more limited than the marriageable ages. From these reasons, the desire for getting married precedes the idea of any definite person.

Now, it is comprehensive that her mother, Pamela Jones, takes an important role in the film. She has been an ideal housewife, but after bringing up her only daughter and going through her husband's retirement, she feels of herself needless. Her appearance is fine for her age, which widened the discrepancy between her ideal self-image and actual life. At length, she decides to start her career as an assistant in a television program. Her work fellow, Julian, becomes her new partner, and then she suddenly moves out from the Jones's house, leaving her husband alone. However, Pamela's struggle in television business ends in failure, when she finds out that the relation with her new partner came to an end. Bridget accepts her mother coming back home, with a complex emotion consisting of different standpoints. As her daughter, she must be happy to see Pamela back in the Jones' family home. Moreover, she may have felt sympathetic for her failing in her career as one of the working women. What makes her feelings complicated are a sense of envy that occurs when she watches her parents downstairs, sitting side by side, confirming each other that they would live together for the rest of their lives; at this point, Bridget is disappointed in her hopes. Indeed, the mother is described in marked contrast to her daughter, nevertheless shows the common difficulty to realize the ideal for the working women from the middle class.

Keeping a diary is the first substantial effort to the attainment of her ideal for Bridget. She narrates the occurrences toward the diary, as many diaries are written in a similar way. When the fact that her job takes place in a publish company is put into concern, it is symbolic that she starts to use her words to express herself, instead of merely giving publicity to novels written by others. In the latter part of the film, Bridget switches her career in television in a dramatic way, just as her mother has done. Women working in television are highly estimated by general people, especially if they are announcers and reporters, who are directly exposed to the audience. Women going into this field are demanded to be both high talented and good-looking. Bridget is again sexually harassed by her new boss, as she had been by Daniel before. However, being an attractive woman is sometimes helpful, too. For instance, Mark, who is certainly fond of her at this time, helps Bridget with arranging an exclusive interview for her, which turns out to be a quantum leap in her course as a news reporter.

The heroine of the film has enough luck to meet a person who likes her "just as she is." Her friends are also moved by the phrase, which is namely unusual for others. Today, the definition of middle class includes most of the population in the United Kingdom, thus conflicts between the classes are not serious anymore. On behalf of being labeled by the class they have been brought up, the social status of contemporary Britain middle class women are determined by dual standards. Being a fine worker for one thing, and being a good wife or mother for another. Evaluation as a working woman changes quickly, and even being a good wife becomes a life-long struggle regarding the case of Pamela. It is also notable that the relationship between men is highly influential with both of the standards mentioned above. In most of the developed countries, the career mobility has increased, institutional gender discrimination has been rectified, and still gender prejudice and other obstacles remain in workplaces. For example, maternity leave is approved by the labor contract; however, a temporary departure from the forefront may virtually take a woman away from the high road to success.

It would be too much to say that Bridget Jones's Diary represents with precision the actual lives of unmarried working women in Britain, though it is highly suggestive about the nature of agony which is shared by the group at large. Indeed, although it is a comedy in the first place, nevertheless the film showed two generations, a mother and her daughter, who made strenuous efforts to attain dual social statuses at once, but from different sides, in a community that men still have great influence on women going through the process.