1、Unit 5 The Tapestry of FriendshipEllen Goodman1 It was, in many ways, a slight movie. Nothing actually happened. There was no big-budget chase scene, no bloody shoot-out. The story ended without any cosmic conclusions.2 Yet she found Claudia Weills film Girlfriend gentle and affecting. Slowly, it pa

2、nned across the tapestry of friendship showing its fragility, its resiliency, its role as the connecting tissue between the lives of two young women.3 When it was over, she thought about the movies she had seen this year Julia，The Turning Point and now Girlfriends. It seemed that the peculiar eye, t

3、he social lens of the cinema, had drastically shifted its focus. Suddenly the Male Buddy movies had been replaced by the Female Friendship flicks.4 This wasnt just another binge of trendiness, but a kind of cinema vérité. For once the movies were reflecting a shift, not just from men to wo

4、men but from one definition of friendship to another.5 Across millions of miles of celluloid, the ideal of friendship had always been male a world of sidekicks and “partners of Butch Cassidys and Sundance Kids. There had been something almost atavistic about these visions of attachments as if produc

5、ers culled their plots from some pop anthropology book on male bonding. Movies portrayed the idea that only men, those direct descendants of hunters and Hemingways, inherited a primal capacity for friendship. In contrast, they portrayed women picking on each other, the way they once picked berries.6

6、 Well, that duality must have been mortally wounded in some shootout at the Youre OK, Im OK Corral. Now, on the screen, they were at least aware of the subtle distinction between men and women as buddies and friends.7 About 150 years ago, Coleridge had written, “A womans friendship borders more clos

7、ely on love than mans. Men affect each other in the reflection of noble or friendly acts, whilst women ask fewer proofs and more signs and expressions of attachment.8 Well, she thought, on the whole, men had buddies, while women had friends. Buddies bonded, but friends loved. Buddies faced adversity

8、 together, but friends faced each other. There was something palpably different in the way they spent their time. Buddies seemed to “do things together; friends simply “were together.9 Buddies came linked, like accessories, to one activity or another. People have golf buddies and business buddies, c

9、ollege buddies and club buddies. Men often keep their buddies in these categories, while women keep a special category for friends.10 A man once told her that men werent real buddies until they had been “through the wars together corporate or athletic or military. They had to soldier together, he sa

10、id. Women, on the other hand, didnt count themselves as friends until they had shared three loathsome confidences.11 Buddies hang tough together; friends hang onto each other.12 It probably had something to do with pride. You dont show off to a friend; you show need. Buddies try to keep the worst fr

11、om each other; friends confess it.13 A friend of hers once telephoned her lover, just to find out if he was home. She hung up without a hello when he picked up the phone. Later, wretched with embarrassment, the friend moaned, “Can you believe me? A thirty-five-year-old lawyer, making a chicken call?

12、 Together they laughed and made it better.14 Buddies seek approval. But friends seek acceptance.15 She knew so many men who had been trained in restraint, afraid of each others judgment or awkward with each others affection. She wasnt sure which. Like buddies in the movies, they would die for each o

13、ther, but never hug each other.16 She had reread Babbitt recently, that extraordinary catalogue of male grievances. The only relationship that gave meaning to the claustrophobic life of George Babbitt had been with Paul Riesling. But not once in the tragedy of their lives had one been able to say to

14、 the other: You make a difference.17 Even now men shocked her at times with their description of friendship. Does this one have a best friend? “Why, of course, we see each other every February. Does that one call his most intimate pal long distance? “Why, certainly, whenever theres a real reason. Do

15、 those two old chums ever have dinner together? “You mean alone? Without our wives?18 Yet, things were changing. The ideal of intimacy wasnt this parallel playmate, this teammate, this trenchmate. Not even in Hollywood. In the double standard of friendship, for once the female version was becoming a

16、ccepted as the general ideal.19 After all, a buddy is a fine life-companion. But ones friends, as Santayana once wrote, “are that part of the race with which one can be human.友誼面面觀埃倫·古德曼1 從多方面看來(lái)，這是一部缺乏掛齒的小制作電影。平淡無(wú)奇。沒(méi)有大本錢(qián)制作的追逐畫(huà)面，沒(méi)有血腥的槍?xiě)?zhàn)。故事結(jié)尾也沒(méi)得出什么意味深長(zhǎng)的結(jié)論。2 然而她還是覺(jué)得克勞迪婭·韋爾的電影?女朋友?溫婉動(dòng)人。它緩緩地向我們

17、展現(xiàn)了友誼的全貌它的脆弱、生命力，以及它連接兩個(gè)年輕女子人生的紐帶作用。3 電影放完了，她回想起這一年看過(guò)的幾部電影?茱莉亞?、?轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)?，還有現(xiàn)在這部?女朋友?。似乎電影作品鏡頭這一特殊視角已經(jīng)大大改變了聚焦對(duì)象。一轉(zhuǎn)眼哥倆好的電影已經(jīng)被反映閨蜜友誼的影片所替代。4 這并不僅僅是另一場(chǎng)時(shí)尚狂歡，而是一種實(shí)錄電影的潮流。就這一次電影反映一種轉(zhuǎn)向，不只是從男性轉(zhuǎn)向女性，而是從友誼的一種定義轉(zhuǎn)為另一種定義。5 縱觀數(shù)百萬(wàn)英里長(zhǎng)的電影膠片，友誼的理想主角總是男性滿世界都是類似布奇·卡西迪斯及其鐵哥們山丹思·基德斯這樣的密友、同伴的故事。這些形影不離的銀幕形象似乎是來(lái)自遠(yuǎn)古社會(huì)故事

18、情節(jié)好似是制片人從詮釋男性間密切關(guān)系的人類學(xué)通俗讀物里選取出來(lái)似的。影片詮釋了一個(gè)觀點(diǎn)，即只有男性那些獵人和海明威式硬漢的傳人才繼承了對(duì)于友誼的原始的能力。相反，女人們總是被描繪成互相挑刺，就好似她們從前挑選漿果那樣。6 哦，那種兩面性在OK牧場(chǎng)槍?xiě)?zhàn)中一定已經(jīng)受了致命的槍傷了?，F(xiàn)在，在銀幕上，他們至少意識(shí)到男人作為哥們、女人作為閨蜜的微妙區(qū)別。7 大約150年前，柯勒律治寫(xiě)道：“比起男性，女性的友誼更接近愛(ài)戀。男性之間相互影響表達(dá)在崇高或友善的舉動(dòng)中，而女性不需要這么多實(shí)實(shí)在在的例證，卻需要更多依戀之情的外在表露。8 好吧，她想，總體來(lái)說(shuō)，男人有哥們，女人有閨蜜。哥們相互關(guān)聯(lián)，閨蜜互相喜愛(ài)。哥

19、們共同面對(duì)逆境，但閨蜜直面彼此。顯然，兩者共度時(shí)光的方式互不相同。哥們似乎一起“做事，閨蜜只不過(guò)“在一起。9 哥們像同伙一樣靠各種活動(dòng)聯(lián)系在一起。人們有一起打高爾夫的哥們，有商場(chǎng)上的哥們，大學(xué)時(shí)的哥們和俱樂(lè)部的哥們。男人經(jīng)常按這些類別給哥們歸類，而女人們把閨蜜專門(mén)歸類。10 一個(gè)男人曾經(jīng)告訴她男人不會(huì)成為真正的哥們，除非他們?cè)?jīng)“并肩作戰(zhàn)在商場(chǎng)上，運(yùn)動(dòng)場(chǎng)上，或是戰(zhàn)場(chǎng)上。他說(shuō)，他們得在一起當(dāng)兵打仗才成。另一方面，女人們除非共享了3個(gè)討人嫌的秘密之后才視彼此為閨蜜。11 哥們?cè)谝黄鸸捕呻y關(guān)，閨蜜那么相互依賴。12 或許這和自尊有點(diǎn)關(guān)系。對(duì)一個(gè)閨蜜，你不會(huì)炫耀，你只會(huì)告之你的需要。哥們互相把最糟糕的情況藏著掖