The Liminal Icongraphy : part 3

The Liminal Iconography (若隱若現的身影：下篇)
by Christina Lane

23) Certain photographs in the popular press also play up Foster's ambiguity by showing her features as partially hidden. In one Rolling Stone photograph, Foster stands slightly off-center, wearing a shimmery silver outfit, with shadows dividing her face. She presses her hand up against what appears to be a glass window (Hirshen 35). This photo, in particular, suggests that Foster is pressed under a microscope slide, asking the readers of her image, "Who am I?"The shadows that frame her cause her identity to seem slightly unknowable. One might assume that Foster's refusal to be labeled in interviews or photographs positions her outside the discussion of sexual identity. Indeed, instead she finds herself right in the middle of the discussion, but merely occupying an ambiguous and enigmatic space within it.

某些通俗媒體也將她的身影拍攝成部份隱沒呼應她雌雄莫辨的特性．在某期滾石雜誌，福斯特略在畫面中心之外，穿著銀色閃亮的衣服，臉上陰影半遮．她把手靠著類似玻璃窗的面板．這張照片像是暗示她被放置於顯微鏡下，詢問讀者：我是誰？她臉上的陰影讓她不易被辨認．我們或許可推論福斯特並不想在訪問中還是照片裡，讓自己顯得很不願討論性傾向．她反而要處在議題之中，但是包覆著模糊與謎樣的介質．

24) Foster appears to contribute to the ambiguity of her persona in part by eluding questions in interviews that might reveal too much. One Redbook interviewer says, "Jodie Foster is skilled at avoiding questions and dodging comments on forbidden territory--specifically the realm of two prohibited topics.Prohibited Topic Number One involves everything about her romantic life and inclinations" (Segell 79). The fact that the author brings up her romantic life in terms of "inclinations" provides just one example of how the media throw Foster's sexual identity into question. (The second prohibited topic happens to be John Hinckley Jr.) Foster draws a line on her romantic life, refusing to indulge in the conversation. This same strategy of eluding the public's desire to "know" her -- to categorize her sexually and socially-- can be seen in her choice of film roles. Very rarely does she play a character where the film is allowed to "suture in" a romantic happy ending with Foster riding of into the sunset on the back of Prince Charming's horse.Most of her films conclude atypically for Hollywood, echoing the diasporic characteristic of much of lesbian fiction and film. In Little Man Tate, the first script that Foster chose to direct herself in, her character never finds herself confronted with a love interest, but instead concentrates on her relationship with her son.

福斯特善於避答採訪中可能進一步透露的問題，這顯然是造就她性傾向模糊的原因之一．Redbook的採訪人就提到：茱蒂善於迥避禁忌的問題和評論，特別在兩大議題上．頭條禁忌是任何有關她的感情生活和性傾向．這位作者將她的感情生活和性傾向相提並論，這顯示媒體如何對福斯特性傾向起疑的一例．(第二項禁忌是所有與辛克里相關者) 福斯特在她的感情生活畫一條紅線，不願意多加談論．她在電影角色的選擇也採取同樣策略，消除大眾想要「了解她」的慾望，以免在性傾向還是族群上將她分類．她在影片中很少出現皆大歡喜的愛情結局：就是那種福斯特坐在白馬王子身後一起騎向落日的結局．大部份她的影片是反好萊塢式的結局，比較像是女同小說或電影中的流亡性格．＜Little Man Tate 我的天才寶貝(1991) ＞是她第一部自導自演的作品，她的角色始終沒有遇到心上人，劇本聚焦在她和兒子間的關係．

25) One of the aspects that makes Foster's persona so provocative is that, although she retreats when asked about her own romantic life, as she gains power in Hollywood, she chooses to address sexuality as her major subject of exploration. When asked by Redbook what she wants to do in the film world, she picks "the subject of how absurd -- and false -- Hollywood's renderings of women's sexuality are on screen. She finds it 'laughable' that women in movies can manage a shattering orgasm after about 20 seconds" (Segell 79).

有一件事情讓福斯特的銀幕形象引起爭議：雖然她避而不談自己的感情生活，但是她在好萊塢獲得主導權後，她卻表示要以性議題為電影探討的方向．當Redbook訪問她未來想要拍攝的題材，她想探討「好萊塢是如何在銀幕上荒謬錯誤地呈現女性情慾」．看到電影上把女人描述成可以有20分鐘駭人的性高潮，她覺得很可笑．

26) I'm waiting to see a movie about the women I know -- a movie that explores the dynamics of why that other person completes you, why you're together. I'd like to explore female sexuality in a way that people don't get to see on screen. (79)

「我期望看到有一部電影是關於我所了解的女性，能發掘出為什麼這個人能讓你人生圓滿，為什麼你們會一起相守．我想探討銀幕上未曾表現的女性情慾．」

27) Foster's ideas about representing desire and sexuality on screen are most certainly women-centered, and even border on the latest developments in feminist film theory that attempt to radicalize the current masculinist and heterosexist symbolism of women's sexuality in mainstream texts. In other words Foster redefines sexuality as a fluid category -- not merely as a rigid and confining projection of what men want, but instead as an orchestration of female fantasy and desire. The reporter asks how she intends to change contemporary representation.
Foster replies, "I'm fascinated by the idea of putting two people in a room for 20 hours, finding out what they do when no one is around and filming it. I mean people do the weirdest things when they're alone" (Segell 79).

福斯特對於銀幕上女性情慾的呈現全然以女性為中心，甚至是擴及到近期女性主義電影理論發展的範疇，該理論是試圖改變主流文化女性情慾中的雄性與異性戀霸權．換言之，福斯特把性傾向的歸類定義為流動易變的，不是死板狹隘地投男性所好，而是依循女性的想望及慾望達到水到渠成．記者詢問她如何改變現行的方式．福斯特回答：我很想把二個人20小時放在一個房間裡，觀察他們在有拍攝與沒攝時是如何反應．獨自一人時，人總是會做出最奇怪的事．

28) So, in interviews, Foster apparently frames her thinking about sexual representation in terms of the boundaries between interior and exterior, public and private, in and out. She makes similar comments to Rolling Stone: "I have this fascination with public personae and private people.There's that juxtaposition of image versus intimacy" (Hirshen 89). This public/private quandary seems to structure Foster's cinematic intentions. Her fascination with public and private can be framed theoretically as well. She is studying the distance between representation and subject.

所以，在採訪中，福斯特顯然是把性慾的呈現，透過不同界限的觀點來看：內在的與外在的、公領域與私領域、不出櫃與出櫃．她在滾石雜誌也表達相似的說法：我很著迷於公眾的形象和私下的真性情．這是表象與實際感受之間的對立抗衡．公私領域的困境似乎構成福斯特的拍攝動機．她對公私領域現象的著迷，其原因可依此類推．她是在研究表象與目標對象之間的差距．

29) If Foster is ambiguous, then doesn't she use that "space of unknowing" to her advantage -- strategically aligning herself where she sees fit for the time or, better put, intentionally disaligning herself from any static position?

如果福斯特是雌雄莫辨的，難道她不曾運用這份「不能理解的距離」所帶來的好處，策略性地決定，什麼時候要融入一種固定的身份，什麼時候可以隨心所慾擺脫任何標籤．

30)The empowerment she receives from the loyalty of numerous camps certainly suggests this. This strategy may be why she is able to take on a role about gang rape, then direct a feature film, and then play a strong but feminine woman of the Reconstruction period.

她從各路人等獲得的忠心支持可以證明．這個策略或許可以解釋她能飾演一個被集體性侵的角色，又能導演一部劇情長片，還能演出美國南北戰後，堅強但很女性化的角色．

31) As suggested by the public reaction to her role in The Silence of the Lambs, Foster's liminal status has appeared to be most at stake at the time of that film's release. Thus, Staiger's analysis of this cultural event again becomes paramount to understanding Foster's persona. Staiger insists:

至於大眾對於她在＜沈默的羔羊＞的角色，福斯特模糊的性傾向在電影發行時卻造成嚴重危機．所以，Staiger對這項文化事件的分析再度成為了解福斯特銀幕形象重要的文章．Staiger堅言：

32) Thus, although Starling is a woman, she may not be a "normal" woman. We thus have a quadrant of gender and sexual preferences available in the film: Lecter: heterosexual male; female victims: (heterosexual) female victims; Gumb: homosexual male; Starling: homosexual female... In my analysis of this public discourse, the most apparent danger [as evidenced by social anxieties] was from incorporating or transgressing traditional oppositions.

「雖然Starling是女性，她可不是一般的女性．我們對片中的性別與性傾向可畫分四個面向：Lecter－異性戀男子；女性受害者－異性戀女子；Gumb－同性戀男子；Starling－同性戀女子....在我的論文分析中，最明顯的危險(根據社會焦慮所顯示)是混合，或是違背傳統的相對角色．」

33)According to Staiger, Foster's guilt by association with (characters) Lecter and, even more so, with Gumb, places her in an extremely problematic place within the conventional world of binary oppositions and rigid categories.

根據Staiger的說法，福斯特因為與片中Lecter聯結，甚至是與Gumb聯結，而招來非議，導致她在僵硬二分法的傳統社會中立於極為爭議的處境．

34) This article has been an effort to posit iconic inquiries and address them. As I have shown, Foster's images are constructed not only through her acting roles, nor only through her directorial choices, but also via her iconography that circulates through print media and fashion photography. Of course, in exploring mediations of Foster, one needs to take into account Foster's privileged status as an upper middle- class, ivy-league-educated, white woman. Perhaps, through her iconography, Foster exploits a position of identity.Acknowledging this privilege, I conclude however, with the suggestion that Foster's ambiguous and tenacious "unidentity" may be her public articulation of the problems associated with sexual boundaries and categories.

本文試圖去推論公眾形象的疑點，並提出說明．如同我所指出的，福斯特的形象不僅由她演出的角色，也不是只由她導演的作品所建立，還包括經由平面媒體及時尚攝影所流傳的圖像．當然，要解讀福斯特，還須考慮福斯特的特權身份：中上階級、長春藤聯盟的知識份子、白種女性．或許經由她的圖像研究，福斯特大膽建立出一種特性．就算她屬於特權身份，我還是要這樣定論，福斯特的雌雄莫辨，與堅決地「不被定性」可能是她在性慾的界限與歸類上產生問題的關鍵所在．


若隱若現的身影：上篇
若隱若現的身影：中篇


參考：茱蒂福斯特作品列表