痴電影

我沒有看過Rent的舞台劇，但我本身其實並不是很喜歡Rent這部電影，
只是裡面人工家庭(Artificial Family)模式很吸引人，所以修戲劇選時
結合了Kurt  Vonnegut 本人及小說有關Artificial Family的論點寫了
短篇的essay，許多地方還未修改，要更加完整的呈現約得寫成10~15頁
的paper，既然與電影相關就放了上來。

(Rent 原是由歌劇「波西米亞人」La Boheme為藍本改編的，除了時空背景，
角色性格、劇情也變動許多。)

Artificial Family in Rent

        According to Webster Dictionary, the definition of “family” is “Primary social group; parents and children” or “group of two people or more, one of whom is the householder, related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together; all such people, including related subfamily members, are considered as members of one family.” This basic form of family is called “hereditary family”. However, the characters in Rent create another form of family, in Kurt Vonnegut’s theory, called “artificial family utopia”. That is, a family consist of a group of people, whether lovers or friends, who share common ideals of life, interests and being able to support each other in life. The idea of artificial family utopia and how it presented in Rent will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

       First of all, compare to the traditional family, “artificial family” is more flexible, there are no actual role of parents and children; it breaks the moral barriers and the limitation of relationship. It contains all kinds of people, as in Rent, there are lesbian (Joanne), bisexual (Maureen), heterosexual (Roger, Mimi and Mark), gay and transvestite (Collin and Angel). The basis is you get along well with each other and being supportive. Like Vonnegut illustrated in Timequake, “as diverse as individuals can be, so proportionately diverse must families be also.” (Artificial Family Units in America, paragraph 1). Since artificial family has no legal efficiency, people can come and go by their own will. For instance, Benny, who once belonged to the family, decided to leave to pursuit his ideal life, but he still shows his support in his own way. Joanne, who becomes one of the family members because she is having a relationship with Maureen, and is also, willing to help solving various problems although Mark and Maureen had some history in the past. Moreover, there is one crucial element that brings the characters in Rent together: they share one common belief of life: the concept reveals in La Vie Boheme, “Loving tension, no pension, to more than one dimension, to starving for attention, hating convention, hating pretension, not to mention of course, hating dear old mom and dad.” In stead of being restricted by social standard, they’d rather to live in a more liberal way and to live in present. “No day but today”, that’s the core of their life style.

        
      The purpose of composing an artificial family is to fulfill the void of life and being identified with certain group of people, which they can’t get from their biological family. In the movie version of Rent, when Mark heard the Christmas message from his family, he said, “There are times when we’re dirt broke and hungry and freezing, and I ask myself why the hell am I still living here, and then they call, and I remember.” In addition, most of the characters have problems or as Roger said, “baggage”, that they couldn’t deal with by themselves. For instance, Mimi, Roger and Angel have AIDS; Mimi is a junkie at the same time, and Mark is lonely. The interdependent relationship in the self-created family can help them get over the problem together and to live with hope and love in a more positive way. Vonnegut said” Human being in extraordinary and enduring situations should think themselves composing new families.” The spiritual leader in Rent is Angel, who uses his/her bright perspective towards life and lovable spirit to unite the whole family, and even brings Mimi back from death at the end.

       
      The resurrection of Mimi presents the idea that life is worth living when people support each other and the necessity of family. Thus, by supporting each other in this interdependent relationship, people in Rent live up to their belief of life and identify themselves with each other as “family”