奇丽壮阔的加利福尼亚的沙漠，摆动荒凉的“29片棕榈叶”小镇。冷漠的自由摄影师戴维（大卫·沃森 David Wissak饰），摆动神经质的女友加茜娅（叶卡捷琳娜·高露别娃 Yekaterina Golubeva饰）。一路上，他们无止无休的为鸡毛蒜皮的琐事争吵，唯有疯狂的如兽性般的做爱才能暂时愈合这段几近崩溃的关系。争吵、做爱、愈合，再争吵、做爱、愈合，病态的四天四夜。直到一场突如其来的暴力事件，把这一切都终结在噬人的沙漠中……本片以其强烈的哲学反思意味，在2003年的威尼斯电影节上引起很大的反响，并荣获该年威尼斯电影节最佳影片金狮奖的提名。
回复 : 导演阿星（张国荣）因为接连的票房失利失业，生活的困顿虽令他觉得前路茫茫，却并没失去抱负，一直在等时机。功夫不负，阿星终又获拍片机会，但他没料到的是，老板只想制作低俗的三级片，只把他当拍片机器，沮丧拒绝，该片监制也是其好友的阿虫（罗家英）耐心开导一番，阿星向现实低头，可是 怀才不遇的委屈情绪仍无法挥去。 拍片过程中，阿星通过与男女主角华叔（徐锦江）梦娇（舒淇）以及摄影师等人的接触，晓得三级片也可以拍得很艺术，扭正拍片态度，又在女友阿May（莫文蔚）及母亲的支持下，立志拍出让人大吃一惊的好片来。
回复 :韩峰（韩兆 饰）在一天之内丢掉了工作和恋人，一无所有的他陷入了人生的低谷之中。然而，韩峰的运气发生了触底反弹，他竟然被大名鼎鼎的大时代公司给录用了。不过，得意忘形的韩峰很快就犯了错误，遭到了人事部经理夏雪（张楚焱 饰）的厌恶，等待韩峰的结局只有一个，那就是拍屁股走人。就在这个节骨眼上，总经理杨阳（王彤 饰）现身留住了韩峰，让他以试用职员的身份留在公司里。虽然没有被辞退，但杨阳之后的日子也不好过，对他早有成见的夏雪在工作中处处和他针锋相对，两人之间产生了诸多的矛盾。然而，韩峰用自己的实力证明了价值，最终获得了同事和领导们的信任，也收获了真挚的感情。
回复 :Whenever I see La Paura I think of it as a companion piece to Eyes Wide Shut, or maybe it is the other way around. Adultery makes both films tick but in different ways. I think Phillip French was right on the money when he pointed out a Wizard of Oz thing in Kubrick's last work. Like Dorothy, Tom and Nicole go through fantasies and nightmares and at the end Dorothy's reassuring childish motto "there's no place like home" is ironically updated to the adult circumstantial adage "there's no sex like marital sex". Kubrick's take is intellectual, he never leaves the world of ideas to touch the ground. He taunts the audience first with an erotic movie and then with a thriller and refuses to deliver either of them. He was married to his third wife for 40 years, until he died. Rossellini was still married to Ingrid Bergman when he directed La Paura; they had been adulterous lovers and their infidelity widely criticized La Paura is a tale, a noirish one. The noir intrigue is solved and the tale has a happy ending. The city is noir; the country is tale, the territory where childhood is possible. The transition is operated in the most regular way: by car, a long-held shot taken from the front of the car as it rides into the road, as if we were entering a different dimension. Irene (Bergman) starts the movie: we just see a dark city landscape but her voice-over narration tells us of her angst and informs us that the story is a flashback, hers. Bergman's been cheating on her husband. At first guilt is just psychological torture but soon expands into economic blackmail and then grows into something else. From beginning to end the movie focuses on what Bergman feels, every other character is there to make her feel something. Only when the director gives away the plot before the main character can find out does he want us to feel something Bergman still can't. When she finds out, we have already experienced the warped mechanics of the situation and we may focus once again on the emotional impact it has on Bergman's Irene. In La Paura treasons are not imagined but real, nightmares are deliberate and the couple's venom suppurates in bitter ways. Needless to say, Ingrid has another of her rough rides in the movies but Rossellini doesn't dare put her away as he did in Europa 51, nor does he abandon her to the inscrutable impassivity of nature (Stromboli). His gift is less transcendent and fragile than the conclusion of Viaggio in Italia. He just gives his wife as much of a fairy tale ending as a real woman can have, a human landscape where she can finally feel at home. Back to the country, a half lit interior scene where shadows suggest the comfort of sleep. After all, it's the "fairy godmother" who speaks the last words in the movie.
