前幾天，我需要給我的外國人牙醫解釋，
結果我寫了下面這個brief, 我在裏面引用來自我最喜歡導演之一 Luis Bunuel 的電影片段。我認為我的 brief 即能有效地表達我的觀點，又有幽默感，所以在這裏分享。
In “Belle de Jour,” a film about a Parisian housewife (played by Catherine Deneuve) who works part-time as a high-class prostitute not for the money but for the thrill, there’s this scene where all she has to do during a house call to a chateau is lie in a coffin and pretend she is dead. Her client, a nobleman dressed in 19th century clothes who has a fetish for dead women, is content with just gazing at her and carrying on a one-sided conversation. The only time they make physical contact is when he touches her hair.
I’m recounting this scene from the film because I’ve tried casting my mind far and wide for an analogy that can help me explain a strange request I’d like to make, and this clip from “Belle de Jour” seems the most fitting.
I would like you to fill in the gaps between the teeth that are visible when I smile.
This is a strange request because it is driven not so much by aesthetics as by “superstitious” beliefs. According to Feng Shui, tooth gaps can cause an outflow of money. Two weeks ago, after you closed the gap between my upper incisors, five new clients sought me out within days, practically begging me to take them on, even though the economy is bad, business is usually slow in the summer, and I had made no recruitment effort at all. I studied Feng Shui in the past, so, just as the “Belle de Jour” nobleman’s bizarre desire is driven by some unresolved issues in his past, I can’t help but be held captive to the idea that it was my new teeth that brought in the new clients. And just as the Catherine Deneuve character, who does not understand what the fuss about playing dead is, is able to make the nobleman happy by sticking to the order to lie still, you will make me happy by overlooking my odd concern about the remaining tooth gaps and simply filling them.
Michelle Ng
英國牛津大學畢業，前《蘋果日報》和《眾新聞》專欄作家，現在身在楓葉國，心繫中國大陸和香港。
聯絡方式： michelleng.coach@proton.me
個人網站： https://michellengwritings.com
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