New cinema
新映影视
The story of an eye
左眼秀出的传奇人生
Nov 29th 2007 | LOS ANGELES
From The Economist print edition
摘自《经济学人》印刷版
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”makes a terrific film
《潜水钟与蝴蝶》成就一部优秀的电影
IT IS no wonder that Julian Schnabel wanted to direct “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, due to open in America on November 30th and adapted from a French book that became an international bestseller in 1997. By blinking his left eye, the author, Jean-Dominique Bauby, dictated a poetic account of his life after a paralysing stroke left him a prisoner of his own body. Mr Schnabel is one of America's leading painters, and Ronald Harwood's canny adaptation about a man who discovers his inner artist when he is reduced to a single eye offers the director limitless opportunities for visual experiments.
朱利安·萧贝尔（ Julian Schnabel ）想要导演《潜水钟与蝴蝶》令人不足为奇，该片改编自一位法国人的回忆录（1997年的国际畅销书）并预定于11月30日在美国上映。瘫痪性中风后的作者让·多米尼克·鲍比（Jean-Dominique Bauby）成为自己身体的囚徒，但他却用闪烁的左眼描述了自己诗意般的人生。萧贝尔先生是美国杰出的摄影家之一，并且罗纳德·哈伍德（Ronald Harwood）对独眼人士发现内心艺术天赋的绝妙编剧为萧贝尔导演在视觉方面提供了无限尝试的良机。
Crucially, though, he never loses the human qualities of the story. Mathieu Amalric achieves a feat comparable to Bauby's by acting with one staring eye as his only means of expression. In a wrenching scene where Bauby cannot comfort his father (Max von Sydow), who is howling with grief into a speaker-phone, his eye gyrates like a trapped animal trying to escape—a visceral image of the character's unimaginable imprisonment.
然而至关重要的是，萧贝尔先生没有丢掉故事中的人文素质。在电影中，马修·阿马立克（Mathieu Amalric）用其仅有的表达方式——单只专注的眼睛，进行表演，就足以与鲍比的亲身经历相媲美了。在鲍比不能安慰父亲（马克斯·冯·西多饰）的一幕痛苦场景中，父亲通过扬声电话悲愤吼叫，他的眼睛转动就如同那被困的猛兽企图逃脱——遭受难以想象的囚禁使该角色表现出了发自内心的形象。
Bauby, who died two days after his book was published, was French, and his ironic humour never deserted him. This is especially visible in the film's opening scenes, where Mr Schnabel forces the viewer into siding with the main character as he responds with incredulous growls to the people who are trying to cheer him up. Bauby is shocked into visualising himself from the outside for the first time when an unthinking friend tells him that the gang at the Café Flore in Paris thinks he is a vegetable. (“What kind of vegetable?” he wonders. “Carrots? Onions?”).
本书出版两天后，鲍比（法国人士）就撒手人世，但他的讽刺幽默却将流传后世。在电影的开场片段，萧贝尔先生迫使观众支持主角，并以怀疑的怒吼回应那些试图奉承他的人们，使这点表现得尤其明显。当一个考虑不周的朋友告诉鲍比一群人在巴黎花神咖啡馆（Café Flore）议论他是植物（人）时，从外部人们对自己的看法中，他第一次为之一颤。（“那类植物？”他琢磨着，“是胡萝卜？抑或是洋葱？”）。
His musing initiates his escape from the deep-sea diving suit that his body has become. Flitting through Bauby's sensuous visions like a signature is the tiny image of a butterfly, the ancient symbol of the soul escaping its earthly cocoon through the power of consciousness. When those images finally give birth to his memoir, Bauby's imagination has transcended the grotesque tragedy of his situation—another old idea conveyed with rare directness in this strange and wonderful film.
鲍比的灵感起始于自己那如同深海潜水服般的身体。如同音符一样掠过他的感性想像是有点类似于蝴蝶的形象，因为蝴蝶是灵魂穿透意识力摆脱人间束缚的古老象征。当这些形象孕育出他的自传，鲍比的想象力已经超越了个人处境的荒唐悲剧-在这部奇妙而又精彩的电影中，另类旧想法以难得的坦率给表现了出来。
以上译文仅供个人学习娱乐，不做他用。未经许可，不得转载。