京人 于 2000/04/05 20:05:15 发表在 汉英
Sun Apr 2 18:47:39 2000
奥斯卡之夜，CNN采访了American Beauty的剧作者保尔
（Alan Ball）。我只看了一段，正好赶上记者问：“电
影的名字为什么叫American Beauty，这里面有什么意思
么？”
保尔说：“第一，American Beauty是一种玫瑰的名字。”
看过这个电影的都知道，主人公的性幻想之一，就是一丝
不挂的女中学生埋在玫瑰花瓣里。有的电影海报也是这个
镜头。
保尔又说：“American Beauty可以是任何美的事物，例如
那个女中学生。”
但他接着说：“归根结蒂，American Beauty就是风里的那
个塑料袋。”
《世界日报》把这部电影翻译成“玫瑰情、美国心”。《多
维新闻》翻译成“美国丽人”，《人民日报》网站则翻译成
“美国蔷薇美人”。
电影的主人公女儿反叛、老婆和别人睡觉、自己最后让
邻居一枪打死。整个电影就是他在生命的最后一刹那回
忆自己的一生。他的结论是，他这短暂而且没有意义的
一生其实是很美的，如果观众不信，到临死的时候就知
道他说的是实话。再想到保尔说，美丽的其实就是那个
在风里翩翩起舞的塑料袋，我的翻译是：
“绚丽人生”。
有一个朋友翻译成“玫瑰畸情”，侧重于影片里中年男
子对少女的爱恋，比迄今报纸上的翻译都好。
大家谁能想出更好的翻译？
京人
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美国之美
作者：hz - 2000/04/06 03:09:54
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Sun Apr 2 21:01:33 2000
未必好，只是当时看电影时想到的译法，聊备一说而已。
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哈！您终于露面啦？！别来无恙吧？
作者：Last Hermit - 2000/04/06 03:14:12
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Sun Apr 2 21:07:13 2000
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多谢调皮的贤兄问候！:-)
作者：hz - 2000/04/06 03:15:24
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Sun Apr 2 21:25:10 2000
不是号召放假吗，咱就从命啦！:-)主要也是这些天有考试，精力全
在那上面，以至“坛”业荒疏，对不住贤兄和XY姐姐记挂。一定争取
弥补！
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哈哈！愚兄也是昨天才找到队伍的呀！不中用啦。
作者：Last Hermit - 2000/04/06 03:16:20
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Sun Apr 2 21:44:05 2000
没问题，尽管去考试吧，要拿A哦！
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真感动。
作者：hz - 2000/04/06 03:17:06
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Sun Apr 2 21:52:54 2000
hz算不得好学生:-)，但一定全力以赴，不让贤兄失望！
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兄妹情深，我也感动
作者：laoliu - 2000/04/06 03:17:52
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Sun Apr 2 23:29:32 2000
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Liu lao shi hao! :-)
作者：hz - 2000/04/06 03:18:44
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Mon Apr 3 00:11:12 2000
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嘘……趁还没引起公愤，别再这么叫了。
作者：laoliu - 2000/04/06 03:20:26
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Mon Apr 3 01:01:37 2000
真的不敢当啊！:-)
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Okay, laoliu shifu :-)
作者：hz - 2000/04/06 03:21:15
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Mon Apr 3 14:16:04 2000
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嘻嘻，武术我倒是会一点。:-)
作者：laoliu - 2000/04/06 03:21:57
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Mon Apr 3 15:31:17 2000
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哈哈，妙！在此文术师傅名实更符吧:-)
作者：hz - 2000/04/06 03:22:57
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Mon Apr 3 16:14:45 2000
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没看过电影也瞎说：“玫瑰绮梦”如何？
作者：Last Hermit - 2000/04/06 03:10:43
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Sun Apr 2 21:05:39 2000
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Hope you can see it soon!
作者：hz - 2000/04/06 03:25:19
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Mon Apr 3 17:03:02 2000
Here is no doubt the most memorable quote of the film. Ricky, a high school boy, is showing his girlfriend Jane a
video that he made. A dancing white plastic bag in front of a wall of red brick...
Ricky Fitts: It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air,
you can almost hear it, right? And this bag was like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it.
For fifteen minutes. And that's the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and... this incredibly
benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video's a poor excuse. But it
helps me remember... and I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't
take it, like my heart's going to cave in. (us.imdb.com)
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插足:)
作者：tian xin - 2000/04/06 03:26:34
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Mon Apr 3 18:40:27 2000
Thanks for posting this passage, it is indeed very beautiful and memorable(I was wondering where to read it
again).
From the context of the whole movie, however, there's a great pathos. Because beauty is found in the random and
aleatory, so that aethetics is cut off both from life and spiritual meaning. It is very representative of the overall
impact of the movie, where beauty is felt to be fragmented, lacking in dynamic or positive coherency. It is best
represented in the characterization of Ricky. However perceptive and responsive he is to fragmented beauty as in
the plastic bag, his neighbour girl's eyes, the face of the dead protagonist, he decides that life is totally something
else and creates his own subculture by taking and selling drugs. Yet he is portrayed to be cool and the only mature
person in the movie while the rest of society is insane and artificial. Though he is an interesting character who
commands our sympathy, this hero is seen as a sociopath created by a sick society and would certainly be a
misleading role model for youth.
The movie tries to show two things: life as sordid farce and at the same time mysteriously beautiful but doesn't
really have the power to pull the two extremes together, which leaves the lyrical passage of Ricky's even more
ironic. The film is quite clever and striking but finally meretricious.
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Excellent! Thanks!
作者：hz - 2000/04/06 03:27:43
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Mon Apr 3 20:30:59 2000
的确，我也认为Ricky并不是个role model。他只是代表了在极其畸
形的社会里既希图保有内心世界的美与真、又不甘被外界丑恶的力量
所击碎的一个灵魂所做的一种令人慨叹的努力。他的理智也许就在于
当别人被污泥浊水冲击得失去了内心的平衡或扭曲了关于美的理想的
时候，他却树起了一道以丑恶对抗丑恶的屏障来卫护自己的精神世界
和对美的感受与追求。充满讽刺，令人难忘却几乎无从置词......
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Thanks for your warm response
作者：tian xin - 2000/04/06 03:32:11
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Mon Apr 3 23:58:50 2000
The movie in a way bluffs unsophisticated audiences and those who immediately identify with the characters, with
its complexity, suspense, cynical humour and contrived confident ending.
On the other hand, it may be considered as having an open ending in that it does lead one to ask the question:
What is it that is lacking and dissatisfying about the story? And one realizes what is painfully absent is the unifying
and nourishing force of LOVE and its confusing joys. It tries to give an affirmation which its satire almost destroys,
and moments of compassion for the earnest and self-punishing wife, the suffering mother, the bashed-up son are
negated by elements of caricature and stereotype. Apart from all Ricky's coolness and independence, one cannot
help wondering how invulnerable his self-built castle is, and and how fragile anything is that does not come out of
self-giving and openness to life, for that matter. Maybe his rows of videotapes are not much different from his
father's love for rules and order. One only prays that his self-suppression is not going to make him his father's son.
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Ha, excellent trilogy! Thanks!
作者：hz - 2000/04/06 03:35:09
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Tue Apr 4 02:05:29 2000
Like what you said, particularly the parallel between Ricky and his father. Indeed, if I have to use a word to
summerize my impression on what's going on in the film, that is hollowness, and my feeling about it, sadness -
everybody and everything there seems to be wrapped in hopeless and helpless sadness. Genuine love might be the
only cure.
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First Impressions on American Beauty
作者：tian xin - 2000/04/06 03:11:59
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Mon Apr 3 01:59:11 2000
It is a slightly ironic but quite clever title, engaging our attention all through the movie to figure out as to whom it
refers to, what it implies or symbolizes. As has been pointed out, "American Beauty" may mean different things: the
name of a rose, the pretty cheer-leader, the dance of the plastic bag, or anything that appears beautiful, for that
matter. On the other hand, it makes it all the more poignant by the contrast between the title and the ugly reality the
protagonists live in. The neat rose garden represents the order and control its mistress tries to impose on life, yet
the beauty of the rose is so removed from the life they lead, marked by failures in both personal relationships and
career. Beneath her typical teenager cynicism and shallowness, the pretty girl is deep down as vulnerable as a rose
petal (but unfortunately the climax of the movie when the girl reveals herself as an innocent rose is not convincing).
The plastic bag, however poetically videoed and viewed, is so accidental, and so random and transient, and being
inanimate, it presents a more painful contrast to the living beauty that is lacking in real life. With the flashes at the
end of moments of beauty of the protagonist's life, the director attempts to offer a possible reconciliation between
the title "American Beauty" and the absence of beauty in life, though not with much success. The overall impact it
had on me remains ironic as the title itself. Perhaps a straight translation as provided by HZ 美国之美 is one
possible way to convey the complexity, the irony and the message the movie tries but partly fails to plausibly
convey. I found it on a whole a fairly stereotyped attack on the American middle class and a confused mixture of
irony and sentiment. American Beauty is certainly not typical of the beauty that surrounds us simple Chinese in
Australia:)
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Indeed an excellent critique! Also my first impression. Thx!
作者：古月 - 2000/04/06 03:51:09
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Mon Apr 3 21:54:00 2000And I also endorse "美国之美" as the best Chinese version for American Beauty. Here the image of American beauty as a variety of rose is merely used to symbolize, and in turn, satirize whatever can be called the "beauty of America," -- the plastic bag dancing in the wind, drug addicts, gays, perverts, and what's not.
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Glad to receive such "moderate" responses
作者：tian xin - 2000/04/06 03:53:27
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Tue Apr 4 19:45:03 2000
My American colleague nearly left the dinner table upon hearing my disparaging remarks on the movie. But he then
decided to forgive me because I don't live in the States, plus that "women are long on the hair and short on the
sense" and therefore my ignorance is not to be taken seriously. And I happened to have the sense to change the
topic to Chinese beauty for which he has a beautiful weakness and the evening went happily ever after.
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black beauty
作者：hz - 2000/04/06 03:52:24
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Wed Apr 5 19:40:16 2000
I mean "black" like that in "black humor". Just read your excellent critique again, and thought of this phrase for the
kind of beauty reflected in the film. Hope we can have some more cheerful movies to talk about in the future. :-)
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Recommend a white beauty and a cheerful one
作者：tian xin - 2000/04/07 02:44:20
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Groundhog Day
Not quite as new as American Beauty or as sensational, but is a much better one: spiritual without being religious, romantic without sentimental extravagance, clever and fictional but does not feel contrived, exploring basic human questions yet not taking itself so seriously, and with a ......ending:)
With any luck, you probably can get it from a video shop, if you have not already seen it.
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Got my homework now :-) May not be very soon, but I'll get back to you. Thanks for recommending it!
作者：hz - 2000/04/07 08:33:33
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I like “美国之美”， too.
作者：野草 - 2000/04/06 03:12:57
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Tue Apr 4 11:41:36 2000
I'm not a movie fan, but happen to have seen this movie. Based on the confusingly clear message the film tries to
convey, I, too, prefer hz's “美国之美”. Thanks for the enjoyable critiques and comments by Sweetheart and
HZ. Also, a "Welcome back" to HZ, Last Hermit, and Gu Yue. Long time no see!
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多谢野草君！正补课呢 :-)
作者：hz - 2000/04/06 03:56:45
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Tue Apr 4 12:56:13 2000
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