论文部分内容阅读
In the last issue of CineChina， I wrote about high expectations for Gravity. I’m happy to report that the film has now exceeded even the most optimistic expectations—both commercially and artistically.
在上一期《电影中国》中，我曾撰文对《地心引力》寄予厚望。我很高兴地向大家报告这部电影如今甚至超出了最乐观的预期值——无论是在商业上还是在艺术领域。
As I write this article， Gravity has earned more than $430 million in North America—and that’s before it opened theatrically in China. We are optimistic that the film’s performance in China will be very strong， and that it will move well past $500 million globally as a result.
当我正在写这篇文章时，《地心引力》已在北美赢得了4.3亿美元票房——这还在没有进入中国影院。我们乐观地相信此片在中国的表现会非常强劲，预计将收获远远5亿美元全球票房的好成绩。
Groundbreaking works of art like Gravity don’t come our way every year. If they did， well， then they wouldn’t be truly groundbreaking. Every once in a while a film comes along with the power to completely shatter genre expectations in such a way that similar films released after it cannot avoid comparisons. I feel bad for new films set in space that open after Gravity. It will be extremely difficult for any effort to match the impact that Gravity has had. Of course， that won’t stop Hollywood from trying. One thing that Hollywood is good at is copying success stories. Unfortunately， they don’t know when to stop copying and the result is that certain genres begin to come across as boring because the market is full of lazy efforts to cash in. Just look at what happened after the first Paranormal Activity film hit theaters and started to make a lot of money. There were several films released soon after， and now a genre that was once exciting is being made fun of by people in the industry as well as paying moviegoers. I’m worried that if too many films try to copy Gravity its legacy will weaken. That’s often an unfortunate side effect of great success.
像《地心引力》这样突破性的艺术作品不是每年都会有。如果他们真是这样，好吧，那也不会是真正的石破天惊了。时不时地，会冒出一部有实力的电影，彻底打破体裁预期，以致之后面世的同体裁电影总避免不了被与之做比较。我替那些在《地心引力》之后亮相的太空科幻类新电影感到遗憾。这类电影再努力也难与《地心引力》的影响力匹敌。当然，这不能阻止好莱坞继续尝试。好莱坞拿手好戏之一就是复制成功的故事。不幸的是，他们不知道什么时候该停止复制，结果某些体裁开始变得很无趣，因为市场内已满是偷懒取巧急功近利。看一下电影《灵动：鬼影实录》上映赚得盆满钵满之后发生了些什么事。有几部电影马上跟风而至，闹得一个曾经激动人心的体裁如今却被业内人士及付费电影观众所取笑。我很担心，如果太多电影一哄而上复制《地心引力》，其后续影响力将会被削弱。这通常是巨大成功后不幸的副作用。
Anyway， the aim of this article is not point out Hollywood’s flaws， but rather to celebrate a moment when the filmmaking community took a chance on something new and exciting and it paid off. The value of Gravity to the general well-being of our industry cannot be underestimated. It’s important to remember that movie theaters now face more competition than they ever have before from more viewing options at home. As a result， many moviegoers want to walk out of a theater feeling like they experienced something that they couldn’t possibly achieve while sitting on their couch. Gravity is giving customers around the world that very feeling. 无论如何，本篇的目的不是要剖析好莱坞的缺陷，而是要庆贺这个时刻，因为电影制作界大胆尝试了新颖而又令人振奋的题材，且获得了回报。《地心引力》的价值对于我们业界的体裁发展前景来说是不容小觑的。重要的是要记住，电影院面临着在家里更多的观赏选择，比以往的竞争更激烈。结果，许多影迷走出影院，都期待体验到了一些坐在家中沙发上无法比拟的感受。而《地心引力》恰恰给了全世界观众那样非凡的感觉。
I’ve already seen Gravity two times in theaters and I know that I want to go back at least one more time. The first time I saw the film， it was an IMAX 3D showing. I was blown away just like everyone else. （Of course， my fear of heights made the experience even more intense.） The second time I saw the film， it was just in 2D. While I still had a great time watching it， the 2D version just didn’t compare to the IMAX 3D version. Gravity is a film that is meant to be seen on the biggest screen possible. I feel bad for anybody who misses out on the experience， and it’s the job of everyone in this industry to use Gravity as an example of how superior the theatrical experience is to watching a movie on a television， tablet or a cell phone.
我已经在影院看过两遍《地心引力》，我想我至少还会再去一次。我第一次看这部电影，是IMAX 3D版本的。我像其余每个人那样大为震撼。（当然，我的恐高症使体验更强烈。）我第二次看的电影只是2D版本。虽然我仍观赏得津津有味，但2D版本绝对不可与IMAX 3D版本相提并论。《地心引力》是一部原本就该在最大的银幕上观赏的电影。谁错过这种体验，我都为他感到遗憾；我们每一个从业人员都有责任，以《地心引力》为例告诉大家，优越的电影院体验远胜在电视、平板电脑或手机上观看电影。
The notion that movie theaters are simply not necessary is one that needs to be stopped quickly. It doesn’t help that media often likes to embrace the negative side of that argument. Members of the American media especially love to write articles about the death of movie theaters， and they aren’t willing to let facts get in the way of their lazy efforts to speak negatively about an industry that is still very healthy. When movies like Gravity come along， those same writers speak as though a groundbreaking work has single-handedly brought the movie theater industry back from ruin. This kind of writing is an unfortunate result of a media climate that rewards negative stories over positive ones. After all， a lot of Internet users clearly seem to think that a negative headline is often more interesting than a positive one. We could all stand to be a little more positive about an industry that has provided such great memories and will continue to do so in the years to come.
“电影院根本没必要”的想法需要赶紧打住。媒体通常偏好消极争论观点，这没有任何益处。尤其是美国媒体们爱写判定电影院将消亡的文章，他们罔顾事实，惰性消极地唱衰这个仍然健康向上的产业。当《地心引力》面世以来，那些相同的作者又大放厥词，仿佛一部突破性的杰作便力挽摇摇欲坠的电影院产业。之所以这样的文字不幸横行，那是因为媒体风气就是倾向消极报道、而非积极报道。毕竟，许多网络用户显然似乎认为负面消息往往比正面消息更有趣。看来，我们每个人对行业的立场都可以稍微积极些，毕竟行业提供了如此美好的回忆，并会在今后的岁月里继续奉献精彩。
在上一期《电影中国》中，我曾撰文对《地心引力》寄予厚望。我很高兴地向大家报告这部电影如今甚至超出了最乐观的预期值——无论是在商业上还是在艺术领域。
As I write this article， Gravity has earned more than $430 million in North America—and that’s before it opened theatrically in China. We are optimistic that the film’s performance in China will be very strong， and that it will move well past $500 million globally as a result.
当我正在写这篇文章时，《地心引力》已在北美赢得了4.3亿美元票房——这还在没有进入中国影院。我们乐观地相信此片在中国的表现会非常强劲，预计将收获远远5亿美元全球票房的好成绩。
Groundbreaking works of art like Gravity don’t come our way every year. If they did， well， then they wouldn’t be truly groundbreaking. Every once in a while a film comes along with the power to completely shatter genre expectations in such a way that similar films released after it cannot avoid comparisons. I feel bad for new films set in space that open after Gravity. It will be extremely difficult for any effort to match the impact that Gravity has had. Of course， that won’t stop Hollywood from trying. One thing that Hollywood is good at is copying success stories. Unfortunately， they don’t know when to stop copying and the result is that certain genres begin to come across as boring because the market is full of lazy efforts to cash in. Just look at what happened after the first Paranormal Activity film hit theaters and started to make a lot of money. There were several films released soon after， and now a genre that was once exciting is being made fun of by people in the industry as well as paying moviegoers. I’m worried that if too many films try to copy Gravity its legacy will weaken. That’s often an unfortunate side effect of great success.
像《地心引力》这样突破性的艺术作品不是每年都会有。如果他们真是这样，好吧，那也不会是真正的石破天惊了。时不时地，会冒出一部有实力的电影，彻底打破体裁预期，以致之后面世的同体裁电影总避免不了被与之做比较。我替那些在《地心引力》之后亮相的太空科幻类新电影感到遗憾。这类电影再努力也难与《地心引力》的影响力匹敌。当然，这不能阻止好莱坞继续尝试。好莱坞拿手好戏之一就是复制成功的故事。不幸的是，他们不知道什么时候该停止复制，结果某些体裁开始变得很无趣，因为市场内已满是偷懒取巧急功近利。看一下电影《灵动：鬼影实录》上映赚得盆满钵满之后发生了些什么事。有几部电影马上跟风而至，闹得一个曾经激动人心的体裁如今却被业内人士及付费电影观众所取笑。我很担心，如果太多电影一哄而上复制《地心引力》，其后续影响力将会被削弱。这通常是巨大成功后不幸的副作用。
Anyway， the aim of this article is not point out Hollywood’s flaws， but rather to celebrate a moment when the filmmaking community took a chance on something new and exciting and it paid off. The value of Gravity to the general well-being of our industry cannot be underestimated. It’s important to remember that movie theaters now face more competition than they ever have before from more viewing options at home. As a result， many moviegoers want to walk out of a theater feeling like they experienced something that they couldn’t possibly achieve while sitting on their couch. Gravity is giving customers around the world that very feeling. 无论如何，本篇的目的不是要剖析好莱坞的缺陷，而是要庆贺这个时刻，因为电影制作界大胆尝试了新颖而又令人振奋的题材，且获得了回报。《地心引力》的价值对于我们业界的体裁发展前景来说是不容小觑的。重要的是要记住，电影院面临着在家里更多的观赏选择，比以往的竞争更激烈。结果，许多影迷走出影院，都期待体验到了一些坐在家中沙发上无法比拟的感受。而《地心引力》恰恰给了全世界观众那样非凡的感觉。
I’ve already seen Gravity two times in theaters and I know that I want to go back at least one more time. The first time I saw the film， it was an IMAX 3D showing. I was blown away just like everyone else. （Of course， my fear of heights made the experience even more intense.） The second time I saw the film， it was just in 2D. While I still had a great time watching it， the 2D version just didn’t compare to the IMAX 3D version. Gravity is a film that is meant to be seen on the biggest screen possible. I feel bad for anybody who misses out on the experience， and it’s the job of everyone in this industry to use Gravity as an example of how superior the theatrical experience is to watching a movie on a television， tablet or a cell phone.
我已经在影院看过两遍《地心引力》，我想我至少还会再去一次。我第一次看这部电影，是IMAX 3D版本的。我像其余每个人那样大为震撼。（当然，我的恐高症使体验更强烈。）我第二次看的电影只是2D版本。虽然我仍观赏得津津有味，但2D版本绝对不可与IMAX 3D版本相提并论。《地心引力》是一部原本就该在最大的银幕上观赏的电影。谁错过这种体验，我都为他感到遗憾；我们每一个从业人员都有责任，以《地心引力》为例告诉大家，优越的电影院体验远胜在电视、平板电脑或手机上观看电影。
The notion that movie theaters are simply not necessary is one that needs to be stopped quickly. It doesn’t help that media often likes to embrace the negative side of that argument. Members of the American media especially love to write articles about the death of movie theaters， and they aren’t willing to let facts get in the way of their lazy efforts to speak negatively about an industry that is still very healthy. When movies like Gravity come along， those same writers speak as though a groundbreaking work has single-handedly brought the movie theater industry back from ruin. This kind of writing is an unfortunate result of a media climate that rewards negative stories over positive ones. After all， a lot of Internet users clearly seem to think that a negative headline is often more interesting than a positive one. We could all stand to be a little more positive about an industry that has provided such great memories and will continue to do so in the years to come.
“电影院根本没必要”的想法需要赶紧打住。媒体通常偏好消极争论观点，这没有任何益处。尤其是美国媒体们爱写判定电影院将消亡的文章，他们罔顾事实，惰性消极地唱衰这个仍然健康向上的产业。当《地心引力》面世以来，那些相同的作者又大放厥词，仿佛一部突破性的杰作便力挽摇摇欲坠的电影院产业。之所以这样的文字不幸横行，那是因为媒体风气就是倾向消极报道、而非积极报道。毕竟，许多网络用户显然似乎认为负面消息往往比正面消息更有趣。看来，我们每个人对行业的立场都可以稍微积极些，毕竟行业提供了如此美好的回忆，并会在今后的岁月里继续奉献精彩。