2023年经济学人 《奥本海默》和《芭比》揭示了当今时代的何种真相(1)
时间：2024-01-31 02:42:36
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Culture
文艺版块
“Oppenheimer” vs “Barbie”
《奥本海默》VS《芭比》
What two Hollywood blockbusters reveal about our times.
两部好莱坞大片揭示了当今时代的何种真相。
They make an intriguing1 pair of rivals: he in a dark suit and porkpie hat, she in a gingham dress and matching hair bow.
他们是一对让人玩味的竞争对手：他身着深色西装，头戴圆礼帽，她身着格子棉布裙，头戴配套的蝴蝶结。
His domain2 is a vast scientific-research facility in New Mexico; hers is a fluorescent-pink party house with a slide.
他的领地是新墨西哥州的一个大型科学研究机构，而她的领地则是一个有滑梯的荧光粉色派对舞厅。
J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy, an Irish actor) spends his days corralling the finest scientific minds in America to create a nuclear bomb—work a colleague calls “the most important fucking thing to ever happen in the history of the world”.
罗伯特·奥本海默(由爱尔兰演员基里安·墨菲饰演)整天忙于召集全美国最优秀的科学人才来制造核弹，一位同事称这项工作是“世界历史上发生过的最重要的事情”。
Barbie (played by Margot Robbie, an Australian actress) may seem like she has the perfect life, but she has existential worries too.
芭比(由澳大利亚女演员玛格特·罗比饰演)似乎拥有完美的生活，但她也有存在主义的忧虑。
Do her friends and fellow dolls, she wonders, “ever think about dying?”
她想知道，她的朋友和其他玩偶伙伴“有没有想过死亡”？
No recent movie matchup has been as eagerly awaited as “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”.
最近没有哪两部电影像《芭比》和《奥本海默》一样备受期待。
Released on July 21st in America and Britain, the two films will serve as a test of whether viewers can be coaxed3 off their couches to return to cinemas.
这两部电影将于7月21日在美国和英国上映，这将是对电影能否劝诱观众从沙发上起身，并回到电影院的一次测试。
The incongruity4 in the films’ subject and tone has delighted the internet.
两部电影在主题和基调上的反差让互联网津津乐道。
People have created memes, remixed the trailers into jarring “Barbenheimer” hybrids5 and debated whether to see the biographical drama or the fantasy comedy first.
人们制作了表情包、将两部电影的预告片重新混合成极其分裂的《芭本海默》，并就是先看传记电影还是奇幻喜剧而争论不休。
The brouhaha is partly a result of the film-makers.
这种哄闹在一定程度上是因为两位电影制作人。
Christopher Nolan, the writer-director of “Oppenheimer”, is the closest thing Hollywood has to a mad scientist.
《奥本海默》的编剧兼导演克里斯托弗·诺兰是好莱坞中最接近疯狂科学家的人。
He shoots on film and mostly eschews6 computer-generated imagery, blowing up an actual Boeing 747 for a previous film.
他用胶片拍摄，大多避免使用计算机生成的图像，在上一部电影中炸毁了一架真正的波音747飞机。
The nuclear reactions in “Oppenheimer” were also created by producing actual explosions (albeit not nuclear ones), brightened by aluminium7 and magnesium8 powder.
《奥本海默》中的核反应也是真正的爆炸(尽管不是核爆炸)，用了铝粉和镁粉使爆炸发光。
His films toy with narrative9 conventions and tricksy subjects, such as the unconscious mind and theoretical astrophysics.
诺兰的电影常常把玩传统叙事手法和复杂的主题，如无意识思维和理论天体物理学。
They have earned a combined total of around $5bn in ticket sales; “Dunkirk”, released in 2017, is one of the highest-grossing films ever made about the second world war.
这些电影总共获得了约50亿美元的票房收入，2017年上映的《敦刻尔克》是票房收入最高的关于二战的电影之一。
Greta Gerwig, the director and co-writer of “Barbie”, has her own large fan club.
《芭比》的导演兼联合编剧格蕾塔·葛韦格拥有自己庞大粉丝群。
She started out in the “mumblecore” genre10 of independent film (so named for its focus on dialogue) but has since had hits with “Lady Bird” (2017) and an adaptation of “Little Women” (2019).
她最初在“呢喃核”(因注重对话而得名)这一类型的独立电影中出演，但后来凭借《伯德小姐》(2017)和改编电影《小妇人》(2019)而大获成功。
Her work claims humbler gross ticket sales of $300m.
她的作品的票房总收入略显微薄，只有3亿美元。
For “Barbie”, she has cited old Hollywood musicals and films about the afterlife, such as “Heaven Can Wait” (1943), as inspiration.
对于《芭比》，葛韦格称借鉴了好莱坞老派音乐剧和关于来世的电影（如1943年的《天堂可以等待》）作为灵感。
The two films encapsulate some of the caprices of the modern movie industry.
《芭比》和《奥本海默》概括了现代电影业中的一些反复无常的东西。
“Barbie” is one of many productions to exploit decades-old intellectual property.
《芭比》是有数十年历史的IP电影之一。
Mattel, a toymaker, has sold roughly a billion dolls since it first introduced Barbara Millicent Roberts (call her “Barbie”) to consumers in 1959.
自1959年向消费者推出芭芭拉·米利森特·罗伯茨(现在就叫“芭比”)以来，玩具制造商美泰已经售出了大约10亿个玩具娃娃。
Ms Robbie, who is also a producer of the film, has said she was drawn11 to the project because the Barbie name is “more globally recognised than practically everything else other than Coca-Cola”.
罗比也是这部电影的制片人，她说她之所以被这个电影项目所吸引，是因为芭比这个名字“比除可口可乐之外的几乎所有品牌都更具全球知名度”。
It is easy to imagine that a sequel is already in the works.
不难想象，续集已经在筹备中了。
“Oppenheimer”, by contrast, holds no such franchise12 potential.
相反，《奥本海默》则没有这样的系列电影潜力。
The scientist may be “one of history’s most essential and paradoxical” figures, as Mr Nolan has put it, but he is not likely to return for “Oppenheimer 2: Learning to Love the Bomb”.
正如诺兰所说，这位科学家可能是“历史上最重要、最矛盾的”人物之一，但他不太可能再拍一部《奥本海默2：学会热爱炸弹》。
It is a serious, standalone drama—the kind of film made less frequently as studios focus on sequels and spin-offs.
《奥本海默》是一部严肃的独立的电影，由于电影公司专注于续集和衍生作品，这种类型的电影不常被制作。
Its opening weekend is predicted to fetch $40m-50m in ticket sales, compared with around $80m for “Barbie”.
《奥本海默》首映周末的票房收入预计将达到4000万至5000万美元，而《芭比》的票房收入约为8000万美元。
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