The 5 Best Movies About Jazz 爵士乐五佳片
2018-05-03波利娜泽尔曼诺娃张燕
文/波利娜·泽尔曼诺娃 译/张燕
By Polina Zelmanova
Music is a wonderful form of art that has only been enriched with cinema, allowing the creation of onscreen musicals that are a lot more widely available than theatre performances, as well as the production of documentaries and biopics or simply fictitious stories about singers and musicians.
音乐是一种非常棒的艺术形式,而电影制作使得音乐的表现形式更加丰富——银幕上不仅有远比剧院演出传播范围广的音乐剧,还有关于歌手和音乐家的纪录片、传记,甚至虚构的故事。
[2]One of the most fascinating and emotional music genres is jazz, with many legendary names of performers and composers written down in history for their impeccable talent and mastery of the complex and affective chords and transitions that were and still are so popular.
[2]爵士乐是最令人着迷和动情的音乐类型之一。无数表演者和作曲家,以他们无与伦比的才华及对复杂动人的和弦和变调的出色把握而名扬历史。他们的作品,至今脍炙人口。
[3]Many of such personas, both real and not, have been taken on by scriptwriters and directors, creating an atmosphere with roots stemming down all the way to a century back, to when the African American communities in New Orleans that would spend their past time playing and making up the music that expressed their pain and joy; it soon popularised across the whole world and became known as“one of America’s original art forms”.
[3]剧作家和导演们创作了大量关于那些虚虚实实人物的作品,其创作背景可以追溯到一个世纪以前。当时新奥尔良的美籍非洲裔群体常常通过创作和演奏音乐的方式来表达苦乐情绪。这种音乐后来风靡世界,被认为是“美国原创的艺术形式之一”。
[4]Although the list of great jazz movies could go on forever, here are 5 of some of the most notable movies in cinematic history about jazz and the souls of its followers.
[4]电影史上精彩的爵士乐电影数不胜数,以下只选取介绍了其中非常著名的五部,它们不仅表现了爵士乐,还刻画了爵士乐精神的追随者。
5.High Society (Charles Walters,1956)
第五名:《上流社会》(查尔斯·沃特斯,1956)
[5]Based on the play ‘The Philadelphia Story’,High Societybrings the story to the screen in a beautiful musical manner.The light entertaining comedy witnesses a great jazz musician Dexter Haven (Bing Crosby) who amidst his jazz is trying to win back his charming ex-wife (Grace Kelly) after divorcing her.
[5]《上流社会》将舞台剧《费城故事》搬上银幕,变成了一部美妙的音乐剧。这部轻喜剧描述了一个伟大的爵士乐音乐家德克斯特·黑文(平·克劳斯贝饰)在爵士乐的伴随下,离婚后努力赢回美丽前妻(格蕾丝·凯利饰)芳心的故事。
[6]She on the other hand is set to marry a very honourable man, George Kittredge (John Lund), while being seduced by a newspaper reporter played byFrank Sinatra1 20世纪最重要的流行音乐人物,集歌手、演员、电台及电视节目主持人、唱片公司老板等多重身份于一身,曾三次获得奥斯卡奖。himself.The movie brings forth a dilemma as she is forced to choose between the three very very different gentlemen.
[6]另一方面,他的前妻已准备嫁给一位非常高贵的绅士乔治·基特里奇(约翰·伦德饰),同时又被一名新闻记者追求,这名记者的扮演者正是弗兰克·辛纳特拉本人。电影表现了前妻不得不在三位迥异绅士中做出选择的为难处境。
[7]The film wonderfully portrays the comic love circle with musical jazz numbers that bring life to the screen.It is a fantastic film that takes full benefit of the talent of its equally fantastic cast.
[7]影片精彩讲述了这个带有喜剧色彩的多角爱情故事,片中大量爵士乐曲目为影片注入了活力。才华横溢的演员阵容成就了这部极其出色的电影。
4.Bird (Clint Eastwood, 1988)
第四名:《菜鸟帕克》(又译《爵士乐手》)(克林特·伊斯特伍德,1988)
[8]InBird, Eastwood takes on portraying the story of the legendary musician Charlie Parker (Forest Whitaker),also going by the name of Bird—one of the most distinctive and influential jazz personas whose impact is clearly evident on many jazz players until this day,as well as on the genre itself.
[8]《菜鸟帕克》是伊斯特伍德拍摄的关于传奇音乐人查理·帕克(福里斯特·惠特克饰)的传记电影。绰号“大鸟”的查理是最独特和最有影响力的爵士乐名人之一,他的作品不仅对今日许多的爵士乐演奏者,也对这一音乐类型本身,产生了深远的影响。
[9]The movie shows us the ascent of his musical career, from his fascination with music as a young boy, to his first audition and his growing career throughout several bands and gigs.
[9]影片向我们展示了帕克音乐生涯走向辉煌的发展历程,从他还是个小男孩时对音乐的迷恋,到他第一次试演,事业历经一个个乐队和一次次现场演出而逐步成长。
[10]Apart from his music, the biopic offers us the background of the life of Parker, including his last marriage to Chan Parker (Diane Venora) and the never ending struggle of drug addiction that is the downfall not only to his career but to his own life.
[10]这部传记片还为我们描绘了帕克在音乐之外的日常生活,包括他与茜·帕克(戴安·维诺拉饰)的最后一段婚姻,以及他在毒瘾中的不断挣扎,毒瘾不但影响了他的音乐生涯,甚至危及他的生命。
[11]The wonderful element in the movie is the fact that it is Parker himself who is playing the saxophone in the music scenes as Eastwood and music coordinator Niehaus took Parker’s actual recordings and fitted his saxophone to the new high definition soundtracks giving the movie an even more authentic feeling, allowing us to really feel Parker as well as experience the never ending nights of live jazz.
[11]影片很棒的一点是,伊斯特伍德和音乐统筹尼豪斯将帕克演奏萨克斯的实际录音重新制作成高分辨率音轨,因此该片音乐场景中我们听到的确实是帕克本人演奏的作品,这令影片更富真实感,也让观众得以真切感受帕克,体验爵士乐永无休止的现场演出之夜。
3.La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016)
第三名:《爱乐之城》(达米恩·查泽雷,2016)
[12]InLa La Land2 《爱乐之城》影评见本刊2017年第4期78—82页。Chazelle once again passes along the love and appreciation to the genre the greatness of which seems to be dying out.Like inWhiplashhe explores the ambivalence between love and striving ambition, but also the battle between the old and the new, exploring the fields of acting and musicianship, all done through a fantastic musical approach.
[12]查泽雷在《爱乐之城》中又一次表达了他对爵士乐这一日渐式微的音乐形式的热爱和欣赏。像在《爆裂鼓手》中那样,他以一部精彩的音乐剧的形式,揭示了爱情与为事业打拼之间的矛盾和新旧观念之间的斗争,并探索了戏剧表演与音乐演奏等不同领域。
[13]The story revolves around the two protagonists, Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) who is a jazz pianist with the goal of keeping the old non-commercial jazz alive through his playing and with the hopes of opening up his own jazz establishment to share the joy of the music with people, and Mia (Emma Stone)who is a young girl going around on auditions in order to quit her job as a barista at a cafe at the Warner Brothers’Studio.
[13]故事围绕着两位主人公展开。塞巴斯蒂安(瑞恩·高斯林饰)是一名爵士乐钢琴演奏家,他的心愿是通过自己的演奏保住传统的、非商业化的爵士乐的生命力,并渴望开一家自己的爵士乐餐厅,与人们分享这种音乐带来的快乐。女孩米娅(艾玛·斯通饰)则穿梭于一次次试镜中,希望借此摆脱她在华纳兄弟影业片场的一家咖啡屋当咖啡师的工作。
[14]Their meeting slowly develops into a beautiful and intense romance as the two try to figure out their own aspirations that gradually become a threat to their relationship.
[14]他们的相遇慢慢发展成一段美好而热烈的爱情,同时两人都在尽力追求自己的梦想,而这日渐威胁他们的恋情。
[15]La La Landis about staying true to oneself and is yet another slap in the face about the sacrifices to the arts.But once you hear the skillful and passion-ate playing of jazz through Sebastian’s hands and through the voice of his favourite musicians, like Mia we begin to understand and appreciate the sacrifices made for the vibrant genre, and pray along with Sebastian that it will not be lost and abused by the glory and fame offered by commercial and mainstream music.
[15]《爱乐之城》阐述了主人公对个人信念的坚持,然而为艺术做出的牺牲却遭遇现实又一记残酷的耳光。然而,当耳边响起经塞巴斯蒂安之手和他最爱的音乐家之口传递出的技巧高超、充满激情的爵士乐,如米娅一样,我们开始理解和赞赏为如此富于生命力的音乐而做出的牺牲。我们与塞巴斯蒂安共同祈祷,这一音乐类型不会被商业化主流音乐的光环和名气狠狠踩踏,更不会有一天完全消失。
2.The Blues Brothers (John Landis,1980)
第二名:《福禄双霸天》(又译《布鲁斯兄弟》)(约翰·兰迪斯,1980)
[16]The Blues Brothersis a cult classic inspired by aSaturday Night Livesketch of the same name, combining a mixture of action, humour and of course jazz.
[16]《福禄双霸天》风靡一时,是根据《周六夜现场》的小品改编的经典影片,集动作、幽默,当然还有爵士乐元素于一体。
[17]It follows the two brothers (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd), dressed in their infamous black suits, white socks and tinted sunglasses, as they try to get their old blues band back together in order to raise money for their old orphanage that is presently in huge debt.
[17]影片讲述了一对兄弟(约翰·贝鲁西和丹·艾克罗伊德饰)的故事。他们身着黑社会常穿的黑色西装和白色袜子,戴着深色太阳镜,试图重组之前解散了的布鲁斯乐队,为抚养他们长大、如今负债累累的孤儿院募集资金。
[18]They embark on a two-and-ahalf-hour journey of rediscovering their ex-band members in the most strange places, following their running away from several groups of people that they have managed to enrage, including Nazis, police, a western band and of course an angry crowd.
[18]在这部长达两个半小时的电影中,兄弟俩探访各种稀奇古怪的地方,找回了以前的乐队成员,之前还要躲避被他们得罪的不同势力的追捕,这些势力包括纳粹、警察、一个西部乐队,当然,还有愤怒的人群。
[19]All of this is casually interrupted with fantastic music numbers, never lacking a good old laugh and some good old jazz.
[19]情节之中穿插着精彩的音乐,经典笑料和美妙的传统爵士乐从未间断。
[20]Landis manages to musically keep the absurdity and chaos from spiraling out of control as well as creating memorable stunt numbers and car chases.The music doesn’t get more relevant and thrilling as the likes of Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin join the ride with soulful tunes, bringing back the musical essence of the genre.
[20]除了制作一系列令人难忘的追车和特技场景,兰迪斯设法通过音乐来保证影片中的荒诞和混乱场面不至失去控制。当雷·查尔斯和艾瑞莎·富兰克林这样的歌者带着他们的灵魂乐曲加入追逐,音乐与情节的交融达到完美,扣人心弦,将这种音乐形式的精华带回人们视野。
1.Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
第一名:《爆裂鼓手》(达米恩·查泽雷,2014)
[21]Whiplashis a beautifully intense and powerful drama that shows the love and sacrifices one would go through in the name of music.In it Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) is a young drummer who spends all of his time beating on his instrument and perfecting his technique—all in order to become a great musician and impress the un-impressible Mr.Fletcher (J.K.Simmons) who is the school’s legendary conductor of an equally famous jazz band.
[21]《爆裂鼓手》是一部紧张、美妙、充满力量的电影,表现了一个人因热爱音乐而甘愿为之做出牺牲。影片主角安德鲁·内曼(迈尔斯·特勒饰)是一个年轻鼓手,一心一意演奏爵士鼓,完善技巧,希望成为一名伟大的音乐家,并以此打动极其严苛的弗莱彻先生(J.K.西蒙斯饰),后者是学校爵士乐队的传奇指挥,他的乐队与他齐名。
[22]Despite all of the rejection and embarrassment that Fletcher puts Andrew through in their time working together, nothing seems to be bad enough for the young musician to stop beating on his drums, through lonely nights and with bloody hands that only fuel up his passion for the craft.
[22]在师从弗莱彻的过程中,安德鲁无数次遭到他的否定甚至羞辱,然而这一切都不能令这个年轻的乐手停止敲击爵士鼓。那些不眠之夜,那因磨破老茧而鲜血淋漓的双手,只能加倍点燃他对手中乐器的热情。
[23]The more Fletcher puts him down, the more determined Andrew becomes—getting rid of any distractions in the form of friends or girlfriends—and the harder he tries to impress the tyrannical teacher who justifies his abuse with the idea that praise will lead nowhere, as he tries to prove that he is worthy of playing jazz.
[23]弗莱彻越是打压安德鲁,安德鲁的决心就越坚定。他心无旁骛,将朋友和女友都抛到一边,一心要打动这位声称赞扬(学生)没有任何意义的暴虐老师,以期证明自己有足够的资格演奏爵士乐。
[24]Chazelle skillfully uses the tempo that the jazz music creates in order to thrillerise his movie and create tension that will keep the audience at the edge of their seats as they witness and appreciate the ‘behind the scenes’ of dedicated musicianship.
[24]在影片中,查雷泽巧妙地运用爵士乐的节拍来制造一种惊悚和紧张的气氛,使观众在目睹和欣赏全情投入的音乐家的“幕后故事”时,自始至终坐在椅子边缘,不敢有片刻放松。