這是一段光鮮迷人的美國(guó)往事，發(fā)生在上世紀(jì)60年代初。艾森豪威爾的時(shí)代剛剛結(jié)束，美國(guó)上世紀(jì)50年代的經(jīng)濟(jì)繁榮達(dá)到頂點(diǎn)，60年代的動(dòng)蕩歲月還沒有到來，一切貌似安穩(wěn)而富庶。人們不再滿足于溫飽，而開始縱情于聲色，消費(fèi)主義蓬勃興起。麥迪遜大道的廣告人誘惑和操縱著整個(gè)國(guó)家的欲望和需求，他們推銷香煙、口紅、瀉藥，也推銷總統(tǒng)。最早的一批雅皮士正在被醞釀出來，他們?nèi)员Ａ糁吓傻膬?yōu)雅，而屬于新時(shí)期的種族平等、婦女解放，也正蓄勢(shì)待發(fā)。

這部懷舊復(fù)古的劇集就像是一段美國(guó)上世紀(jì)六零年代的風(fēng)情錄，摩登且精致。里面的男人個(gè)個(gè)穿三件式西服，戴淺頂軟呢帽，襯衫一般是法式袖口，還有袖扣做裝飾。他們發(fā)型一絲不亂，時(shí)刻吐著氤氳的煙圈，手里輕搖盛著美酒的高腳杯。女人則涂著色澤冶艷的口紅，金色的頭發(fā)做成夢(mèng)露的式樣，連身的大蓬蓬裙藏滿她們渴望掙脫男人鉗制的欲望。

上世紀(jì)的六十年代是個(gè)奇妙的年代，中國(guó)人自己的記憶里滿是綠軍裝、毛主席語(yǔ)錄、上山下鄉(xiāng)，而世界的另一端則完全是另外一番模樣……

——Eva

Matthew Weiner stood on the set of his hit show， Mad Men， ready for his 1)close-up

in extreme anxiety. He was watching the rehearsal of a scene that seemed fine to me， better than fine， but his 2)staccato commentary was a scene in itself.

“He should be standing，” he said of an actor who was seated. “That should be on the table，” he said of an 3)accordion folder that an actress had placed on the floor. “They’re overreacting，

paying too much attention to each other.” He heard himself and looked slightly 4)sheepish. “You’ll see it turn from theater to movie in the next take，” he told me. “I want them not to pay too much attention to each other， so it feels real， more 5)perfunctory. Not that TV thing.” His smile was 6)wry. “I’m very impatient.”

Mad Men， about the world of advertising on Madison Avenue set in New York in the early 1960s， 7)languished for years after being rejected by HBO and Showtime before the 8)unlikely 9)AMC picked it up. The show had its premiere last summer and won instant critical acclaim， and the Golden Globe Award for best drama.

Weiner’s achievements with Mad Men are plentiful， starting with the storytelling. Setting it in the early 1960s， on the 10)cusp between the repression and conformity of the cold war and

11)McCarthy-era 1950s and the yet-to-unfold social and cultural upheavals of the 60s， allows Weiner an arc of character growth that is 12)staggering in its possibilities. It also gives him the opportunity to mine the 13)Rat Pack romance of that period， when the wreaths of cigarette smoke， the fog of too many martinis—whether exhilarating or nauseating—and the 14)silhouettes specific to 15)bullet bras only heightened the 16)headiness of the dream that all men might one day become James Bond or， at the very least， key holders to the local Playboy Club.

Deepening the tension between that fantasy and reality， Weiner has put Sterling Cooper， the fictional ad agency that employs the show’s characters， on the 17)old-school， 18)WASP side of the equation， letting them revel in their racism， sexism and 19)anti-Semitism. It was during that period that the creative revolution in advertising was taking off at agencies， where Jews and some women held leadership positions. When contemplating a new account， Draper asks his boss， Roger Sterling， “What do women want?” “Who cares?” is his answer.

When a Jewish department-store heiress comes to the agency in search of a fresh approach for her business， Sterling tries to find someone Jewish in the company to include in the meeting. “Have we ever hired any Jews?” he asks Draper. “Not 20)on my watch，” Draper says，

before adding， “You want me to run down to the 21)deli and grab somebody?”

Weiner chose advertising as a subject， he said， because “it’s a great way to talk about the image we have of ourselves， versus who we really are. And admen were the rock stars of that era， creative， cocky， anti-authority. They made a lot of money， and they lived hard.” It’s the universality more than the period that’s the 22)hook， of course. The people on this show struggle with the same 23)backbiting co-workers， unhappy marriages and ongoing search for the meaning of life that we do now. We’d like to think that things were simpler then， but what’s hard now has always been hard.

But as Arthur Gelb， a former managing editor of The New York Times， who was the paper’s chief cultural correspondent in the early ’60s， points out: “New York then was still to some extent a segregated city. It was glamorous， but it was glamorous for white people. You rarely， if ever， saw blacks in Times Square.”

The show’s design， the almost 24)fetishistically accurate sets and costumes， has been lauded from the start. But Weiner is 25)wary of 26)deifying the visual. “The design is not the star of the show，” he said as he led me through the

offices of Sterling Cooper. “I don’t want to be distracted by it”， he said. “People have old things and new things， and as someone who loves the period， it’s very hard to resist the idea of getting the perfect 1960 everything， but I want it to feel like a slice of life.”

Richard Plepler， co-president of HBO， who took over programming in June 2007， told me， “Mad Men is a magnificent show， and the only problem with it is it’s not on HBO.”

馬修·維納站在他那部熱門劇集——《廣告狂人》的片場(chǎng)，心情焦灼，準(zhǔn)備好要拍一個(gè)特寫鏡頭。他正在盯某場(chǎng)戲的彩排，那場(chǎng)戲在我看來演得還不錯(cuò)，應(yīng)該說不止“不錯(cuò)”了，而維納不時(shí)插話點(diǎn)評(píng)這一幕，本身亦很有看頭。

“他應(yīng)該是站著的，”他說到那位正坐著的男演員?！澳菛|西應(yīng)該放在桌子上”他指的是女演員之前放在地板上的一個(gè)折子式文件夾。“他們演過了頭，太注意對(duì)方了”，他的聲音很小，而且他看起來有點(diǎn)局促不安?！霸谙聜€(gè)鏡頭里，你會(huì)看到從舞臺(tái)劇式的夸張轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)殡娪笆降淖匀粚憣?shí)，”他告訴我說，“我要他們別太注意對(duì)方，這樣才會(huì)感覺真實(shí)，更能表現(xiàn)那種敷衍的態(tài)度。不是電視劇那一套?！彼男θ莨詮?，“我這人很沒耐性的?！?/p>

《廣告狂人》的背景設(shè)定在上個(gè)世紀(jì)六十年代早期的紐約，這部有關(guān)麥迪遜大道上廣告業(yè)界的劇集，HBO和Showtime電視臺(tái)都不買賬，被冷落數(shù)年后倒是被前景并不樂觀的AMC電視臺(tái)撿了回來。這部戲去年夏天首播，隨即贏得了評(píng)論界的贊譽(yù)以及金球獎(jiǎng)最佳劇集獎(jiǎng)。

維納制作的《廣告狂人》，成功在于多方面，首先是敘述故事的手法。二十世紀(jì)五十年代，冷戰(zhàn)格局加上麥卡錫時(shí)代，專制壓抑、千人一面，而一場(chǎng)場(chǎng)社會(huì)和文化大變革則在六十年代即將上演?！稄V告狂人》的故事發(fā)生在六十年代早期，正處于兩者的過渡期，這給維納提供了一個(gè)空間，讓劇中人物有著各種驚人的發(fā)展轉(zhuǎn)變。同時(shí)，這也給他提供了挖掘那個(gè)年代“鼠幫式”浪漫的機(jī)會(huì)。彼時(shí)繚繞的煙圈，過量的馬提尼氤氳的酒氣——喝得高也好喝到吐也罷——還有那“子彈胸罩”特有的剪影，這一切讓人更迷醉于那美夢(mèng)——幻想所有男人某天都能變成詹姆士·邦德，或者至少能自如出入當(dāng)?shù)氐摹盎ɑü印本銟凡俊?/p>

斯特林·庫(kù)伯這家虛構(gòu)的廣告公司在雇用劇中的角色時(shí)站在老派、白人特權(quán)的立場(chǎng)上，完全沉湎在種族主義、性別歧視和反猶太主義的園囿中，維納如此設(shè)定，為的是激化幻想和現(xiàn)實(shí)間的矛盾。廣告界的創(chuàng)意革命正是在那個(gè)時(shí)代開始在各廣告公司里萌芽，而猶太人和一些女性在這些公司里擔(dān)當(dāng)了領(lǐng)導(dǎo)職位。德雷珀在為一個(gè)新的廣告文案苦思冥想時(shí)問他的老板羅杰·斯特林，“女人需要些什么？”“誰(shuí)管呢？”他回答道。

一名猶太裔的百貨公司女繼承人來到這家廣告公司，為她的生意尋求新的突破口。這時(shí)，斯特林想在公司里找一個(gè)猶太人職員來一起跟客戶面談。他問德雷珀：“我們?cè)?jīng)雇用過猶太人嗎？”“據(jù)我所知，沒有，” 德雷珀回答說，隨后又加了一句，“要不要我到樓下熟食店給你抓個(gè)上來呀？”

維納說，他選擇廣告界作為題材是因?yàn)椤斑@能很好地表現(xiàn)出我們是怎樣看自己的，而我們真實(shí)的自己又是怎樣的。廣告人是那個(gè)年代的明星，他們新點(diǎn)子多，心高氣傲且反權(quán)威。他們賺得盆滿缽滿，但也茍且生存?！碑?dāng)然了，吸引觀眾的不止是那個(gè)年代的獨(dú)有氛圍，更主要的是人們普遍面對(duì)的那些永恒話題。劇中人物和我們現(xiàn)在的人一樣，同樣有一群勾心斗角的同事，同樣在不幸的婚姻中掙扎，同樣在不斷地尋求人生的意義。我們想當(dāng)然地認(rèn)為以前的生活會(huì)簡(jiǎn)單一點(diǎn)，但其實(shí)，現(xiàn)在讓我們痛苦的，以前也同樣惱人。

然而，六十年代初《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》的首席文化記者，后來曾任該報(bào)執(zhí)行編輯的亞瑟·格布指出：“當(dāng)時(shí)的紐約在某種程度上仍是一個(gè)種族隔離的城市。這個(gè)城市光鮮迷人，但只是對(duì)白人而言。在時(shí)代廣場(chǎng)，你基本看不到黑人?！?/p>

開播伊始，大家對(duì)該劇的美術(shù)設(shè)計(jì)贊譽(yù)有加（幾近還原當(dāng)年的場(chǎng)景和服裝，可謂偏執(zhí)至極）。但維納卻時(shí)刻提防將視覺效果奉若神明?！皥?chǎng)景和服裝的設(shè)計(jì)并不是這部劇的亮點(diǎn)，”他邊說邊領(lǐng)著我穿過斯特林·庫(kù)伯公司的辦公間，“我不想因此受到牽制”，他說道，“大家總有些舊的東西，也有新的東西，對(duì)于醉心那個(gè)年代的人來說，的確會(huì)很執(zhí)著要求每件東西都精確還原六十年代的樣子，但我還是想讓它感覺起來像生活的一個(gè)生動(dòng)片斷。”

2007年6月份接管制作部門的HBO聯(lián)合執(zhí)行長(zhǎng)理查德·布萊勒告訴我說：“《廣告狂人》是一部杰出的劇集，什么都好，唯一不好的是沒在HBO臺(tái)放?！?/p>