By Chris Nashawaty

La La Land

By Chris Nashawaty

Every once in a while, you come out of a movie theater feeling like you’re walking on air1walk on air 歡天喜地，得意揚揚。. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it restores your faith in the power of cinema. Damien Chazelle’s dreamy neo-retro2retro 再度流行的，回歸的。musical La La Land is one of those rare films. It’s stunningly ambitious and thrillingly alive the way the best movies are. With just his third feature, it’s safe to say that Chazelle is a major American filmmaker. With 2014’s Whiplash, the sado-masochistic teacher-pupil drama, the writer-director seemed to arrive on the Sundance3指圣丹斯國際電影節(jié)。《爆裂鼓手》獲得2014年該電影節(jié)最高獎評審團劇情片大獎及劇情片觀眾獎。scene fully-formed as an ace storyteller, turning a milieu that few moviegoer’s probably thought they could care about (jazz) into a tense and toxic viper’s nest of artistic ambition and sacrifice. But with La La Land, Chazelle also displays a mature sense of style and emotional depth far beyond his years. At 31, he’s precocious and confident enough to tackle a mothballed genre long thought to be corny, old-fashioned, and way past the point of resuscitation.

偶爾，走出影院時你會心情愉快。這種時候不多，但只要有，就會讓人對電影的力量重拾信心。達米恩·查澤雷輕松悅目的新復古歌舞片《愛樂之城》便是這樣一部少有的好電影。像所有佳片一樣，該片極富雄心且活力四射。這僅僅是查澤雷的第三部作品，但說他是重要的美國電影人也毫無不妥。2014年的《爆裂鼓手》是一部描述師生間施受虐關系的劇情片，在圣丹斯國際電影節(jié)嶄露頭角時，編劇兼導演查澤雷儼然已是爐火純青的講故事高手，他把可能幾乎無人關注的爵士樂圈變成了緊張刺激、負面彰顯的惡人群，這些人滿懷藝術抱負，甘愿為藝術犧牲。不過，影片《愛樂之城》還展示了查澤雷超越其年齡的成熟風格和情感深度。31歲的他老練自信，足以把一個無人再碰且早被歸為老套過時、難以復興的電影類型駕馭得風生水起。

[2] An unapologetic love letter to the color-crazy song-and-dance fantasias of Jacques Demy (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and classic Hollywood musicals like Singin’ in the Rain, La La Land stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as two young artists struggling to achieve their dreams in contemporary Los Angeles. Stone plays Mia, a sunny, wannabe actress who barely gets by as a barista at a coffee shop on the lot of a Hollywood studio. Every day she takes a latte order from some undeserving ingénue and is a day closer to giving up. She’s inside the Dream Factory, but it remains just out of reach. Gosling is Sebastian, a jazz pianist whose traditional taste in music and stubborn idealism put him at odds with the century he finds himself in. He’d rather make it his way (alone with his vinyl collection) or not make it at all.

[3] The film opens with a bravura4bravura 精湛技藝。five-minute sequence on an L.A. freeway as cars are stuck in gridlock traffic—a prosaic enough daily frustration that Angelinos know all too well. But Chazelle turns the cacophony of honking horns, tinny radio music, and cell phone chatter into something unexpectedly lyrical and poetic. One passenger in a yellow polka-dot dress begins to sing an upbeat ode to California, then gets out of her car and breaks into dance. Before you know it, all of the other passengers in the cars around her are joining her until the 105 turns into an explosion of pure sunkissed joy. All of these people trapped in their own private compartments of annoyance joining together in one synchronized leaping, singing communion. It’s a hell of5a hell of 極其，非常。an opening gambit. But it tells the audience right off the bat what to expect—two hours of blissful shoot-the-works exuberance.

[2]《愛樂之城》是寫給兩位前輩的一封赤裸裸的情書：一是雅克·德米色彩艷麗的歌舞幻想曲《瑟堡的雨傘》，一是好萊塢經典歌舞劇《雨中曲》。影片講述了在當代洛杉磯為實現(xiàn)夢想努力奮斗的兩個年輕藝術家的故事，由艾瑪·斯通和瑞恩·高斯林主演。斯通飾演米婭，一個懷揣演員夢的陽光女孩，在好萊塢片場一角的咖啡店當服務員，勉強維持生計。每天都會有個故作純真的女孩找她點一杯拿鐵，而她每天都離放棄更近一點點。身處夢工廠，演員夢于她卻遙不可及。高斯林飾演塞巴斯汀，一個爵士樂鋼琴師，他對音樂的傳統(tǒng)品味和固執(zhí)理想使他與所處的時代格格不入。他要么按自己的方式（獨守著他收藏的黑膠唱片）演奏，要么徹底放棄。

[3]影片開場令人叫絕的五分鐘插曲發(fā)生在洛杉磯的高速公路上，交通癱瘓，對于這個平常到天天都難幸免的糟心事，洛杉磯人再熟悉不過。但是，查澤雷把汽車喇叭聲、微型收音機的音樂聲和手機聊天聲這些嘈雜的噪音變得出人意料地抒情和詩意。一個身著黃色圓點裙的乘客開始唱一首歡快的加利福尼亞贊歌，然后她走出車子，突然跳起舞來。很快，周圍其他車里的所有乘客也一一加入，直到105號高速公路變成陽光照耀下歡樂爆棚的海洋，那是一種真切的歡樂。這些被困在自家逼仄車中的人匯聚成載歌載舞的群體，動作整齊劃一。這真是個大場面的開場，它明確告訴觀眾，接下來他們將看到兩個小時歡快的歌舞。

[4]Mia and Sebastian are two of the drivers stuck in traffic. And they have a fleeting encounter at the end of the opening number. It isn’t exactly a classic Tinseltown6浮華城，對電影業(yè)中心美國加州好萊塢的貶稱或戲稱。meet-cute introduction (he honks at her to get moving, she flips him the finger). But as their paths continue to fatefully cross, they find themselves drawn to one another the way movie couples have been since, well, forever. She continues to go to soul-crushing auditions. He continues to tinkle away on the piano playing standards as background noise at a restaurant. But they have each other. And their romance, especially as it begins to blossom, is as fizzy and transporting as a flute of champagne. Especially an early Astaire-and-Charisse-style7指弗雷德·阿斯泰爾（Fred Astaire，1899—1987）和賽德·查里斯（Cyd Charisse，1921—2008），兩人均為好萊塢著名歌舞演員，舞風輕快自如，賽德曾被贊“好萊塢第一美腿”。song-and-dance number overlooking the glittering jewel-box cityscape of L.A. below. There’s a moment when their fingers interlace in a darkened movie theater that somehow manages to be the most romantic thing I’ve seen at the movies all year. Between this and 2011’s Crazy, Stupid, Love8格倫·費卡拉和約翰·雷夸執(zhí)導的愛情喜劇，瑞恩·高斯林和艾瑪·斯通在片中飾演了一對情侶。, I can’t think of an onscreen couple with better chemistry. They literally float away as they dance together in La La Land. And you don’t question it for a second. You just think, Of course they do.

[4]米婭和塞巴斯汀開著各自的車被堵在路上。開場快結束時兩人倉促碰面。這實在不是好萊塢似的可愛相遇（他摁著喇叭催她快走，她則向他豎起中指）。但隨著人生道路緣定的交叉，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)彼此相互吸引，就像銀幕戀人一直以來的經歷，也許永遠不變。她繼續(xù)參加那些讓人心力交瘁的試鏡，他則繼續(xù)在餐館彈奏經典曲目當背景噪音，但他們擁有彼此。他們的愛，尤其是戀情萌發(fā)之時，仿若一杯甜美的起泡香檳，讓人心神蕩漾——特別體現(xiàn)在早期阿斯泰爾－查里斯風格的那一段歌舞中，背景是俯瞰的洛杉磯，洛城如同打開的珠寶盒，熠熠生輝。他們在漆黑影院十指相扣的那一幕，該是2016年我在銀幕上看到的最浪漫的事。從2011年的《瘋狂愚蠢的愛》到今天的《愛樂之城》，這之間我想不出還有哪對銀幕戀人擦出過更亮的愛火。影片中，兩人共舞時，他們真的飄了起來，而你絲毫不會質疑，只會覺得：他倆就該這樣啊。

[5]In the film’s handful of intoxicating showstoppers, Stone shows a previously untapped physical grace to go with the more tentative, self-conscious softness of her breathy singing voice. She’s not a belter (thank god) and you lean in to hear the words coming out of her mouth. Gosling, finally making good use of his prepubescent9prepubescent 青春期前的。Mickey Mouse Club training, is silken and smooth on his feet, his singing voice is soft and plaintive like a young Chet Baker10（1929—1988），美國爵士樂小號手、短號手和歌手。. And composer Justin Hurwitz’s songs (especially the dewy “City of Stars”) have both an intimacy and an occasional irony that act as counterweights to all of the razzledazzle we’re taking in with our eyes.

[5]該片令人著迷的亮點多多，斯通展示了此前從未顯露的優(yōu)雅身姿，與她略顯生怯羞澀的低吟淺唱正好相配。謝天謝地，她不是聲嘶力竭唱歌的人，你能輕松聽清她的歌詞。高斯林終于充分發(fā)揮了童子功——青春年少時，他曾在米老鼠俱樂部接受訓練——他的舞步絲般輕盈，歌聲溫和質樸，聽起來就像年輕時的查特·貝克。作曲家賈斯汀·赫爾維茨的歌曲，尤其是那首動情的“星光之城”，既熟悉又略帶反諷，抵消了我們目之所及的所有狂歡。

[6]Of course, La La Land is more than just a helium-light love story that checks off L.A. tourist attractions on its steady march toward a happily-everafter sunset. We in the audience (and the characters on screen) have seen too many Hollywood confections11confection （精美誘人的）甜點。to know better. As Mia and Sebastian’s careers start to take off and pull them in different directions, the film goes from sugary sweet to bittersweet and the music cues shift from giddy to melancholy. It would be churlish to give away more about the movie’s third act, but even as the mood of the film dims to a darker shade, Chazelle’s ambition never wavers. If anything, the final ten minutes of La La Land are the best—and most impressively powerful—of the film.

[7]There have been a handful of lavish, big-studio musicals in recent years. But for the most part, they’ve been bloated Broadway adaptations full of sound and fury. And some moviegoers may, no doubt, feel a little tentative about the genre. But La La Land is the anti-whatever those are. It’s more intimate and personal and affecting…more magical. My advice is to see La La Land and surrender to it12surrender to sth 聽任（感情、習慣等）擺布（或發(fā)展）。. It will make you feel like you’re walking on air too. ■

[6]當然，《愛樂之城》不僅僅是一部氦氣燈下沿著洛杉磯著名景點一路行進到美滿結局的愛情故事。觀眾席中的我們（和銀幕上的各個角色）已經看過太多好萊塢的甜蜜愛情，對此再熟悉不過了。米婭和塞巴斯汀各自的事業(yè)漸有起色，但同時也把他倆拉往不同的方向，影片從甜上加甜轉而甜中帶苦，配樂也由歡快轉為憂郁。關于影片第三部分，不宜再多劇透，但即便影片氛圍趨于黯淡，查澤雷的抱負也絕不會動搖。其實，《愛樂之城》的最后十分鐘是該片最好也最打動人心的部分。

[7]近些年出品了好幾部鴻篇巨制的歌舞片，但大多是過度改編的百老匯劇目，滿目喧嘩與騷動。無怪乎有些觀影者會對歌舞片心懷猶疑。但《愛樂之城》與那些截然相反，它更親和，更個性，更動人……也更奇妙。我的建議是，去看看《愛樂之城》吧，投入地看一次。它也會讓你心情愉快?！?/p>

《愛樂之城》

文/克里斯·納沙瓦提 譯/張菊

（譯者單位：中華女子學院）