评论
打印
The international film festival at Cannes meant to make its debut in September 1939. The French were sick of the Mussolini-tainted Venice festival and decided to invite the world to their own cinephile party. A short article in The New York Times that July said there would be a prize for best director, named for the French film pioneer Louis Lumière.
首届戛纳国际电影节原本计划于1939年9月开幕。当时的法国人受够了被墨索里尼(Mussolini)污染的威尼斯电影节，想开创属于自己的电影盛会。那年7月，《纽约时报》上的一篇短文说，电影节上会颁发最佳导演奖，并以法国导演先驱路易斯·卢米埃尔(Louis Lumière)的名字命名该奖项。
It was not to be. Hitler invaded Poland on opening night. The festival was called off.
这个计划没能实现，在电影节开幕当夜，希特勒入侵了波兰，电影节也被迫取消。
Fast-forward to September 1946. The festival opened at last. But if World War II was over, the Cold War had just begun. In an article headlined “Russians Balk Film Showings,” The Times reported the assertion that “the Russians were operating a campaign against American movies.” A representative of the American film industry, Harold Smith, “said that when the production ‘Gaslight’ was scheduled, the Russians invited everyone to a last-minute party to keep away representatives of twenty-three nations at the festival and the showing had to be rescheduled.” Furthermore, “Mr. Smith complained that the Soviet delegates usually walk out of the hall when American films are shown.”
时间来到1946年9月。电影节终于开幕了。但是，随着“二战”的结束，冷战又开始了。时报发表了一篇名为《俄罗斯人阻挠电影放映》(Russians Balk Film Showings)的文章，称“俄罗斯人正发起一场抵制美国电影的运动”。文中引述美国电影界代表哈罗德·史密斯(Harold Smith)的说法，“影片《煤气灯下》(Gaslight)在电影节上按计划上映时，俄罗斯人在最后一分钟邀请所有人参加派对，令23个国家的代表都无法出席放映，影片只得重新安排时间。”更有甚者，“史密斯先生抱怨，苏联代表经常在美国电影放映期间走出影厅。”
It’s probably just as well that no Palme d’Or or its equivalent was awarded that first year. “For ‘diplomatic reasons,’” The Times reported, “it was decided that no prize should be given for the single best film, but by common accord a grand international prize was awarded to the French production ‘The Battle of the Rails,’ an account of the part played by French railroad workers in the resistance to German occupation.”
当年电影节也没有颁发金棕榈奖或类似奖项。“出于‘外交原因’，”时报报道，“电影节觉得不应该把奖项颁发给某一部最佳电影，而是一致同意把一项国际大奖颁发给法国电影《铁路战斗队》(The Battle of the Rails)。这部电影讲述了德国占领期间参加抵抗运动的铁路工人扮演了怎样的角色。”
Another winner? The soon-to-be-classic dipso tale “The Lost Weekend.” It was named “the best American motion picture of the last year and its star, Ray Milland, received an individual honor,” The Times reported.
还有一个赢家是谁？据时报报道，那就是后来很快成了经典的酒鬼故事《失去的周末》(The Lost Weekend)。它被授予“去年年度最佳美国电影，而它的主演雷·米兰德(Ray Milland)获得了一项个人荣誉”。
One of the Russians who attended the festival, Serge A. Gerasimov, a leading Soviet film producer, said in an interview with The Times in his Moscow apartment the next month that “The Lost Weekend,” alone among the various American films at Cannes, “shone like a diamond.” As for the rest, he said, they represented a Hollywood with its priorities askew. Mr. Gerasimov “cites the dictum of Marx — Karl, not Groucho — that work is more interesting than entertainment,” The Times said.
出席这次电影节的俄罗斯人中有苏联顶尖电影制片人塞尔日·A·格拉西莫夫(Serge A. Gerasimov)，《失去的周末》上映的第二个月，他在位于莫斯科的公寓中接受了时报采访。他说，在戛纳上映的各种美国片之中，《失落的周末》“如同钻石一般闪耀”。他说，其他影片只是反映了好莱坞扭曲的优先关注点。格拉西莫夫“引用马克思的名言说——是卡尔·马克思，不是格劳乔·马克斯——工作比娱乐更有趣，”《时报》写道。
But another critic of the United States showing at Cannes — and indeed throughout Europe, where American films were packing theaters — was homegrown. “We are giving Europe an eyeful, to be sure, but an eyeful of what?” the American documentary filmmaker Richard de Rochemont wrote in The Times. “Europeans know that the world has undergone some terrific changes since 1939. Their own values have been shaken or destroyed, and maybe new cataclysms are just around the corner. Yet, the American films which they are seeing in 1946 seem blissfully oblivious of everything and anything which was not in the film vocabulary of 1938.”
但是，对于戛纳电影节上放映的美国电影——事实上是塞满了全欧洲影院的美国电影——有另外一个批评的声音来自本土。“没错，我们让欧洲人看了不少东西，但看的都是些什么？”美国纪录片导演理查德·德·罗什蒙(Richard de Rochemont)为时报撰文写道。“欧洲人知道，自1939年以来，这个世界就在经历着巨变，新的灾难可能就潜伏在身边。然而，他们在1946年看到的美国电影显然对于一切1938年的电影语汇之外的事物都保持着极乐的无知。”
“I wish to report,” Mr. de Rochemont added, “that the provincial French, for instance, think that we Americans are somewhat off our rocker.”
“我想说，”德·罗什蒙补充道，“举例而言，外省法国人觉得我们美国人有点疯疯癫癫。”
Why, he wondered, “give them films in which the principal characters act like black-market millionaires on a spree? Why emphasize ad nauseam our wastefulness, our greed, our psychological instability?” (Sounds familiar.)
他想知道，为什么要“给他们看那种电影，主角都像纵情狂欢的黑市起家百万大亨一样？为什么要不厌其烦地强调我们的浪费、贪婪和心理不稳定？”（听上去有点耳熟）。
“At first the gaudy inconsequentialities of Hollywood films simply received a good-natured bird” (a popular expression for a sound of derision), Mr. de Rochemont wrote. “But as time went on, it all began to rankle, and the feeling developed that, while Europe had grown more mature by suffering, Americans remained the genial and acquisitive half-wits our detractors are anxious to prove we are.”
“起先，好莱坞电影中的种种俗气花哨的不合逻辑只是得到了一只好脾气的鸟儿（这是当时的流行用语，指的是遭到一声嘲笑），”德·罗什蒙写道。“但是随着时间的推移，一切都开始让人觉得怨恨，现在他们觉得：欧洲人由于痛苦而变得更加成熟，而美国人却还是一群贪婪快活的笨蛋，正如我们的诋毁者们迫切想证明的那样。”
For the record, in addition to “The Lost Weekend” and “Gaslight,” the American films entered at Cannes that first year were “Rhapsody in Blue,” “Anna and the King of Siam,” “Gilda,” “Notorious,” “Make Mine Music” and “Wonder Man.”
准确起见，除了《失落的周末》和《煤气灯下》，那年在戛纳上映的美国电影还包括《蓝色狂想曲》(Rhapsody in Blue)、《安娜与暹罗王》(Anna and the King of Siam)、《吉尔达》(Gilda)、《美人计》(Notorious)、《为我谱上乐章》(Make Mine Music)和《怪人》(Wonder Man)。
