金融時報(bào):與魔鬼訂約的電影大師

與魔鬼訂約的電影大師

萊妮·瑞芬斯塔爾，是一位杰出的電影導(dǎo)演，在電影美學(xué)和拍攝技巧方面有巨大貢獻(xiàn)的人。她最著名、最宏大、最有感染力的作品，卻讓她成為眾矢之的。因?yàn)椋?ldquo;與魔鬼簽訂了浮士德式契約”。

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

Leni Riefenstahl 萊妮·瑞芬斯塔爾(1902－2003)，德國女電影導(dǎo)演，主要作品有宣揚(yáng)納粹的《意志的勝利》和《奧林匹亞》等紀(jì)錄片。

socialite ['s????la?t] n.社會名流

Triumph of the Will 《意志的勝利》，1935年上映的著名紀(jì)錄片，納粹以無限經(jīng)費(fèi)支持她拍攝，影片以無與倫比的藝術(shù)表現(xiàn)力和感染力塑造了希特勒的救世主形象。

the Third Reich 第三帝國，即納粹德國

kitschy ['k?t??] adj.低級庸俗的

abominate [?'b?m?ne?t] v.憎恨，痛恨

diffident ['d?f?d(?)nt] adj.羞怯的

pentagram ['pent?græm] n.五角星

Goebbels 戈培爾

repudiate [r?'pju?d?e?t] v.否定，斷絕關(guān)系

Jesuitically [d?e,zju'itik?li] adv.耶穌會地，陰險地

Faustian pact 浮士德式的協(xié)議，即出賣靈魂給魔鬼

Monstrous talent (405 words)

By Nigel Andrews, FT film critic.

How do you deal with a monster? Leni Riefenstahl was a multiple achiever on a frightening scale. She was an actress-dancer, a film-maker, a socialite and social climber, a propagandist for Nazism, and late in life a successful photographer. She had talent, even if some might deem it, in film critic Dilys Powell’s words, ”an appalling talent”.

By the end of a long life - she died at 101 - the director of Triumph of the Will, the Third Reich’s great hour in the artistic sun, was vilified for almost everything she did. Susan Sontag wrote the essay ”Fascinating Fascism”. Sontag’s thesis was that Riefenstahl blindly worshipped the strong, the beautiful, the dominant.

Triumph of the Will is great film-making. It is pointless to attack it as less and pointless to try to pull down its monumentality with words like ”shallow”, ”vulgar” or ”kitschy”. Great art can be made in terrible causes.

Riefenstahl might be thought to have met her match in biographer Steven Bach, who in an earlier life ran United Artists.

There is the same sense of a civilised flailing in his approach to Riefenstahl. Should he respect this woman or abominate her? Bach is not sure and it shows. This is the position we have met in every Riefenstahl book: a diffident stand-off, with the author staying inside his pentagram of decent liberal enlightenment, deploring here, admiring there.

Yet Bach writes well and researches well. For Leni he found unpublished interviews with the film-maker and followed these up with his own interviews with survivors. This is a fuller, rounder portrait, even if the main features show no change.

Bach also has a knack for the pithy phrase. In isolating reasons why Riefenstahl was remarkable, he cites a comment from Goebbels’ deputy Fritz Hippler: ”No one else in Germany had the right to decide alone what to film.” Exactly. And this film-maker was a woman, a non-party member and, quite possibly Bach reminds us, of Jewish descent.

It remains a stunning story. Riefenstahl spent the second half of her life repudiating, or Jesuitically seeking to justify, the things she had done in the first half. But she had signed a Faustian pact. It was too bad for her that the Devil was thrown out of power, a decade after her signing, and she was left with all the infamy and none of the rewards.

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1.This article is most likely to be a piece of?

A. obituary

B. book review

C. film critique

D. history research paper

答案(1)

2.What can best describe Riefenstahl's present-day public image?

A. A monstrous talent.

B. An appalling talent.

C. A shallow propagandist.

D. A successful photographer.

答案(2)

3.Why Bach's book is different from other Riefenstahl books?

A. It is not differnt.

B. He provided a diffident stand-off.

C. He interviewed with surviving related people.

D. He found out that Reni was possibly of Jewish descent.

答案(3)

4.What was "the Faustian pact" for Leni?

A. Being a socialite and social climber.

B. Depicting "Fascinating Fascism" through her movies.

C. Blindly worshipping the strong, the beautiful, the dominant.

D. Spending the second half of her life seeking to justify the first half.

答案(4)

* * *

(1) 答案：B.book review

解釋：從哪里可以看出這是篇書評？ 第四段有這么一句：Riefenstahl···met her match in biographer Steven Bach。另外，倒數(shù)第四段的一句This is the position we have met in every Riefenstahl book... 以及下一段的Yet Bach writes well and researches well. 這本書是瑞芬斯塔爾的傳記，中文版叫做《極權(quán)制造：萊妮·瑞芬斯塔爾的一生》

(2) 答案：A.A monstrous talent.

解釋：正如標(biāo)題所示。we have met in every Riefenstahl book: deploring here, admiring there.

(3) 答案：C.He interviewed with surviving related people.

解釋：This is a fuller, rounder portrait, even if the main features show no change. 也就是說這本書主要的基調(diào)和態(tài)度沒有什么特別之處，但是發(fā)現(xiàn)了一些老的未經(jīng)發(fā)表的瑞芬斯塔爾的訪談，并親自采訪了一些相關(guān)人員。這提供了一個更完整的畫面。

(4) 答案：B.Depicting "Fascinating Fascism" through her movies.

解釋：這四項(xiàng)都不是什么好事，但是B顯然是最具爭議、最毀她形象的“與魔鬼訂約”的行為。 瑞芬斯塔爾回憶自己是怎樣被希特勒震撼，并主動請纓要求做點(diǎn)事的： “我聽到他那句‘我的德國同胞們’那一剎那，我眼前一亮，如同神諭出現(xiàn)，永生難忘，就像地球在我眼前無盡地綿延，并突然從中間裂成兩半，噴射出巨大的水柱，直沖云霄，使得地球顫抖。當(dāng)時，我似乎癱瘓了。”