《Sideways》　杯酒人生　給自己的生活一些指引

No.060　《Sideways》　杯酒人生　給自己的生活一些指引

英文導(dǎo)讀

Sideways is a 2004 comedy-drama film written by Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne and directed by Payne. Adapted from Rex Pickett's 2004 novel of the same name, Sideways follows men in their forties, portrayed by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, who take a week-long road trip to Santa Barbara County Wine Country.

Directed by Alexander Payne, Sideways follows Miles (Paul Giamatti), who is distressed about his lack of success as a novelist, and Jack (Thomas Haden Church), an equally unsuccessful actor with a rapidly approaching wedding. In a last-ditch effort to sow their wild oats, Jack and Miles take off on a final road trip to California's wine country the week prior to Jack's wedding. Both men have goals for the vacation—Miles wants to turn Jack on to the art of wine tasting, while Jack is concerned with exploiting his last days as a bachelor—but when the two men come across two fascinating women (Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh), the duo is forced to examine their morality, and if maturity isn't such a depressing prospect.

Time Out London said the film was "intelligent, funny and moving", and the Chicago Sun-Times' Roger Ebert, giving the film four stars, said, "what happens during the seven days adds up to the best human comedy of the year – comedy, because it is funny, and human, because it is surprisingly moving." The review aggregator Metacritic gives Sideways a Metascore of 94%, signifying "universal (critical) acclaim." The movie also holds a rare 96% rating at Rotten Tomatoes with 206 positive reviews out of 213.

Throughout the film, Miles speaks fondly of the red wine varietal Pinot noir, while denigrating Merlot. Following the film's U.S. release in October 2004, Merlot sales dropped 2% while Pinot noir sales increased 16% in the Western United States. A similar trend occurred in British wine outlets. Sales of Merlot dropped after the film's release possibly due to Miles' disparaging remarks about the varietal in the film.

Payne and Taylor won multiple awards for their screenplay. Giamatti and Church, as well as actresses Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh, playing local women who become romantically involved with the men, all received accolades for their performances.

Sideways won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and was nominated for four other awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Alexander Payne), Best Supporting Actor (Thomas Haden Church) and Best Supporting Actress (Virginia Madsen).

獲獎情況

2005年第77屆奧斯卡：最佳改編劇本，并榮獲最佳影片提名、最佳導(dǎo)演提名、最佳男配角提名、最佳女配角提名。

影片信息

導(dǎo)演：亞歷山大·佩恩

編?。簛啔v山大·佩恩、吉姆·泰勒

主演：保羅·吉亞瑪提、托馬斯·哈登·丘奇、維吉妮婭·馬德森、吳珊卓

類型：劇情、喜劇、愛情

制片國家（地區(qū)）：美國

上映日期：2004-10-22（美國）

片長：126分鐘

又名：《酒佬日記》《尋找新方向》《并肩前行》

劇情簡介

邁爾斯（保羅·吉亞瑪提　飾）和杰克（托馬斯·哈登·丘奇　飾）是老朋友了，看著杰克即將踏入婚姻殿堂，邁爾斯更加感嘆起自己失敗的生活：婚姻失敗、作家夢遙不可及、干著無聊枯燥的職業(yè)、不再年輕的歲數(shù)。

邁爾斯對葡萄酒的研究頗為深厚，在杰克的婚禮之前，他決定帶著老友一起旅游，去加利福尼亞的葡萄酒生產(chǎn)基地借酒來放松心情。如果遇上一夜情當(dāng)然是最好不過了。

在酒香濃郁的加利福尼亞州，杰克很快找到了新歡斯蒂芬妮。而邁爾斯也試探性地靠近了一個曾經(jīng)相識的女侍者瑪雅，她恰巧是斯蒂芬妮的好友。很快杰克和斯蒂芬妮進(jìn)入了熱戀，邁爾斯和瑪雅也很快相知。但是，無意中，邁爾斯向瑪雅透露了杰克周末即將結(jié)婚的事實(shí)，導(dǎo)致杰克被斯蒂芬妮暴打一頓，同時，瑪雅也和邁爾斯分手。

隨后發(fā)生的很多事情，都讓邁爾斯更加的消沉，直到瑪雅的一個電話激起了邁爾斯的生活熱情。邁爾斯重新上路，敲響了瑪雅的家門……

制作花絮

吳珊卓為拍攝本片而學(xué)駕駛摩托車。

喬治·克魯尼曾希望扮演杰克，但導(dǎo)演亞歷山大·佩恩不想起用大牌明星。

片中品酒課上的葡萄酒大多不含酒精，出于拍攝需要，演員們喝了太多這種葡萄酒，以至看見就想作嘔。

本片同時囊括了洛杉磯、紐約和全美影評人協(xié)會最佳劇本獎、金球獎最佳劇本獎、美國作家協(xié)會最佳劇本獎和奧斯卡最佳劇本獎。

片中4人在晚餐時的對話大多是即興發(fā)揮的。

美國和英國的比諾黑葡萄酒因本片的成功而價格上漲。

重點(diǎn)學(xué)習(xí)

In a last-ditch effort to sow their wild oats

我們都知道，oat作為名詞使用時，是“燕麥；燕麥籽”的意思，文中的wild oats并不是“野生的燕麥”的意思，而是“放蕩不羈；輕率”的意思，用英語解釋它就是：the indiscretions of youth, esp dissoluteness before settling down. 比如：Her brother sowed his wild oats while he was in college, but now he is a better man. （她哥哥在大學(xué)時代放蕩不羈，但他現(xiàn)在行為檢點(diǎn)多了。）

Jack and Miles take off on a final road trip to California's wine country

文中的take off是英語中的一個常用固定搭配，它詞義豐富，在文中是“出發(fā)；匆匆離開”的意思，比如：The professor took off for Shanghai this morning.（教授今天上午動身去上海了。）它最常見的意思是“脫下（衣帽、鞋子等），脫掉；拿掉；移去；拆下；領(lǐng)走；帶走；帶去（某物）；移送（某處）”等，比如：He took off his coat and sat down. （他脫下大衣坐了下來。）Take off用于口語中，可以表達(dá)“開始；開始流行；突然受到廣泛歡迎，突然被廣泛使用；（想法、計(jì)劃等）開始獲得成功”的意思，比如：After a slow start,the plan soon took off and was accepted by all.（計(jì)劃開始時進(jìn)展得很慢，但很快見成效了，而且被大家廣泛接受。）

單詞時間

distressed[di?strest] adj. 痛苦的；憂慮的；貧困的；受損的

rapidly[?ræpidli] adv. 迅速地；很快地；立即

last-ditch[?lɑ:stdit?] adj. 堅(jiān)持到最后的；最后防線的

sow[s?u] vt. 播種；散布；使密布

oat[?ut] n. 燕麥；麥片粥，燕麥粥

bachelor[?bæt??l?] n. 學(xué)士；單身漢；（尚未交配的）小雄獸

fascinating[?fæsineiti?] adj. 迷人的；吸引人的；使人神魂顛倒的

duo[?dju:?u] n. 二重奏；二重唱；二人組

maturity[m??tju?riti] n. 成熟；到期；完備

fondly[?f?ndli] adv. 天真地；憐愛地；溫柔地

varietal[v??rai?t?l] n. 用一種葡萄釀制的葡萄酒

denigrate[?deniɡreit] vt. 詆毀；使變黑；玷污