PBS高端访谈:了解一下电影《他们有什么》

Judy Woodruff: Next, our fall film series continues tonight, "What They Had." It is the story of a family coming to terms with the mother's oncoming Alzheimer's. Jeffrey Brown has our look.

Jeffrey Brown: Set in Chicago, "What They Had" is the story of a family coping as their mother begins to suffer from Alzheimer's.

Actor: I have been telling them for years, you got to figure out what you want to do with the time comes, because we all know how this thing works.

Jeffrey Brown: First-time director Elizabeth Chomko wrote the screenplay based on her own family experience.

Elizabeth Chomko: I was devastated¹ by my grandmother's diagnosis², just because she was someone I so looked up to and felt so close to and really assumed that that would be the sort of end of her personality and the end of her spirit.

Jeffrey Brown: The film opens with the elderly Ruth, played by Blythe Danner, wandering out into the night.

Hilary Swank: What do you mean she's gone?

Jeffrey Brown: Daughter Bridget, played by two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank, returns home to help the family decide what to do next.

Hilary Swank: I felt the most vulnerable that I ever have as an actor in the role, because it was playing someone that I felt was so similar to me, just a woman finding her way. And for so long, women are just by nature nurturers and we take care of people. It's just what we do and it's what we're taught to do. So at what point do you say that this isn't right for me and I need to take care of myself first, and stop pleasing other people in order to live my most authentic³ life?

Jeffrey Brown: So did you also bring some personal experience to all of this?

Hilary Swank: My dad got a lung transplant, and I was his sole caretaker. I took time off, and I was just helping⁴ my dad for three years. And I think it was definitely helps you understand what a crisis like this is. And it helps to remind you to be living in the moment.

Jeffrey Brown: Michael Shannon plays Ruth's son, Nick.

Michael Shannon: It's about the cycle of giving and taking care that happens in families. You know, you're born, and you need to be taken care of. And then, as you grow up, you learn how to take care of yourself. And then you learn how to take care of other people. And then eventually you find yourself in a position where you need to be taken care of again. She hit on me.

Hilary Swank: Who?

Michael Shannon: Not Emma.

Hilary Swank: Mom?

Michael Shannon: Yes. Yes. She put her hand on my knee, and she was looking at me like wanted to, she hit on me.

Hilary Swank: Elizabeth, she's such a smart writer. And you have to have, I think, levity⁵, or you combust, right? You just like...

Michael Shannon: Well, yes. If you just come it from like a straight-up, oh, isn't this sad, isn't this awful point of view, then you wind up with like a Hallmark movie of the week. Who's that?

Robert Forster: Oh, what is that?

Michael Shannon: You know who that is?

Blythe Danner: He's my boyfriend.

Robert Forster: See?

Elizabeth Chomko: My grandmother didn't want to be coddled. Like, she wanted to be treated like she always was. And, you know, we were a family of teasers and laughers. And when you know your heart is closest to breaking is when you're laughing loudest. At least, that's how it is with the people that I love.

Jeffrey Brown: The movie explores changing circumstances and how they impact family members differently.

Hilary Swank: It deals with so many layers of life, but, again, with levity. There's parts of it that are laugh-out-loud funny. And it's unexpected. And that's what I love in movies, the unexpected.

Michael Shannon: Yes, there's a spontaneity to it, I think, which is odd, because it's scripted. But it feels like it's happening.

Jeffrey Brown: When you're making a film that really just goes to this kind of, not only family dynamic, but the loss of identity, right, it's kind of hard stuff.

Hilary Swank: It's a coming-of-age movie, which we keep talking about. And that means for everyone. We're all coming of age in our own way and our own whatever time that is. I feel like every year I'm trying to figure myself out, you know? It's not just for a teenager or someone in their 20s. It's like we're continually evolving and trying to figure out what's right and what's best for us.

Jeffrey Brown: Best for the characters and best for the actors playing in these roles.

Michael Shannon: There's two kinds of people that get into acting⁶. There are people that are very focused on narcissism⁷ or vanity or, like, I want to be famous, I want to be in the spotlight⁸. And then I feel like there's people that get into acting because they're just genuinely curious about other people, and they just pay a lot of attention to, like, what's going on around them, and they have a lot of empathy.

Hilary Swank: I became an actor because I love people, and I love their stories, and I love what makes them unique, and I love what makes them similar. I mean, we're all striving to either love or be loved in one way or another. And circumstances may be different, but the feelings behind them are the same.

Jeffrey Brown: "What They Had" includes footage shot by director Chomko's grandfather.

Elizabeth Chomko: Just feel like family, like a scrapbook. Right before her lucid⁹ moments, these little flashes of memory, what that might look like in her mind.

Jeffrey Brown: Moments that Chomko wanted to ensure she preserved.

Elizabeth Chomko: The film is really inspired by memory. I think I realized when I saw my grandmother losing hers that memories are this gift, and that we really take them for granted or at least I had taken them for granted, because they go away.

Jeffrey Brown: "What They Had" is in select theaters now. For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown at the Toronto International Film Festival.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：接下来，我们秋季的电影系列《他们有什么》将于今晚开始。这个故事讲述的是一家人应对母亲即将得阿兹海默症的故事。下面请听杰弗里·布朗发回的报道。

杰弗里·布朗：这部电影的背景是在芝加哥，它讲述了一家人齐心协力应对母亲得阿兹海默症的故事。

演员：我跟他们说了很多年了，你要明白随着时间的迫近，你想做什么，因为我们都知道阿兹海默症会怎么样。

杰弗里·布朗：这是导演伊丽莎白的处女座，剧本是根据她个人的家庭经历改编的。

伊丽莎白：我祖母确诊后，我整个人都不好了，因为我很敬仰祖母，跟她特别亲。我真地会觉得，这个病会让祖母的个性和精神都不再存于世上。

杰弗里·布朗：影片开头是布莱思·丹纳饰演的露丝在夜色中散步，她已年迈。

希拉里·斯万克：你说她走了，是什么意思？

杰弗里·布朗：女儿布丽奇特由两次奥斯卡得主希拉里·斯万克饰演。她回家帮家人决定接下来该怎么办。

希拉里·斯万克：我感觉这是我饰演过的最脆弱的角色，以为这个角色跟我本人很像，就是一个女性在寻找属于自己的路的过程。很长时间以来，女性都是天生的家庭主妇，只能在家照顾家人。女性就是这样做的，所有人都在教我们这样做。你是站在什么角度来说我不应该这样做的？我应该先照顾好自己，要为了过自己真正的生活而停止取悦他人。

杰弗里·布朗：您在出演时，是否会带一些个人的经验进去呢？

希拉里·斯万克：我父亲做过肺移植，当时只有我一个人照顾父亲。我挤时间照顾父亲3年。我觉得这种经历肯定会帮助一个人理解这种危机的体验是怎样的。这种经历还帮助我提醒自己活在当下。

杰弗里·布朗：迈克尔·珊农饰演露丝的儿子尼克。

迈克尔·珊农：这部电影讲述的是家人之间的互相给予和互相关怀。每个人从出生开始就需要被人照顾。然后，随着我们的长大，我们学会照顾自己，也会照顾其他人。最后我们会发现自己又需要被人照顾了。这种感觉正是我感受到的。

希拉里·斯万克：谁？

迈克尔·珊农：不是艾玛。

希拉里·斯万克：是妈妈吗？

迈克尔·珊农：是的，没错。她把手放在我的膝盖上，看着我，像在逗我。

希拉里·斯万克：伊丽莎白是个很聪明的编剧，要做到这一点，必须要能够多变或者说燃烧，对吧？就像是……

迈克尔·珊农：没错。如果直接表露出来，这会有悲伤的感觉吗？角度不会很糟糕吗？那样就会成为本周标志性的一部电影了。

罗伯特·福斯特：那是什么？

迈克尔·珊农：你知道这是谁吗？

布莱思·丹纳：他是我男朋友。

罗伯特·福斯特：看到了吗？

伊丽莎白：我祖母不想得到太多关注。她希望家人能像往常一样待她。我们的家里充满了欢笑声。心接近崩溃边缘的时候也是笑得最大声的时候。至少，我跟爱的人在一起时是这样的。

杰弗里·布朗：这部影片探究了环境的变化，以及环境变化对家庭成员不一样的影响。

希拉里·斯万克：这部电影里有太多层次的处理问题，但最后都可以归结在变化上。有一些部分是畅快的笑，这是预想不到的。这也是我在影片里喜欢的部分，是不可预期的。

迈克尔·珊农：没错，这其中有些东西是自发的。我觉得这也很有意思，毕竟我们是有剧本的。但演出来的感觉就像是剧本里写了一样。

杰弗里·布朗：要制作一部电影，不仅要有家庭的成分，还要有身份的迷失，这是很难的。

希拉里·斯万克：有关成熟与变老的电影是我们永远的话题，每个人都会经历的。我们都在以自己的方式变老。我觉得每一年我都会发现不一样的自己。这种感觉不只适用于20几岁的年轻人或者少年。好像我们一直是在变化的，一直在试图弄清楚什么是对的，什么是适合自己的。

杰弗里·布朗：什么是对这些角色最好的，对饰演角色的演员最好的。

迈克尔·珊农：有两种人会演戏。有一些人非常自恋虚荣，就是想成名，享受在聚光灯下的感觉。我认为，还有一类人演戏是因为他们真地对人感兴趣，他们很喜欢观察人和周围的事儿，有着强烈的同理心。

希拉里·斯万克：我做演员是因为我喜欢人，也喜欢人的故事。故事让每个人变得独特，但他们也有共性。这种共性在于：我们总是在爱人和被爱。情况可能略有不同，但他们的感情是一样的。

杰弗里·布朗：《他们有什么》里面的一些脚本是导演伊丽莎白的祖父拍的。

伊丽莎白：感觉像亲人一样，就像一本剪贴本。这些清晰的时刻，这些记忆的片段，以及她脑海中的这些片段和时刻。

杰弗里·布朗：这些时刻都是导演伊丽莎白想确保留住的时刻。

伊丽莎白：这部电影是回忆启发我拍的。我觉得我意识到，当我看到祖母慢慢失去记忆的时候，那份记忆就是这份礼物。而以前的我们太把这些当做理所当然的事情，至少我本人曾这样过，因为他们离开了才感到珍贵。

杰弗里·布朗：现在这部电影在部分影院已经上映了。感谢收听《新闻一小时》，以上是杰弗里·布朗从多伦多国际电影节发回的报道。

1 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

2 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

3 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 levity   

n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变

参考例句：

• His remarks injected a note of levity into the proceedings.他的话将一丝轻率带入了议事过程中。
• At the time,Arnold had disapproved of such levity.那时候的阿诺德对这种轻浮行为很看不惯。

6 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

7 narcissism   

n.自我陶醉，自恋

参考例句：

• Those who suffer from narcissism become self-absorbed.自恋的人会变得自私。
• The collective narcissism of the Kerouac circle is ultimately boring.凯鲁亚克和他周围人物的集体自我陶醉欲最终使人厌烦不已。

8 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

9 lucid   

adj.明白易懂的，清晰的，头脑清楚的

参考例句：

• His explanation was lucid and to the point.他的解释扼要易懂。
• He wasn't very lucid,he didn't quite know where he was.他神志不是很清醒，不太知道自己在哪里。