-
Rarely do you get to see a movie that
promises a lot and then, lives up to it's
promise. The King's Speech is a rare
piece, indeed.
The movie
starts off with a stammering speech and signs off
with a staggering
one, with hardly any
glitches in between. The basic premise of the
movie is
fairly simple. A king with a
stutter is helped by a maverick speech therapist
to
overcome his problem and become an
inspiring orator. That sounds like a very
known territory to most movie goers.
But few minutes into the movie, and you
realize that this one simply pushes the
bar a notch higher.
It is a
very pleasing movie, doesn't lead the audience
into a lot of
uncomfortable questions.
However, the artistry lies in the overall balance
of the
movie. You slowly start getting
gripped by David Seidler's screenplay. The
actors are superb, takes it slow and
steady with superb grip on each of their
characters. While Colin Firth puts in a
spectacular performance (one you can't
miss), Geoffrey Rush goes a bit more
old school and pulls off a subtle and
deep portrayal. One that fills up your
heart but also keeps your brain active.
Humor comes in here and there, with a
very easy flow and steady pace. Not for
a single moment do you perceive the
movie as dull. Helena Bonham Carter is
good. Guy Pearce is appropriate, though
he does look a bit too casual at times
(maybe that was an intentional
character flaw).
Most of
the movie had been filmed indoors, albeit with
eloquent art direction.
But the
occasional sequences shot outside had been filmed
very beautifully,
portraying a very
dreamy picture of the then England. Sometimes, the
camera
goes in too close to the
characters, and stays there for a while, just long
enough to give us a sense of
suffocation, quite an artistic equivalent of a
speech disorder ! But then again,
negative shades had been whitewashed with
joyous ones and you never perceive it
as a dark movie. Direction wise, Tom
Hooper is bang on ! This is the kind of
a movie where you want to give a lot of
credit to the director. The set-up is
such that the dramatic elements are high
but needs to be tamed, so that it
doesn't goes over board. And hits
the
bulls eye ! Perfect balance.
All points considered, it's a brilliant
movie and a must watch.
Even now, the die is being cast. By
5pm
today Pacific Tim
e
(1am
tom
orrow GMT),
academ
icians will have
lodged the last of their Oscar votes. On Sunday,
these m
ay or
m
ay
not provide The King's Speech with the coronation
so m
any expect. Yet even if, in
spite of that avalanche of
nom
inations, this doesn't happen,
perhaps i
t won't m
atter all
that m
uch.
This
film
can m
anage
without Hollywood's ul
tim
ate
accolade. It's
built its own
legend already.
本片不止获得了盛赞的影评、无数的奖项和惊人的票
房收入。它让人们在街道上排队等待观影、
在播放演职员表时起立鼓掌。
本片是英国人热衷于拍摄的那种低成本历史剧，没有什么特效。因此其
成功颠覆
了许多传统看法。
It's not just the
ecstatic reviews, the sackload of awards and the
startling box offi
ce
takings. This is a film
that's had people queuing around the
block
to see it and standing
up
to
applaud as
the
credits roll.
Yet i
t's a low-budget
costum
e piece of
the kind the Brits
have
delivered so often before to no
parti
cular effect. Its
trium
ph has therefore
shattered m
uch conventional
wisdom
.
普遍看法是，如今不再有观众在大银幕上观看小成本戏剧。老影迷已经灭绝。
英国电影别指望赚
大钱：本土市场不够广阔；
需要
资金雄厚的投资商，但无从觅得；
公共资助不足，
而且投资者不
知如
何挑选优胜者；同时即便有优秀影片诞生，它们也进不了本土影院，遑论出口海外了
。
2
We were told that these
days, there's no longer a big-screen audience for
sm
all-scale
dram
a. That
older
cinem
agoers have
becom
e extinct.
That
Britfli
cks shouldn't expect
to
hit the jackpot: our
hom
e m
arket's not large
enough; deep-pocketed investors are
needed but can't be found; there isn't
enough public funding, and those who disburse
what there is don't know how to pick
winners; while even if the right film
s
were to get
m
ade, they
couldn't get into our own cinem
as, let
alone the rest of the world's.
现在英国人打开了眼界，但为了从此经验中受益，英国人还需要知道：为什么《国王的演讲》如
此成功？
We've now
learned
different, but
to
benefit
from
this lesson,
there's som
ething we need
to know. Just why has The King's Speech
been such a success?
业内专
家并不知道答案，因为他们并没有预料到本片的胜利。现在，他们会推崇
Presci<
/p>
ence
公
司和英国电影协会等投资方的
远见、四象限受众选择法、针对评奖季的定位、
Mom
entu
m
公司和英
国分销商的卓越营销，
以及
美国同行温斯坦兄弟机智的搭桥引线。
不过他们也承认除此以外还有更多
原因。
We've now learned
different, but
to benefit
from
this lesson,
there's som
ething we need
to know. Just why has The King's Speech
been such a success?
于是，
和许多评论家（以及电影艺术与科学学院奖的提名者）一样，这些专家表示他们相信本片
有杰出的表演、精致的剧本、
优秀的美术指导以及动人的摄影、服装、
< br>剪辑、作曲和混音。
然而，即
使你相信所有这些好评都不
算过誉，
但从什么时候开始电影只要够出色就能被大众接受呢？我们现在
不是在谈论一部经典电影
（本片还不够老）
，
我们讨论的是一部大卖电影。
大卖电影往往要引发共鸣，
而不仅仅是铺陈其优点。
So, like
m
any of the critics (and the
Academ
y of Motion Pi
cture
Arts and Sciences
nominators),
they point
to what
they deem
to
be
m
agnificent acting, a fine script,
classy
production design
and, for that m
atter,
im
pressive cinem
atography,
costum
es, editing,
score and
sound-m
ix. Yet, even if you're sure
that all this esteem
isn't at
least
a little
excessive,
since when was m
ere
ex
cellence enough to bring in the
crowds? We're not
talking about a
classic (yet);
we're
discussing a hit.
And
those
tend
to strike a
chord, not
just parade
m
erit.
《国王的演讲》
导演汤姆
·
霍伯认为本片和《阿凡达》一样是在挖掘相同的跨文
化理念。好吧，那
到底是什么理念？
The
film's director,
Tom
Hooper, has opined
that
The King's Speech
appears
to be m
ining
the sam
e cross-cultural
m
yths as the likes of Avatar. OK, so
what m
yths are we talking
about?
一位美国分析
师以《功夫梦》为范例，在本片中准确找到
10
个关键元素，证
明本片就是披着一
线大片外皮的
B
级片
，和其他类似电影一样受他鄙视。对于小说家米歇尔
·
罗伯茨而
言，本片就是关
于性别的：
“
从艺术手
法上讲，有缺陷的国王象征了所有普通人，当他重获话语权时，就能恢复所有
力量。继而
他可以领导人民去战斗。
”
An
Am
erican analyst has identified 10 key
elem
ents that locate the
film
firm
ly in the
paradigm
of The Karate Kid,
thus revealing it
to be
a B
-m
ovie story
decked out
rags
le Roberts,
it's all about
gender:
aged
king, who
by artisti
c
sleight
of hand is
Everym
an,
can be restored
to full potency when he gets his voice
back. Then he can lead his people into
war.
你被说服了吧？这就是麻烦所在：任何人都可
以发表意见。如果你要用个人偏见来支持自己的理
论，
那么要如
何证明你错了？询问影迷也没有多大作用，
因为许多理论会臆断影迷们拥有一些潜意识<
/p>
反应，
而且即便影迷认识到这种反应存在也可能不肯承认。不过，
有一些常见的对电影的诠释好像非
常合理。
Persuaded yet? That's the trouble
wi
th this gam
e. Anyone can
play. If you want to fuel