譯/陳韋廷
The voice has stayed with Rosamund Pike. For the new movie "A Private War," the British actress transformed her posh, rounded speech into a distinctive American rasp, to play Marie Colvin, the Long Island-raised, London-based journalist who was killed in Syria in 2012. On tough occasions, Pike still imagines using her tone: It suggests a woman who gets things done.
這個聲音一直陪伴著羅莎蒙派克(自取中文名「裴淳華」)。為了新電影《私人戰爭》,這位英國女演員把她華麗圓潤的口音轉變為一種獨特的美國腔,來飾演2012年於敘利亞遇難、長島長大的駐倫敦記者瑪麗·柯爾文。裴淳華現在身處艱難時刻時,仍想像自己使用著柯爾文的聲調,而那意味的是一個能把事情做好的女人。
That voice, along with the patch Colvin wore after she lost an eye to a grenade in Sri Lanka, became her calling cards as she catapulted into war zones around the world, and wrote deeply felt, courageously reported articles for The Sunday Times in London. "A Private War"aims to realistically portray her struggles and explain why she persisted. And it could have scarcely arrived at a more apt, and fraught, time.
那個聲音以及柯爾文在斯里蘭卡被手榴彈炸掉一眼後所戴的眼罩,在她闖入世界各地戰區,為倫敦「周日泰晤士報」撰寫真摯而勇敢的報導時,也變成了她的名片。《私人戰爭》旨在真實描述她的奮鬥,並解釋何以她要堅持,而它幾乎不可能在一個更為恰當和令人憂心的時刻到來。
"This movie has all Marie's gestures and movements," the CNN and PBS anchor Christiane Amanpour, who knew Colvin, wrote in an email. "She was killed, probably directly targeted, for getting the truth out about the Syria war. It's especially relevant given the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year. He too was simply speaking the truth."
認識柯爾文的CNN與PBS主播亞曼普在一封電子郵件中寫道:「這部電影有著瑪麗所有的姿態與動作。她因為揭露敘利亞戰爭真相而遇害,很可能是被直接鎖定。鑑於去年沙國記者哈紹吉被謀殺,此事別具意義,而他也只是在述說真相。」
Colvin's story — her rise as an international correspondent reporting on conflicts in the Middle East, the Balkans and elsewhere; her bravery going into hostile territory to document the civilian cost of war; and ultimately, her death while covering a relentless battle in Homs — is in some ways tailor-made for the big screen. She was undeniably gutsy but suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological and physical ills from witnessing so much trauma.
柯爾文因為報導中東、巴爾幹半島等地的衝突而發跡成為一名國際記者,勇敢進入作戰地區紀錄民間因戰爭而付出的代價,以及最終在報導荷姆斯一場無情戰役中去世,她的事跡在某種程度上來說是為大銀幕量身打造的。無可否認的,她很勇敢,卻也由於目睹如此多的創傷,她罹患了創傷後壓力症以及其他心理與身體疾病。
Women like Colvin — and those before her, like the British correspondent Clare Hollingworth, who broke the news of World War II in Europe, and pioneering photojournalists like Gerda Taro and Dickey Chapelle — have been at the front of conflicts for a century or more, delivering rich material, with fascinating personal tales.
像柯爾文這樣以及在她之前的那些女性,例如在歐洲率先報導二戰爆發新聞的英國記者克萊爾.霍林沃思,以及攝影記者先驅如潔妲.塔羅和迪基·夏佩爾,投身衝突前線已長達一個世紀甚或更久,她們提供了豐富的新聞材料,講述了引人入勝的個人故事。
And yet "A Private War" is one of only a handful of Hollywood features that put the focus squarely on female war correspondents in the field — perhaps only the third or fourth such film in decades.
By contrast, dozens have followed male journalists abroad, said Matthew Ehrlich, author of "Journalism in the Movies" and a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
然而,《私人戰爭》是好萊塢為數不多的幾部直接聚焦於戰地女記者的劇情片之一,或許只是幾十年來的第三或第四部。著有《電影中的新聞業》一書的香檳伊利諾大學榮譽教授馬修.艾里希表示,相比之下,卻有數十部片子講述在國外採訪的男記者的故事。
Accurately reflecting these women in pop culture "is massively important," Amanpour said. "Especially since females in the field are often portrayed as frivolous, slightly hysterical, sexually promiscuous appendages!
I still feel so bad for Martha Gellhorn, the brilliant WWII correspondent, who's forever known as Ernest Hemingway's (third) wife."
亞曼普說,精確地反映這些大眾文化中的女性「非常重要」。「尤其因為這領域的女性常被描繪成輕浮、略帶歇斯底里、性行為放浪的附屬物!我仍舊為傑出的二戰記者瑪莎.蓋爾霍恩感到很難過,她永遠只以海明威的(第三任)妻子為世人所知。」
※說文解字看新聞 文/張佑生
標題的Forgotten Heroes與「時代」雜誌選出的2018「年度風雲人物」(Person of the Year),字面意義南轅北轍,指涉的同是致力於揭露、訴說真相的記者。Unsung heroes也是指「無名英雄」。
聲調和眼罩成為柯爾文出入各地戰區的calling card。這個詞在美語指「名片」,英語則是「電話卡」:英語用visiting card稱呼名片。本文採象徵意義,類似「招牌特徵」:The floods were the calling card of climate change.
女性戰地記者典型在夙昔,卻很少成為好萊塢電影主角。一手能掌握(handful)的量當然很少,中文對應字是「掬」。艾略特(T. S. Eliot)的詩作「荒原」(The Waste Land)寫道:I will show you fear in a handful of dust.「一掬塵土中的恐懼」源自古希臘女預言家西比爾(Sibyl)的傳說,指的是對不斷老化卻求死不得的恐懼。艾氏好用典,此為一例。