南飛烏鵲曰：

第一次聽到拉赫曼尼諾夫的「練聲曲」，該是從某家汽車的廣告。此曲版本甚多，或獨唱、或合唱、或獨奏、或合奏、或被之管絃，極受歡迎。

南飛烏鵲曰：

「星艦迷航」與「星際大戰」都是美國的科幻經典了。AFI (American Film Institute) 頒發終身成就獎給「星戰」導演喬治‧盧卡斯，居然找來「星艦」演員威廉‧夏特那插科打諢一番，真逗。

南飛烏鵲曰：

Orson Welles 真是奇才，二十來歲拍成的「大國民」，迄今仍為人傳頌。片段為電影開頭，主角Charles Foster Kane 死前留下不解之謎：「Rosebud」。

Orson Welles 拍過的片子還有「黑獄亡魂」、「歷劫佳人」、「安柏森大族」、「簡愛」、「馬克白」等等。

今天紐約時報網站刊載了篇訃聞：Gary Graver, a cinematographer who worked with Orson Welles in the final years of the director’s life and fought for decades to see Welles’s final film finished and released, died on Thursday at his home here. He was 68. （Gary Graver, 68, Orson Welles’s Collaborator, Dies）。Gary Graver 掌鏡的功力如何，文章沒說，也沒必要說，畢竟，和Welles合作這段往事，已經讓他在影史裡留下了姓名。

南飛烏鵲曰：

“Imagine if George Lucas directed Lord of the Rings. Imagine the lack of location shooting . . .”  謹以此片段向Peter Jackson 致敬。

The biblical Job, faced with these disasters, agonized but never cursed God. The Job in Hanoch Levin's "Job’s Passion," now at Theater for the New City, quickly announces his conclusion that God does not exist.

【…】

In “Job’s Passion” (1981), which benefits from lively direction by David Paul Willinger and clever translation by Shay Azoulay , it may seem that Mr. Levin has gone to an awful lot of trouble just to declare God’s nonexistence. But the play is also an indictment of humanity. (If some entity created us, it wouldn’t necessarily want to stick around and take credit.).

詳見紐約時報：Job and Jesus Combine to Overcome

南飛烏鵲曰：

前陣子網上流傳一部「霍元甲布袋戲版」(如上)，頗受關注，製片人自稱是對岸同胞。近日有戲迷神通廣大，查出影片裡的戲偶與操偶路數，實出自本地的金鹰閣劇團。奇哉，莫非霍元甲偷師某賢人或是某智者，懂得身化為二、為三，以至無窮？抑或，一切不過是為打響知名度而故佈疑陣？

金鷹閣短片：醉拳、變臉

文：彭鏡禧

在這齣戲以「喜劇」落幕之前，有過驚心動魄的場面，卻是素來受到忽略的。

且讓我們再回到法庭現場。就在波黠兩度宣布判決，容許夏洛動刀，而夏洛也準備就緒，正待下手之際，她又拋出這麼一句：

且慢，還有別的話要說。

她要說的「別的話」，就是本文開始時引用過的「割肉不得見血」的法律條文。但是回到前面提出的問題：波黠究竟是在什麼時候決定祭出這個祕密武器？

【…】

其實，法庭裡的波黠，這時候很可能正陷於一個兩難的困局：要救安東尼還是不要？安東尼是她丈夫的摯友，理當相救──更何況這是法律所許可。然而安東尼也是她潛藏的情敵，理當翦除──而法庭裡只有她自己知道如何替安東尼解套！

詳見聯合報：法庭見聞錄

原始圖片出處：（1）

觀看影片請點選連結：YouTuBe

南飛烏鵲曰：

近來網上流傳一部布袋戲短片，改拍自霍元甲故事。製片者據說是對岸業餘戲迷，水準直逼本地的霹靂布袋戲。

前年，廖瓊枝歡喜慶祝70大壽後，舞台演出已漸漸減少，大部分時間都放在薪傳教學上，今年，廖瓊枝又將重返舞台，除了本周應日本石川縣白山市教育委員會之邀，25日在白山市舉行兩場演出；今年九月，「2006華人歌仔戲創作藝術節」在台舉行，廖瓊枝也將與唐美雲搭檔演出古戲新詮釋的大戲「金水橋畔」。

此次赴日交流，廖瓊枝將與小生唐美雲、台灣戲專歌仔戲科第一屆畢業生、秀朗國小歌仔戲團四代同堂聯演；其中，廖瓊枝、唐美雲排出的戲碼是「陳三五娘」一折「磨鏡」。

詳見聯合報：七旬廖瓊枝 受邀赴日演出（2006.6.21）

相關網站：財團法人廖瓊枝歌仔戲文教基金會

《馬偕在台灣》由長老教會長老林俊育編寫劇本，他本人亦曾於旅居地美國波士頓以布袋戲演出馬偕故事，因為型式有趣，有了製成DVD推廣發行構想，返台找上亦宛然，以專業手法製作演出。

亦宛然主演黃僑偉昨說，馬偕生命題材豐富，但編寫為布袋戲版時，添加了適合表演的情節。比如安排馬偕行醫至艋舺，碰到廟會，出現扛轎、耍盤、迎神等熱鬧畫面；再如宣教，希望台灣人不要祭神拜偶像，結果慘遭民眾修理，拳打腳踢，也適合布袋戲表現武打動作。整體而言，除了介紹馬偕醫療貢獻，也展現台灣風俗趣味，即使非教友也可看得津津有味。

台灣基督長老教會去年亦曾發行歌仔戲版馬偕故事《百里名醫》DVD。昨天發行的《馬偕在台灣》攝影、後製由霹靂國際多媒體協助，也將在霹靂有線頻道播映。

詳見聯合報：馬偕在台灣 布偶說給你聽（2006.5.07）

今年是曹禺逝世10周年，大陸當局正準備修復位於天津市區內的曹禺故居，並附設「曹禺小劇場」，以紀念這位23歲即寫出中國第一部話劇《雷雨》，隨後以榮膺北京人民藝術劇院創院院長、全國劇協主席、中央戲劇學院院長的知名劇作家。

【…】

曹禺（1910~1996）18歲之前都住在此地。本名萬家寶，父親萬德尊曾任黎元洪元帥秘書，家況優渥，曹禺在此「目睹了帝國主義暴行，看到高級流氓、高級惡棍及苦力的勞動」，對他一生思想產生重要影響。曹禺專家、中國藝術院話劇研究所所長田本相說，《雷雨》不能跟曹禺自傳、半自傳畫上等號，但就在這棟舊居，找得到《雷雨》場景，「走進屋子，一下子好像就嗅到了《雷雨》那低沈的氣壓」，《雷雨》的創作靈感，跟天津故居密切相關。

曹禺就讀南開中學，1922年入學，1925年參加著名的「南開新劇團」，開啟一生戲劇淵源。南開大學政治系讀了一年，才轉至清華大學西洋文學系，大三即寫出了自己生平第一部、也是中國成熟劇作代表作《雷雨》，天津、北京兩地是曹禺一生重要行跡地。大陸當局決重修故居，作為紀念館，同時在民主道19-21號、民生路26-30號拆遷地上，新建曹禺小劇場，與故居毗鄰，經常上演曹禺作品，預計可容50位觀眾，希望年底全部整建完成。

詳見聯合報：曹禺天津故居找得到《雷雨》場景（2006.4.29）

曹禺生前認為最滿意的作品《北京人》，今晚起，在北京人民藝術劇院首都劇場推出，由新一代導演李六乙執導。李六乙表示，將「回歸曹禺精神的寫實主義」；然而全劇瀰漫高度象徵性，傾斜15度的舞台、幕啟與幕末的鴿子、半頹的屋宇及景深深邃的燈光，製造了曖昧與迷離。

詳見民生報：曹禺最滿意作品北京人 北京登場（2006.4.29）

Modesty is not a virtue often associated with King Lear, one of Shakespeare's most grand and grandiloquent characters, or, for that matter, with actors who undertake the role and its vaunted challenges. Lear is considered a great mountain to be scaled, the ultimate actorly feat, a career peak calling for the customary accolades. Come, mortals, and worship at the shrine of the actor's art!

Alvin Epstein, the esteemed actor and founding member of the Yale Repertory Theater and the American Repertory Theater, is having none of that big-shot business. In interviews discussing his undertaking of the role, he has expressed a wary attitude toward this much-revered play by the most revered of playwrights, comparing it, with a friendly irreverence, to a fairy tale in its extreme depictions of good and evil.

Some of his circumspection may derive from an ill-starred earlier encounter. Mr. Epstein played the Fool in an infamous 1956 production directed by and starring Orson Welles at City Center in Manhattan. An injury forced Welles to perform in a wheelchair. Perhaps Mr. Epstein's ungrandiose and unmajestic Lear derives from a desire to get as far away as possible from Wellesian bloat. Whatever the cause, it has resulted in an interpretation striking in its determination not to be striking.

In Mr. Epstein's hands, in a suitably modest production of "King Lear" at the La MaMa Annex, first seen in Boston and directed by Patrick Swanson, Lear is not an embodiment of majesty brought low, a figure of tragic glory or glorious tragedy. He is a selfish and rather foolish old man who has been insulated for too long from the small storms of the world that shake the less fortunate on a daily basis: the minor betrayals and indignities, the illnesses and inconveniences.

詳見紐約時報：Alvin Epstein Gets Up Close and Cranky as a Low-Key King Lear

If there were a Shakespearean household where it might actually be fun to live, Olivia's in "Twelfth Night" would be the place. Olivia, a countess, has only glamorous problems: a sexy young duke wants her for his bride, but she's not interested. Her relatives and staff seem to spend their time happily drinking, sometimes until the wee hours, and devising elaborate practical jokes.

This also makes it fun to watch, even when the cast's skills range from seasoned and sure to valiantly, endearingly amateurish (only 5 actors in the 15-person cast are members of Actors' Equity), as they do in this production by the Kings County Shakespeare Company.

詳見紐約時報：Shakespeare's Comedy Club, Open All Night

By Ginia Bellafante

"The Devil Wears Prada," which is set to open June 30, is based on the best-selling novel of the same name, written by Lauren Weisberger, who worked as an assistant at Vogue and mined the experience to depict fashion magazines as cauldrons of Peronist management style and self-enchantment. Andy (played by Anne Hathaway) was once an earnest young woman who might have invoked the word "crisis" to describe wars and car accidents. But she is so ensorcelled by Miranda, Runway's harridan editor (Meryl Streep), that she now uses it when harm befalls a set of accessories. In all of this her father finds great cause for lament.

【…】

"The Devil Wears Prada" also gets that fashion people are ambitious, but their ambition is a kind no one outside their world would recognize. Andy — who was attracted to journalism as a way to right social wrongs — finds her colleagues baffling. Among them is Emily (Emily Blunt), another one of Miranda's assistants, who works to the point of mental collapse all in the service of her goal to one day accompany Miranda to the couture shows in Paris. Emily forfeits her personal life completely for a job she sees as no less demanding or significant than any at the Department of Homeland Security.

原始圖片出處：（1）

詳見紐約時報：In 'The Devil Wears Prada,' It's Not Couture, It's Business (With Accessories)

 
蔡瑞月舞蹈社開放參觀終於有譜！台北市文化局與蔡瑞月文化基金會簽訂經營蔡瑞月舞蹈社的合約自5月29日生效，這天也是舞蹈先驅蔡瑞月逝世周年紀念日。基金會延伸蔡瑞月舞作《牢獄與玫瑰》精神，將舞蹈社定位在「玫瑰古蹟」，希望阿月老師玫瑰般的熱情常駐，今天下午2時起將舉辦「531‧阮想伊‧讓我相約在玫瑰古蹟」逝世周年活動。

【…】

《牢獄與玫瑰》是蔡瑞月著名舞作，也象徵她執著的愛情。舞蹈中化身西班牙的女郎的舞者手持響板舞動，與牢獄裡的男舞者見不到面，卻互相以響板對話，象徵蔡瑞月先生雷石榆被捕入獄，女舞者只能將玫瑰投入監牢的小窗，寄予蔡瑞月對先生的想念；後面一段男舞者接下女舞者拋下的玫瑰而撞牆的舞蹈動作，也取自蔡瑞月在船上拒絕追求者求婚導致追求者撞牆的故事。

「玫瑰」是熱情，也是以愛盼望未來。蕭渥廷說，玫瑰是蔡瑞月最好的象徵，更是她熱情精神表彰，今天的紀念活動將在蔡瑞月舞蹈社構築一面「玫瑰牆」，象徵舞蹈社將走出過去的禁錮、悲情，轉換為年輕人樂於在此創作、休閒、喝杯咖啡的文化空間，渴望「玫瑰古蹟」能走向年輕化。

詳見聯合報：懷念蔡瑞月 相約在玫瑰古蹟 

As the summer Hollywood blockbusters, with their frantic action, begin their relentless parade across American screens, there is no better time to take refuge in the still, slow cinema of the Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu. The Criterion Collection, already home to several Ozu masterpieces, today releases his 1949 "Late Spring."

【…】

Though it's likely to strike those viewers new to this great filmmaker's work as languorous and anecdotal to a fault, its plot is actually quite eventful by Ozu standards, and the emotions it taps are unusually raw. Noriko (Setsuko Hara) is a modern Japanese woman of the postwar era. (In an unusual political aside, Ozu gives her a lingering illness, a result of the deprivations she suffered during the war.) Yet she is content to sacrifice her personal life to continue living with and caring for her father, Shukichi (Chishu Ryu), a widowed professor approaching retirement.

【…】

Much has been made of Ozu's visual devices: the camera pitched to the eye level of an ideal spectator watching from the comfort of a tatami mat; the compositions that emphasize the geometric qualities of the Japanese interior, with its clean lines, right angles and frames within frames; the "pillow shots," as Ozu called them, of wind-rustled trees, passing trains, empty side streets, that provide buffers of silence and reflection between dramatic scenes. These compositional effects invite the viewer to adopt a slightly distanced, relaxed, contemplative attitude, one that many Western critics have been quick to identify with Zen, though Ozu manifests no other evident interest in manners religious or spiritual.

Instead, these devices, along with the narrative techniques that accompany them, are Ozu's way of manipulating his audience. Ozu's pillow shots are meant to decelerate the viewer's metabolism. Narratively, their place is taken in "Late Spring" by the extended (by Western norms) scenes that depict taking the train into Tokyo, attending a Noh play and touring a Zen garden in an ancient Kyoto castle. Instead of frantically searching the frame for narrative information, viewers are invited to rise above (or sink below) the chatter of consciousness, to interrupt their continual quest to know "what comes next" (predictable enough in Ozu's work in any case) and suspend themselves in the moment.

【…】

The problem facing Ozu's little family unit is to balance the desire for stability with the need to change: the family must grow, or it will die.

The same is true of Ozu's storytelling: the eternal and the momentary, the unchanging physical world and the volatile inner world of human feelings, exist in constant counterpoint, ultimately irreconcilable. And thus arises the gentle sadness that permeates this great artist's work and that culminates in "Late Spring" in an image of the professor peeling an apple. It is perhaps the first self-reliant act he has performed in years, and also, as the peel drops away, a symbol of ineffable loss.

詳見紐約時報：New Dvd’s ：Late Spring （2006.5.16）

南飛烏鵲曰：
忘了是碩一寒假還是暑假，自己跑到圖書館的視聽中心，看些不容易租到的老電影。記得看了勞倫斯‧奧立佛的「理察三世」、「亨利五世」，奧森‧威爾斯的「大國民」。以及，小津安二郎的「秋刀魚之味」。

後來在誠品買了本紀念小津安二郎的《尋找小津》，書的內容相當豐富，除了介紹小津的作品，還收錄各家觀感、評論。裡頭收了篇侯孝賢的文章，很能跟這今天的選文相互發明：早年我常遇到人問，有沒有受到小津電影的影響，最顯而易見的當然是指，小津不移動的固定鏡頭，因此還被人戲稱為「不動明王」…唐納瑞奇（Donald Richie）說，這是一種靜觀的境界，一種傾聽和注視的態度，這和一個人在觀賞能樂，在做茶道或花道的時候，所採取的姿態是相同的。（ “重新再看小津安二郎”，iii）

又，之前讀石黑一雄的 An Artist of the Floating World，主角的兩名女兒就叫做Noriko 、Setsuko，真巧。

張藝謀導演，譚盾作曲的英文歌劇《秦始皇》，一開場安排一位京劇演員飾「陰陽大師」，用中文唱著「跟我來啊！進入兩千年前的悲喜世界」。這名唯一的「東方歌劇」演員由何人擔任？答案揭曉，是台灣著名京劇演員吳興國。吳興國8日抵紐約，此時正參與角色排練。譚盾藉《秦始皇》搭起了一座橋，從東方過渡到西方，吳興國的加入，正具體而微具現了這座文化橋梁。

「中國熱」全球蔓延，美國紐約大都會歌劇院邀請張藝謀、譚盾，及旅居美國的中國作家哈金寫劇本，聯手促成年底首演的這台大戲《秦始皇》，備受矚目。除了著名男高音多明哥擔任秦始皇角色、女高音蕾妮．弗萊明擔任女主角孟姜女，十名主要演員之中，唯一非歌劇演員，也是唯一京劇表演體系出身的就是吳興國。

【…】

吳興國說，他所飾演的陰陽大師，擔任開場重頭戲及第三幕結束前，似預言家、風水師，又似說書人，揭示了秦始皇一統天下的干雲氣勢，也諷喻了秦朝王國崩破的原由。他說，譚盾曾任湖南京劇院指揮，對京劇相當嫻熟，為他譜寫的唱段雖不是西皮二黃，但保有強烈的京腔味道。他一開始用中文演唱，最後則須用英文開口，還好只有幾句，瘋瘋顛顛，喻示王國崩敗其來有自，並不擔心。

詳見聯合報：英文歌劇秦始皇 吳興國加入排練

The film's most poignant, honest moments mingle fantasy and realism, family and Hollywood history. When Isabella plays her mother, whom she strikingly resembles, Ingrid Bergman is dressed in gleaming white, gazing down at her daughter from a tattered movie screen.

Isabella, dressed in black, looks up and tells her mother, "Some say that father destroyed your career."

Ingrid Bergman — at once Mama and icon — serenely replies: "No, he didn't destroy my career. I destroyed his."

This is, of course, a conversation that Isabella Rossellini is having with herself, and its unanswerable question could lead everyone in circles forever. It also represents the film's fanciful, eloquent acknowledgment that as a way to emotional truth, realism has nothing over dreams — even if Roberto Rossellini might have disagreed.

原始圖片出處：（1）、（2）

詳見紐約時報：Isabella Rossellini's Tribute to Her Father, Cinema's Great Neorealist Talking Belly（2006.5.8）

Three years ago the Royal Shakespeare Company was in trouble.

【…】

It was hardly an auspicious moment for Michael Boyd to take over.

Yet, in a surprisingly short time, Mr. Boyd has turned things around. And as a measure of the company's revived self-confidence, it is preparing to start its biggest project ever: a yearlong festival of Shakespeare's complete works, staged by its own directors and actors as well as by guest troupes from as far afield as India and Brazil.

The festival officially opens on April 23, traditionally celebrated as Shakespeare's birthday, but two lively productions have already opened, "Romeo and Juliet" at the Royal Shakespeare Theater and "Antony and Cleopatra" at the adjacent Swan Theater. The next two shows will add an international flavor: "Othello" in German with English surtitles and "Hamlet" from South Africa.

【…】

Still, with the company itself offering 23 plays, the year will also include some British star power, not only the former Royal Shakespeare artistic directors Sir Peter Hall and Sir Trevor Nunn, but also Sir Ian McKellen in "King Lear," Dame Judi Dench in a musical version of "The Merry Wives of Windsor," Janet Suzman in "Coriolanus" and Patrick Stewart, who is now appearing opposite Harriet Walter in "Antony and Cleopatra" and will later play Prospero in "The Tempest."

詳見紐約時報：Royal Shakespeare Company Has Much Ado in Stratford（2006.4.22）

One of the three stars of the Broadway revival of "Three Days of Rain," which opened last night at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater, is Julia Roberts, who is making her big-time theatrical debut. And though Ms. Roberts gives a genuinely humble performance, there is no way that this show is not going to be all about Julia.

Ms. Roberts is the sole reason this limited-run revival, which ends on June 18, has become the most coveted ticket in town. Mr. Greenberg's slender, elegant play from 1997 about familial disconnectedness and the loneliness of intimacy has certainly never known — and probably will never know again — such fame and fortune. On the other hand, it's almost impossible to discern its artistic virtues from this wooden and splintered interpretation, directed by Joe Mantello and also starring (poor, luckless lunkheads) Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper.

【…】

Lord knows, she isn't a versatile film actress in the style of her rivals from abroad, Nicole and Kate and Cate. Her range onscreen runs from feisty but vulnerable ("Pretty Woman," "Erin Brockovich") to vulnerable but feisty ("Sleeping With the Enemy," "Closer"). Her strength, as far as her public is concerned, is in her sameness, which magnifies everyday human traits to a level of radioactive intensity, and a feral beauty that is too unusual to be called pretty.

【…】

All the characters in "Three Days of Rain" are analytical, acutely literary types, given to academic name-dropping and the sort of lyrical, brittle and purely theatrical speech that is Mr. Greenberg's signature. For the play to cast its spell (and having seen it in 1997 at the Manhattan Theater Club, I know that it can cast a spell), the language must flow like music: sometimes like nervous jazz, sometimes like Puccini-esque rhapsody. Sad to say, this production never lifts its voice in song.

【…】

And yet, and yet. I found myself fascinated by the way her facial structure (ah, those cheekbones!) seems to change according to how the light hits her. In repose, her face seems impossibly, hauntingly eloquent. She has a scene — all right, a few seconds — of flirtation with Mr. Rudd in the second act that is absolutely charming. And on the few occasions when she smiles, it's with a sunniness that could dispel even 40 days and 40 nights of rain. None of this, for the record, in any way illuminates her characters or Mr. Greenberg's play.

【…】

In his opening soliloquy Mr. Rudd's Walker speaks of a famous house designed by his father, immortalized by a photograph in Life magazine. "People have sometimes declined my invitation to see the real place for fear of ruining the experience of the photograph," he says. Some movie fans may have the same fear about seeing Ms. Roberts in the flesh. They shouldn't. She looks every inch the magnetic (if theatrically challenged) movie star. Fans of Mr. Greenberg, on the other hand, should definitely stay home.

原始圖片出處：（1）

詳見紐約時報：Enough Said About 'Three Days of Rain.' Let's Talk Julia Roberts!

The first painting donated in 1856 to the new National Portrait Gallery here was of William Shakespeare, already well enshrined as the nation's literary idol. For the gallery, the oil recorded as NPG 1 seemed like a singularly apt founding work for its collection. And now, as the museum celebrates its 150th anniversary, it is again in the limelight. 

But does this so-called Chandos portrait actually depict Shakespeare? Indeed, do any of dozens of other "Shakespeare" paintings and engravings offer a true likeness of the man who was born in Stratford-on-Avon in 1564 and died there in 1616? 

These are the central questions addressed in "Searching for Shakespeare," a fascinating exhibition on view here through May 29. For this inquiry, the National Portrait Gallery has for the first time united the six oils most frequently said to portray Shakespeare. For further comparison, it is also presenting the 1623 engraving of him in the First Folio of his collected plays, as well as a plaster cast of the bust that was placed above his grave in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford sometime between 1620 and 1623. 

【…】 

As part of its search, the gallery has assembled documentary evidence of Shakespeare's life, including the church's written approval of his marriage to Anne Hathaway in 1582; the parish register of the baptism of their first child, Susanna, in 1583; the baptism of their twins, Hamnet and Judith, in 1585; Hamnet's burial 11 years later; and Shakespeare's will, in which he left his "second-best bed" to his widow. 

【…】 

Finally, then, there is the Chandos portrait, which has been dated between 1600 and 1610. It depicts a man who could well be the same man in the 1623 engraving and the church monument, with a receding hairline, a high forehead, long hair and a beard. In the portrait, he also wears an earring, which was fashionable among actors in Shakespeare's day. 

【…】 

In the 19th century, some Englishmen did not like the idea. One critic, J. Hain Friswell, wrote: "One cannot readily imagine our essentially English Shakespeare to have been a dark, heavy man, with a foreign expression, of decidedly Jewish physiognomy, thin curly hair, a somewhat lubricious mouth, red-edged eyes, wanton lips, with a coarse expression and his ears tricked out with earrings." 

原始圖片出處：（1） 

詳見紐約時報：Will the Real William Shakespeare Please Stand Up? （2006.3.4）

]]> http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/1208073.html http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/1208073.html 舞台春秋 Sun, 05 Mar 2006 13:24:07 +0800

原始圖片出處：（1）

觀看預告片：
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

南飛烏鵲曰：
Johnny Depp 戲路之廣，教人訝異。他演過的角色，或中規中矩，或浪漫不羈，還有像「神鬼奇航」海盜船長這種難以定位的怪ㄎㄚ。IMDB的演員小傳寫道：Johnny Depp is perhaps one of the most versatile actors of his day and age in Hollywood。所謂 “versatile actor”，也就是演啥像啥，好萊塢的老將新秀有他這種功力的，並不多見。

原始圖片出處：（1）、（2）

觀看預告片：
X-men 3
Superman Returns

南飛烏鵲曰：
新版超人的卡司，只有凱文‧史貝西吸引我的注意，莫非這是心智老化的徵兆？（這次看了劇照，發現他其實很適合演X教授。由他對戰萬磁王，似乎也不錯。）

By Stephen Holden （影評）

"Sophie Scholl: The Final Days" conveys what it must have been like to be a young, smart, idealistic dissenter in Nazi Germany, where no dissent was tolerated. This gripping true story, directed in a cool, semi-documentary style by the German filmmaker Marc Rothemund from a screenplay by Fred Breinersdorfer, challenges you to gauge your own courage and strength of character should you find yourself in similar circumstances. Would you risk your life the way Sophie Scholl (Julia Jentsch) and a tiny group of fellow students at Munich University did to spread antigovernment leaflets? How would you behave during the kind of relentless interrogations that Sophie endures? If sentenced to death for your activities, would you still consider your resistance to have been worth it?

【…】

The Scholl siblings belong to the White Rose, a tiny resistance movement at Munich University. The pamphlet they distribute in the university's empty halls, while classes are in session, declares that the war cannot be won and urges Germany to sue for peace. They naïvely hope to ignite a spontaneous student rebellion.

But the Nazi attitude toward the reversal of Germany's fortunes on the battlefield is one of enraged denial. The shrill accusations leveled against Sophie and two of the other accused in the interrogation room and in court by the fulminating judge, Dr. Roland Freisler (André Hennicke), have a tone of desperate, hysterical fury.

【…】

Ms. Jentsch's portrayal of Sophie is the more impressive for its complete lack of histrionics. Yes, Sophie is a heroine, but not one given to Joan of Arc-style theatrics. An optimistic, life-loving student with a boyfriend and a rich future ahead of her, she is the kind of decent, principled person we would all like to be.

詳見紐約時報：The Quiet Resolve of a German Anti-Nazi Martyr（2006.2.17）

John Spencer, the Emmy Award-winning actor who played the shrewd, craggy White House chief of staff on the NBC drama "The West Wing," died yesterday morning in Los Angeles, four days before his 59th birthday.

【…】

In an eerie parallel to life, his character on "The West Wing," Leo McGarry, suffered a heart attack last season that forced him to give up his job as chief of staff to President Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen. McGarry recovered and, in the season finale, became the running mate of Matt Santos, the Democratic presidential nominee, played by Jimmy Smits. The campaign is a critical plotline for the show, which is in the middle of production for its seventh season. Mr. Spencer had received Emmy nominations for his role every year from 1999 to 2004, winning as a best supporting actor in 2002.

He made his breakthrough in the 1990 film "Presumed Innocent," playing the role of Detective Dan Lipranzer alongside Harrison Ford. "His name, all of a sudden, became at the tip of everyone's tongue," Mr. Hofmann said. Mr. Spencer then solidified his reputation as a character actor, playing a stream of lawyers and government officials, including the fiery New York transplant Tommy Mullaney on "L.A. Law."

By the late 1990's, Mr. Spencer had so deeply ensconced himself as a sharp-witted public servant that he was cited as a model for the chief of staff on "The West Wing." Aaron Sorkin, creator of the series, recalled last night: "I said to the casting director, 'We need someone like John Spencer.' And the casting director said, 'What about John Spencer?' And I said, 'We will never get John Spencer.' " But Mr. Spencer said yes.

詳見紐約時報：John Spencer, 58, TV Actor Starring on 'The West Wing,' Dies

短評：想起上個禮拜楊照的文章。文章開頭閑閑而來，明寫此而意在彼，結尾筆鋒陡轉，聲東擊西，藉戲劇角色挖苦政治人物。裡頭有一段很能說明John Spencer 這類演員的重要：“我所知道的好萊塢電影工業，分工再細膩不過。好萊塢的術語裡，有所謂的「個性角色」（character roles），指的是每部電影要能成立，除了主要「明星角色」之外，一定要有堅強的演技型配角們。編劇知道要寫「個性角色」，經紀人知道要介紹適合演「個性角色」的演員，演員知道一套演「個性角色」的方法，導演也清楚意識該如何讓「個性角色」適當發揮。「個性角色」的戲不會很多，觀眾走出戲院甚至不會記得他們，然而電影好不好看，觀眾能不能被感動，卻往往取決於有沒有對的、好的「個性角色」。【...】台灣電視劇怎麼難看？一個問題就出在我們沒有「個性角色」的概念吧！編劇不會寫「個性角色」，最需要有個性的角色，卻最刻板；演員更是沒有「個性角色」所需的扎實訓練，不管什麼角色什麼場合，他們只會一種演法，演明星演偶像，自覺地誇張地在自己身上堆砌光環。” John Spencer 不是偶像明星，但是少了他扮演的里歐，白宮風雲這齣戲就走樣了。

That's a powerful lot of death force. But there's life force too; the piece has many living examples of how to wrestle life, and your man, to a draw, and maybe take two out of three. The zaftig Sofia (Felicia P. Fields) is such a dynamo. Her personal Golden Rule is two words long: "Hell, no!" In her marriage to Mister's son Harpo (Brandon Victor Dixon), she's the boss; when Celie, who speaks only of what she knows, advises Harpo to beat her, Sofia snorts, "I love Harpo... But I'll kill him before I let him beat me." Another role model is the one person who has a claim on Mister's dour heart: the vampy vocalist Shug Avery (Elisabeth Withers-Mendes). Shug's wanton lust has all the men drooling like Tex Avery wolves, while her wanderlust propels her out of town just long enough to make 'em miss her when she's gone.  

The Walker book raised eyebrows and hackles by focusing on the oppression, not of blacks by the white hierarchy, but of black women by the black patriarchy. To simplify the message just a tad: men bad; women good. And since women get no respect, only ravaged, by their men, they turn to each other for solace, and sometimes sex. If the Spielberg film was stayed skittishly on the periphery of the lesbian-empowerment theme, the musical strolls right on in. Yes, it explains Celie's turning to women as a result both of her rapacious treatment by men and her longing for her beautiful lost sister; but most of the commendable ardor is girl-girl. Shug's big come-on song, "Too Beautiful for Words," is directed at Cellie, and the two women sing the first-act-closing love duet, "What About Love?"  

【…】 

The show begins with a prayer, so let's end with the Purple theology. That vigorous opening hymn, "Mysterious Ways," is also a notice to the audience: stay tuned while things get worse, because eventually they'll get better. For the first half of the musical, the worse predominates; Celia gets drowned in personal plagues, like a teenage lady Job. Act One is the work of the Old Testament God, a disinterested fellow with a stormy temper. Act Two, when most of the wrongs are righted, attends to the New Testament's doctrine of love and forgiveness.  

詳見時代雜誌：The Color Oprah （2005.12.02）

]]> http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/871102.html http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/871102.html 舞台春秋 Fri, 16 Dec 2005 15:42:09 +0800

There is nothing in Western culture that quite corresponds with the traditional teahouse in China. The corner pub or Old West saloon come to mind, but as the captivating and beautifully acted production of Lao She's "Teahouse" by the Beijing People's Art Theater makes clear, there is no place that offers as broad a panorama of its society.

【…】

The play covers 50 years of Chinese history, and a unifying theme that runs through it is the subjugation, often willing, of China to foreign interests and powers through the first half of the 20th century. Spending an evening at the Yutai teahouse with the Beijing Theater helps explain the excesses of Maoism.

All of the action takes place in the teahouse, owned by Wang Lifa. The cross section of its customers range from pimps, gangsters and opium addicts to rich idlers who bring songbirds in their cages for entertainment, government spies, secret policemen and rebels. Tea is not the only commodity sold there.

詳見紐約時報：Steeped in 50 Years of China's Subjugation

Elmer Dresslar Jr., who extolled vegetables to generations of television watchers as the booming voice of the Jolly Green Giant, died on Oct 16. He was 80.

【…】

He periodically re-recorded the "Ho, ho, ho" for Green Giant commercials, most recently about 10 years ago.

Anne Bancroft, the stage and film star whose signature triumphs in a 50-year career ranged from the courageous Annie Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker" to the hungrily seductive Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate," died on Monday at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan. She was 73 and had homes in Manhattan and Los Angeles. The cause was uterine cancer, said John Barlow, a spokesman for Ms. Bancroft's husband, Mel Brooks.

詳見紐時：「Anne Bancroft, Stage and Film Star in Voracious and Vulnerable Roles, Dies at 73」 (2005.6.7)

MACBETH does a back flip from a 10-foot-high city wall; his queen sings a lament as she wipes imaginary blood from her hands; and the courtiers enact their coup in Han dynasty dress. It is no typical production of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" that Spoleto Festival U.S.A. is presenting on Thursday and Friday in Charleston, S.C.  

Renamed "The Kingdom of Desire," it is a creation of the Contemporary Legend Theater of Taiwan, which has fused Shakespeare's plot with the mise-en-scène of Beijing opera. The verses are in Mandarin (with English titles), and the words are accentuated by the actors' flowing patterns of movement.

Aesthetic qualities of a rarefied sort are paramount in Beijing opera. Actors train intensively from childhood to achieve a perfect fluidity of movement. Stage scenes are organized to produce the most exquisite impression. Sometimes, during a martial sequence, a gong will suddenly sound, and the performers freeze their bodies into a beautiful sculpture adorned in silk.

These differences in representation reflect the differences in subject matter. "Beijing opera only portrays virtue, illustrates high ideals," Mr. Wu said. "Shakespeare's plays and the Greek tragedies talk about human weakness caused by love and hatred." Indeed, Chinese opera heroes and heroines, like the charitable Bai Su Zhen in "Madam White Snake" or the naïve Du Liniang in "The Peony Pavilion," are paradigms of innocence. The leads in "Macbeth" are murderers tortured by ambition and then by guilt.

短評：Bai Su Zhen、Du Liniang者，白素貞、杜麗娘也 

詳見「紐約時報」： “Shakespeare Brushes Up on His Chinese ”

]]> http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/156012.html http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/156012.html 舞台春秋 Sun, 29 May 2005 21:20:10 +0800 ◎    蕭紫菡

這麼說吧，你知道台灣有個大米倉，就在台南的後壁村嗎？在那兒，有三個農夫，每天五點起床，種田，偶而兼點打棉被、賣花生的副業。經年累月，他們的收入微薄，政府也鼓勵他們休耕，偶而，颱風會將他們一年的辛勞全化為泡沬。但，近七、八十歲的他們說，種田這事，他們要做到眼睛閉上為止。 

我們也一直很習慣地認為，有智彗的話語是從學者專家口中吐出的，但，只要你再貼近一點，你會發現，那原本被我們認為是停滯的、枯燥的農民生活，裝載了多少與我們共通的生命經驗，而他們用極為簡樸卻有力量的思考，超越了我們可能都無法超越的困難與對生命的迷思。誰說他們是粗鄙的、落後的？他們只是缺少了該被賦予的尊嚴，和更好的政策，去對待、去保存。不只保存台灣的農業，也保存這樣綿長深刻的文化。 

By A. O. SCOTT

At one point, Darth Vader, already deep in the thrall of the dark side and echoing the words of George W. Bush, hisses at Obi-Wan, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy." Obi-Wan's response is likely to surface as a bumper sticker during the next election campaign: "Only a Sith thinks in absolutes." You may applaud this editorializing, or you may find it overwrought, but give Mr. Lucas his due. For decades he has been blamed (unjustly) for helping to lead American movies away from their early-70's engagement with political matters, and he deserves credit for trying to bring them back. 

詳見紐約時報：「Some Surprises in That Galaxy Far, Far Away」

席勒（Friedrich Schiller, 1759-1805）

第一部劇作《強盜》（1781）受到極大歡迎，與歌德的《少年維特的煩惱》並列為狂飆運動的經典。
作者：耿一偉
詳見自由時報：自由的滋味，德國劇作家席勒側寫（上）、（下）（2005 5/9、5/10 ）

(繼續閱讀...) ]]> http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/122430.html http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/122430.html 舞台春秋 Wed, 11 May 2005 23:01:10 +0800

Three years after the initial battle of the Clone Wars, the long and tiring conflict between the Separatists and the Republic is nearing its end. However, Obi-Wan Kenobi, now a Jedi Master, and Anakin Skywalker, now a Jedi Knight, learn a shocking development….

電影摘要取自：IMDB

欲觀賞預告片，請點選：3Y Movie Zone

A four-time Oscar-nominated supporting actor of the first degree, Claude Rains came to film in middle age after a highly successful career on the British stage.  He further distinguished  himself on the silver screen with his distinctive voice and often villainous screen presence.

代表作：美人計  (Notorious)

       北非諜影(Casablanca)

       史密斯遊美京 (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)

圖文選自： Reel Classics

]]> http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/111076.html http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/111076.html 舞台春秋 Fri, 06 May 2005 01:06:53 +0800

Whether Welles cribbed from Mankiewicz -- who objected to having to share writing credit in the finished film -- or whether it was Toland rather than Welles who was responsible for the unusual photographic effects and visual design, in the last analysis it's immaterial. It is the impact of the final work that counts, and has there ever been a film that made a greater impact -- whether it was a director's first or his 20th film -- than ''Citizen Kane'' when it came to the screen in 1941? To this day, it still ranks first on most serious critics' lists of all-time great films. Still in his mid-20's, Orson Welles was hailed as the genius of American movies; and if he owed a debt to his gifted collaborators, that's the director's job, after all, to draw on the talents around him to compose the work of art the audience sees.

圖文選自紐約時報 “ ‘Despite the System’：The Kane Mutiny ”

]]> http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/101505.html http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/101505.html 舞台春秋 Sat, 30 Apr 2005 21:47:45 +0800

As to Blanche's anxieties about her brutish, sexually magnetic brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, she can put her mind to rest there, too. John C. Reilly is portraying Stanley in Edward Hall's revival for the Roundabout Theater Company of Tennessee Williams's 1947 masterwork, and Mr. Reilly seems neither threatening nor - how to put this? - erotically overwhelming.

詳見紐約時報

UPN has decided to bring "Star Trek: Enterprise" - the latest version of the saga - to an end and to give the whole idea of "Star Trek" a creative rest…The original "Star Trek" series proved what a little imagination, a little patience and a lot of plywood and foam core could do for televised science fiction. It ran for only three seasons on NBC in the late 1960's but attracted a devoted following that seems, somehow, to have replicated itself by cloning. It also inspired four additional series, 10 "Star Trek" movies and a delightful parody called "Galaxy Quest."

選自紐約時報

In Mr. Pendleton's play, the jump-or-push clash between Olivier and Welles escalated until the great actor edged out the great director.

文字摘錄自紐約時報

It was not always as daring as Warner Brothers, Paramount or RKO...On the other hand, it is the studio where King Vidor directed Garland singing "Over the Rainbow" and later, when idiots thought the song too sad, Mayer said, "Keep it in the picture."
選自紐約時報，作者 David Thomson

]]> http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/75513.html http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/75513.html 舞台春秋 Thu, 14 Apr 2005 23:15:55 +0800 詳見聯合報，作者汪其楣教授現任教成大中文系 ]]> http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/73846.html http://blog.roodo.com/kafka17/archives/73846.html 舞台春秋 Wed, 13 Apr 2005 22:01:25 +0800

He has the self-questioning timber and tired, open face of someone long battered by doubt. The same quality is surprisingly and affectingly carried over into the speech Brutus makes to the frightened mob after Caesar has been slain.
圖文選自紐約時報 (2005.4.4)