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City Lights: Charlie Chaplin’s Sounds of Silence 城市之光：查理卓别麟的沉默之声

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课文讲解

繁體中文譯本

A master director, comedian, producer, and music composer, Charlie Chaplin was first and foremost a performer. When silent film carried the promise of a universal language, Chaplin was its most innovative representative; he perfectly appreciated the essential purpose of motion pictures to picture motion.

除了是大导演、喜剧演员、制作人、和作曲家，查理卓别麟最主要是一位表演家。当默片呈现出国际共通语言的前景，卓别麟是它最具开创性的代表人物。他完全清楚电影的重要目的在于：以影像抓住动作。

City Lights was released in 1993, just as that promise began to fade. Four years after the first talkie, 1927’s The Jazz Singer, the cinema was returning to the theatrical norm of emphasizing dialogue over action. At a time when everyone else wanted to hear themselves talk, Chaplin’s most famous character, the Tramp, remained silent in a world of visual gags and pantomime.

正当默片风靡全球的前景开始凋零，「城市之光」在1931年上映。正好是第一部有声电影，1927年的「爵士歌手」，上映之后的第四年，电影重回剧场对话重于动作的典范。在当时每个人都想听到自己说话，卓别麟最有名的角色，流浪汉，依旧在搞笑动作和哑剧的世界中保持沉默。

The opening scene of City Lights makes clear Chaplin’s resistance to sound film and social hypocrisy. We see politicians and socialites unveiling a statue in a public park, but their motives are revealed as less than philanthropic when they discover the Tramp enjoying a morning nap beneath the veil. As they pompously deliver their speeches, all we hear is squeaking.

「城市之光」的开场戏清楚解释了卓别麟对有声电影及社会伪善的抗拒。我们看到政客和社会名流在公园为一座雕像揭开序幕，但当他们发现卓别麟饰演的流浪汉在布幕之下安享着早朝盹儿，他们的动机透露着虚仁假义的嘴脸。当他们装模作样的发表高论，我们听到的尽是鸟叫般的嘎吱声。

Technology may have given film characters speech, but Chaplin, the cinema’s greatest champion of the underprivileged, showed us they said nothing worth hearing. As a symbol of Everyman, the Tramp spoke most eloquently by not speaking a word.

科技或许可以让影片角色说话，但卓别麟这位最被忽视的顶尖好手让我们感到他们的话不值一听。象征着所有普通人的主角流浪汉，不发一声却演绎出千言万语。

Vocabulary

单词发音

first and foremost 首要的

foremost [ˋfor͵most] adj. 最重要的

appreciate [əˋpriʃɪ͵et] v. 体会，领会

picture [ˋpɪktʃɚ] v. 拍摄；（生动地）描绘

talkie [ˋtɔkɪ] n.【口】有声电影

theatrical [θɪˋætrɪk!] adj. 剧场的﹐剧院的; 戏剧的; 演剧的

norm [nɔrm] n. 基准；规范

tramp [træmp] n. 流浪；流浪者

gag [gæg] n.【非正式】玩笑﹐ 笑话

pantomime [ˋpæntə͵maɪm] n. 哑剧；哑剧演员

hypocrisy [hɪˋpɑkrəsɪ] n. 伪善；虚伪

socialite [ˋsoʃəˋlaɪt] n. 社会名流

philanthropic [͵fɪlənˋθrɑpɪk] adj.〔人或机构〕慈善的; 仁慈的

pompously [ˋpɑmpəslɪ] adv. 傲慢地，盛大壮观地；大模大样

squeak [skwik] v. 吱吱叫；嘎吱嘎吱响

champion [ˋtʃæmpɪən] n. 出类拔萃的人（或物）

underprivileged [͵ʌndɚˋprɪvəlɪdʒd] adj. 社会地位低下的；下层社会的

everyman [ˋɛvrɪmæn] n. 普通人，凡夫俗子

eloquently [ˋɛləkwəntlɪ] adv. 善辩地；富于表现力地

Sentence of the Day

“What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

不可言宣则沉默是金。

pass over  忽视, 置之不理

课文讲解

Michael and Gloria are surfing an online auction website:  麦可和葛罗莉亚正在网络上的拍卖网站浏览着：

M: Hey, look at this! Someone is selling a copy of Charlie Chaplin’s FBI file!

嘿，看这个！有人在卖查理卓别麟的联邦调查局档案。

G: Why did the FBI have a file on Chaplin?

为什么联邦调查局有卓别麟的档案？

M: Well, he always sympathized with leftist political causes. During the Cold War, rumors surfaced that he had been associated with the Communist Party.

嗯，他总是同情左翼人士的政治诉求。冷战时期，谣传他勾结共产党。

G: Oh, I thought it might have been his fondness for teenage girls!

噢，我以为那跟他喜欢未成年少女有关。

M: Well, his marriages provided more fodder for J. Edgar Hoover, then director of the FBI, to have Chaplin’s American re-entry visa revoked while Chaplin was out of the country.

呃，他的几次婚姻让埃德加胡佛，当时的联邦调查局局长，有更多借口趁卓别麟离开美国时取消他的入境签证。

G: That’s right: he was British, wasn’t he? After he left America, he lived the rest of his life in Switzerland and never returned to America, right?

没错，他是英国人，不是吗？他离开美国后，从此就在瑞士度过余生，再也没回美国去，是吧？

M: Not quite. He did return to the States one last time in 1972, just before Hoover died, to accept an honorary Oscar.

不尽然。就在1972年胡佛去世之前，他最后一次重返美国领取奥斯卡终生成就奖。

G: You know, City Lights was on television the other night, and I caught my niece watching it. She was laughing hysterically.

你知道，有天晚上电视上播「城市之光」，我看到我侄女在看这个节目。她笑得东倒西歪。

M: And yet the closing scene of the film is one of cinema’s most poignant moments.

而这部电影的结尾戏是影史上最悲喜交织的片段之一。

G: Apparently, the legendary Russian director Eisenstein was moved to tears when he saw it.

的确，俄国著名导演爱森斯坦看到最后感动落泪。

M: So, should I bid?

所以，我该竞标吗？

G: Nah, save your money for the movies.

不，把钱省下来看电影。

－by Charles Leary

Vocabulary

单词发音

auction [ˋɔkʃən] n. 拍卖

leftist [ˋlɛftɪst] adj. 左派的；左翼的；左倾的

cause [kɔz] n. 目标，理想

fodder [ˋfɑdɚ] n. 素材;材料

revoke [rɪˋvok] v. 撤销；废除

honorary [ˋɑnə͵rɛrɪ] adj. （学位等）名誉上的

hysterically [hɪsˋtɛrɪk!ɪ] adv. 歇斯底里地

poignant [ˋpɔɪnənt] adj. 令人伤心的﹐ 令人充满同情[惋惜]的

move to tears  被感动得流下眼泪, 感激涕零

Sentence of the Day

The FBI kept close tabs on Chaplin.

联邦调查局监视卓别麟的一举一动。

keep tabs on.. 密切关注；时刻监视; 记录

Reference:

Get Off That Monument! - City Lights (1-4) Movie CLIP (1931) HD

Boxing for Cash - City Lights (3-4) Movie CLIP (1931) HD

You Can See Now - City Lights (4-4) Movie CLIP (1931) HD