The Wes Anderson Collection 笔记

图 / 封面

The Wes Anderson Collection
作者:Matt Zoller Seitz / 作序:Michael Chabon / 插图:Max Dalton

图/从左至右:欧文·威尔逊(Owen Wilson)、韦斯·安德森(Wes Anderson),《瓶装火箭》(Bottle Rocket)期间。

Wes和Owen是大学同学,但这两人果然不是上课认识的,两人互相是对方的“朋友的朋友”,Owen军校室友是Wes高中同学,一个频道的人总是能通过发发脑电波奇异地发现彼此。

The World is so big, so complicated, so replete with marvels and surprises, that it takes years for most people to begin to notice that it is, also irretrievably broken. We call this period of research “childhood”.

普利策获得者Michael Chabon用这段话为这本书《The Wes Anderson Collection》开头。他挖掘Wes的童年,拿纳博科夫做比,热烈欢迎大家翻开此书,进入Wes的盒中世界。

相传这是第一本真正关于Wes的书。300多页硬皮全彩印刷。全书以Wes的电影为线索,每章包括作者千把字的介绍,以及一篇五千到一万多字不等的Wes访谈。访谈作于2010年至2012年之间。同时配备大量珍贵照片:Wes手稿、剧照、Owen妈妈拍的剧照、Adrien Brody妈妈拍的照片、Wes弟弟Eric的画稿、幕后照等等。从书名就看得出来,作者想要让这本书成为Wes电影里主人公喜欢看的那类梦幻般的书籍之一。会随身带,而且必须有一定厚度。书有多用心,翻开目录就可知晓:

图/本书目录

此书作者Matt Zoller Seitz应当是脑残粉无疑:

This book was twenty years in the making. I don’t mean that to sound momentous, or to imply I’ve been working on it continuously, but in terms of timeline, it’s a fact.

脑残粉第一条,标榜自己追得久。Wes的短片《瓶装火箭》在圣丹尼斯电影节上放映时作者就去看了,并且是他写出了专业媒体上第一篇关于Wes的评论。(这部短片CC发行长片《瓶装火箭》时附于花絮碟中)

脑残粉第二条,以谐星姿态叙述自己和Wes多么有缘。

Wes and I chatted briefly before the screening, then he introduced the film and the lights went down. Then came the “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” montage. Gene Hackman and the boys chucked water balloons at a gypsy cab, and to my surprise, the cab screeched to a halt in front of my house on State Street. Andy pretense of cool professionalism vanished, and I jabbed my finger at the screen like a straw-hatted yokel from an old movie and blurted, “Hey! That’s my house!” My colleagues angrily shushed me; I am pretty sure one of them was Rex Reed.
Mortified, I fell silent for a moment, then muttered: “But that was my house.”

脑残粉在放片时候看到了自己家。作者有一天发现Wes带着整个剧组在家对面驻扎,而且一扎好久。他莫名其妙,一问是在拍《天才一族》(The Royal Tenenbaums)。而挑选拍摄地点时Wes并不知道他住在马路对面。

I was the first professional critic to review a Wes Anderson film. The adjective professional seems funny to me, though, because at that point I was in my early twenties, like Anderson. I’d been a working journalist for two years, and Anderson was just getting started himself. The film was Bottle Rocket, a twelve-minute, 116mm black-and-white short Anderson and the Wilson brothers made in Dallas not long after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin.

脑残粉第三条,营造一种与偶像共成长的效果。作者和Wes一样,处于事业起步期,并且如今也是入围过普利策最终名单的人,而Wes获得过奥斯卡奖提名,两人另一个共同点是获奖都遥遥无期。不过另一方面,Wes确实是一位特别容易在同龄人中引起共鸣的导演,一位青春期特别长的导演。这本书就在这种气氛中开始了。

瓶装火箭
Bottle Rocket 1996

1969年5月1日出生的Wes在此片上映时只有27岁。他和Owen共同编剧的这部处女作讲述了几个毛头小伙子毛手毛脚企图搞搞抢劫活动的故事。作为处女作,这部片子应当说是非常惊人的。一方面是充满了青年的激情和冲动,故事性强、观赏性强,另一方面人物语言写得非常出色,几个主要人物都有情绪起落,超级多的细节,拒绝人物单一化。而人物僵化是青春片的常见病,充斥没头脑、低智商、荷尔蒙乱分泌的青年。再则,作为一位新人,Wes已经挺懂镜头把控,从看过的大量影片中学到了不少,并且形成了自己的风格。在这个年纪,Wes看待生活的基本态度已经定型,这反映在他的影片中,并且至今从未改变。

图/Wes亲自为《瓶装火箭》画的故事板。方脸画风很呆萌。
图/携短片《瓶装火箭》(1994)参加圣丹尼斯电影节的Wes,当年真是嫩得出水。

他和Owen还参加了电影节上类似于“大师班”一样的电影课程。但Wes回忆说当时众人都是拍过短片的人,各说各的,并没有人特别关注他或者回答他的问题。而Owen对这种班兴趣不大。

图/影响过Wes的部分电影、书籍、杂志

Wes谈了小时候喜欢的电影,早年看库尔特·拉塞尔(Kurt Russell)什么的。让他开始思索“什么是电影”这个问题的是希区柯克(Alfred Hitchcock)的电影,比如《后窗》(Rear Window)。而让他开始思考如何拍摄电影的是《星球大战》(Star Wars)。他企图学习画画,不过没有成功。他看过许多电影书籍以自学拍电影。追过《纽约客》的影评人Pauline Kael,她推荐的电影他都会去看。开始拍东西是因为有一天老爸买了台超八。还有,他是塞林格粉。

If I look at all the movies I’ve down, the thing I most often think is, “I probably could stand to let that shot breathe a bit. I might have erred on the side of cutting it too tight.” But I’m sure a lot of people would disagree with that and say, “That was one of the most boring movies I’ve ever seen. I can’t imagine you would want to lengthen it.”

从一开始Wes就有这样的自觉,他不希望观众看着他的电影昏昏欲睡,也不希望观众感觉不舒服。他希望真实自然,把握一种流畅度。但正如他发现的,喜欢他的电影的人可以在他的盒中畅游,而接不住他的梗的人可以看个开头就昏昏欲睡。Wes一方面说让影片不要太紧绷,但是从处女作开始,他就不自觉地让每一个画面都有话可说、有细节可看,目不转睛能发现巨大乐趣。与之形成鲜明反差的是有些文艺片过去一分钟画面上完全没有变化,这一分钟是用身体去感知去体会的,无需动脑;而有些商业片看似追逐打闹,发生了很多事情,实则只有感官刺激,不看这一刻钟也能接得上,这一刻钟也是无需动脑的。Wes的影片每一秒都有彩蛋,没有不动脑的时刻。

青春年少
Rushmore 1998

There are few perfect films; Rushmore is one of them.

作者无法掩饰,他的最爱一定是《青春年少》。所以一开篇就说“完美的电影很少,但《青春年少》是其中之一”。这部片同样是Wes和Owen的最爱影片,主要是出于怀旧。通常带越多个人经历的影片越容易成为导演的最爱。

图/与《青春年少》有关的学校。

Wes返回母校St. John’s School拍摄了此片。片中主角Max的退学经历来自Owen的亲身体验;Max创作剧本的爱好来自Wes,主角Max的经历是Wes和Owen二人求学经历的混合,但大部分源自想象。

No, I had good grades up to a certain point, and then I didn’t have good grades later. The last couple of years of hight school, I had pretty bad grades. I always felt like I was never a very good student. I was never a strong or a disciplined student. And I never had great grades. Even when I was doing my best. I never had great grades. But I did plays. The idea of Max putting on the plays was from my own experience. But his character is a combination of things form Owen’s life and mine, though mostly it’s from our imagination.

Wes说自己成绩不出色,高中最后几年成绩糟糕。已经尽了最大努力,但还是不行,他觉得自己永远不可能成为好学生。但他写剧本。那段时间Wes已经开始了大量阅读和看片,为日后打下基础。

图/上方阿汤哥,下方《青春年少》中的Jason Schwartzman

本书一大特色是作者扯了许多影片,自己揣摩推测一番向Wes求证,或者是记录下Wes提到的灵感来源,综合起来做了如上图这样的剧照对照,保证访谈中提到的每部关键影片或提到的剧情都有对应的图片,挖掘出不少小细节。可惜作者的主要涉猎以美国影片为主,当Wes谈论印度影片时他就有些没看过了。知识面还是不如资深影迷Wes。

《青春年少》这部影片比《瓶装火箭》更具有鲜明的Wes特色:缤纷的色彩,话痨角色,定格漫画一般的旁白解说,少年爱情故事,勇往直前的青年,自私的“父亲”,怪怪的文艺青年,接连不断的笑点……詹森·舒瓦兹曼(Jason Schwartzman)看上去就像Owen弟弟鲁克•威尔逊(Luke Wilson)的接班人。由于过于出色,以至于拍摄后来的影片时Owen曾经对Wes说“这看上去像Max的一部舞台剧。”

《青春年少》同时也是我的最爱。一位死去母亲的高中生(Jason)和已有白发的老年人(Bill Murray)共同追求一位已有儿子但没丈夫的中年女子。小Jason和老Bill演情敌好像也就仅此一回。这两人都是那种时不时有惊人之举的令人头大的人物,却非常亲切可爱。有些影片会让人用“伟大”、“完美”去形容,而《青春年少》是那种谈不上伟大,却叫人爱不释手、非常动情的影片,可以用“激动人心”来形容。过了那么多年,那些人物的性格依然如此清晰。

儿时的荒诞事,你会当真吗?

这章还有一个要特别注意的地方是下面这段话,Wes谈了什么是激动人心的电影。并且巧妙地通过举例费里尼的电影回答了关于纪实和投射个人情感的比例把控问题。

The most exciting movies have always been the ones with people who attack it. You know, Orson Welles is maybe one of the greatest ever, even if the body of work doesn’t properly reflect that. He was the one who was just not going to hold back. But at the same time, you could also look at Pather Panchali as the other extreme, and that works, too.
This goes back to Pather Panchali and films like that. These are two schools of thought on this: One is that you should avoid at all costs that which takes people out of the movie, that every time you do something that takes people out of the movie, it’s a bad thing–it works against the drama, it works against the feelings. And the other is, “Who cares about all that? It’s s spectacle, it’s a show. It’s about the rhythm. It’s about the music, the images. That’s cinema, too.” Your movies are somewhere in the middle.
You know, if you look at Fellini’s movies, there’s this progression–the earliest Fellini movies are kind of neorealist. But then with each one that comes along, you’ve got more and more Fellini, and then you reach the point where it’s Roma, which is–you know, I don’t think there is a story in Roma. Roma is just, let’s go through his city with him, and it’s just entirely of his invention.
I’m interested in writing movies, and writing characters, and making stories, but as a viewer I’ve never felt any resistance to somebody inventing the whole thing. You know, I like Terry Gilliam.

天才一族
The Royal Tenenbaums 2001

《天才一族》也是我的最爱,与《青春年少》并列第一。这么说好像很无赖。《青春年少》因为少年面对困难时对周围所有人的意见可以做到充耳不闻而特别鼓舞人心。这是那种无把握时依然决心不变并付诸行动的年轻人的坚定,很多人年纪大了之后会忘记这种坚定,或者因为负担起了责任而不得不放弃一些个人执念,还可能因为长时间的努力始终换不来回报,而变得唯唯诺诺、不再坚定。《天才一族》像是《青春年少》的延续。灵感来自于塞林格的《弗兰妮与祖伊》,Tenenbaums一家和Glass一家一样,天才太多。他们非常敏感,无法自如地生活。Luke饰演的网球明星天赋异禀,从小爱恋Gwyneth Paltrow,但Paltrow却嫁给了比她大好多圈的Bill Murray。Luke因而草率结束自己的网球生涯,并且自杀。Paltrow有写作天赋,却很长时间写不出新作,整天把自己关在浴室里。Ben Stiller饰演的大哥自妻子死于意外之后就神经过敏,整日提心吊胆。最有年轻人活力的人是Gene Hackman饰演的行将入土的父亲,他突然来找分居多年的妻子和多年未谋面的子女。这对夫妻见下图的下半段。

图/《天才一族》最爱场景即这张对比图上面那场。

《天才一族》最爱场景即这张对比图上面那场。有风景的背景,人物以一个比较远的站位开始一段关于二人距离的对话。长镜头。在文德斯的《歧路》中有类似拍法。这是多次入梦来,无法忘却的画面。尤其是距离第一次看已经过去那么多年之后我更加确信地这么说。虽然这个大家族有祖孙三代7个人之多,再加3个编外人员,一共10人,但是每个人物都饱满鲜明。Wes安排了大量只有一到两人的场景,Luke直面爱人Paltrow,Hackman和分居的老婆,想要进入这个家庭的Owen和Paltrow,Ben Stiller和他的儿子,Hackman和他的孙子。每个有社交恐惧症的人都有机会和有情感纠葛的关键人物做单独沟通,把自己的私密感情展现出来。这让这部热热闹闹主角众多的影片变得非常私密。每个人都是一座冰山,而Wes在逐一敲开他们。就像祖伊对弗兰妮做的那样。多年之后Owen像弟弟Luke在这部影片中饰演的角色一样因为感情问题自杀未遂。反而是这座看似最保险的冰山出了问题。

有个趣闻。Wes拿着剧本找到Gene Hackman,对他说我这个角色是写给你的。Hackman说那我不演。我不希望剧本是照着我这个人写的。Wes说,我的意思是我觉得这个角色你来演合适,Hackman不理他。第一次追逐失败。当然啦,Wes成功追到众多知名演员的绝招还是剧本写得好。Wes这个控制狂总是把剧本写得非常细致,绘制精确的场景图、人物图,啰啰唆唆资料一大把。Murray当时看到这些东西就觉得这小伙子一定靠谱,在不去了解过往拍片经历的情况下就爽快答应演出《青春年少》。Wes觉得他应该至今都没看过《瓶装火箭》。

海海人生
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou 2004

图/Bill Murray饰演的Steve Zissou
图/Zissou原型Jacques Cousteau,而且这张照片出现在《瓶装火箭》里。
图/这是超神奇的地方。Wes已经在《瓶装火箭》、《青春年少》这两部片子里提到过Cousteau。

他说拍摄Cousteau的念头早于《天才一族》。Cousteau是他儿时非常喜欢的人物,他追看Cousteau的书。看来确实是魂牵梦绕。

图/原型人物更多历史。

《海海人生》由Wes和Noah Baumbach共同编剧。Wes曾调侃说不跟Owen一起编剧是因为Owen太红了,已经请不起了,而且他也没有时间。而Noah当时还是无名人士一名。他虽然早在1995年就拍出了《疯狂二十年华》(Kicking and Screaming),但是让他声名大噪的《鱿鱼和鲸》(The Squid and the Whale)要到2005年才上映,而那部片子的制片是Wes。

虽然很想拍Cousteau,但起先没有具体故事。Wes和Noah就开始略有些瞎掰了,天降儿子认Zissou当爹的故事源自两人的八卦心态:

Cousteau’s son crashed one of Cousteau’s planes and died, and that was one of my original ideas for the movie. And did you ever hear the story that Michael Bay is John Frankenheimer’s son?

《变形金刚》的导演迈克尔·贝(Michael Bay)原来是知名导演约翰·弗兰克海默(John Frankenheimer)的儿子?Wes在一次导演聚会上听到这个八卦,嗯,天上掉儿子的故事不错,这种事情看来也是会发生的,于是Zissou多了Owen这样一个儿子。

在本书作者看来,坐船出海旅行的《海海人生》和坐火车旅行的《穿越大吉岭》有某种相似之处,所以他在两篇访谈中问的一些问题有交叉,这两篇可以连在一起看。比如他问《海海人生》和《穿越大吉岭》是否刻意做了不同处理。Wes说确实是。《海海人生》的开头像《天才一族》一样做了背景介绍和人物介绍,启程的时候人物的背景关系观众已经有所了解。在《穿越大吉岭》中,他转而尝试让角色说话而不事先叙述角色背景的做法,让故事和人物都处于进行中而没有明确节点,让观众跟着上路,在旅途中慢慢发现人物关系、旅途目的、背景。故事结尾并不重要,人物所思所想更为重要。他不想控制角色或者其他什么东西,不想通过电影阐述一个理论,只是想自然而然地让一切展现出来。

I think, often, what ends up being important in a movie thematically, or what it ends up being really about, is usually not what you’re focusing on. You’re focusing on what a certain character is going to say, what this character wants from this other character, how they feel, and how she’s going to express what she wants, and what’s going to happen, you know? And as with everything else in life or writing or filmmaking, you don’t really control what it means–my instinct is that I don’t want to control it, because it’s better if it just comes to life, in whatever way that can happen. And everything else, everything feels like it has to be created for one of these movies, so I’d rather have the meanings come out of the life of it, rather than wanting to demonstrate a certain theme, or communicate a certain theory.
That definitely appeals to me, that kind of Hemingway theory of omission.

不过Wes终究不是海明威那一路的,Wes的人物说得太多。

图/拍摄《海海人生》时用到的船模。

《海海人生》CC版花絮碟中可以看到,他们在室内搭建了模型船,还使用到了户外的真的船。由于涉及珍惜海洋生物和虚构出来的特殊海洋生物,所以剧组还制作了一批海洋生物一比一模型。

Wes是建模小能手。《天才一族》的时候他重新粉刷了房子,室内装潢全部重新做过。拍摄《海海人生》造了一艘船,到了《穿越大吉岭》(The Darjeeling Limited)他又改装了一辆真的火车。《了不起的狐狸爸爸》(Fantastic Mr. Fox)是定格动画,绒毛动物玩偶自然做了一堆。《月升王国》(Moonrise Kingdom)搭了树屋。他超级喜欢自己动手,特别擅长将要拍摄的东西实物做出来再去用摄像机拍摄,不喜欢用电脑来处理。他希望所拍摄的东西看上去像真实存在的,他希望他们确实真实存在,他愿意看到整个诞生过程。在这种大思路下,Wes特别偏爱各种老式拍摄方法和老式摄像机。他不仅是定焦摆拍能手,其实还是长镜头能手。他切换镜头往往是因为场景发生了切换,由于故事确实复杂,发生在许多不同地方,于是造成了繁多的切换。当对话发生时他是不会通过镜头切换来不礼貌地打断说话者的。而且他特别擅长让说话者对着镜头的角色视角,拍摄旁支物件时喜欢上帝视角。认认真真地正面对待人和物,不斜视才礼貌。

后来拍摄定格动画《狐狸爸爸》也可以看作是Wes的一种童年情怀。一方面罗尔德·达尔(Roald Dahl)的童话是他儿时的最爱,另一方面在CG当道的今天,花几年时间拍摄定格动画长片本身就是一件相当复古的事情。

The answer to “Why stop-motion?” is “Because I love stop-motion.” And it’s not like I love stop-motion because I think it’s this gray way to make you think these things are really alive. It’s more that I think it’s such a magical way to make it seem as though these things are really alive. And you can see how the illusion is being created.

来点娱乐性强的。

图/Wes在拍摄《海海人生》时给Owen说戏。傲娇站姿。
图/Wes 导演的日常。

作为一名电影导演,而且是一名斩钉截铁地说死也不当演员、绝不改行、甚至不会在自己影片中客串的导演,Wes却有着男主角的姿色,皮肤保养得超级好,穿衣又有品味,简直是不老的传奇。

穿越大吉岭
The Darjeeling Limited 2007

因为对印度的了解实在太少,本书作者没能挖掘出太多Wes关于这方面的兴趣点来。但是他们谈起了语言学习和旅行。主要是谈了旅行者的异乡感受。因为Wes外语水平不好,他法语很差,但他在法国待过很长一段时间。那些时间他感到自己是被孤立开来的,因为语言不通。于是在巴黎的经历就是一次冒险。每天都能发现新鲜事,这是一种陌生而又有趣的生活。

I think there’s something about then you’re living in places where you don’t really speak the language and you don’t really understand the language. I’m not very good at learning languages. I’m very slow. My French is very bad, and I’ve spent a lot of time in France. That’s something that isolates you. You kind of wander through. You’re sort of an observer. You’re at a remove. But what I like is, if I walk down a strut in Paris that I haven’t been on before, it’s an adventure. Every day that you’re abroad, you’re discovering something new. When that becomes your routine, it’s a strange and interesting way to live.
There is something about language that gives the whole experience a peculiar feeling. I love making progress with a language, and making progress learning about how things are done in a certain place, even if it’s only a little progress. I really enjoy going back to a place again and actually having some friends there now, and saying,”Should we go to that place where we gent before?” That to me is sometimes more fun than the first visit to a place: getting to know a place, and getting to be known in a place. It’s really quite nice to be know, to know people in a place, and to have certain restaurants where you go that are your restaurants, places where, even though you don’t really speak the same language as the people there, you still have your communication with them, and you’re known as this foreigner, so you’re different, yet you still have a place in their orbit. There’s something special about all of that. I didn’t experience any of that in my childhood or my youth. It’s new for me.

他说自己其实非常喜欢去曾经去过的地方。去到一个地方,那里有自己的朋友,可以对他们说,“我们一起去曾经去过的地方如何?”他觉得有时候会比第一次去一个地方发现更多乐趣。他喜欢看到变化。仅仅去过一个地方和了解一个地方并不一样。但他又被旅行吸引,要去那些没有去过的地方。这是童年时代老是在看书看片的Wes没有体验过的异国经历,一个全新的世界。

热爱冒险的Wes有一天想去印度。他主要是想拍摄三兄弟的故事,他一直想拍摄这样的故事,但是不知道去哪里拍摄才好。忽然有一天看了雷诺阿的《大河》,他想起了那些自己喜欢的印度电影,好吧,那就去印度。他拉上两位科波拉家族成员弗朗西斯·科波拉儿子罗曼·科波拉(Roman Coppola)和Jason Schwartzman来到了印度,他们一边穿越大吉岭一边联合写出了剧本。片中拍到的地点都是他们旅行去过的地方。

了不起的狐狸爸爸
Fantastic Mr. Fox 2009

图/角色图
图/苹果酒酒瓶里的狐狸爸爸等动物。上方是Wes的手稿,下方是实际做出来的效果。
图/Wes的手稿
图/Wes的手稿

或许Wes的绘画水平有了进步。或许画动物比画人要简单,Wes的手稿越来越萌。这部古法拍摄的定格动画一点不比真人电影省工序,Wes还是满世界找实景,拍照绘图,再根据这些实景制作模型。狐狸爸爸的服装和造型源自Wes自己,农场的原型是童话作者罗尔德·达尔居住过的农场,位于英格兰。

图/农场原型。

整部片子拍摄难度非常大,因为动画无法做到同步收音。他们采取实景录音,再根据语速和动作捕捉,精确计算动物们每个动作,算好时间,再一格一格摆拍。摆拍时候发现不合适就需要从头来过。而整个录音是跨越全球的,威廉·达福(Willem Dafoe)在罗马,梅丽尔·斯特里普(Meryl Streep)在巴黎,Michael Gambon在伦敦,而乔治·克鲁尼(George Clooney)在加州,Jason在纽约。狐狸爸爸和狐狸妈妈不在一个大洲,更别说面对面对话了。Wes的剧本必须非常精确,丝毫差错都不行。这种情况下他还在加东西,最终整个拍摄过程中剧本改了一半,重写重录了一大堆。

Over two years–from the first recording until the movie was finished was at least a year and a half to two years–I added lots of things, I rewrote many things and rerecorded.
I recorded Willem Dafoe in Rome and Meryl Streep in Paris and Michael Gambon in London and George Clooney in California and Jason Schwartzman in New York. The recordings are from all over the map, and they’re sort of like documentary recordings.

应该说Wes拿以前的拍摄经验来拍《了不起的狐狸爸爸》是给自己制造麻烦。但是他借助于实景重现而非利用动画的特长制造现实中不存在景象的做法让这部动画看上去真实感很强,而且非常老派。甚至模仿了早年动作片的效果。充满喜感。

It feels fake as a miniature, rather than fake as a computer. I prefer the miniature.
I actually love miniatures in movies.
What appeals to me more are these old-fashioned techniques. Old-fashioned special effects tend to appeal to me, as does the challenge of getting it in the camera. When Truffaut worked with Néstor Almendros, they often would do a fade to black or an iris shot in the camera, which is rally like a silent-movie technique. But there’s a handmade feeling to it. There’s an imperfection that doesn’t really qualify as an imperfection, because it’s the rap thing. That’s just a personal preference.

他是老技术爱好者。更切当的表达应该是他其实喜欢那种手工制作的感觉,因为那能反映出个人喜好,带有情感。就好比你用Photoshop拖出一个圆形可以非常标准非常圆,但自己画的圆形虽然不够圆,却能反映出你此刻的状态、心情和感受。他希望退化技术,或者利用部分技术(他还是用了一点“新”技术的,比如动作捕捉,没有电脑的协助《了不起的狐狸爸爸》根本做不到那么精确,也就变得更加困难重重),无论用多少新技术,都不能消磨老电影中那种充满情感的质感。

他还学到一招就是和小团队一起工作。把事情都仔仔细细安排好,然后高效地去完成。陷入整理服装发型这种细节中他就感到无聊了。

The thing I’ve learned is that I enjoy simplifying the set and to have fewer people working. To plan carefully so we can work quickly, but without as big a crew. I don’t like people going away to trailers and things like that. I like everybody to just stay together and keep everything as light on its fret as it can be. You know, you can spend a lot of time adjusting people’s makeup and pulling on people’s clothes and hair, and that’s boring.

本书作者问Wes是否喜欢拍电影。整个过程听上去复杂又麻烦。Wes说他喜欢。他享受和一堆人一起工作,他喜欢去了解别人。

I like it. It can sometimes be grueling or very stressful–when things aren’t going right, you get an ulcer. But it’s exciting. And I like working with a group. I like having a company of key people collaborating. And on a movie like this, part of that is there are people who specialize in filmmaking disciplines or techniques I’ve never worked with. And also people who are making miniature objects, miniature props, and fabricating puppets and all the physical things that are being built. Those are all things that are right up my alley. So it’s a lot of fun for me to be working with people who do this kind of thing, and to get to know these people.

我觉得一个导演在拍片时的情绪会带入片中。安东尼奥尼曾说他感到痛苦,那种追求精确带来的痛苦,所以因此他的片能很美却没有那种喜悦?Wes说享受拍片过程我觉得意料之中吧,再苦的剧情他都能化解掉。不是让人物交好运,他的片中人物往往越来越倒霉;而是让人物自己去化解情绪,发现新生活。藏不住的乐观派。

Wes还统合性地谈了他的弟弟。他弟弟出镜3次,拍摄套拍纪录片一次,绘制海报、DVD封套、墙面壁纸、插画等无数次,此次担当配音,有了一只“小狐狸”——真心觉得此片是亲友聚会模式,和他关系好的朋友们大多都有客串,这意味着送一只动物,有些还是按照好友衣着和外貌量身定做的。

In Tenenbaums he has a line: “Can the boy tell time?” He asks Bill Murray’s character that. In Rushmore he’s an architect who’s showing some plans–a baseball field with and without an aquarium, I think. And he’s in The Life Aquatic, too. He’s one of the Aire Kentucky pilots at the funeral for Owen’s character.
He has a very unique way of talking, so the way his character talks, that’s him, that’s the way he talks. He was very good. He want well with that puppet.

他还谈了最爱的角色。不出所料地表扬了科波拉家族的电影。

Some of my favorite ones, ones who have made big impressions on me over the years, are Antoine Doinel and that whole cycle of movies. Travis Bickle. I’m trying to think of who from The Godfather. Maybe it’s De Niro in The Godfather Part II.

这篇采访的时间是2010年。Wes猜《了不起的狐狸爸爸》口碑会是最好的。但是他不知道原因。本书作者说因为这是定格动画,还是改编自童话,基本上大家的期望值就会比较低,会带着比较轻松的心态来看这部片,于是媒体评价就变好了。Wes表示同意。

I guess Fantastic Mr. Fox must be the best-reviewed movie I’ve done. It’s not really for me to say why that is.
I got better reviews because the stakes were low.

《了不起的狐狸爸爸》是多么Wes特色的影片,批了动画外衣口碑就比过去好很多,这或许真的和观者的心态变化有关。如果一部家庭伦理片或者历险片最后没有升华出什么结论,没有讽刺现实社会,没有大圆满结局,爱情没有太大进展,生病的人还是死了,你会不会感到与预期不符,有心理落差?不过后来《月升王国》口碑超越了《了不起的狐狸爸爸》,不过那是儿童剧,又一让成年人降低期望值的题材。

月升王国
Moonrise Kingdom 2012

图/Wes Anderson

本章访谈篇幅最长,几乎是《海海人生》两倍。考虑到本片距今时间最近,而且是大热影片,大家都比较熟悉,各种八卦细节不想谈太多。推荐阅读本片的图文剧本,了解Wes写剧本是多么细致。

以上所有图片可在我的Instagram上查到,我的账号为smalloranges。关于本书更多信息和配套的每章视频介绍请参见本书官方网站

布达佩斯大饭店
The Grand Budapest Hotel 2014年上映

永远期待Wes Anderson的下一部电影。两年一次的奇妙之旅,伴我成长至今。Thank you.