《廣告狂人》——六零年代風情錄

這是一段光鮮迷人的美國往事，發生在上世紀60年代初。艾森豪威爾的時代剛剛結束，美國上世紀50年代的經濟繁榮達到頂點，60年代的動蕩歲月還沒有到來，一切貌似安穩而富庶。人們不再滿足于溫飽，而開始縱情于聲色，消費主義蓬勃興起。麥迪遜大道的廣告人誘惑和操縱著整個國家的欲望和需求，他們推銷香煙、口紅、瀉藥，也推銷總統。最早的一批雅皮士正在被醞釀出來，他們仍保留著老派的優雅，而屬于新時期的種族平等、婦女解放，也正蓄勢待發。

這部懷舊復古的劇集就像是一段美國上世紀六零年代的風情錄，摩登且精致。里面的男人個個穿三件式西服，戴淺頂軟呢帽，襯衫一般是法式袖口，還有袖扣做裝飾。他們發型一絲不亂，時刻吐著氤氳的煙圈，手里輕搖盛著美酒的高腳杯。女人則涂著色澤冶艷的口紅，金色的頭發做成夢露的式樣，連身的大蓬蓬裙藏滿她們渴望掙脫男人鉗制的欲望。

上世紀的六十年代是個奇妙的年代，中國人自己的記憶里滿是綠軍裝、毛主席語錄、上山下鄉，而世界的另一端則完全是另外一番模樣……

——Eva

Matthew Weiner stood on the set of his hit show， Mad Men， ready for his 1)close-up

in extreme anxiety. He was watching the rehearsal of a scene that seemed fine to me， better than fine， but his 2)staccato commentary was a scene in itself.

“He should be standing，” he said of an actor who was seated. “That should be on the table，” he said of an 3)accordion folder that an actress had placed on the floor. “They’re overreacting，

paying too much attention to each other.” He heard himself and looked slightly 4)sheepish. “You’ll see it turn from theater to movie in the next take，” he told me. “I want them not to pay too much attention to each other， so it feels real， more 5)perfunctory. Not that TV thing.” His smile was 6)wry. “I’m very impatient.”

Mad Men， about the world of advertising on Madison Avenue set in New York in the early 1960s， 7)languished for years after being rejected by HBO and Showtime before the 8)unlikely 9)AMC picked it up. The show had its premiere last summer and won instant critical acclaim， and the Golden Globe Award for best drama.

Weiner’s achievements with Mad Men are plentiful， starting with the storytelling. Setting it in the early 1960s， on the 10)cusp between the repression and conformity of the cold war and

11)McCarthy-era 1950s and the yet-to-unfold social and cultural upheavals of the 60s， allows Weiner an arc of character growth that is 12)staggering in its possibilities. It also gives him the opportunity to mine the 13)Rat Pack romance of that period， when the wreaths of cigarette smoke， the fog of too many martinis—whether exhilarating or nauseating—and the 14)silhouettes specific to 15)bullet bras only heightened the 16)headiness of the dream that all men might one day become James Bond or， at the very least， key holders to the local Playboy Club.

Deepening the tension between that fantasy and reality， Weiner has put Sterling Cooper， the fictional ad agency that employs the show’s characters， on the 17)old-school， 18)WASP side of the equation， letting them revel in their racism， sexism and 19)anti-Semitism. It was during that period that the creative revolution in advertising was taking off at agencies， where Jews and some women held leadership positions. When contemplating a new account， Draper asks his boss， Roger Sterling， “What do women want?” “Who cares?” is his answer.

When a Jewish department-store heiress comes to the agency in search of a fresh approach for her business， Sterling tries to find someone Jewish in the company to include in the meeting. “Have we ever hired any Jews?” he asks Draper. “Not 20)on my watch，” Draper says，

before adding， “You want me to run down to the 21)deli and grab somebody?”

Weiner chose advertising as a subject， he said， because “it’s a great way to talk about the image we have of ourselves， versus who we really are. And admen were the rock stars of that era， creative， cocky， anti-authority. They made a lot of money， and they lived hard.” It’s the universality more than the period that’s the 22)hook， of course. The people on this show struggle with the same 23)backbiting co-workers， unhappy marriages and ongoing search for the meaning of life that we do now. We’d like to think that things were simpler then， but what’s hard now has always been hard.

But as Arthur Gelb， a former managing editor of The New York Times， who was the paper’s chief cultural correspondent in the early ’60s， points out: “New York then was still to some extent a segregated city. It was glamorous， but it was glamorous for white people. You rarely， if ever， saw blacks in Times Square.”

The show’s design， the almost 24)fetishistically accurate sets and costumes， has been lauded from the start. But Weiner is 25)wary of 26)deifying the visual. “The design is not the star of the show，” he said as he led me through the

offices of Sterling Cooper. “I don’t want to be distracted by it”， he said. “People have old things and new things， and as someone who loves the period， it’s very hard to resist the idea of getting the perfect 1960 everything， but I want it to feel like a slice of life.”

Richard Plepler， co-president of HBO， who took over programming in June 2007， told me， “Mad Men is a magnificent show， and the only problem with it is it’s not on HBO.”

馬修·維納站在他那部熱門劇集——《廣告狂人》的片場，心情焦灼，準備好要拍一個特寫鏡頭。他正在盯某場戲的彩排，那場戲在我看來演得還不錯，應該說不止“不錯”了，而維納不時插話點評這一幕，本身亦很有看頭。

“他應該是站著的，”他說到那位正坐著的男演員。“那東西應該放在桌子上”他指的是女演員之前放在地板上的一個折子式文件夾。