Darkest Hour 《至暗時刻》

文/彼得·布拉德肖 譯/楊樹鋒

By Peter Bradshaw

Just as Britain negotiates its inglorious retreat from Europe, and our political classes prepare to ratify the chaotic abandonment of a union intended to prevent another war, there seems to be a renewed appetite for movies about 1940.Christopher Nolan has just given us his operatic immersion inDunkirk, and now Joe Wright—who himself staged bravura Dunkirk scenes in his 2007 filmAtonement—directs this undeniably exciting and beguiling account of Winston Churchill’s darkest hour in 1940, as Hitler’s forces gather across the Channel, poised to invade.It is written by Anthony McCarten, who scripted the Stephen Hawking biopicThe Theory of Everything.

不列顛時下正為其丑陋的脫歐討價還價，而我們的政治精英們準備批準這個混亂的行動——拋棄旨在預防下一場戰爭的聯盟。值此當口，電影界對1940年的熱情似乎重新燃起。克里斯托弗·諾蘭在影片《敦刻爾克》中打造的沉浸式體驗尚未退去，喬·賴特如今又奉上了他執導的這部絕對精彩、引人入勝的影片——他曾在自己2007年的影片《救贖》中呈現了相當不俗的敦刻爾克場景。新片《至暗時刻》勾畫了1940年溫斯頓·丘吉爾經歷的最黑暗的一段時光，彼時希特勒的軍隊正在英吉利海峽對岸集結，虎視耽耽。本片編劇安東尼·麥卡滕還是斯蒂芬·霍金的傳記片《萬物理論》的編劇。

[2]This is not so much a period war movie as a high-octane political thriller:May 1940 asHouse Of Cards, with the wartime Prime Minister up against a cabal of politicians who want to do him down.It’s interesting for a film to remind us that appeasement as an issue did not vanish the moment that Winston Churchill took over as Prime Minister; despite the famous David Low cartoon, not everyone was right behind him, rolling up their sleeves.Here, his immediate enemies do not seem to be Hitler and Mussolini as much as Chamberlain and Halifax, agitating for a deal with the Nazis and scheming to undermine Churchill’s cabinet and parliamentary position.

[2]本片與其說是時代戰爭片，不如說是一部高能政治驚悚片：1940年5月版的《紙牌屋》，戰時首相與想把他扳倒的政客幫派之間左右周旋。電影出彩之處在于提醒觀眾，綏靖政策并未隨著溫斯頓·丘吉爾接任首相而立即遁形；盡管戴維·洛創作的漫畫家喻戶曉，但并不是每個人都全力支持丘吉爾。影片中，丘吉爾最直接的敵人與其說是希特勒和墨索里尼，毋寧說是張伯倫和哈利法克斯，后兩者極力主張與納粹媾和并處心積慮削弱丘吉爾在內閣和議會的地位。

[3]They are played respectively by Ronald Pickup and Stephen Dillane, the latter having a malign mandarin impassivity.Dillane makes him a pretty unholy fox.Ben Mendelsohn plays George VI, who is also an appeasement fan at first, though the film gallantly makes him a Churchill convert, conjuring a scene between the two of them in which his job is to stiffen Winston’s sinews.

[3]張伯倫和哈利法克斯分別由羅納德·皮克阿普和斯蒂芬·迪蘭飾演。迪蘭長著一張城府頗深的奸臣臉，成功詮釋出哈利法克斯邪惡老狐貍的氣質。本·門德爾森出演喬治六世。起初這位國王也是綏靖主義的擁躉，不過影片以春秋筆法將其大膽刻畫為丘吉爾粉絲，營造出國王充當首相堅強后盾的表象。

[4]Darkest Hourhas obvious similarities to the recent filmChurchill, with Brian Cox; like that drama it imagines a pretty young WAAF figure as his secretary, for him to be at first grumpy and then soppy with—Lily James plays this part here.Miranda Richardson played the exasperated wife Clemmie in the Brian Cox movie and here it’s Kristin Scott Thomas being exasperated and affectionate, helping the impossible old devil dress etc., in more or less the same way—although there’s more here for Scott Thomas to get her teeth into.But this movie packs a much bigger and more effective punch, and that’s down to a more ambitious scale, pacier narrative drive—and the lead performance.

[4]《至暗時刻》與布萊恩·考克斯2017年出演的影片《丘吉爾》有明顯相似之處，比如兩部影片都為首相安排了一位來自空軍女子輔助隊的漂亮女士做秘書。首相起初對女秘書煞是不滿，但后來卻不再忌諱流露真性情。莉莉·詹姆斯飾演本片中的女秘書。布萊恩·考克斯的片子中，由米蘭達·理查森飾演理性剛強的首相夫人克萊門汀；本片中則由克里斯汀·斯科特·托馬斯飾演，多少表現得同樣惱火而又溫情，會做幫那個老頑固穿衣服之類的事——不過本片中斯科特·托馬斯的挑戰更大，需要全心投入。但是，更宏大的視野和更緊湊的敘事推動——以及演員們的精湛演技，使本片的沖擊力更大、更到位。

[5]Every time I sit down to another Churchill drama, I promise myself I won’t just roll over for another actor in the latex/Homburg/bowtie/cigar/padding combo and doing the jowl-quivering while speaking in the voish and the weird cadencesh.And yet there’s no doubt about it,Gary Oldman1 加里·奧德曼因出演本片獲得第90屆奧斯卡最佳男主角獎。is terrific as Churchill, conveying the babyishness of his oddly unlined face in repose, the slyness and manipulative good humour,and a weird deadness when he is overtaken with depression.There is a scene with Churchill slumped in a bleakly lit almost unfurnished room, where he looks like something by Lucian Freud.He spends a fair bit of time down in the bunker-ish Cabinet War Rooms yelling at people.And it is here that Winston reaches his nadir, before the miracle of the little boats has manifested itself.He allows Halifax to send word via the Italians that Britain would be theoretically interested in the Danegeld-price: what might induce Hitler to hold back from Britain and its colonies? Oldman shows Churchill going into a kind of stricken shock.

[5]每次落座看一部有關丘吉爾的新片，我都會暗下決心，如果演員出場還是乳膠、軟氈帽、領結、雪茄與襯墊的組合加上顫抖的腮幫子和渾厚奇特的口音這些老一套，我是不會買賬的。但是毫無疑問，加里·奧德曼的丘吉爾非常棒，呈現出沉靜時那毫無皺紋的臉龐流露的天真、狡詐又操控自如的幽默性情，以及憂郁時那種詭異的死氣沉沉。影片中有一個場景，丘吉爾縮在一間幾乎毫無裝飾、光線昏暗的房間里，看上去就像盧西恩·弗洛伊德的作品一般。他大部分時間都在地堡式的戰時內閣室向他人怒吼。就在這里，在敦刻爾克小船的神跡顯現之前，丘吉爾跌到了人生谷底。他允許哈利法克斯通過意大利人捎去口信，表示英國理論上可以考慮城下之盟的價碼：這有可能促使希特勒對英國及其殖民地收手嗎？奧德曼很好演繹出丘吉爾錯愕不已、備受煎熬的狀態。

[6]This is not to say that there isn’t a fair bit of hokum and romantic invention.This film imagines Churchill needing to take a journey on the tube because his official car is held up in traffic.So he meets a quaint cross-section of forelock-tugging British and empire subjects in the underground carriage,from whom he learns something very important—that he is absolutely right!

[6]這并不是說本片中絲毫沒有虛構的美好橋段。片中假想了一個場景：丘吉爾的公務車堵在路上，他需要搭乘地鐵。由此，他在車廂里遇到一群對大人物很是敬畏的英國及帝國臣民，丘吉爾從他們口中認識到自己完全正確——這一點至關重要！

[7]There is room for a more sceptical movie about Churchill: something revisiting his performance during the Tonypandy Riots or the Siege of Sidney Street.Or just something that acknowledges that he hated Adolf Hitler for the same reason he hated Mahatma Gandhi: they were both enemies of the British Empire.But Gary Oldman carries off a tremendous performance here, and it’s impossible not to enjoy it.It’s as if his establishment panjandrumGeorge Smiley2 加里·奧德曼在影片《鍋匠，裁縫，士兵，間諜》（Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,2011）中飾演的角色。該片又名《諜影行動》，主要講述了冷戰時全球兩大特工組織——蘇聯“中心”與英國“圓場”（圓場是英國對外情報機構，即現實中的MI6）明爭暗斗的故事。2011年，加里憑借在此片中的表演獲得第84屆奧斯卡最佳男主角獎提名。was suddenly infused with the spirit ofSid Vicious3 加里·奧德曼在影片《席德與南茜》（Sid and Nancy, 1986）中飾演的角色。影片講述了傳奇朋克樂隊“性手槍”的吉他手席德與美國女友南茜反復無常的情愛關系和羅密歐-朱麗葉式的悲劇結局。.

[7]還缺少一部對丘吉爾更具質疑性的影片：可以再次審視他在托尼潘迪暴動以及悉尼街圍困中的表現。或者，徑直承認他對阿道夫·希特勒的仇恨和對圣雄甘地的仇恨其實原因相同：他們都是大英帝國的敵人。但是，加里·奧德曼舉重若輕的演繹實在讓人難以拒絕，就仿佛他飾演的位高權重的大人物喬治·史邁利突然被注入了席德·維瑟斯的神采。