《爱乐之城》为何能打破歌舞片魔咒？
迪士尼动画中，人物说着说着话突然载歌载舞起来，观众们还能接受，但要是 “现实情景”中的演员也这么做，是不是会让人感觉怪异呢?
But the impromptu (即兴的) songs and dances are what La La Land - a musical film - is all about. This pattern worked surprisingly well: The film opened last year’s Venice Film Festival, won a record-breaking seven Golden Globes in January, and it already has 14 Oscar nominations (提名), including best picture, best director and best costume design. La La Land was released in China on Feb 14.
但音乐电影《爱乐之城》的即兴歌舞正是如此。这一模式效果出人意料的好：这部电影是去年的威尼斯电影节的开幕影片，今年一月创下了赢得七座金球奖的记录，并获得了包括最佳影片，最佳导演和最佳服装设计在内的14项奥斯卡提名。《爱乐之城》已于2月14日登陆中国各大影院。
But why is it that a musical is making history all of a sudden?
但为什么忽然之间，一部音乐电影开始创造历史?
It’s believed that the current political climate is driving people toward light-hearted entertainment for relief – especially movies like La La Land, which tells a simple boy-meets-girl story. The tale takes place in an ever-sunny Los Angeles, where everything is painted in a positive light, which may be another attraction for those looking to escape the world for a short while.
人们相信，(美国)当前的政治氛围让人们想从轻松愉快的娱乐方式中寻求慰藉——尤其是像《爱乐之城》这样的电影。这部电影讲述了一对男女邂逅的简单故事。故事发生在永远阳光明媚的洛杉矶，这里所有的一切都被抹上了一层明亮的色彩，而对于那些希望短暂逃离这个世界的人来说，这或许是电影又一引人之处。
“This was the only time for me since Nov 8 that I was successfully able to shut out all thoughts of Trump World for over two hours,” wrote The Guardian’s editor John Patterson. “La La Land, if only for a while, quite rid me of anger, cynicism (愤世嫉俗) and anxiety.”
“这是11月8日以来，唯一一次我在两个多小时里不会想起特朗普那些事，”《卫报》编辑约翰•帕特森写道。“《爱乐之城》令我摆脱了愤怒，冷嘲热讽和焦虑，尽管只有一小会儿。”
This is not hard to understand if you think about the last time musical films had their moment of glory. It was more than half a century ago, back in the 1930s through to the 1950s, when the Great Depression (经济大萧条) hit the US.
如果你回想一下上次音乐电影的辉煌时刻，这一切就不难理解。在半个多世纪以前，上世纪30年代到50年代，经济大萧条重创美国。
“Politicians often allotted (指派) Hollywood the task of ‘cheering Americans up’ during the Depression, hoping that the entertainment industry could play a key role in distracting (使……转移注意力) Americans from the horrors (恐惧) of the economic downfall,” wrote Sydney Huber on the blog Music During the Great Depression.
“政治家们在经济大萧条期间，经常派给好莱坞‘鼓舞美国人’的任务，希望娱乐业能够在转移美国人对于经济衰退的恐惧上发挥重要作用。” 希尼•胡贝尔在一篇名为《大萧条中的音乐》博文里写道。
Despite being a musical filled with a dream-like atmosphere, La La Land has its fair share of realism. The boy-meets-girl story doesn’t end in a happily-ever-after way. Instead, they have to make a choice between their relationship and their careers, like many couples in the real world.
尽管《爱乐之城》是一部充满了梦幻氛围的音乐剧，但它依然有着相当现实的一部分。这个男孩女孩相遇的故事最终并非幸福的大团圆结局。恰恰相反，他们必须在恋情与事业中做出选择，就像很多现实生活中的情侣那样。
“There is a modern energy to it,” Damien Chazelle, the film’s director, told The Independent. “It was fun to take certain [characteristics] from fifties musicals, but put them in a modern city and film them in a modern way, and see what resulted from that.”
“影片中有种现代的力量，” 影片的导演达米安•查泽雷在接受《独立报》采访时表示。“将50年代的音乐剧的某些特点运用到现代都市，并以现代手法拍成电影，看看最终会产生什么效果，是一件很有趣的事。”
