看电影学英语Seven《七宗罪》精讲之2

影片对白

Mills: The guy had to get into the building before the office was closed and security tightened. Gould would have been working late.

Somerset: I'm certain. He’s the biggest defense lawyer in town. Infamous, really.

Mills: The body was found Tuesday morning. The office was closed Monday. Which means the guy could have gotten in on Friday, laid low till the cleaning crew left and had his way with Gould all day Saturday, Sunday, maybe Monday. Look at this. Gould was bound, his right arm free. He was handed a butcher's knife. Check out the scale.

Somerset: A pound of flesh?

Mills: Yeah.

Somerset: "One pound of flesh, no more, no less. No cartilage, no bone, but only flesh." "Merchant of Venice."

Mills: Didn't see it.

Somerset: "His task done, and he would go free."

Mills: Telling you, that chair was soaked with sweat.

Somerset: Of course. The killer would have wanted Gould to take his time to sit and decide which cut to make first. Imagine it, there's a gun in your face. Which part of your body is expendable?

Mills: How about the love handle? Cut along the side of his own stomach.

Somerset: Let's take a fresh look at these. Even though the corpse is there, look through it. Edit out the initial shock. The trick is to find one item, one detail and focus on it until it's an exhausted possibility.

Mills: I'm going to get another beer.

Somerset: Beer? Wine, please. He's preaching.

Mills: He's punishing.

Somerset: The sins were used in medieval sermons. There were seven cardinal virtues and seven deadly sins used as teaching tools.

Mills: Yeah yeah yeah, like in the "The Parson's Tale," and what's-his... Dante.

Somerset: You read them.

Mills: Yeah. Parts. Hi, remember in "Purgatory," Dante and his buddy, they're climbing up the hill, checking out the sinners? Yeah?

Somerset: Yeah. The Seven Terraces of Purgation.

Mills: Right, but there pride comes first, not gluttony.

Somerset: Well for now let's consider that the books were the inspiration. The sermons were about atonement for sin. These murders are like forced attrition.

Mills: Forced what?

Somerset: Attrition. It’s when you regret your sins but not because you love God.

Mills: Because someone's sticking a fucking gun in your face.

Somerset: No fingerprints.

Mills: Nop.

Somerset: Totally unrelated victims.

Mills: Yep.

Somerset: And no witnesses of any kind.

Mills: Which I don't get because the fucker had to get back out.

妙语佳句，活学活用

1. defense lawyer 辩护律师

2. lay low

这个片语也写作lie low，意思是“隐匿（某人/某事），等待时机”，比如： The children lay low, hoping their prank would soon be forgotten. 孩子们藏了起来，希望人们能很快忘掉他们的恶作剧。

3. take one's time

意思是“从容不迫，慢慢来”，比如：You can take your time altering that dress; I don't need it right away. 你可以慢慢改那件衣服，我不是马上就需要它。

4. love handle

就是腰间的那圈肥肉，常见于成功男士的腰上（估计是美酒美食催生的）。

5. edit out

这个短语是指“编辑中删除”，那“编辑中加入”呢？就是 edit in了。我们来看一些例子： A controversial scene was edited out of the film. 一个有争议的场景在编辑这部电影时给删除了。 An additional scene was edited in before the show was aired. 播出之前，这个节目又编辑加入了一个场景。

文化面面观

The Parson's Tale 牧师的故事

The Parson's Prologue and Tale make up the final section of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. 电影中Mills所说的The Parson's Tale其实源自英国文学家乔叟的《坎特伯雷故事集》，非但丁所著。从这个片段中，我们可以看出Mills似乎没有读过多少中世纪文学以及和宗教有关的书籍。

Portrait of Chaucer as a Canterbury pilgrim in the Ellesmere manuscript of The Canterbury Tales

This, one of the longest of all the tales, is a sermon on virtuous living. The Parson is considered by some to be the only good member of the Clergy in Canterbury Tales. Harry Bailly, the host, first asks the Parson for a fable but the Parson refuses and says he will tell an improving tale in prose as he cannot rhyme. The subject of the sermon is penitence and he describe it split into three parts; contrition of the heart, confession of the mouth and satisfaction. The second part about confession is illustrated by referring to the Seven Deadly Sins and offering remedies against them. The Seven Deadly Sins are 1. Pride 2. Envy 3. Wrath 4. Sloth 5. Greed 6. Gluttony 7. Lust. They are "healed" by 1. Humility 2. Contentment 3. Patience 4. Fortitude 5. Mercy 6. Moderation 7. Chastity

The tale seems, for the most part, to be a combination of the texts of two works on penitence popular at this time: the Summa casuum poenitentiae of Raymond of Peñafort, and the Summa vitiorum of William Perault; these mingle with fragments from other texts. It is not known whether Chaucer was the first to combine these particular sources, or whether he translated an existing combined edition, possibly from French; in the latter case, any direct source has been lost.

None of the explicit criticism of clergy that marks many of the other tales and character sketches is obvious here. The Parson is throughout depicted as a sensible and intelligent person. However he is not uncritical of the clergy, for example describing flatterers – those who continuously sing placebo – as "the Devil’s Chaplains".

Although the Canterbury Tales appears to be unfinished with some pilgrims not telling any tales and the four tales each, described in the General Prologue, far from complete, the Parson's tale seems to be designed to round up the work. There are many references to the end in the Parson's prologue and the tale itself has many subtle criticisms of the behavior and character of many of the other pilgrims. Chaucer himself seems swayed by the plea for penitence as the final part of the Tales follows, Chaucer's Retraction where he asks forgiveness for any offence he might have caused. (answers.com)

Purgatory 炼狱

Illustration for Dante's Purgatorio (18), by Gustave Doré, an imaginative picturing of Purgatory.

Purgatory《炼狱》是意大利文学家但丁《神曲》中的第二部分，其他两部分为《地狱》和《天国》。Purgatory这个词源自拉丁语，意思是“涤罪”。In the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, it means the state after death in which the soul destined for heaven is purified. Since only the perfect can enjoy the vision of God (inferred from Mat. 12.36; Rev. 21.17), and some die in grace who have still unpunished or unrepented minor sins on their conscience, they must be purged of such sins. Those who have suffered already (especially the martyrs) may have undergone much or all of their punishment. Souls in purgatory are members of the church along with the living and the blessed in heaven and may be helped, as in life, by the prayers and works of their fellow members. This unity is the communion of saints. Prayers for the dead are therefore commonplace in Roman Catholic life; one form is the requiem Mass (see also indulgence). The duration of time and the nature of the state of purgatory are not defined; the suffering is different in kind from that of hell, for the soul in purgatory knows that his punishment is temporary. The ancient Jews prayed for the dead (2 Mac. 12.43–46), and the Christians continued the practice, holding the concomitant belief in a middle state between life and heaven. The Eastern Orthodox Church maintains this position without adopting the Western terms developed in the Middle Ages. Protestants have generally abandoned it. (Columbia Encyclopedia)