金融时报:不可思议的漂流
不可思议的漂流
《少年派》荣获第85届奥斯卡最佳视觉效果奖，FT专栏影评家Nigel Andrews认为，这是一部用诗意的创造力将“不可能被影像化的故事”展现出来的影片，一部能让观众们重新回到童年的影片。
测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：
virtuosity [,vɜːtʃʊ'ɒsɪtɪ] n.精湛技巧；对艺术品的爱好
Anno Digitale 数字年
Yann Martel 加拿大作家马特尔，英语小说界重要奖项布克奖（Booker Prize）得主
diluvian[dai'lju:vjən] adj.大洪水的
fusillade[,fjuːzɪ'leɪd] n./v.猛射；枪炮的齐射
bestiary['bestɪərɪ] n.动物寓言集
orang-utan[ɔ:,ræŋu:'tæn] and hyena[haɪ'iːnə] 猩猩，和鬣狗；
equine ['ikwaɪn] n./adj.马，马的
tour de force 绝技；精心杰作
Davy Jones’s locker 深海阎王戴维琼斯的锁柜，即葬身海底的意思，戴维琼斯的头是个大章鱼的形象
ensorcelling[in'sɔ:səlɪŋ] adj.着迷
Afloat on an ocean of possibilities (328 words)
41263.7173611111
Ang Lee’s Life of Pi is an eye-boggling demonstration of the virtuosities available to the poetically inventive film-maker in 2012 AD (Anno Digitale). I kept thinking of the TV Superman series and its famous old voice intro. Is Lee’s film a fable? Is it an adventure? No, it’s a super-movie. Faster than a speeding ballet, leaping tall decades at a single bound, this action fantasy from Yann Martel’s 2001 Booker Prize-winning novel says a final goodbye to pre-digital, pre-diluvian 3D.
Every filmgoer will re-become a child as he/she watches the shipwrecked Indian boy (played by vivid newcomer Suraj Sharma) grapple with adversity – storms, sharks, a fusillade of flying fish – as he is cast away at sea accompanied by a tiger from his dad’s zoo-in-transit. The other human characters, including a blink-and-you-miss-him Gérard Depardieu as the ship’s cook, are swiftly dispatched to Davy Jones’s locker; we don’t need them.
Though the worst of Martel’s book survives along with the best – the arguments for God’s existence which bookend the screenplay would barely stand up in a kindergarten – the best occupies most of the screen time. The lifeboat’s initial bestiary includes a zebra, orang-utan and hyena (terrifying), all digitised in part or whole, all in our faces or at our throats whenever Lee commands and the 3D specs obey.
The digi-tiger is a dazzler, expert, seamless, all-expressive: a screen tour de force as captivating in its virtuosity as the puppeteered stage equine in War Horse. Lee and his team also conjure high seas and mighty squalls and, for contrast, a night of phosphorescent jellyfish glowing back at the moon and a sunrise seascape golden, mirror-placid, horizonless. Sometimes boat and boy seem suspended in a vacancy between transparent infinities. This is picture-book picture-making as ensorcelling as any we have seen since Powell’s The Thief of Baghdad, another tale of an Indian boy, a world of magic, and showdowns with the elemental.
请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：
1.What does the writer tell us about 3D?
A. It is poetically inventive.
B. There's a pre-digital 3D, and a modern 3D.
C. It was first introduced in the TV Superman series.
D. None of above.
答案(1)
2."Every filmgoer will re-become a child", why?
A. Because the characters are mostly non-human.
B. Because the shipwrecked boy grapples with all kinds of adversity.
C. Because the Indian boy is vividly played by young Suraj Sharma.
D. Because of Gérard Depardieu, a blink-and-you-miss-him actor.
答案(2)
3."The worst of Martel’s book survives along with the best", what is the worst?
A. The arguments for God’s existence.
B. The terryifying hyena.
C. Human characters who are swiftly dispatched to Davy Jones’s locker.
答案(3)
4.About War Horse and The Thief of Baghdad, which of the following is correct?
A. The tiger in Life of Pi and the horse in War Horse are both digitally designed.
B. In War Horse, high seas and mighty squalls were conjured.
C. The Thief of Baghdad was another tale of an Indian boy, a world of magic.
答案(4)
* * *
(1) 答案：D.None of above.
解释：ABC都是不正确的。poetically inventive是用来形容film-maker李安的。作者说这部影片leaping tall decades，一举告别了前数码时代——也就是经典的《超人》电视剧的那个时代，进入了3D时代。
(2) 答案：B.Because the shipwrecked boy grapples with all kinds of adversity.
解释：这是第二段的原话。主人公不可思议的遭遇让观众们仿佛回到了童话时代，与他的经历产生共鸣。
(3) 答案：A.The arguments for God’s existence.
解释：作者认为，对于上帝是否存在的争论是书中的败笔，would barely stand up in a kindergarten.
(4) 答案：A.The tiger in Life of Pi and the horse in War Horse are both digitally designed.
解释：小说家马特尔在写作就知道这是一个“不可能被影像化的故事”， 而《少年派》获得奥斯卡最佳视觉特效奖可谓是众望所归，老虎、海浪、神秘岛等等都是数字化制作。而战马中的马是用stage equine真马拍摄的。
