Darkest Hour 《至暗时刻》

文/彼得·布拉德肖 译/杨树锋

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.

不列颠时下正为其丑陋的脱欧讨价还价，而我们的政治精英们准备批准这个混乱的行动——抛弃旨在预防下一场战争的联盟。值此当口，电影界对1940年的热情似乎重新燃起。克里斯托弗·诺兰在影片《敦刻尔克》中打造的沉浸式体验尚未退去，乔·赖特如今又奉上了他执导的这部绝对精彩、引人入胜的影片——他曾在自己2007年的影片《救赎》中呈现了相当不俗的敦刻尔克场景。新片《至暗时刻》勾画了1940年温斯顿·丘吉尔经历的最黑暗的一段时光，彼时希特勒的军队正在英吉利海峡对岸集结，虎视耽耽。本片编剧安东尼·麦卡滕还是斯蒂芬·霍金的传记片《万物理论》的编剧。

[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]本片与其说是时代战争片，不如说是一部高能政治惊悚片：1940年5月版的《纸牌屋》，战时首相与想把他扳倒的政客帮派之间左右周旋。电影出彩之处在于提醒观众，绥靖政策并未随着温斯顿·丘吉尔接任首相而立即遁形；尽管戴维·洛创作的漫画家喻户晓，但并不是每个人都全力支持丘吉尔。影片中，丘吉尔最直接的敌人与其说是希特勒和墨索里尼，毋宁说是张伯伦和哈利法克斯，后两者极力主张与纳粹媾和并处心积虑削弱丘吉尔在内阁和议会的地位。

[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]张伯伦和哈利法克斯分别由罗纳德·皮克阿普和斯蒂芬·迪兰饰演。迪兰长着一张城府颇深的奸臣脸，成功诠释出哈利法克斯邪恶老狐狸的气质。本·门德尔森出演乔治六世。起初这位国王也是绥靖主义的拥趸，不过影片以春秋笔法将其大胆刻画为丘吉尔粉丝，营造出国王充当首相坚强后盾的表象。

[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]《至暗时刻》与布莱恩·考克斯2017年出演的影片《丘吉尔》有明显相似之处，比如两部影片都为首相安排了一位来自空军女子辅助队的漂亮女士做秘书。首相起初对女秘书煞是不满，但后来却不再忌讳流露真性情。莉莉·詹姆斯饰演本片中的女秘书。布莱恩·考克斯的片子中，由米兰达·理查森饰演理性刚强的首相夫人克莱门汀；本片中则由克里斯汀·斯科特·托马斯饰演，多少表现得同样恼火而又温情，会做帮那个老顽固穿衣服之类的事——不过本片中斯科特·托马斯的挑战更大，需要全心投入。但是，更宏大的视野和更紧凑的叙事推动——以及演员们的精湛演技，使本片的冲击力更大、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·奥德曼因出演本片获得第90届奥斯卡最佳男主角奖。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]每次落座看一部有关丘吉尔的新片，我都会暗下决心，如果演员出场还是乳胶、软毡帽、领结、雪茄与衬垫的组合加上颤抖的腮帮子和浑厚奇特的口音这些老一套，我是不会买账的。但是毫无疑问，加里·奥德曼的丘吉尔非常棒，呈现出沉静时那毫无皱纹的脸庞流露的天真、狡诈又操控自如的幽默性情，以及忧郁时那种诡异的死气沉沉。影片中有一个场景，丘吉尔缩在一间几乎毫无装饰、光线昏暗的房间里，看上去就像卢西恩·弗洛伊德的作品一般。他大部分时间都在地堡式的战时内阁室向他人怒吼。就在这里，在敦刻尔克小船的神迹显现之前，丘吉尔跌到了人生谷底。他允许哈利法克斯通过意大利人捎去口信，表示英国理论上可以考虑城下之盟的价码：这有可能促使希特勒对英国及其殖民地收手吗？奥德曼很好演绎出丘吉尔错愕不已、备受煎熬的状态。

[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]这并不是说本片中丝毫没有虚构的美好桥段。片中假想了一个场景：丘吉尔的公务车堵在路上，他需要搭乘地铁。由此，他在车厢里遇到一群对大人物很是敬畏的英国及帝国臣民，丘吉尔从他们口中认识到自己完全正确——这一点至关重要！

[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·奥德曼在影片《锅匠，裁缝，士兵，间谍》（Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,2011）中饰演的角色。该片又名《谍影行动》，主要讲述了冷战时全球两大特工组织——苏联“中心”与英国“圆场”（圆场是英国对外情报机构，即现实中的MI6）明争暗斗的故事。2011年，加里凭借在此片中的表演获得第84届奥斯卡最佳男主角奖提名。was suddenly infused with the spirit ofSid Vicious3 加里·奥德曼在影片《席德与南茜》（Sid and Nancy, 1986）中饰演的角色。影片讲述了传奇朋克乐队“性手枪”的吉他手席德与美国女友南茜反复无常的情爱关系和罗密欧-朱丽叶式的悲剧结局。.

[7]还缺少一部对丘吉尔更具质疑性的影片：可以再次审视他在托尼潘迪暴动以及悉尼街围困中的表现。或者，径直承认他对阿道夫·希特勒的仇恨和对圣雄甘地的仇恨其实原因相同：他们都是大英帝国的敌人。但是，加里·奥德曼举重若轻的演绎实在让人难以拒绝，就仿佛他饰演的位高权重的大人物乔治·史迈利突然被注入了席德·维瑟斯的神采。