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“Oppenheimer” vs “Barbie”

《奥本海默》VS《芭比》

What two Hollywood blockbusters reveal about our times.

两部好莱坞大片揭示了当今时代的何种真相。

They make an intriguing pair of rivals: he in a dark suit and porkpie hat, she in a gingham dress and matching hair bow.

他们是一对让人玩味的竞争对手：他身着深色西装，头戴圆礼帽，她身着格子棉布裙，头戴配套的蝴蝶结。

His domain is a vast scientific-research facility in New Mexico; hers is a fluorescent-pink party house with a slide.

他的领地是新墨西哥州的一个大型科学研究机构，而她的领地则是一个有滑梯的荧光粉色派对舞厅。

J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy, an Irish actor) spends his days corralling the finest scientific minds in America to create a nuclear bomb—work a colleague calls “the most important fucking thing to ever happen in the history of the world”.

罗伯特·奥本海默(由爱尔兰演员基里安·墨菲饰演)整天忙于召集全美国最优秀的科学人才来制造核弹，一位同事称这项工作是“世界历史上发生过的最重要的事情”。

Barbie (played by Margot Robbie, an Australian actress) may seem like she has the perfect life, but she has existential worries too.

芭比(由澳大利亚女演员玛格特·罗比饰演)似乎拥有完美的生活，但她也有存在主义的忧虑。

Do her friends and fellow dolls, she wonders, “ever think about dying?”

她想知道，她的朋友和其他玩偶伙伴“有没有想过死亡”？

No recent movie matchup has been as eagerly awaited as “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”.

最近没有哪两部电影像《芭比》和《奥本海默》一样备受期待。

Released on July 21st in America and Britain, the two films will serve as a test of whether viewers can be coaxed off their couches to return to cinemas.

这两部电影将于7月21日在美国和英国上映，这将是对电影能否劝诱观众从沙发上起身，并回到电影院的一次测试。

The incongruity in the films’ subject and tone has delighted the internet.

两部电影在主题和基调上的反差让互联网津津乐道。

People have created memes, remixed the trailers into jarring “Barbenheimer” hybrids and debated whether to see the biographical drama or the fantasy comedy first.

人们制作了表情包、将两部电影的预告片重新混合成极其分裂的《芭本海默》，并就是先看传记电影还是奇幻喜剧而争论不休。

The brouhaha is partly a result of the film-makers.

这种哄闹在一定程度上是因为两位电影制作人。

Christopher Nolan, the writer-director of “Oppenheimer”, is the closest thing Hollywood has to a mad scientist.

《奥本海默》的编剧兼导演克里斯托弗·诺兰是好莱坞中最接近疯狂科学家的人。

He shoots on film and mostly eschews computer-generated imagery, blowing up an actual Boeing 747 for a previous film.

他用胶片拍摄，大多避免使用计算机生成的图像，在上一部电影中炸毁了一架真正的波音747飞机。

The nuclear reactions in “Oppenheimer” were also created by producing actual explosions (albeit not nuclear ones), brightened by aluminium and magnesium powder.

《奥本海默》中的核反应也是真正的爆炸(尽管不是核爆炸)，用了铝粉和镁粉使爆炸发光。

His films toy with narrative conventions and tricksy subjects, such as the unconscious mind and theoretical astrophysics.

诺兰的电影常常把玩传统叙事手法和复杂的主题，如无意识思维和理论天体物理学。

They have earned a combined total of around $5bn in ticket sales; “Dunkirk”, released in 2017, is one of the highest-grossing films ever made about the second world war.

这些电影总共获得了约50亿美元的票房收入，2017年上映的《敦刻尔克》是票房收入最高的关于二战的电影之一。

Greta Gerwig, the director and co-writer of “Barbie”, has her own large fan club.

《芭比》的导演兼联合编剧格蕾塔·葛韦格拥有自己庞大粉丝群。

She started out in the “mumblecore” genre of independent film (so named for its focus on dialogue) but has since had hits with “Lady Bird” (2017) and an adaptation of “Little Women” (2019).

她最初在“呢喃核”(因注重对话而得名)这一类型的独立电影中出演，但后来凭借《伯德小姐》(2017)和改编电影《小妇人》(2019)而大获成功。

Her work claims humbler gross ticket sales of $300m.

她的作品的票房总收入略显微薄，只有3亿美元。

For “Barbie”, she has cited old Hollywood musicals and films about the afterlife, such as “Heaven Can Wait” (1943), as inspiration.

对于《芭比》，葛韦格称借鉴了好莱坞老派音乐剧和关于来世的电影（如1943年的《天堂可以等待》）作为灵感。

The two films encapsulate some of the caprices of the modern movie industry.

《芭比》和《奥本海默》概括了现代电影业中的一些反复无常的东西。

“Barbie” is one of many productions to exploit decades-old intellectual property.

《芭比》是有数十年历史的IP电影之一。

Mattel, a toymaker, has sold roughly a billion dolls since it first introduced Barbara Millicent Roberts (call her “Barbie”) to consumers in 1959.

自1959年向消费者推出芭芭拉·米利森特·罗伯茨(现在就叫“芭比”)以来，玩具制造商美泰已经售出了大约10亿个玩具娃娃。

Ms Robbie, who is also a producer of the film, has said she was drawn to the project because the Barbie name is “more globally recognised than practically everything else other than Coca-Cola”.

罗比也是这部电影的制片人，她说她之所以被这个电影项目所吸引，是因为芭比这个名字“比除可口可乐之外的几乎所有品牌都更具全球知名度”。

It is easy to imagine that a sequel is already in the works.

不难想象，续集已经在筹备中了。

“Oppenheimer”, by contrast, holds no such franchise potential.

相反，《奥本海默》则没有这样的系列电影潜力。

The scientist may be “one of history’s most essential and paradoxical” figures, as Mr Nolan has put it, but he is not likely to return for “Oppenheimer 2: Learning to Love the Bomb”.

正如诺兰所说，这位科学家可能是“历史上最重要、最矛盾的”人物之一，但他不太可能再拍一部《奥本海默2：学会热爱炸弹》。

It is a serious, standalone drama—the kind of film made less frequently as studios focus on sequels and spin-offs.

《奥本海默》是一部严肃的独立的电影，由于电影公司专注于续集和衍生作品，这种类型的电影不常被制作。

Its opening weekend is predicted to fetch $40m-50m in ticket sales, compared with around $80m for “Barbie”.

《奥本海默》首映周末的票房收入预计将达到4000万至5000万美元，而《芭比》的票房收入约为8000万美元。

Though “Oppenheimer” features stars such as Emily Blunt and Matt Damon, the sombre story is not obviously a crowd-pleaser.

虽然《奥本海默》有艾米丽·布朗特和马特·达蒙等明星出演，但这个阴郁的故事显然不能取悦大众。

That it has also been made with a large budget of $100m reflects the faith that studios have in certain film-makers and the risks they allow them to take.

这部电影也有1亿美元的大额预算，表明电影公司对某些电影制作人有信心，以及允许这些电影制作人冒一定的风险。

“There have been films previously about the development of the atomic bomb in the 1940s and 1950s, and they haven’t been box-office successes,” says Sheldon Hall, a film historian and co-author of the book “Epics, Spectacles and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History”.

“以前有过关于20世纪40年代和50年代原子弹发展的电影，但票房并不成功。”电影历史学家、《史诗、奇观和大片：好莱坞历史》一书的合著者谢尔顿·霍尔说。

“This film is being hinged on Nolan’s reputation,” he adds.

“这部电影靠的是诺兰的声誉。”他补充道。

The “Barbenheimer” rivalry brings a more serious question for the public: whether to favour realism or escapism.

“芭本海默”式的对决给公众带来了一个更严肃的问题：是支持现实主义还是逃避主义？

As war rages on in Europe, and countries including North Korea continue to develop their nuclear arsenals, the origin story of these weapons of mass destruction may feel too real and raw.

随着欧洲战火肆虐，朝鲜等国继续发展核武器库，这些大规模杀伤性武器的起源故事可能会让人感觉太过真实和直白。

“Oppenheimer” is not a film that will ease viewers’ anxieties.

《奥本海默》不是能够缓解观众焦虑的电影。

It explores the physicist’s concerns about the horrifying power of his weapon and other bombs; it also shows how the American government attempted to silence him when those opinions became politically unpopular.

它探讨了这位物理学家对他的武器和其他炸弹的可怕力量的担忧，它还展示了当这些观点在政治上不受欢迎时，美国政府如何试图让他无法发声。

Oppenheimer has disturbing visions of the bomb’s victims in excruciating pain, their skin peeling.

《奥本海默》中有令人不安的景象：炸弹受害者痛苦不堪，皮肤脱落。

“Some people leave the movie absolutely devastated,” Mr Nolan has said. “They can’t speak.”

“有些人看完这部电影时感到非常痛苦。”诺兰说，“他们说不出话了。”

Ms Gerwig’s production is much more playful.

葛韦格的作品则要有趣得多。

She has described the set—which contributed to a global shortage of pink paint—as “a dopamine generator”.

她将电影的布景--导致了全球粉色油漆短缺--描述为“多巴胺生成器”。

The film’s tone is witty and slyly self-referential: it pokes fun at Mattel, here run by a team of men, and the vexed history of the toys.

这部电影的基调是机智诙谐和狡猾的自我指涉：它取笑美泰，电影中美泰由一群男人掌管，也取笑玩具的恼人历史。

(The Barbies mistakenly assume that all women revere them as role models.)

(芭比们错误地认为所有女性都把她们视为榜样而尊重她们。)

It has the kind of plot that only makes sense if a viewer does not think about it deeply.

《芭比》的情节只有在观众没有深入思考的情况下才有道理。

“Barbie” recognises the alluring comfort of dream worlds.

《芭比》认可了梦幻世界诱人的舒适。

At one point Weird Barbie, a doll that has been handed around and mistreated, offers Barbie a choice, symbolised by a high heel and a clunky Birkenstock sandal: “You can go back to your regular life, or you can know the truth about the universe.”

在某一刻，怪人芭比（一个被传来传去和玩坏了的娃娃）给了芭比一个选择，由高跟鞋和笨重的勃肯凉鞋作为象征：“你可以回到原本的生活，或者你可以去了解宇宙的真相。”

Barbie chooses the stiletto and is quickly chastised.

芭比选择了高跟鞋，很快就受到了批评。

“You have to want to know, OK? Do it again.”

“你必须想去了解真相，好吗？再选一次。”

“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” offer another version of the Birkenstock-stiletto dilemma.

《芭比》和《奥本海默》提供了另一个版本的“勃肯凉鞋-高跟鞋”困境。

History suggests more viewers will opt for escapism.

历史表明，更多的观众会选择逃避现实。

During the Great Depression, many of the highest-grossing films were musicals or historical epics.

在大萧条期间，许多票房最高的电影都是音乐剧或史诗电影。

The same was true during the second world war.

第二次世界大战期间也是如此。

Movies that did broach the subject of conflict, including “Gone with the Wind” and “Sergeant York”, were often set in the past; those that were contemporaneous, such as “Casablanca”, tended to tell love stories rather than tales of grisly combat.

《乱世佳人》和《约克中士》等触及冲突主题的电影，往往是以过去为背景的，那些以当代为背景的电影，如《卡萨布兰卡》，往往讲述的是爱情故事，而不是恐怖的战斗。

In 1968, at the height of the Vietnam war, the biggest movie in America was “Funny Girl”.

1968年，在越南战争最激烈的时候，美国最热门的电影是《妙女郎》。

In 2007, during the financial crisis, it was a film from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise.

2007年，在金融危机期间，最热门的是《加勒比海盗》系列的一部电影。

David Thomson, another film historian and author, reckons that, at a time of economic strain, war and populism, viewers will not want to see a serious film as much as they will want to see a frivolous one.

另一位电影历史学家和作家大卫·汤姆森认为，在经济紧张、有战争和民粹主义的时代，比起严肃的电影，观众更想看浅薄的电影。

“Comedies have always done well at the movies,” he says, because they do “something that the movies were made for, which is to reassure people and give them a couple of hours of escape from pretty big problems.

他说“喜剧片在电影中的表现一直很好，因为喜剧片做到了“电影最初被发明时要做的事，那就是让人们感到安心，让他们有几个小时的时间去逃避大问题。”

Who wants reality when life in plastic is so fantastic?

当塑料世界如此美好，谁还想要现实世界呢？

来源：经济学人