Subtitles

出版者:The MIT Press

作者:Egoyan, Atom (EDT)/ Balfour, Ian (EDT)

页数:544

出版时间:2004-10-01

价格:USD 35.00

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9780262050784

具体描述

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A big treat of Subtitles is the 'art object' graphic design... and the book's unusual Cinemascope shape."

— Gerald Peary, The Boston Phoenix

"With this lovingly edited and designed collection, filmmaker Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Ararat) and literature professor Ian Balfour celebrate the much-maligned middlemen of world cinema: subtitles. While definitely a high-brow gift-tome, it's an approachable one, thanks in large part to its exceptional attention to design. The book's gorgeous layout was created by Egoyan with designer Gilbert Li, and they've simply outdone themselves. It's the little things that matter: the book's wide-format layout mimics a silver screen, right down to an insanely anal use of the cinematic 1.66:1 ratio."

— Boldtype

Product Description

"Every film is a foreign film," Atom Egoyan and Ian Balfour tell us in their introduction to Subtitles. How, then, to translate the experience of film—which, as Egoyan says, makes us "feel outside and inside at the same time"? Taking subtitles as their point of departure, the thirty-two contributors to this unique collection consider translation, foreignness, and otherness in film culture. Their discussions range from the mechanics and aesthetics of subtitles themselves to the xenophobic reaction to translation to subtitles as a metaphor for the distance and intimacy of film.

The essays, interviews, and visuals include a collaboration by Russell Banks and Atom Egoyan, which uses quotations from Banks's novel The Sweet Hereafter as subtitles for publicity stills from Egoyan's film of the book; three early film reviews by Jorge Luis Borges; an interview with filmmaker Claire Denis about a scene in her film Friday Night that should not have been subtitled; and Eric Cazdyn's reading of the running subtitles on CNN's post-9/11 newscasts as a representation of new global realities. Several writers deal with translating cultural experience for an international audience, including Frederic Jameson on Balkan cinema, John Mowitt on the history of the "foreign film" category in the Academy Awards, and Ruby Rich on the marketing of foreign films and their foreign languages—"Somehow, I'd like to think it's harder to kill people when you hear their voices," she writes. And Slavoj Zizek considers the "foreign gaze" (seen in films by Hitchcock, Lynch, and others), the misperception that sees too much.

Designed by Egoyan and award-winning graphic designer Gilbert Li, the book includes many color images and ten visual projects by artists and filmmakers. The pages are horizontal, suggesting a movie screen; they use the cinematic horizontal aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Subtitles gives us not only a new way to think about film but also a singular design object.

Subtitles is being copublished by The MIT Press and Alphabet City Media (John Knechtel, Director). Subtitles has been funded in part by grants from The Canada Council for the Arts, The Henry N.R. Jackman Foundation, and the Toronto Arts Council, and the Ontario Arts Council.

用户评价

这本书，坦率地说，让我有点摸不着头脑。封面设计倒是挺有现代感的，简约的黑白灰搭配，给我一种“嗯，这应该是个深度思考的作品”的错觉。我满怀期待地翻开了第一页，希望能被某种深刻的哲学思考或者精妙的叙事结构所吸引。然而，读着读着，我发现自己像是在一片浓雾中摸索，四周的一切都显得模糊不清，缺乏清晰的指引。作者似乎非常热衷于在看似日常的场景中植入各种晦涩的象征，每一个物件、每一句对话，都仿佛包裹着一层又一层的密码，等待着读者去破译。问题是，当我自认为解开了一层时，发现下一层又是全新的谜团，而且这些谜团之间似乎缺乏内在的逻辑联系。我试着去理解作者想要表达的主题，是关于现代人的疏离感？还是对某种社会现象的隐喻？但每次感觉抓到一点苗头，它又迅速溜走了。整本书读下来，留下的更多是迷茫和一种“是不是我太笨了”的自我怀疑，而不是阅读后应有的那种豁然开朗的感觉。那种感觉就像是看了一场只有主角在自言自语的舞台剧，灯光昏暗，台词含糊，让人很难产生共鸣。

说实话，这本书的结构安排简直是一场灾难性的实验。它采取了一种极其碎片化的叙事方式，时间线被彻底打乱，不同角色的视角像被打碎的镜子一样散落在各个章节中，而且章节之间几乎没有任何平滑的过渡。你可能前一秒还在跟随一个人物在二十年前的某个小镇上经历着一场平淡的午后，下一页突然跳跃到了另一个完全不相干的人物在十年后的未来都市里进行一场激烈的争吵。刚开始，我试图像拼图一样，努力将这些碎片化的信息关联起来，寻找隐藏的线索，试图重建一个完整的故事图景。但随着阅读的深入，我发现这种“重建”的努力是徒劳的，因为作者似乎故意避免提供任何必要的连接点。每个片段都像是孤立的短篇小说，有着各自的开端和不太明确的结局，但它们之间缺乏一个统领全局的、有说服力的理由。这种叙事上的激进，与其说是艺术上的大胆创新，不如说是对读者注意力和耐心的一种无情的消耗。读完后，我脑子里留下的不是故事的轮廓，而是一堆五颜六色的色块，混乱而缺乏意义。

从排版和装帧上看，这本书无疑是走在了前沿，封面设计极具艺术感，内页的字体选择也很有品味，甚至连纸张的触感都带着一种高级的磨砂质感，看得出出版方在实体书的制作上投入了大量的精力。然而，这种对“物”的极致追求，似乎掩盖了内容本身的苍白。如果说一本书是作者思想的载体，那么这个载体本身的设计感越强，内容上的不足就越被放大。我花了很长时间去欣赏这本书的物理形态，猜测不同章节之间的留白是不是有什么深意，去感受烫金工艺带来的视觉冲击。但遗憾的是，当我的注意力最终回到文字本身时，发现那些内容实在无法与之精美的外壳相匹配。这就像是买了一个超级豪华的跑车模型，结果发现它里面没有安装发动机，或者发动机的马力根本无法带动它。阅读过程变成了一种视觉上的享受和智力上的空耗，最后合上书本时，留下的感叹更多是“这个装帧做得真不错”，而不是“这本书给了我新的启发”。

这本书的笔触细腻得有些过分了，简直到了令人窒息的地步。我得承认，作者在描绘细节上确实下了苦功，每一个场景的搭建都像是在用微缩模型一样精心雕琢。比如，对某个角色清晨醒来后，阳光穿过窗帘在木地板上投下的光影变幻，作者能用上整整一页纸来描绘这种微妙的光线变化和它引发的心理波动。这在某些时刻确实能营造出一种静谧的、近乎冥想的阅读体验。然而，这种极致的细节堆砌，却使得叙事的主干线显得异常缓慢，甚至可以说是停滞不前。我感觉自己被困在了这些华丽的辞藻和冗长的环境描写中，无法推动情节或人物关系向前发展。当读到某个关键的转折点时，我却发现自己早就因为疲劳而错过了，因为作者将重点放在了对一个杯子边缘裂纹的详尽刻画上，而不是角色内心的挣扎上。对于偏爱快节奏或情节驱动型阅读的读者来说，这本书无疑是一种考验耐心的折磨。它更像是一本用文字编织的精美挂毯，图案繁复到让人忘记了挂毯本身的功能。

这本书在人物塑造方面表现得极为单薄，这让我感到非常失望。作者似乎更专注于宏大的主题探讨和实验性的语言运用，而忽略了塑造有血有肉、能够让读者产生情感投射的角色。书中的每个人物，无论地位高低，性格鲜明与否，读起来都像是一张张行走的“概念卡片”。他们说话的方式、做事的动机，都像是为了服务于作者预设的某个哲学论点而存在的工具人。举例来说，那个被描述为“饱经风霜的智者”的角色，他的所有对白都充满了陈词滥调和刻意的深沉，但当你试图去探究他为何会变成今天的模样时，却发现背景故事空洞无物。我找不到任何一个可以真正关心其命运的角色，也无法理解他们为何会做出某些关键性的选择。没有了情感的锚点，再华丽的文字和再深刻的思考，都只是空中楼阁，最终导致我无法沉浸于故事之中，阅读体验变得疏离而冷漠。