[外電] The Life Obsessive With Wes Anderson 2. 韋思安德森幽閉恐懼症

1. 韋思安德森的海海人生









Though his films have collectively grossed only $100 million—a large-sounding sum until you realize it’s exactly what they cost to make—he is supported and adored by the studio system. "For studio executives, supporting Wes is like collecting art,” says one friend. “It makes them feel they have great taste.” The appeal is the films, of course, but also the persona of the eccentric auteur. He is an abnormally tall man, or at least a man so pale and so skinny that he appears to be abnormally tall. And he dresses primarily in suits custom-tailored to be a half-size too small, giving him the look of one of the off-kilter characters he puts on screen, further evidence that Anderson’s life is his work, and vice versa.



目前為止，韋思安德森的電影總共只賣了一億美元─當你知道韋思安德森的電影也總共花了一億美元時，聽起來就沒那麼大的數目─片商們喜愛並支持他。「片商主管就像收藏藝術品般支持韋思。」友人說到。「那讓他們覺得自己品味高妙。」當然是電影本身，但也有些許這位怪導形象成份存在。他異常地高挑，或者說如此蒼白與飢瘦，讓他看起來異常地高挑。而安德森常穿小半號的西裝，就和他電影裡的脫線角色沒兩樣，這再次呼應韋思安德森的戲夢人生，人生戲夢。









None of which is lost on Anderson himself. Last year, he made an excellent commercial for American Express in which he simultaneously parodied and breathed new life into the Anderson Myth. In the ad he is seen clothed in a vintage safari jacket, a viewfinder dangling from his neck, filming a (fictional) movie starring Schwartzman. Anderson walks through the set making sure every detail, no matter how absurd, is just so. "Can you do a .357 with a bayonet?" he asks a prop man, and two seconds later—presto!—a sketch of the nonsensical weapon is produced. Shot outside a French château, the ad borrows the theme from Truffaut’s Day for Night—just the kind of sly reference loved by Anderson. Shooting a commercial is, for many directors, simply a means to earn quick money. But for Anderson, who more recently shot an equally distinctive series of ads for AT&T, the experience had the unique benefit of allowing him to further the storybook life he was delicately lampooning. At the time he made it he was living in the Paris apartment recently vacated by Kirsten Dunst, who had been renting it while filming Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. It was a decadent and exorbitantly expensive place that Anderson converted to an editing suite, with AmEx paying the rent.



韋思安德森還是韋思安德森。去年，他為美國運通了拍部出色的廣告，同時幽了自己一默，並為安德森迷思注入新生命。廣告裡安德森著復古獵裝，取景器運作中，正拍攝傑森薛茲曼主演的虛構電影。他穿越劇組事必躬親，不論多荒謬。「你可以在點三七五上裝個刺刀嗎？」安德森問起道具人員─兩秒後─迅速地，這莫名奇妙的武器於焉誕生。取景於法式古堡外─向楚浮日以作夜致敬─正是安德森的拿手好戲。拍廣告對許多導演來說，只代表高投資報酬率。但最近又為美國電話電報拍攝另一奇特廣告的安德森，該寶貴經驗有助於延伸他過去想嘲諷的故事書人生。此刻，安德森接手克絲汀鄧斯特瑪莉安端拍攝期間所租的巴黎公寓。他把那頹廢奢華的住所當剪輯室，美國運通負責出錢。









My Life. My Card.









His talent, in other words, has become his trust fund. But one gets the impression that even Anderson, these days, can find living in Wes’s world a bit claustrophobic. I first met him on a bright, windy afternoon in Venice, two days after Darjeeling had been screened for the public for the first time. With Schwartzman and Coppola, we were waiting for a water taxi to shuttle us off to lunch at an outdoor café. At one point Anderson complimented Schwartzman’s new sunglasses, and then suddenly turned to me, concerned with how I would interpret the seemingly banal exchange. "Oh God, I bet that’s the first line of your piece, isn’t it?” Anderson said. "Wes Anderson, notorious for his attention to detail, carefully observes the black retro sunglasses that the young Schwartzman has pulled from his pocket …" Later, when a breeze picked up during our meal, he turned up the collar on his seersucker suit and again quoted from the article he was writing in his head: "Anderson then pensively turns up the collar of his blazer, pulling it tight around his skinny frame to cover the monogrammed dress shirt underneath…" Pause. Laughter. :I’m sorry, man," he then said. "I’m in a weird mood these days."



他的才華，換句話說，成了他的資金來源。但即使是安德森本人，也覺得活在韋思安德森世界將併發幽閉恐懼症。威尼斯某風和日麗午后，我第一次和他見面，大吉嶺有限公司首映後兩天。薛茲曼，柯波拉，我，正等待水上的士載我們到露天咖啡┼座午餐。安德森稱讚薛茲曼的新太陽眼鏡，然後冷不防地轉向我，想知道我如何解讀方才客套。「老天爺！我敢打賭這是你首度有機會發言，對吧？」安德森說。「韋思安德森，以對要求細節出名，仔細地打量薛茲曼老弟從口袋裡掏出的復古黑色墨鏡……」稍後，微風吹拂，他翻立縐條紋薄織西裝領子，唸起腦中珠璣字句：「安德森若有所思地翻立他獵裝的領子，挺直飢瘦身軀，好遮掩下面的印花裙……」靜默，哈哈。「抱歉，兄堂，」他說。「敝人最近不太正常。」









Such a mood is understandable, especially given the circumstances surrounding the Venice Film Festival. One of the most prominent members of the Anderson contingent has been notably absent these past few days. It was just over a week earlier that Owen Wilson—a friend of Anderson’s since his days at the University of Texas, his first writing partner and most regular collaborator—tried to commit suicide. Anderson approaches the subject carefully. "He’s never had a time like this in his life before," says the director. "His life has changed so radically in the last few years, and in ways that most people never have to deal with. He’s one of the funniest, smartest guys I’ve ever known, one of my best friends in the world. I know I’ve been depressed myself before—most of us probably know something about what it’s like…" He doesn’t complete the thought. "I went to see him last week in L.A., and, you know, he’s doing very well. He’s going to be fine." Another pause. "I call him every day to keep him updated on what’s happening with the movie. I wish he was with us. He’s a major part of our project, and he has the right to be there with us."



這樣的舉動是可以被理解的，尤其考量到威尼斯影展氛圍。韋思安德森代表團最卓越成員之一沒有出現。七天前歐文威爾森—德大同窗多年好友─親密戰友神鬼拍檔—才試圖自殺。安德森小心地處理這議題。「他之前從未有過類似經驗，」韋導說。「這幾年歐文的人生產生劇變，這是大多數人都不用去擔心的。他是我所認識最有趣，最聰明的傢伙之一，世界上最好的朋友之一我之前也曾沮喪過一我們大概略懂一二……」他沒說完。「我上禮拜到洛杉磯探望歐文，而你知道，他復原很快。天佑歪鼻哥。」二度靜默。「我每天電話報告電影最新消息。真希望他也同大家一起。他是電影的靈魂人物，他有權利同大家一起。」









It was the 1998 release of Rushmore that radically altered Anderson’s life. He was hailed as a visionary, fetishized by his fans, encumbered by expectations. It was only his second movie—his first, Bottle Rocket, would become a cult favorite later in his career—but it offered everything an indie audience desired: an endearingly arrogant and peculiar teenage outsider (Schwartzman); a love triangle that was both twisted and innocent; and, of course, Bill Murray, in a surprising role as a wealthy, unhinged developer who, because he is Bill Murray, became an immediate icon of middle-aged angst. It also introduced to the world the Anderson aesthetic. Simply put, Rushmore did not look or feel like any other movie.



一九九八年都是愛情惹的禍讓韋思安德森的人生產生劇變。他被捧為幻想家，影迷膜拜他，期許阻礙他。安德森的第二部電影—第一部是脫線沖天炮，異教徒最愛—就給了獨立製片影迷夢寐以求的：一個臭屁怪異地可愛的局外少年郎 (薛茲曼)；既扭曲又純真的愛情三角習題；理所當然，比爾莫瑞飾演位富裕不受羈絆的開發者，因為他是比爾莫瑞，成了中產階級焦慮的肖像。都是愛情惹的禍也給這世界見識韋思安德森美學的機會。顯而易見地，都是愛情惹的禍和一般電影不太相同。













American Express by M. Night Shyamalan









3. 韋思安德森感覺很受傷