[郎才] [女貌] When We Were Kids: Fiona Apple & Paul Thomas Anderson (上)

原文出處：
Paul Thomas Anderson and Fiona Apple, the way they were
By Steven Hyden on September 11, 2012

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The coolest, dorkiest, sexiest, and most indelible celebrity power couple of the '90s reached the zenith of its "It"-ness on December 8, 1999, at a movie premiere held at the Mann Village Theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles. For Paul Thomas Anderson, it was the first public unveiling of Magnolia, his third feature, which he boasted to the Village Voice was "unquestionably the best film I will ever make." For Fiona Apple, the event might as well have also been held in honor of her own difficult magnum opus, her second album When the Pawn… , released one month prior and containing more than 400 characters in its full title, a sufficiently unwieldy complement to Magnolia's uncompromising and studio-defying three-plus hours of running time. Anderson and Apple had earned the right to be audacious with recent, highly successful breakthroughs — 1997's Oscar-nominated Boogie Nights for him, 1996's triple-platinum Tidal and the Alternative Nation staple "Criminal" for her. They became stars by asserting totally '90s outlaw artistic integrity while at the same time engaging in good old-fashioned showbiz sexual titillation. Now Paul and Fiona (Pauliona? Fionaul?) were ready for their full-on genius-in-their-own-time close-ups, risk of overexposure be damned. "The timing is so ridiculous," Anderson gushed about this shared moment of glory in Spin's second Fiona Apple cover story two months later. "I'd want to slap us."

最酷炫，最大屌，最性感，最難以抹滅的九零年代銀色情侶，在一九九九年十二月八日達到潮人高潮，一場洛杉磯西木曼村戲院舉辦的電影首映會。對保羅湯瑪斯安德森 (以下簡稱 PTA) 來說，那是他第三部電影【心靈角落】(Magnolia, 1999) 首度公開亮相，他接受《村聲》雜誌採訪時聲稱「無疑是我所拍攝最好的作品。」對費歐娜艾波 (以下簡稱 Fiona Apple) 來說，那也是她晦澀鉅獻，第二張專輯《當一個小兵…》(When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King..., 1999) 的榮耀時刻，一個月前發行，完整專輯名稱多於四百個字母，共襄盛舉【心靈角落】永不妥協，抵抗片廠超過三小時的片長。 PTA 和 Fiona Apple 已經以不久前絕佳成功突破贏得無畏的權利─一九九七年【不羈夜】(Boogie Nights, 1997) 奧斯卡提名，一九九六年三白金唱盤《潮汐》(Tidal, 1996) 與 MTV 另類音樂節目 "Alternative Nation" 常客勁曲 "Criminal"。他們主張九零年代邊緣人藝術典範成為明星，同時來個老學校臨送秋波。現在 PTA 和 Fiona Apple 準備好接受眾所矚目放大鏡，冒著過度曝光可能被譴責的危險。「此時甚是荒謬，」Fiona Apple 二度專題報導兩個月後，PTA 接受 "Spin" 雜誌採訪時對兩人共享的榮耀時刻頗有微詞。「我真想賞我們一個巴掌。」

[專題] 當代的男演員應該要是什麼樣？Johnny Depp, born in the '90s & Gosling v.s. Fassbender

Smarter than Johnny and Winona, less tragic than Kurt and Courtney, truer than Julia and Lyle — Paul and Fiona were ultimately just as doomed. But let's forget that for a second: Their timing really was so ridiculous that December night. A new millennium loomed little more than three weeks away, and the last beats of a decade they embodied (and then transcended) were being played out. You can see them sharing a limousine on the way to the premiere in a brief scene from That Moment, a 73-minute documentary tucked inside the second disc of the Magnolia DVD. It reminds me a little of that part in Eat the Document where Dylan and Lennon spend several minutes trying to outsnark each other in the back of a car tooling around London. Only Paul and Fiona aren't as chatty; they're just nervously sucking down cigarettes, trying to get their minds right before walking into the glare of what's waiting for them outside.

比強尼與薇諾娜聰明，比柯特與寇特妮少些悲慘，比茱莉亞 (蘿勃茲) 與萊爾 (Lyle Lovett) 真實─PTA 和 Fiona Apple 難逃曲終人散。但我們先暫時擱在一旁：兩人那晚初登場時機實在荒謬。千禧年還差三個禮拜，他們體現 (然後超越) 的十年即將播放完畢。你可以在 "That Moment"，收錄於【心靈角落】DVD 的七十三分鐘紀錄片，瞥見兩人共乘前往豪華轎車首映會。那讓我想起紀錄片 "Eat the Document" 中狄倫與藍儂乘車遊蕩倫敦，花了好幾分鐘在後座試圖聞嗅彼此。只是 PTA 和 Fiona Apple 沒有那麼多話；他們只是緊張地抽起煙，在車門開啟那刻眾所矚目前試圖沉澱心靈。



Julia Roberts & Lyle Lovett
[九零什麼光怪陸離都有]

In retrospect, it might've been better for Paul and Fiona if they had just kept on driving and smoking that night. It never got any better for them afterward — not as a couple, anyway. The '90s weren't just coming to a close; the era was about to collapse right on top of them. Behavior that would've once made Paul and Fiona heroes — that did make them heroes, just a few years earlier — was now being pilloried in the media as so much ungrateful petulance. A New York Times Magazine profile of Anderson timed with the release of Magnolia chided the director for his hyperactive protectiveness of his work and paranoia over corporate interference. Writer Lynn Hirschberg zeroed in on Anderson's "reputation as a brat and a genius," and the article's sub-headline posed a pointed rhetorical question: "Thanks to the critical success of Boogie Nights, Paul Thomas Anderson has total control over his new three-hour movie, Magnolia. So why can't he calm down?"

回過頭看，那個晚上 PTA 和 Fiona Apple 如果只是繼續在那台豪華轎車裡抽煙可能會比較好。他們之後每下愈況，然而，並不是指感情方面。九零年代不只即將終結；九零年代即將在他們天頂上崩解。那些曾經讓 PTA 和 Fiona Apple 成為英雄的舉動─幾年前真的讓他們成為英雄─現在被媒體嘲諷為不知感恩的中二。一則配合【心靈角落】上映的 PTA 側寫指責他過度保護自己的作品，以及反對片商干預的偏執。作家 Lynn Hirschberg 將砲火瞄準集中 PTA「身為初生之犢與天才的聲譽，」該篇文章的副標題寫著誇張尖銳質問：「多虧【不羈夜】的成功，保羅湯瑪斯安德森已經徹底取得三小時新作【心靈角落】的控制大權。所以為什麼他還不能冷靜一下？」

　Maya Angelou (1928~present), an American author and poet

Yeah, and what about that Fiona Apple? Why can't she calm down, too? People still ask her about that speech at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards — heretofore known as the "This World Is Bullshit" Address — even if it now seems pretty innocuous if not just plainly obvious, akin to observing that watching Jersey Shore might in fact not be an intellectually rewarding exercise. Had Apple name-dropped Maya Angelou and acted spiteful about winning a cheap-looking trophy in 1992, she would have been applauded for being realer than an ill-conceived bass guitar toss to Krist Novoselic's face. But all that alt-rock stuff was so passé in the late '90s; people just wanted to enjoy their budget surpluses and lack of wars and Sugar Ray singles. Fred Durst was all over MTV, not Kurt Cobain. Fiona, like Paul, had a Heaven's Gate mentality in what had suddenly become a Star Wars world. Now even Janeane Garofalo — the fallen symbol of bygone preach-the-truth alt-dom — was mocking her, in a bit from Denis Leary's 1997 album Lock N Load, which Rolling Stone's Chris Heath played for Apple during a 1998 interview seemingly for the purpose of making her cry. (He succeeded.)

是的，那麼 Fiona Apple 呢？為什麼她也不能冷靜一下？人們還是會問她關於一九九七年 MTV 音樂錄影帶大獎的演說─從此以「這世界是狗屁」演說被記得─即使現在看來相當無害，如果沒有那麼明目張膽，近似注意到收看實境節目 "Jersey Shore" 並不是什麼有助於智力發展的活動。如果 Fiona Apple 在九七年提到 Maya Angelou 的名字，對於拿到一個看起來很廉價的獎杯懷恨在心，她會因為敢做自己而獲得掌聲，這比不懷好意拿貝斯往 Krist Novoselic 臉上砸去有種多了。但那些搖滾恩仇錄在九零末期已經過時了；人們只想好好享受預算盈餘，止戰之殤，和甜蜜射線單曲。滿溢 MTV 的是 Fred Durst，不是 Kurt Cobain。Fiona Apple，和 PTA 一樣，在一個突然變成【星際大戰】的世界保持【天堂之門】心智。現在即使是 Janeane Garofalo─這位過時的宣揚真理，另類當道之殞落象徵─也嘲諷她，類似 Denis Leary 九七年的專輯 "Lock N Load"，《滾石》雜誌的 Chris Heath 在九八年進行採訪時，為了讓 Fiona Apple 成為淚人兒放給她聽。(他得逞了) 




Krist Novoselic 就是右邊那位仁兄。

People only wanted Paul and Fiona, the stupid jerks, to appreciate being rich and famous. But Paul and Fiona each had the same, different idea: They spent the '00s as Dylan and Lennon lived in the '70s, turning out the occasional masterwork but mostly just hiding out. Apple thought she might never make another record after When the Pawn… . It was only after frequent musical co-pilot Jon Brion — at the time heartbroken over a split with actress Mary Lynn Rajskub, one of the stars of Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love, for which he was composing the score — begged Apple to write new songs to give him something he could produce that a new album started to take shape. Apple and Brion started on Extraordinary Machine in 2002; after a change in producers and some well-publicized (if exaggerated) record-label wrangling, it came out three years later, six years after When the Pawn… , and restored Apple's reputation as a likably thorny artist. It was also her only record of the decade.

人們只希望 PTA 和 Fiona Apple，那些愚蠢渾蛋，珍惜財富和成名滋味。但 PTA 和 Fiona Apple 各自有著異曲同工的想法：他們就像狄倫和藍儂身處七零年代，於千禧世代偶爾遞出超凡傑作，但大部分時間都隱居起來。Fiona Apple 覺得 "When the Pawn…" 之後永遠無法再出唱片。只有在音樂伙計 Jon Brion─和與 PTA 合作配樂的【戀愛雞尾酒】演員 Mary Lynn Rajskub 慘痛分手後─懇求她寫幾首新歌好讓他有東西可以製作的情況下，新專輯才開始有個雛形。Fiona Apple 和 Jon Brion 在零二年開始錄製《超凡製造機》(Extraordinary Machine, 2005)；經歷更換製作人，某些被正面報導 (有點誇大) 的唱片品牌糾葛，三年後新專輯終於問世，與 "When the Pawn…" 間隔六年，並重建 Fiona Apple 討喜帶刺藝術家美譽。那是她十年來唯一的作品。



Anderson hit the wall after the public sniffed Punch-Drunk Love and opted not to take a drink. It had been his intention to write a conventional 90-minute comedy for Adam Sandler, whom he met while tagging along with Apple when she performed on Saturday Night Live in 2000. What he actually made was more like a Fiona Apple song — a disorienting mishmash of bright melody and percussive dissonance, with a main character who was odd and oddly compelling and prone to oddly explosive, out-of-nowhere outbursts. Unfortunately for Punch-Drunk Love, Fiona Apple songs were still a few years away from returning to fashion, and the film died at the box office. Anderson made just one other film in the '00s, 2007's triumphant There Will Be Blood, as he settled into what appears to be a happy home life with his partner Maya Rudolph and their three kids.

PTA 在廣為流傳【戀愛雞尾酒】(Punch-Drunk Love, 2002) 後開始撞牆，並選擇不喝戀愛雞尾酒。他想為亞當山德勒寫一齣傳統的九十分鐘喜劇，兩人在 Fiona Apple 於兩千年《週末夜現場》演出時認識。結果他拍出來的成果比較像是 Fiona Apple 的歌曲─明亮音悅與不和諧鏗鏘的迷走雜匯，佐以古怪，古怪地引人注目，且古怪地俱備爆發性，宣洩無處之主要人格。很不幸，像 Fiona Apple 的歌曲仍有待重返流行，電影票房也慘敗。PTA 在千禧年代只拍了另外一部作品，二零零七年凱旋歸來的【黑金企業】(又名：滿江紅) (There Will Be Blood, 2007)，並和 Maya Rudolph 與三個孩子組織了快樂家庭生活。

Paul and Fiona have been apart romantically for more than 10 years. But their creative lives have once again achieved a sort of harmonic balance. In June, Apple released her first record in seven years, The Idler Wheel... , which would be my favorite album of 2012 if the year ended today. On Friday, Anderson's first film in five years, The Master, arrives in a handful of theaters, with a wide release set for next week. I've been looking forward to The Master for so long that it already seems like my favorite film of 2012 even though I haven't seen it yet.

PTA 和 Fiona Apple 分手超過十年。但他們的創意人生再次達到某種和諧平衡。六月 Fiona Apple 發行七年內首張最新大碟《公轉不自轉的生存之道》(The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, 2012)，如果二零一二年今天結束，就是我的本年度最愛專輯。星期五，PTA 五年內出土的鉅獻【宗教大師】(The Master, 2012) 在許多戲院播放，下禮拜將隆重上映。我如此殷切企盼【宗教大師】好多年，還沒看過，我卻好像已經直接評點該片為本年度最愛電影。

Paul and Fiona may no longer be a unit, but they signify something similar: They are regarded as important, relevant artists responsible for creating essential documents of our culture, and yet they both exist in their own spheres somewhere outside of our culture. As media personalities, they both seem kind of unknowable, or at least untouchable. They drop in every half-decade or so, blow our minds, and then go back to their private lives. Caring about the work of Paul Thomas Anderson and/or Fiona Apple means respecting an invisible line between them and us. If you love them, you want them to never step out of the limousine.

PTA 和 Fiona Apple 或許不再是才子佳人，但他們意味著相似之物：兩人被認為是舉足輕重，創造當代文化菁華元素的藝術家，但又存在於超脫當代文化的星體裡，他們都給人難以認識的感覺，至少有點難以親近。他們每隔個五年左右，一出手就春光乍現我們的心智，然後再回歸自己的桃花源。關心 PTA 和／或 Fiona Apple 的作品，代表對我們和他們之間那條看不間的界線給予尊重。如果你愛他們，你會希望他們永遠不要踏出那台豪華轎車。

按：走馬力克路線就是了。





筆者也想沒看過就直接把【宗教大師】選為今年最好看的電影！！！


延伸閱讀：
Real "No"s are not applicable. I haven't got any.

課前預習：
When We Were Kids: Fiona Apple & Paul Thomas Anderson (中)