5篇英语影评

Question

5篇英语影评

Answer 1

China: ACentury of Revolution（中国,革命的世纪）

DISC ONE PartOne: China in Revolution 1911–1949 (1989)

DISC TWO PartTwo: The Mao Years 1949–1976 (1994)

DISC THREE PartThree: Born Under the Red Flag 1976–1997 (1997)

A film by SueWilliams
co-produced by Kathryn Dietz

China: A Century of Revolution is a six-hour tour de force journey through the country’s mosttumultuous period. First televised on PBS, this award-winning documentaryseries presents an astonishingly candid view of a once-secret nation with rarearchival footage, insightful historical commentary and stunning eyewitnessaccounts from citizens who struggled through China’s most decisive century. Chinain Revolution charts the pivotal years from the birth of the new republicto the establishment of the PRC, through foreign invasions, civil war and abloody battle for power between Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek. The MaoYears examines the turbulent era of Mao’s attempts to forge a “new China”from the war-ravaged and exhausted nation. Born Under the Red Flagshowcases China’s unlikely transformation into an extraordinary hybrid ofcommunist-centralized politics with an ever-expanding free market economy.Monumental in scope, China: A Century of Revolution is critical viewingfor anyone interested in this increasingly powerful and globally influentialcountry.

 

Tess(苔丝)1979

ThomasHardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which Roman Polanski has turned into alovely, lyrical, unexpectedly delicate movie, might at first seem to be thewrong project for Mr. Polanski in every way. As a new biography of the directorreports, when Tess was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, the press pointednastily and repeatedly to the coincidence of Mr. Polanski's having made a filmabout a young girl's seduction by an older man, while he himself faced criminalcharges for a similar offense. This would certainly seem to cast a pall overthe project. So would the fact that Hardy's novel is so very deeply rooted inEnglish landscapes, geographical and sociological, while Mr. Polanski wasbrought up in Poland.

Finally,Tess of the D'Urbervilles is so quintessentially Victorian a story that abelievable version might seem well out of any contemporary director's reach.But if an elegant, plausible, affecting Tess sounds like more than might havebeen expected of Mr. Polanski, let's just say he has achieved the impossible.In fact, in the process of adapting his style to suit such a sweeping and vividnovel, he has achieved something very unlike his other work. Without Mr.Polanski's name in the credits, this lush and scenic Tess could even bemistaken for the work of David Lean.

Ina preface to the later editions of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Mr. Hardydescribed the work as "an impression, not an argument." Mr. Polanskihas taken a similar approach, removing the sting from both the story's moralityand its melodrama. Tess Durbeyfield, the hearty country lass whose downfallbegins when her father learns he had noble forebears, is sent to charm her richD'Urberville relations. She learns that they aren't D'Urbervilles after all;instead, they have used their new money to purchase an old name.

Tesscharms them anyhow, so much that Alec D'Urberville, her imposter cousin,seduces and impregnates her. The seduction, like many of the film's key scenes,is presented in a manner both earthy and discreet. In this case, the action isset in a forest, where a gentle mist arises from the ground and envelops Tessjust around the time when she is enveloped by Alec.

Alec,as played by Leigh Lawson, is a slightly wooden character, unlike Angel Clare,Tess's later and truer lover, played with supreme radiance by Peter Firth. Longafter  Tess has borne and buried her illegitimate child, she finds andfalls in love with this spirited soul mate. But when she marries Angel Clareand is at last ready to reveal the secret of her past, the story beginshurtling toward its final tragedy. When Tess becomes a murderer, the filmoffers its one distinctly Polanski-like moment—but even that scene has itsfidelity to the novel. A housemaid listening at a door hears a "drip,drip, drip" sound, according to Hardy. Mr. Polanski has simply interpretedthis with a typically mischievous flourish.

Ofall the unlikely strong points of Tess, which opens today for a weeklongengagement at the Baronet and which will reopen next year, the unlikeliest isNastassja Kinski, who plays the title role. Miss Kinski powerfully resemblesthe young Ingrid Bergman, and she is altogether ravishing. But she's an oddchoice for Tess: not quite vigorous enough, and maybe even too beautiful. She'san actress who can lose her magnetism and mystery if she's given a great deal todo (that was the case in an earlier film called Stay As You Are). But here, Mr.Polanski makes perfect use of her. Instead of a driving force, she becomes anecho of the land and the society around her, more passive than Hardy's Tess butlinked just as unmistakably with natural forces. Miss Kinski's Tess has noinner life to speak of. But Mr. Polanski makes her surroundings so expressivethat her placidity and reserve work very beautifully.

Evenat its nearly three-hour running time, Mr. Polanski's Tess cannot hope foranything approaching the range of the novel. But the deletions have been madewisely, and though the story loses some of its resonance it maintains itsmomentum. There are episodes—like one involving Tess's shabby boots and MercyChant, the more respectable girl who expects to marry Angel—that don't make thesense they should, and the action is fragmented at times. That's a small priceto pay for the movie's essential rightness, for its congruence with the moodand manner of the novel. Mr. Polanski had to go to Normandy and rebuildStonehenge to stage his last scene, according to this same biography. As is thecase throughout his Tess, the results were worth the trouble.