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Los Angeles still inspires new takes on film noir
洛杉矶仍为拍摄黑色电影提供灵感
“Middle of a drought and the water commissioner drowns,” the mortician remarks drily to Jake Gittes, a private investigator played by Jack Nicholson: “Only in LA.”
“正是干旱时期，水利局长却淹死了。”殡仪馆的人冷冷地对杰克·吉特斯（杰克·尼科尔森饰演）说，吉特斯是私家侦探：“只有在洛杉矶才会发生这种事。”
June 20th marks the 50th anniversary of the release of “Chinatown”, the film truest to the Los Angeles of the countless noirs set in America’s second-most-populous city.
6月20日是电影《唐人街》上映50周年纪念日，这部电影是无数以美国人口第二大城市--洛杉矶--为背景的黑色电影中最真实的一部。
Other films revolve around Hollywood—or at least its dark, gritty edges—where every millionaire, wannabe actor and insurance agent has a secret worth killing for.
其他电影围绕好莱坞--或者至少是好莱坞黑暗、粗粝的边缘地带--展开，在那里，每个百万富翁、想成为演员的人和保险代理人都有一个能招来杀身之祸的秘密。
Film noir was so named by French critics after the second world war. It is a style of film-making that often features a cynical anti-hero who either sleuths for a living or finds himself accidentally drawn into an investigation.
黑色电影是第二次世界大战后由法国评论家命名的。这是一种电影制作风格，通常以愤世嫉俗的反英雄为主角，他们要么以侦探为生，要么发现自己意外地卷入了一项调查。
Think of Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe in “The Big Sleep” (1946), a film based on Raymond Chandler’s novel.
想想《夜长梦多》（1946）里亨弗莱·鲍嘉饰演的菲利普·马洛，这部电影改编自雷蒙德·钱德勒的小说。
There is a good chance that crooked cops, cover-ups, pretty blondes and business tycoons will turn up at some point in the story. The closest thing to a happy ending is that not everyone will end up dead.
很有可能在故事的某个时候会出现腐败的警察、掩盖真相的人、漂亮的金发女郎和商业大亨。最接近圆满结局的是人物没有死光。
Crime flicks can be made about any city. But Los Angeles cornered the market back when Chandler was writing screenplays. Why does Los Angeles continue to play a leading role in film noir?
犯罪电影可以以任何城市为背景。但当钱德勒还在写剧本的时候，洛杉矶就垄断了犯罪电影的市场。为什么洛杉矶继续在黑色电影中扮演主角？
Its status as America’s long-reigning film capital is part of it. The city also lends itself to film noir because it is such a study in contrasts. The relentless sunshine and skinny palm trees jar with the genre’s violence and corruption.
部分原因是它长期以来一直是美国的电影之都。这座城市也适合拍摄黑色电影，因为这是如此鲜明的对比研究。炎热的阳光和细长的棕榈树与黑色电影中的暴力和腐败格格不入。
LA is where people come to make it, and only a few succeed. What happens to those who are disappointed? Wannabe starlets become call girls. Men who cannot pay their mortgage become muscle for mobsters.
洛杉矶是人们追求出人头地的地方，但只有少数人能成功。那些失望的人会怎么样？想成为明星的女演员沦为应召女郎。无法偿还贷款的男人成了黑帮的打手。
A newer spate of LA noirs fetishise the genre even while challenging its conventions. In “Sugar”, which premiered on Apple TV in April, John Sugar, a private investigator, is a cinephile. He wears a suit and drives an old Corvette in the mould of Marlowe or Gittes.
新一批黑色电影在对其传统进行挑战的同时依然迷恋这种类型。在四月份于AppleTV首播的《谜探休格》中，私家侦探约翰·休格是一位电影爱好者。他身穿西装，开着一辆老式科尔维特，效仿马洛或吉特斯的风格。
A girl goes missing, and as Sugar investigates, he finds each member of her family to be corrupt in their own way. Sugar, too, loses sight of himself the more he obsesses over the case.
一个女孩失踪了，当休格调查时，他发现她的所有家人都有各自的道德败坏行为。休格也一样，他越是痴迷于这个案子，就越是迷失了自我。
But unlike the classics, Mr Sugar is no sarcastic anti-hero. In fact, he is nice. He does not sneer, antagonise police or hit women. He does not like guns. He helps the homeless and even adopts a dog.
但与经典黑色电影不同，休格并不是一个尖刻的反英雄。事实上，他是个好人。他没有冷嘲热讽、与警察作对，也没有打女人。他不喜欢枪。他帮助流浪汉，甚至还收养了一只狗。
It is a far cry from the blood-soaked impunity of “LA Confidential”, in which almost everyone is unlikeable and gets shot. He solves his case and saves the girl. Gittes is not so lucky.
这与充满血腥、有罪不罚的《洛城机密》大相径庭，在《洛城机密》中，几乎每个人都不讨人喜欢，而且都被枪杀了。休格破了案子，并且救了那个女孩。吉特斯就没那么幸运了。
His efforts, like many a private investigator in film noir, prove futile. “Forget it, Jake,” his partner says when the woman he wants to protect is killed. “It’s Chinatown.”
他的一切努力，就像黑色电影中的许多私家侦探一样，最终都是徒劳的。“别想了，杰克，”当他想保护的女人被杀时，他的搭档说道，“这里可是唐人街。”
