Culture
文艺版块
Back story
幕后故事
Welcome to Moneyland
欢迎来到金钱乐园
As “The Perfect Couple” shows, depictions of the rich reflect the times.
如《模范爱侣》所示,对富人的刻画反映了时代。
First, pick an approachable avatar.
首先,选择一个平易近人的头像(进入金钱乐园)。
In “The Perfect Couple”, a glitzy new drama on Netflix, this role is played by Amelia (Eve Hewson), a zookeeper engaged to marry into the filthy-rich Winbury clan.
在《模范爱侣》(网飞出品的华丽新剧)中,这个角色由阿梅莉亚(伊芙·休森饰)扮演,她是一名动物饲养员,即将嫁入富得流油的温伯里家族。
In “Succession”it is Greg, doofus cousin of the plutocratic Roy family.
在《继承之战》中,这个角色由格雷格扮演,他是罗伊财阀家族的笨蛋表亲。
In “The Great Gatsby” it is Nick, who tells how the opulent Buchanans “smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money”.
在《了不起的盖茨比》中,这个角色由尼克扮演,讲述了富裕的布坎南一家如何“摧毁事物和生命,然后退回到他们的金钱之中”。
Such characters are ambassadors from the regular world to Moneyland.
这种人物是从普通世界进入金钱乐园的大使。
They board the yacht or private jet on your behalf, mapping this charmed, cursed kingdom with outsiderish eyes.
他们代表你登上游艇或私人飞机,用局外人的眼光描绘这个迷人而又被诅咒的王国。
Moneyland is a red-hot destination: “The Perfect Couple” is one of many recent films and TV shows set there.
金钱乐园是一个炙手可热的目的地:《模范爱侣》是最近以这个地方为背景的众多影视剧之一。
It is a place with no fixed co-ordinates but recurring topography, a land of striking change but bedrock continuity.
这是一个没有固定坐标但地形反复出现的地方,一个有剧烈变化但基岩保持连续性的土地。
Moneyland is typically an island.
金钱乐园通常是一个小岛。
Frequently the island is private, as in the movies “Blink Twice” and “Glass Onion”, but other islands will do, provided they have plentiful lackeys and weather conducive to bikinis.
通常情况下,这个岛屿是私人拥有的,就像电影《求救眨眨眼》和《利刃出鞘2》中那样,但非私人岛屿也可以,只要有足够多的仆人,并且天气适合穿比基尼。
“The White Lotus”, anotherTV show, was set first in Maui, then in Sicily; “The Perfect Couple” plunks the Winburys’ beach-front mansion on Nantucket.
另一部电视剧《白莲花度假村》的背景先是设定在毛伊岛,后来又移到了西西里岛;《模范爱侣》则将温伯里家族的海滨豪宅安置在了楠塔基特岛。
Natural metaphors for a rarefied elite, islands also thrust characters into inescapable proximity.
岛屿是一种自然隐喻,象征着遗世独立的精英阶层,同时也让剧中的人物不可避免地彼此接近。
Often, they kill each other—for if Moneyland is an island, it is also a murder scene.
通常情况下,他们会互相残杀——因为如果说金钱乐园是一座小岛,那么它也可以说是一个谋杀现场。
Like “The White Lotus”, “The Perfect Couple” opens with a tease.
就像《白莲花度假村》一样,《模范爱侣》以一个悬念开场。
Someone has been drowned on the eve of Amelia’s wedding to Benji (Billy Howle), the wet middle son of Tag Winbury (Liev Schreiber) and Greer (Nicole Kidman, Moneyland’s icy matriarch of choice).
有人在阿梅莉亚和本吉(比利·豪尔饰)的婚礼前夕溺水身亡,本吉是塔格·温伯里(列维·施瑞博尔饰)和格里尔(妮可·基德曼饰,金钱乐园精选的冷酷女家长)的性格窝囊的次子。
But who? And out of the assembled sociopaths, whodunnit?
但是淹死的人是谁呢?在这些聚在一起的反社会者中,是谁干的呢?
America’s megarich are screen fixtures.
美国的超级富豪是银幕上的常客。
But in Reagan-era shows like “Dallas” and “Dynasty” they evoked admiration more than contempt.
但在里根时代的电视剧,如《朱门恩怨》和《豪门恩怨》中,他们唤起的感情是钦佩而非蔑视。
Storytellers have often criticised them, but in general for how they get their money or what they do with it, not just the fact of having it.
故事创作者经常批评他们,但总体上批评的是他们如何赚钱或如何使用钱,而不只是拥有钱这一事实。
Think of “Wall Street” (“Greed is good”) or “There Will Be Blood” (“I drink your milkshake”).
想想《华尔街》(“贪婪是好的”)或《血色将至》(“我把你的奶昔喝光”)。
The heroes of “Trading Places”beat the rich villains by becoming rich themselves.
《颠倒乾坤》中的英雄们通过自己变得富有而打败了富有的反派。
Today’s tales of Moneyland, by contrast, are uniformly scathing—and have little interest in where the moolah comes from.
形成对比的是,如今关于金钱乐园的故事都是清一色的严厉谴责,而且对财富的来源毫无兴趣。
Some feature a lazily typecast tech baron; elsewhere the wealth is simply inherited.
有些剧里的设定很敷衍,就是一成不变的科技大亨,在其他剧里,财富直接是继承而来的。
Apart from Greer, author of novels such as “Death in Dubai”, the trustafarian Winburys spend their time boozing, taking drugs and having affairs.
除了写了《迪拜之死》等小说的格里尔之外,这些温伯里信托基金的受益人都把时间花在酗酒、吸毒和搞婚外情上。
Lots of Americans enjoyed “Downton Abbey”, with its archaic class hierarchy.
很多美国人喜欢《唐顿庄园》,剧里有古老的阶级制度。
“The Perfect Couple” is a country-house drama with better weather and NDAs.
《模范爱侣》也是一部乡村别墅剧,但有更晴朗的天气和保密协议。
What soured the mood in Moneyland?
是什么让金钱乐园的气氛变糟了?
The financial crash, partly, plus the pandemic.
部分原因是金融危机,再加上疫情。
People with country bolt-holes had very different lockdowns from those stuck in tiny flats; some tycoons made pharaonic profits amid the suffering.
拥有乡村避难所的人与被困在小公寓里的人有着截然不同的封控经历;一些大亨甚至在他人受难时赚取了如法老般的巨大利润。
And as billionaires aspire to live for ever or on other planets, they seem not just different but alien and untouchable.
而当亿万富翁渴望长生不老或生活在其他星球上时,他们看起来不仅与众不同,甚至陌生且遥不可及。
As an underling puts it in “The Perfect Couple”, the Winburys are “kill-someone-and-get-away-with-it rich”.
正如《模范爱侣》中的一位下属所说,温伯里夫妇是“富有到杀人后能逍遥法外的富人”。
If their money can’t buy happiness, nor, alas, could Netflix’s largesse buy a decent script.
如果他们的钱买不来幸福,那么网飞的高预算也买不来像样的剧本。
The problem is not just the clunky omens and caricatures (a Slavic maid puts vodka in her boss’s smoothies, a French woman champions adultery).
问题不仅仅是那些俗套的预兆和夸张的模仿(斯拉夫女仆往老板的冰沙里倒伏特加,法国女人支持通奸)。
People say things like, “Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want this.”
而且人们会说这样的话:“看着我的眼睛,告诉我你不想要。”
The Winburys’ vituperative eldest son, Tom (Jack Reynor), is a highlight, and even he is a cut-price Roman Roy, the scatological scion in “Succession”.
温伯里家族中喜欢骂人的长子汤姆(杰克·莱诺饰)是一个亮点,不过就连他也只是个低配版的罗曼·罗伊,后者是《继承之战》中的一个满口脏话的富家子弟。
Still, “The Perfect Couple”, an instant hit, gives today’s viewers the two treats they want on a trip to Moneyland.
不过,《模范爱侣》这部热门剧集依然给如今的观众带来了他们在金钱乐园之旅中想要的两种享受。
They see the rich suffer.
他们看到富人受折磨。
At the same time, they indulge in the age-old pleasure of voyeurism, ogling the watercraft and monogrammed robes in lingering shots.
与此同时,他们也尽情享受了窥视癖的古老乐趣,透过缓慢的镜头痴痴观赏了游艇和绣着姓名首字母的长袍。
The rich are faithless, venal and remote, yet even now, beneath the scorn, they retain their fascination and allure.
富人是背信弃义的、见利忘义的、冷漠无情的,然而即便如此,在蔑视之下,他们仍保持着魅力和吸引力。
Satirising them is a form of homage.
讽刺他们是一种致敬。
Another eternal truth of Moneyland is hidden in the home of a local cop, Dan Carter (Michael Beach), which the camera visits fleetingly.
另一个关于金钱乐园的永恒真理隐藏在当地警察丹·卡特(迈克尔·比奇饰)的家中,镜头只是短暂地扫过。
Carter is presented as a salt-of-the-earth counterpoint to the indolent, haughty Winburys.
卡特被描绘成一个诚实善良的人,与懒散、傲慢的温伯里形成鲜明对比。
Actually, by most real-world standards, his pad is pretty plush, too.
实际上,按照现实世界的大多数标准,他的住所也相当豪华。
On TV, as in life, the super-rich are often alibis as well as adversaries: they allow the comfortably affluent to see their lifestyles as ordinary.
在电视上,就像在生活中一样,超级富豪不仅是敌人,也是免罪借口:他们允许生活富足的人把自己的生活方式看作是普通的。
The rich are always other people—and Moneyland always lies elsewhere.
富的总是别人——而金钱乐园也总是在别处。