This January, I drove to Stone’s office in West Los Angeles to watch a rough cut of Snowden.
今年1月,我开车到斯通位于西洛杉矶的办公室看《斯诺登》的粗剪版。
Stone works out of a discreet suite in a pristine office complex.
那是一片新办公楼群里的一套不起眼的房间。
The décor is eclectic.
装饰风格比较杂。
There are tribal masks, Indonesian throw pillows, a Che Guevara painting and a lone potted palm tree.
既有部落面具,也有印尼抱枕,还一幅切•格瓦拉(Che Guevara)画像和一株孤零零的盆栽棕榈树。
Like Citizenfour, Snowden takes place in Hong Kong, but this time the story has the eerie feeling of a familiar scene re--enacted by skilled Hollywood actors.
与《第四公民》(Citizenfour)一样,《斯诺登》的场景设定在香港,但是这一次,这个故事呈现出一种由技巧卓越的好莱坞演员重新上演熟悉场景的诡异感。
Stone was right about Gordon--Levitt.
斯通选高登-莱维特演斯诺登是对的。
His performance is not an interpretation so much as a direct replica of the whistle--blower’s even demeanor and intonation.
他的表演不像是在阐释这个人物,而是直接重现了这位揭秘者平和的举止和语调。
Quinto plays Greenwald with such intensity that he appears perpetually enraged.
昆图扮演的格林沃尔德很有张力,好像永远处于愤怒状态。
Melissa Leo’s Poitras is in turn warm and protective, almost maternal.
梅丽莎•里奥(Melissa Leo)饰演的普瓦特拉斯则让人觉得又温暖又安全,如慈母一般。
Stone came in just as the credits rolled.
斯通在演职员字幕开始滚动的时候走了进来。
He was nursing a cold but was back on caffeine and asked his assistant for Bulletproof, the trendy coffee brand made with grass-fed butter.
他患了感冒还没好,但已经恢复了咖啡因摄入,要助手给他来一杯Bulletproof,一种目前很受欢迎的咖啡品牌,用草饲黄油制作。
It’s supposed to be nutritional, Stone said.
应该会挺有营养,斯通说。
No radicals.
没有自由基。
Since I last saw him, the film’s release had been pushed from December 2015 to May 2016 as Stone rushed to complete it, and then once more to September 2016.
自我上一次见到他,这部电影的上映时间已经从2015年12月推迟到2016年5月,接着又推迟到2016年9月。斯通在这期间赶着完成影片的制作。
The biggest challenge was pacing.
其中最大的挑战是节奏。
Stone likes to structure his movies around a series of plot--pivoting, battlelike scenes — the concerts in The Doors, the football games in Any Given Sunday or actual warfare in Alexander.
斯通喜欢围绕一系列情节转折、类似战争的场景结构影片,比如影片《门》(The Doors)中的音乐会、《挑战星期天》(Any Given Sunday)中的橄榄球赛,或者《亚历山大大帝》(Alexander)中的战争场面。
A story in which the drama hinges on a tech specialist downloading classified documents was more subdued than he was accustomed to.
相比他以往习惯拍摄的影片,这样一个剧情围绕一名下载机密文件的技术专家展开的故事,显得更加波澜不惊。
Coding is not exciting, Stone said.
写代码不会让人觉得兴奋,斯通说。
At the end of the day, it’s a nerdlike behavior — it’s dull on a screen.
说到底,那是一种有点书呆子的行为——在画面上呈现出来是比较乏味的。
Stone got around the tedium of reality by turning his film into a cross between a cyberthriller and a love story, using Snowden’s relationship with Mills to inject emotional stakes.
通过将影片改成一个网络惊悚与爱情元素交织的故事,斯通去掉了现实的乏味。
Cutting between Snowden in Hong Kong and flashbacks to his past, the film speeds through Snowden’s biography with the help of techno music, snappy explanations of N.S.A.
他利用斯诺登与米尔斯的关系,为影片融入了一些情感色彩。
programs and tricky camerawork to build in the tension of surveillance.
影片在香港和对过去的闪回之间来回切换,通过科技舞曲,对美国国家安全局项目的简要介绍,以及用复杂的摄影技巧营造出的紧张的监控场面,快节奏地介绍了斯诺登的经历。
(There are scenes filmed from the perspective of tiny phone cameras — the modern peephole — and suggestive zoom-ins on eye pupils.)
(有些场景是透过微小的手机摄像头的视角——也就是现代的窥视孔,还有引人联想的推向瞳孔的镜头。)
But there are also unmistakable Stone-isms.
但是,它也明显带有斯通的风格。
I just don’t really like bashing my country, Gordon--Levitt says to Woodley as they stroll past a Bush--era antiwar protest in front of the White House.
我并不真的喜欢抨击我的祖国,高登-莱维特对伍德蕾说。
It’s my country, too, Woodley says.
当时他们正漫步经过布什时代白宫前的一场反战抗议活动。
And right now, it’s got blood on its hands.
它也是我的祖国,伍德蕾说,但是现在,它手上沾满鲜血。
Snowden’s N.S.A. boss is unsubtly named Corbin O’Brian, after the antagonist in Orwell’s 1984.
斯诺登在国家安全局的上司在片中被称为科尔宾•奥布赖恩(Corbin O’Brian),显然得名于奥威尔(Orwell)《一九八四》(1984)中的那个反派。
Most Americans don’t want freedom, O’Brian tells Snowden. They want security.
大部分美国人不想要自由,奥布赖恩对斯诺登说,他们想要安全。
Snowden’s many storytellers all tell a similar hero narrative.
斯诺登故事的很多讲述者都讲述了一个类似的英雄故事。
But if Greenwald’s account is about journalism, Poitras’s is a subtle and artful character study and Kucherena’s is an attempt at the Russian novel — a man alone in a room, wrestling with his conscience — Stone’s is the explicit blockbuster version, told in high gloss with big, emotional music and digestible plot points that will appeal to mass audiences.
不过,如果说格林沃尔德的故事是关于新闻工作,普瓦特拉斯的故事是细腻、巧妙的人物研究,库切列纳的故事是俄罗斯小说的一种尝试——一个男人独自呆在房间里,进行良心上的拷问——那么斯通的故事明显是一部商业大片,它以明亮的光彩、宏大动人的配乐和易于理解的情节要点吸引大众。
As Wizner wisely anticipated, it is the narrative most likely to cement Snowden’s story in Americans’ minds.
就像维茨纳聪明地预期得那样,最可能把斯诺登的故事烙印在美国人头脑中的应该是这个故事。
Snowden declined to comment for this article, but Stone told me he had seen the film and liked it.
斯诺登拒绝就本文作出评论,不过斯通对我说,斯诺登看了该片,表示喜欢。
At a screening at Comic--Con a few months later, Snowden would beam in via satellite to give his somewhat wary approval.
几个月后,在动漫大会(Comic--Con)的一次试映会上,斯诺登通过卫星满脸笑容地对该片表示略带谨慎的赞赏。
It was something that made me really nervous, he said of Stone’s film. But I think he made it work.
它真的让我紧张,他谈到斯通的影片时说,不过我想他拍得挺好。
As Stone intended, Snowden shows up at the end of the film.
如斯通所愿,斯诺登在片尾亮相。
He appears in a wood--paneled room in Kucherena’s dacha, a modest, foreign--looking space, with little to see except a vase of flowers and some curtains in the background.
他出现在库切列纳乡间别墅的一个镶着木板的房间里,那是一个具有异国风情的朴素空间,除了背景里的一瓶花和部分窗帘,几乎看不到别的东西。
The Snowden who speaks is not the stoic version, but one who manages to deliver a Stone--caliber movie line.
讲话时的斯诺登不是一名苦修者的样子,而是努力想传达出斯通标准的电影台词。
I no longer have to worry about what happens tomorrow, he says, because I’m happy with what I’ve done today.
我不必再担心明天会发生什么,他说,因为我对自己今天做的事感到高兴。
Just before the screen fades to black, Snowden is shown gazing toward a window, a faint, inscrutable smile on his face.
就在银幕慢慢变黑之前,画面中的斯诺登凝视着一扇窗户,脸上露出淡淡的、神秘的微笑。
By this summer, whatever anxieties there may have once been seemed to have dissipated.
今年夏天,曾经有过的所有焦虑似乎烟消云散。
With the film completed, Stone would officially beat Sony’s project.
电影拍完,斯通正式打败了索尼的项目。
Open Road, the distributor he was worried about, had won an Oscar for Spotlight.
他曾经感到担忧的发行商开路影业(Open Road)凭借《聚焦》(Spotlight)获得了奥斯卡奖。
After Snowden earned similar marks to that film during test screenings, everyone seemed optimistic, if a little surprised.
在试映阶段,《斯诺登》获得了与那部电影类似的评价,大家似乎因此感到乐观,甚至有点惊喜。
At first I thought there must be something wrong, said Borman, who told me that he hadn’t seen such high scores in 25 years.
一开始我觉得这肯定是搞错了,博尔曼说。他对我说已经有25年没见过这么高的评分。
Open Road had pushed for a fall release, placing it firmly among Oscar contenders. (Snowden will open in theaters on Sept. 16, the day after Stone’s 70th birthday.)
开路影业极力主张在秋季发行该片,把它稳稳置于奥斯卡参选影片之列(《斯诺登》将于9月16日在影院上映,也就是斯通70岁生日的第二天)。
Gordon--Levitt was so moved by Snowden’s story that he donated most of his salary from the film to the A.C.L.U. and used the rest to collaborate with Wizner on a series of videos about democracy.
高登-莱维特被斯诺登的故事深深打动,把自己从该片中获得的大部分片酬捐给了美国公民自由联盟,剩下的钱用于与维茨纳合作拍摄一系列关于民主的视频。
Wizner was preparing to petition Obama to grant Snowden a presidential pardon in the fall, and he hoped Stone’s film would help transform the public’s perception of his client.
维茨纳当时正在准备向奥巴马请愿,要求在今年秋季给予斯诺登总统特赦,他希望斯通的电影能帮助改变公众对他的客户的看法。
Kucherena, meanwhile, had turned Time of the Octopus into a trilogy — in the sequel, the N.S.A. sends an assassin to Russia to eliminate Joshua Cold.
与此同时,库切列纳把《章鱼时间》发展成为三部曲——在续集中,美国国家安全局派刺客去俄罗斯清除乔舒亚•科尔德。
He hoped to come to the United States for the premiere of the film, in which he has a cameo as a Russian banker who encounters Snowden at a party.
他希望来美国参加该片的首映式,他在片中以一名俄罗斯银行家的小角色出现,在派对上遇见了斯诺登。
If I can get a visa, why not? he said.
如果我能拿到签证,那么为什么不去呢?他说。
In July, Stone and Wizner joined forces for an A.C.L.U. event.
今年7月,斯通和维茨纳联手举办了美国公民自由联盟的一场活动。
The evening was billed as a conversation with Wizner about surveillance and Edward Snowden, with Stone hosting at his Tudor--style home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.
那个晚上被标榜为一场与维茨纳进行的关于监视和爱德华•斯诺登的对话,活动在洛杉矶布伦特伍德社区斯通的都铎风格宅邸中进行。
As several dozen West Coast supporters of the A.C.L.U. filtered into Stone’s backyard, the director sat camped out on a bench by the pool, taking the party in from a distance.
美国公民自由联盟在西海岸的数十位支持者慢慢走入斯通的后院时,这位导演坐在泳池边的一条长凳上,从远处观看这场派对。
He boasted that he had recently cut four more minutes from the film, bringing the run time to a lean 134 minutes.
他炫耀地说,前不久他把该片又剪掉了四分钟,时长缩减至短短的134分钟。
I asked if he would keep finessing until the end. No, it’s over, he said. This is it. Now I die.
我问他是否会一直不断调整。不,结束了,他说,就这样了。现在我死了。
Wizner roamed around, inspecting a meditation gazebo outfitted with a large gold Buddha.
维茨纳四处闲逛,审视一个安置着金制大佛像的冥想露台。
After several people inquired who was playing him in the movie, the lawyer came up with a pithy reply.
有几个人询问谁在片中饰演他,这位律师给出了一个简洁的回答。
Kevin Spacey, reprising his role as Keyser Soze, he joked. The guy behind the guy behind the guy — hiding in plain sight. (Wizner is not a character in Stone’s film.)
凯文•斯佩西(Kevin Spacey),重演凯撒•苏尔(Keyser Soze)这个角色,他开玩笑说,那个家伙背后的那个家伙背后的那个家伙——就藏在眼前(斯通的电影中没有出现与维茨纳对应的人物)。
That week, NPR ran an interview with a Russian security official who posited that Snowden is maybe, probably, most definitely cooperating with Russian intelligence.
那周,美国全国公共广播电台(NPR)采访俄罗斯的一位安全官员,他认为,斯诺登可能——很可能——肯定是在与俄罗斯情报机构合作。
This inevitably set Wizner off.
这无疑激怒了维茨纳。
Of course, this is the same week that Snowden is blasting Putin on Twitter every day, Wizner said to Borman, who nodded along.
当然,就在这一周,斯诺登每天都在Twitter上抨击普京,维茨纳对博尔曼说。
The producer suggested that Snowden’s critics would claim it’s a cover.
后者点了点头。
That’s what they say! Wizner said.
这位制作人表示,斯诺登的批评者会说这是幌子。
This is preapproved criticism so that it’ll seem like he’s free, but actually Putin is the master pulling the strings.
他们就是这么说的!维茨纳说,说这是提前审查过的批评,是为了显示他好像是自由的,但实际上普京一直在操纵。
Eventually, everyone moved to the den, a spacious, brightly lit room filled with family photos.
最后,大家来到会场,那是一个灯光明亮的宽敞房间,挂满了家人的照片。
Matthew Weiner, the Mad Men creator, took a seat by a stack of DVDs, which included multiple seasons of his own hit TV show.
《广告狂人》(Mad Men)的创作者马修•韦纳(Matthew Weiner)在一堆DVD旁坐下,里面有他自己的热门电视剧中的好几季。
Others arranged themselves along wicker chairs that lined the room’s perimeter.
其他人在房间周围的藤椅上坐下。
The whole thing had the feeling of a P.T.A. meeting, but without the stale cookies.
整场活动有一种家长教师联谊会的感觉,不过没有不新鲜的饼干。
Wizner got up and spoke for some time about his efforts as Snowden’s lawyer.
维茨纳站起来,讲了一会儿他作为斯诺登的律师所做的努力。
As he opened the room to questions, someone asked how long Russia could be relied on to keep Snowden safe.
在提问时间,有人询问,我们可以信任俄罗斯能让斯诺登安全地待多久。
Wizner turned the question over to Stone.
维茨纳把这个问题交给了斯通。
Oliver is the Russia expert, he said with a hint of passive--aggression.
奥利弗是俄罗斯专家,他用带点被动攻击的口吻说道。
Since completing Snowden, Stone had become absorbed in his newfound interest in Russia and announced that he was making a documentary about Putin.
斯通拍完《斯诺登》后,全心投入到对俄罗斯新产生的兴趣中,宣布他在拍摄一部关于普京的纪录片。
In recent months, he had accompanied the Russian president to a theater performance and a World War II Victory Day parade in Moscow.
近几个月,他陪同这位俄罗斯总统去剧院看表演,在莫斯科参加二战胜利日(World War II Victory Day)阅兵。
He represents a different point of view that Americans don’t want to hear, Stone had told RIA Novosti, a Russian news service.
他代表着美国人不想听到的一种不同的观点,斯通对俄罗斯新闻机构俄罗斯新闻社(RIA Novosti)说。
When someone else asked about Stone’s experience of making Snowden, his answer was despondent.
当另一个人询问斯通拍摄《斯诺登》的经历时,他的回答非常沮丧。
It was really a horrible experience in every way, he said.
它从每个角度讲都是非常可怕的经历,他说。
Everyone laughed except for Stone.
大家都笑了,除了斯通。
As the guests dispersed, Wizner lingered in the foyer, admiring Stone’s art collection depicting important and mostly dead men.
客人散去后,维茨纳在门厅逗留,欣赏斯通的艺术收藏品,它们描绘的是大多已过世的重要人物。
He thought that a print of Jean-Paul Sartre looked like Steve Buscemi and that a pained--looking Beethoven was actually Stone.
他觉得让-保罗•萨特(Jean-Paul Sartre)的一幅照片看起来像史蒂夫•布西密(Steve Buscemi),还说表情痛苦的贝多芬(Beethoven)实际上是斯通。
On the opposite wall was a sketch of Genghis Khan, the feared Mongolian emperor.
对面墙上有一幅成吉思汗的素描——那位可怕的蒙古皇帝。
Stone called him a liberal.
斯通说他是自由主义者。
Yes, Genghis Khan — misunderstood, Wizner teased.
是的,成吉思汗——被人误解了,维茨纳打趣说。
Stone smiled and cocked his head.
斯通微微一笑,仰起头。
Listen, the A.C.L.U. should defend him!
听着,美国公民自由联盟应该替他辩护!