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The Woodstock Watch:  A monthly independent view/review of BBC documentaries 

Volume 1, Issue 1 (October 2011)


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风物长宜放眼量。

☆☆☆

月度编辑推荐[The Editor’s Taste of the Month]

JFK: The Making of Modern Politics

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Britain's Park Story

时长:59’07”

首播:BBC Four, 9:00PM Mon, 2 Aug 2010

链接:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t9qv8

影片视角:第一人称。

官方介绍:The British invented them for the world, and they have been described as 'the lungs of the city’ - historian Dan Cruickshank reveals the history of our public parks.

Cruickshank travels the country to discover the evolution of the nation's urban public parks, a story of class, civic pride, changing fashions in sport and recreation which helps re-evaluate the amazing assets they are.

From their civic heyday in the 19th century to the neglect of the 1980s and their resurgence today, the documentary is a fascinating and entertaining history of an often-overlooked great British invention.

多余的话:艺术历史学家和电视节目主持人Dan Cruickshank探索了自海德公园以降英国公园的发展历史,以具有代表性的数个公园为例,介绍了英国公园发展演变的历史,以及这些公园在不同历史时间所承载的社会功能。作为一部纪录片,非常一般。


Faster Than the Speed of Light?

时长:59’15”

首播:BBC Two, 9:00PM Wed, 19 Oct 2011

链接:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016bys2

影片视角:第一人称。

官方介绍:In September 2011, an international group of scientists has made an astonishing claim - they have detected particles that seemed to travel faster than the speed of light. It was a claim that contradicted more than a hundred years of scientific orthodoxy. Suddenly there was talk of all kinds of bizarre concepts, from time travel to parallel universes.

So what is going on? Has Einstein's famous theory of relativity finally met its match? Will we one day be able to travel into the past or even into another universe?

In this film, Professor Marcus du Sautoy explores one of the most dramatic scientific announcements for a generation. In clear, simple language he tells the story of the science we thought we knew, how it is being challenged, and why it matters.

多余的话:围绕前些日子引起轰动的中微子测速试验展开,用比较通俗的语言说明了超越光速的运动意味着什么,介绍了一些有趣的物理学理论。典型的科教片。


JFK: The Making of Modern Politics

时长:59’00”

首播:BBC Two, 9:00PM Sun, 21 Nov 2010

链接:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w8cjq

影片视角:第一人称。

官方介绍:On both sides of the Atlantic, John F Kennedy continues to be invoked by today's politicians in the hope that some of his magic might rub off on them. But, 50 years since Kennedy's election, Andrew Marr asks whether JFK's legacy has tarnished politics ever since.

Andrew examines in detail exactly what Kennedy stood for, and how the candidate got that message across. He goes in search of the substance that has long been obscured by the fascination with the Kennedy style.

He also examines how Kennedy embodied the hopes of a nation, and asks whether modern politics demands inspirational leaders rather than politicians bogged down in the details. Kennedy's soaring rhetoric set a high standard that people today yearn for politicians to reach.

多余的话:美国第一个天主教总统肯尼迪给世界留下了什么?是处理猪湾事件和古巴导弹危机的经验和教训?是关于遇刺身亡原因的重重谜团?是如“不要问你的国家能给你什么,而要问你能给你的国家什么”这样被反复引用的名言?还是哈佛大学政府学院?BBC著名新闻节目主持人Andrew Marr告诉我们,除了以上这些拍脑袋就能想出来的答案之外,JFK还深刻地改变了西方世界政治家的生存法则。记者出身的肯尼迪用自己的行动和成就告诉西方政界,要想赢得选举,就要懂得推销自己;在现代政治中,与流行文化进行整合,可能比政策和意识形态更重要。可以说,肯尼迪以后,西方国家的选举与选秀再无根本差别。片子充满了Andrew Marr的冷幽默风格,非常值得一看。

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Julia Bradbury's Icelandic Walk

时长:59’05”

首播:BBC Four, 9:00PM Wed, 11 May 2011

链接:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0110grr

影片视角:第一人称。

官方介绍:Julia Bradburyheads for Iceland to embark on the toughest walk of her life. Her challenge is to walk the 60 kilometres of Iceland's most famous hiking route, a trail that just happens to end at the unpronounceable volcano that brought air traffic across Europe to a standstill in 2010. With the help of Icelandic mountain guide Hanna, Julia faces daunting mountain climbs, red hot lava fields, freezing river crossings, deadly clouds of sulphuric gas, swirling ash deserts and sinister Nordic ghost stories as she attempts to reach the huge volcanic crater at the centre of the Eyjafjallajökull glacier.

多余的话:BBC户外节目Countryfile的主持人Julia Bradbury前往冰岛,在向导Helen的陪伴下探索了因喷发而造成2010年欧洲空中交通瘫痪的Eyjafjallajökull火山。镜头记录了冰岛壮美的自然景观,画面比解说更有吸引力。另外,冰岛人的英语似乎都很好。


Kennedy Home Movies

时长:55’21”

首播:BBC Two, 8:00PM Sat, 18 Jun 2011

链接:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0124y50

影片视角:第一人称/第三人称。

官方介绍:For generations, the Kennedy family held America and the whole world in thrall. The entire clan - grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren - were part of a dynasty JFK's father had planned would last forever.

But as tragedy struck again and again, the children would have to cope with death and disaster.

Based on private home movies and the memoirs of the nannies who looked after them, this is the inside story of growing up in one of the twentieth century's most powerful families.

多余的话:基于肯尼迪家族保姆的回忆录展开,画面多为肯尼迪家族的私人影视纪录,展示了肯尼迪家族子女在政治家长辈阴影下的成长环境。这些子女从小就被安排表演属于他们自己的角色,绝少得到自己父母的关心;而他们做总统或者参议员的父亲所遭遇的灾祸,更使得他们的成长经历变得艰难甚至畸形。祖辈父辈的雄心野心,最终造就了儿辈孙辈的不肖不幸——肯尼迪家族的故事,或许不只是一个家庭的悲剧,而是对所有将权力和利益置于感情之上的人们的警告。观看这部片子就像是在听肯尼迪家族的保姆讲过去的故事,然而肯尼迪家族的私人影像资料里又从来没有保姆的纪录;因此,这部不涉及任何谈话和采访的纪录片创造了兼具第一人称叙事方式和第三人称叙事方式特点的独特表现形式。除此之外最让人觉得有趣的东西,大概就是片子所暗示的Bob Kennedy和兄长遗孀Jackie之间可能有过的暧昧。


The Kid's Speech

时长:59’20”

首播:BBC One, 10:35PM Tue, 18 Tue 2011

链接:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0169lbl

影片视角:第三人称。

官方介绍:Moving and uplifting documentary following the stories of three children who live with a stammer. Eleven-year-olds Reggie and William, and 14-year-old Bethan, are determined to improve their speech. Along with their parents, they embark on a unique, intensive course at the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children.

Over two emotional weeks, the kids open up about their fears and frustrations whilst learning techniques to help with their fluency. This is also a significant journey for the parents, who learn more about themselves and their children than they could have imagined.

Michael Palin's father was a severe stammerer, and Michael speaks movingly about the condition and how it affected his family.

多余的话:这部记录片的名字之所以与奥斯卡获奖电影The King’s Speech如出一辙,绝非是巧合抑或附意逢迎。和《国王的演讲》一样,这部纪录片将镜头对准了那些不幸患有口吃的人们,讲述了三个患有口吃的儿童和他们家长在Michael Palin Centre接受治疗并收获进步的故事。除了孩子们和家长们的讲述,Michael Palin在纪录片里回忆了自己患有严重口吃的父亲,而工党国会议员、影子财政大臣Ed Balls也在访问这家中心的过程中坦诚自己曾经患有严重的口吃。


The Lost Genius of British Art: William Dobson

时长:59’20”

首播:BBC Four, 9:00PM Thu, 22 Sep 2011

链接:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014vy94

影片视角:第一人称。

官方介绍:Has one of Britain's greatest artists been unfairly forgotten? Waldemar Januszczak thinks so. In this documentary, Januszczak argues that the little known 17th-century portrait painter William Dobson was the first English painter of genius.

Dobson's life and times are embedded in one of the most turbulent and significant epochs of British history - the English Civil War. As official court painter to Charles I, the tragic British king later beheaded by parliament, Dobson had a ringside seat to an period of intense drama and conflict. Based in Oxford, where the court was transferred after parliament took control of London, Dobson produced an astonishing number of high quality portraits of royalist supporters, heroes and cavaliers which Januszczak believes are the first true examples of British art. As he puts it in the film: 'Dobson's face should be on our banknotes. His name should be on all our lips.'

The film investigates the few known facts about William Dobson and seeks out the personal stories he left behind as it follows him through his tragically short career. When he died in 1646 - penniless, unemployed and a drunk - Dobson was just 36.

Among the Dobson fans interviewed in the film is Earl Spencer, brother of Princess Diana, who agrees wholeheartedly that William Dobson was the first great British painter.

多余的话:作为英格兰第一位土生土长的肖像画大师,英王查理一世的最后一位御用画师William Dobson从未获得过他在艺术史上本应拥有的地位。在这部片子中,艺术评论家Waldemar Januszczak依据少得可怜的资料,重新回顾了Dobson短暂但却精彩的绘画生涯,以及他和那个时代许多人物在英国内战中所注定要经历的悲剧。最有意思的一点,是Januszczak指出Dobson虽然深受他的前任Van Dyke影像,但却开创出了自己独特的绘画风格。Van Dyke大多用角度和光线等艺术手段合理地美化了肖像的主人,而Dobson则能忠实地捕捉并传达出肖像人物真实的情绪,至于两种风格的伯仲高下,大概仁者见仁,智者见智吧。


The Secret Life of Waves

时长:58’51”

首播:BBC Four, 11:00PM Mon, 24 Oct 2011

链接:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y5jhx

影片视角:第一人称。

官方介绍:Documentary-maker David Malone delves into the secrets of ocean waves. In an elegant and original film he finds that waves are not made of water, that some waves travel sideways and that the sound of the ocean comes not from water but from bubbles. Waves are not only beautiful but also profoundly important, and there is a surprising connection between the life cycle of waves and the life of human beings.

多余的话:与一般科教片不同,David Malone在介绍波浪形成、传播和消逝过程中所涉及的科学原理的同时,也对波浪所承载的哲学意义进行了思考。在Malone看来,包括波浪在内的“过程”,与我们所熟知的“物体”一道,共同构成了我们生活的这个世界。我们的生命本身就是一种过程,这个过程里充满了变化,但又始终保持着某种核心的东西,就像不断推进的波浪;而许多在我们看来处于竞争状态的物体,从更长的时间尺度上来看,也不过处于某个过程之中的某个特定状态。影片开始于Malone与自己父母坐在海边的交流,结束于在同一个地点所拍摄的波浪,而Malone通过画外音告诉观众自己的母亲已经完成了她的生命过程,逝世于拍摄完开篇镜头的数个月后。能把科学道理和人生哲理结合在一起的纪录片并不太多,而本片无疑是其中值得被反复观赏的一部。

[subtitle=]

The Spitfire: Britain's Flying Past

时长:59’15”

首播:BBC HD, 9:00PM Thu, 22 Sep 2011

链接:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0153yb6

影片视角:第一人称。

官方介绍:Flying enthusiast and broadcaster John Sergeant celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Spitfire with a TV love letter to this most British triumph of design and endeavour. The film follows the story of a Spitfire from birth to retirement and tells the stories of ordinary people with extraordinary tales.

多余的话:BBC记者John Sergeant探索了英国皇家空军在第二次世界大战期间使用的主力歼击机——喷火战斗机。除了飞机本身,还采访了许多与这个型号飞机有关的有故事的人,其中一些故事非常精彩。


The Truth about Child Brides

时长:56’32”

首播:BBC HD, 9:00PM Mon, 3 Oct 2011

链接:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015psyz

影片视角:第一人称。

官方介绍:Nel Hedayat goes on a compelling and revealing journey to find out what life is really like for a child bride. Across the world, 10 million girls a year marry under the age of 18. That's one every three seconds.

Nel travels to India and Bangladesh, countries with two of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. She is no stranger to the idea of child marriage - her aunty and grandmother were child brides - but what she sees challenges everything she thought.

She attends the eye-opening wedding of two sisters in Rajasthan, one barely in her teens and her even younger sibling. In Bangladesh, she meets a 14-year-old girl who was married last year to a 19-year-old man and is now four months pregnant. Nel meets women who regret missing out on a childhood and an education, and learns that early marriage frequently leads to early pregnancy and painful, life-threatening labours. The film features child brides in Bangladesh who give birth before their bodies are fully developed and can end up with a horrific medical condition that leaves them social outcasts.

But Nel also sees real signs of optimism. She meets a girl in Bangladesh who relishes the independence that working in Dhaka's garment industry has given her, and encounters girls who have defied their families' attempts to marry them off, including one in India who is part of a growing movement of rural girls who insist on staying on in school and gaining their education.

多余的话:阿富汗裔英国少女Nel Hedayat前往南亚,探究未成年新娘的生活。属于看见题目就大概能猜到内容和立场的那种片子,未能完全摆脱一个在西方社会中长大的小女孩的幼稚,对现象背后的深层次社会和历史问题缺乏讨论。然而,对于这样一个年轻的小女孩来讲,能够把她所看到的东西和她所想到的东西用这种方式呈现给世界,应该算得上是相当了不起的成就了。


Treasures of Chinese Porcelain

时长:59’03”

首播:BBC Four, 9:00PM Tue, 11 Oct 2011

链接:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015sttj

影片视角:第一人称。

官方介绍:In November 2010, a Chinese vase unearthed in a suburban semi in Pinner sold at auction for £43 million - a new record for a Chinese work of art. Why are Chinese vases so famous and so expensive? The answer lies in the European obsession with Chinese porcelain that began in the 16th century and by the 18th century was a full-blown craze that swept up kings, princes and the emerging middle classes alike.

In this documentary Lars Tharp, the Antiques Roadshow expert and Chinese ceramics specialist, sets out to explore why Chinese porcelain was so valuable then - and still is now. He goes on a journey to parts of China closed to Western eyes until relatively recently. Lars travels to the mountainside from which virtually every single Chinese export vase, plate and cup began life in the 18th century - a mountain known as Mount Gaolin, from whose name we get the word kaolin, or china clay. He sees how the china clay was fused with another substance, mica, that would turn it into porcelain - a secret process concealed from envious Western eyes. For a time porcelain became more valuable than gold - it was a substance so fine, so resonant and so strong that it drove Europeans mad trying to copy it.

Carrying his own newly-acquired vase, Lars uncovers the secrets of China's porcelain capital, Jingdezhen, before embarking on the arduous 400-mile journey to the coast that every piece of export porcelain would once have travelled. He sees how the trade between China and Europe not only changed our idea of what was beautiful - by introducing us to the idea of works of art we could eat off - but also began to affect the whole tradition of Chinese aesthetics too, as the ceramicists of Jingdezhen sought to meet the European demand for porcelain decorated with family coats of arms, battle scenes or even erotica.

The porcelain fever that gripped Britain drove conspicuous consumption and fuelled the Georgian craze for tea parties. Today the new emperors - China's rising millionaire class - are buying back the export wares once shipped to Europe. The vase sold in Pinner shows that the lure of Chinese porcelain is as compelling as ever.

多余的话:历史学家和古玩鉴赏家Lars Tharp探究中国瓷器如何从景德镇运抵广东的出海港口。Tharp背着一件粉红色的瓷瓶,从景德镇出发,经由水路至鄱阳湖,而后沿赣江逆流而上,徒步翻越南岭,最后沿珠江顺流而下,重走了数百年前中国瓷器的出口长征路。片子波澜不惊,有趣的部分是Tharp背着自己的瓷器步行跨越南岭的经历。虽然片名是“中国瓷器珍宝”,片中所采访对象却几乎全部为西方学者和鉴赏家,我不觉得Tharp要故意突出某种观点,大概只是他和他的团队中文实在是太差了。


Young, Foreign and Over Here

时长:56’57”

首播:BBC Three, 9:00PM Mon, 24 Oct 2011

链接:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016ltd7

影片视角:第三人称。

官方介绍:Five young Eastern Europeans reveal the harsh realities and culture shocks of life as an immigrant coming to Britain and hoping to stay. They think they know what to expect, but have they got it all wrong? As they get to grips with their new home, the immigrants join special bus trips laid on for the tens of thousands of Eastern Europeans who flock to Britain every year. On and off the bus, they'll decide if this really is a land of opportunity or a land of riots, bed bugs and fat people eating bad food. As their money runs out, some of the group are forced into jobs they would never have considered back home.

Will they succeed in starting a new life in a country that won't always make them welcome? Or could some of them find themselves on the next plane home?

多余的话:每个人心里都有改变自己的梦想,有些人比另一些人更勇敢,他们选择追逐梦想。本片纪录了一些怀揣梦想的东欧青年在初到英国几周里所经历的兴奋与失落。有些人在这片新的土地上实现了自己的梦想,有些人把梦想装进行里打道回府,更多人在两个极端之间继续体验着追梦旅程的酸甜苦辣。如果不看这部片子,我不会明白自己看似苦逼的生活其实有多么幸运。


TTT

本刊关注BBC新近播放的单集纪录片;

内容除“多余的话”以外,均来自于BBC网站,该部分文字图片版权归BBC所有;

欢迎转载,但请注明出处。

☆☆☆

Copyright © 2011   陶郁  All rights reserved.

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陶郁

陶郁

19篇文章 11年前更新

英国牛津大学政治学博士研究生。祖籍江苏,生于陕西,七岁随父母徙广东,十二岁后常居北京,先后就读并毕业于通州二中、北京四中、北京大学、剑桥大学。嗜读书,喜美食,好旅游,爱写作。

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