English - The Real Deal

上半部分讲了Brokeback，下半部分自然要讲Crash了。自从它爆冷拿下奥斯卡最佳影片后，网上简直吵翻了天，各种各样的阴谋论尘嚣甚上。我甚至看到有人说选票的设计有问题，按正常思维在Brokeback Mountain相应位置打的孔其实是把票投给了Crash。（这已被证实是假的。）

接着，影响力颇大的Gawker又火上浇油，揭示了一个惊人的秘密：在Google里搜索“I’m really glad Crash won”，Google竟然提示：Did you mean: “I’m really glad Trash won” 。

Crash的支持者愤怒了，纷纷指责BBM迷太没度量，光明正大赢不了就来玩阴的，变着法儿骂Crash是垃圾。我一度也以为这个就是所谓的Google bombing，还好一向可靠的Language Log把问题解决了：

So why does Google ask if you’re “really glad trash won”? As noted here before, Google sometimes moves in mysterious ways. But this case isn’t so mysterious, since it looks like Google’s algorithm is simply relying on collocational frequencies. It notices that “glad crash” isn’t a common search return, so it looks for near misses on the assumption that the original query is a misspelling. And changing just one letter yields “glad trash,” a much more common collocation thanks to GLAD trash bags. The same change from “crash” to “trash” occurs with various other search strings like “glad crash is” and “glad crash has.”

也就是说，Google的“垃圾”提示纯属巧合。本来闹剧到这里就该告一段落了，谁知道过了几天BBM的原作者Annie Proulx也出来“垃圾”了一把，她在给Guardian的一篇专稿里写道：

And rumour has it that Lions Gate inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of Trash - excuse me - Crash a few weeks before the ballot deadline.

毫无疑问，这回这个“垃圾”是故意的了。说实话，我觉得Proulx的气量小了点儿。没错，BBM的失利很有可能是因为它的同性恋主题。如果真是这样的确令人惋惜兼沮丧，可是无论如何都不能否认Crash是一本好电影。它未必是去年最好的，但它绝对不是垃圾。事实上，Crash和BBM我都很喜欢，但Crash对我的冲击力更大一些。如果撇开“希望同性恋主题的电影得到更多人接受”这个因素，我也会把票投给Crash。再说，在投票截止之前把DVD寄给评委以方便他们温习是很正常的做法。隐约记得当年李安的“卧虎藏龙”也干过这事儿，所以Proulx上面那句话真的比较酸，也难怪别人都说她是sour grapes（吃不到的葡萄是酸的）心态，是个sore loser（输不起的人）。

八卦完了，再提一个新概念：hyperlink movie。Crash就是一本典型的“链接电影”，George Clooney拿到最佳男配角的Syriana也是典型的“链接电影”。

The movie belongs to a genre that has been named “hyperlink cinema” by the critic Alissa Quart, in Film Comment. She suggests the structure was invented by Robert Altman, and Altman certainly brought it into modern times and made it particularly useful for showing interlocking stories in a world where lives seem to crash into each other heedlessly. “Crash,” indeed, is an example of the genre, as are Altman’s “The Player” and “Short Cuts,” and such films as “Traffic,” “Syriana,” “City of God,” “Amores Perros” and “Nine Lives.”

很形象啊。按这个逻辑，我想到了个新名词：hyperlink TV，用来描述Lost最恰当不过了。哈哈，我又间接原创了一把。

Bonus video: Bo Bice - The Real Thing

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 16th, 2006 at 11:51 pm and is filed under Culture, Buzzword, Interesting Find, Neologism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.