紐時賞析／《與你共舞》：惠妮休斯頓的寂寞吶喊

‘Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ Review: Her Lonely Heart Calls

「與你共舞」：惠妮休斯頓的寂寞吶喊

No one could sing like Whitney Houston, and Kasi Lemmons, the director of the biopic “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” only rarely asks her lead, Naomi Ackie, to try. This is a jukebox retelling of Houston’s parabola from sweatshirts to sequins, from church choir girl to tabloid fixture, from her teenage romance with Robyn Crawford, the woman who would continue on as her creative director, to her volatile marriage to Bobby Brown, who slithers into the movie licking his lips like he’s hungry to eat her alive.

沒有人能像惠妮休斯頓那樣唱歌，而惠妮休斯頓傳記電影「與你共舞」導演卡茜萊蒙斯，也沒有要求她的女主角娜歐蜜艾基如此做。這部片改編自惠妮一生的高低起伏與光碟點唱機般的金曲匯集，涵蓋她從運動衫穿到亮片禮服，從教會唱詩班女孩到八卦報刊熟面孔，從她青少女時期與羅蘋克勞福的一段情，這位女性後來成為她的創意總監，還有她和巴比布朗不穩定的婚姻，他潛伏在片中舔著嘴唇的樣子，彷彿恨不得生吞她。

Those beats are here. But it’s the melodies that matter, those moments when Ackie opens her mouth to channel Houston’s previously recorded songs. We’ve heard Houston’s rendition of “I Will Always Love You” countless times, and Lemmons bets, correctly, that the beloved hit will still seize us by the heart during the rather forthright montage she pairs with it, images of Houston marrying Brown, birthing her daughter Bobbi Kristina and honoring Nelson Mandela underneath a sky filled with fireworks.

這些情節盡在其中，然而當艾基開口和惠妮生前錄製歌曲對嘴的那些片段出現，音樂才是本片的重點。我們聽過惠妮演繹「我會永遠愛你」無數次，而萊蒙斯確信，這首備受喜愛的金曲，在她拼貼相對而言平鋪直敘的畫面播放之際，仍然能牢牢抓住我們的心，這些畫面包括惠妮和巴比布朗結婚，她生下女兒芭比．克莉斯汀娜，以及在煙火絢爛的天空下為曼德拉獻唱。

Ackie doesn’t much resemble the superstar, although her carriage is correct: eyes closed, head flung back, arms pushing away the air as if to make room for that mezzo-soprano. That the film sticks to Houston’s surfaces is half excusable. Screenwriter Anthony McCarten seems to find that the woman underneath the pop star shell was still struggling to define herself at the time of her death at the age of 48. At Houston’s final “Oprah” performance, re-created here, she belts an earnest ballad called, “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength.”

艾基和這位超級巨星並沒有那麼神似，但是她表演的神態是正確的：閉著雙眼，頭微微後仰，雙手向空中伸展，彷彿要為這位次女高音歌手開展空間。這部片執著於惠妮的表面，至少有一部分算是情有可原。編劇安東尼．麥卡坦似乎發現到這位在流行樂巨星外皮底下的女性真貌，直到48歲去世之前，她一直掙扎於定義自我。片中重現惠妮最後一次在「歐普拉溫芙蕾秀」的演出，她發自肺腑的高唱歌曲「我不知道我的力量（或譯「心的力量」）」。

Houston didn’t write her own material; she just sang like she did, courtesy of Cissy’s fastidious coaching. “God gives you a gift, you got to use it right,” Cissy lectures. Yet, Houston as seen here can only say yes or no to other people’s ideas of what she should sing, wear and do.  Increasingly, she chooses opposition. Her successes are shared — but her mistakes are all hers.

惠妮自己沒有寫歌，她只是在母親西西嚴格的近身訓練下，照她所會的方式唱歌。「上帝給了妳這項天賦，妳必須好好使用。」西西如此訓誡。然而，關於她應該唱什麼歌，穿什麼衣服和做什麼事的旁人意見，片中的惠妮只能說好或不。漸漸地，她選擇唱反調。她的成功被大家瓜分，但失敗全歸咎於她一人。

Houston’s defiance is the movie’s attempt to answer the great mystery of her career: why she deliberately damaged her voice through smoking and hard drugs. “It’s like leaving a Stradivarius in the rain!”  the legendary then-head of Arista Records Clive Davis yelps.

惠妮的叛逆，正是這部電影所嘗試解答、她的事業最大謎團：她為何故意用抽菸和毒品來傷害自己的嗓子？「這就像是把史特拉底瓦里琴放在雨中！」時任芒穗唱片老闆的樂壇傳奇人物克萊夫戴維斯大叫。

文／Amy Nicholson　譯／莊蕙嘉

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【張佑生】

本期選譯的兩篇影評，主角都是父權社會（a patriarchal society）的受害者。英文he said, she said係指各執一詞的情形，he-said-she-said當形容詞。電影名稱She Said言簡意賅，讓受害女性發聲。「與你共舞」中女歌手放聲高唱，其實只能唱別人給她的歌曲。

「與你共舞」名稱取自1987年冠軍單曲I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)，聯合報當時每周刊登西洋流行歌曲前十名榜單，譯為「願與悅己者共舞」，呼應「女為悅己者容」；其中歌詞So when the night falls My lonely heart calls，被紐時入標。

「她有話要說」的影評以jury開頭和結尾，首尾呼應。紐約和洛城的jury做成決議，但是電影能對現實世界造成多大改變，作者認為仍無定論。文末的jury只是比喻，不是真的陪審團。有陪審團的審判，陪審團負責「認事」，辨明事實，認定被告是否有罪；法官負責「用法」，決定判刑輕重。