《畢業生》導演邁克尼科爾斯去世

《畢業生》導演邁克·尼科爾斯去世Mike Nichols, one of America's most celebrated directors, whose long, protean résumé of critic- and crowd-pleasing work earned him adulation both on Broadway and in Hollywood, died Wednesday. He was 83.

邁克·尼科爾斯(Mike Nichols)是美國最著名的導演之一，在其漫長多變的事業生涯中，諸多叫好又叫座的作品爲他在百老匯與好萊塢都贏得了讚譽。他於週三逝世，享年83歲。

His death was announced in a statement by the president of ABC News, James Goldston.

ABC新聞臺總裁詹姆斯·戈德斯通(James Goldston)在一份聲明中宣佈了他去世的消息。

Dryly urbane, Nichols had a gift for communicating with actors and a keen comic timing, which he honed early in his career as half of the popular sketch-comedy team Nichols and May. He accomplished what Orson Welles and Elia Kazan, but few if any other directors have: He achieved popular and artistic success in both theater and film. He was among the most decorated people in the history of show business, one of only a handful to have won an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy and a Grammy.

尼科爾斯爲人冷淡而彬彬有禮，卻有一種同演員溝通的天賦，以及強烈的喜劇節奏感。這是他事業生涯早期在頗受歡迎的喜劇小品二人組“尼科爾斯與梅”(Nichols and May)中磨練出來的。他在舞臺劇和電影界都獲得既叫好又叫座的成功，這一成就堪比奧遜·威爾斯(Orson Welles)和伊利亞·卡贊(Elia Kazan)，罕有其他導演能及。他是演藝史上獲得榮譽最多的人之一，也是少數幾個同時獲得奧斯卡獎、託尼獎、艾美獎與格萊美獎的人之一。

His career encompassed an entire era of screen and stage entertainment. On Broadway, where he won an astonishing nine Tonys (including two as a producer), he once had four shows running simultaneously. He directed Neil Simon's early comedies “Barefoot in the Park” and “The Odd Couple” in the 1960s, the zany Monty Python musical, “Spamalot," four decades later, and nearly another decade after that, an acclaimed revival of Arthur Miller's bruising masterpiece, “Death of a Salesman.”

他的事業生涯涵蓋了電影與舞臺娛樂的一整個時代。在百老匯，他獲得了驚人的九個託尼獎（其中兩次是以製作人身份），他一度有四部舞臺劇同時上演。20世紀60年代，他執導了尼爾·西蒙(Neil Simon)創作的早期喜劇《新婚燕爾》(Barefoot in the Park)和《單身公寓》(The Odd Couple)；40年後又執導滑稽的“巨蟒”(Monty Python)的音樂劇《火腿騎士》(Spamalot)，在那之後又過了將近十年，他將阿瑟·米勒(Arthur Miller)激烈的傑作《推銷員之死》(Death of a Salesman)重新搬上舞臺，大受歡迎。

In June 2012 at age 80, he accepted the Tony for directing “Salesman.” When his name was announced at the Beacon Theater on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the neighborhood where he grew up, he kissed his wife, broadcaster Diane Sawyer, stepped to the stage and recalled that he once won a pie-eating contest in that very theater.

2012年，80歲的他因執導《推銷員之死》獲得託尼獎。他的名字迴響在曼哈頓上西區燈塔劇場之中，他兒時就是在這個街區長大成人。他親吻了妻子——新聞主播黛安·索耶(Diane Sawyer)，走上舞臺，開始回憶自己當年曾在這個劇場贏過一次吃餡餅競賽。

“It was nice but this is nicer,” he said. “You see before you a happy man.”

“那次很不錯，但這次更好，”他說，“你們看，在你們面前的我是一個多麼快樂的人。”

Between 1970 and 2000 his work included revivals of classics like Chekhov's “Uncle Vanya” and “The Little Foxes” by Lillian Hellman; astringent dramas tied to world affairs like “Streamers,” David Rabe's tale of soldiers preparing to be shipped out to Vietnam, and Ariel Dorfman's “Death and the Maiden,” about the revenge of a former political prisoner; incisive social commentaries including “The Real Thing” by Tom Stoppard and “Comedians” by Trevor Griffiths; and comedies by turns acid (Rabe's “Hurlyburly”), sentimental (“The Gin Game” by D. L. Coburn), dark (Simon's “Prisoner of Second Avenue”) and light (Simon's “Plaza Suite,” a tripartite work that goes from melancholy to loopy to slapstick).

在1970到2000年之間，他曾把若干經典劇目重新搬上舞臺，如契訶夫(Chekhov)的《萬尼亞舅舅》(Uncle Vanya)和莉莉安·赫爾曼(Lillian Hellman)的《小狐狸》(The Little Foxes)；還有鍼砭時弊的諷刺喜劇，如《北極光》(Streamers)，劇本由大衛·拉貝(David Rabe)創作，講述準備乘船去往越南參戰的士兵們的故事，艾瑞爾·道夫曼(Ariel Dorfman)的《死亡與少女》(Death and the Maiden)，講述獲釋政治犯復仇的故事；此外還有尖銳的社會評論劇如湯姆·斯托帕德(Tom Stoppard)的《真正的東西》(The Real Thing)和特萊沃·格里菲斯(Trevor Griffiths)的《喜劇演員》(Comedians)。他也導演過若干喜劇，有的辛酸（拉貝的《浮世男女》[Hurlyburly]）、有的傷感（D·L·科伯恩[D.L. Coburn]的《洋麻將》[The Gin Game]）、有的黑暗（西蒙的《第二街的囚犯》[Prisoner of Second Avenue]），有的光明（西蒙的《幸福大飯店》[Plaza Suite]，這是一部三幕戲，從憂鬱到瘋狂，最後成爲鬧劇）。

The first time Nichols stepped behind the camera, in 1966, it was to direct Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, in an adaptation of Edward Albee's scabrous stage portrayal of a marriage, “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” The film was nominated for 13 Academy Awards, including one for best director. Though he didn't win then, the film won five.

尼科爾斯初次踏入電影界是在1966年，執導由愛德華·阿爾比(Edward Albee)的舞臺劇《誰害怕弗吉尼亞·伍爾夫》(Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)改編的同名電影，原劇是對一段婚姻充滿情色意味的舞臺展示，電影由理查德·伯頓(Richard Burton)和伊麗莎白·泰勒(Elizabeth Taylor)主演。影片獲得13項奧斯卡提名，包括最佳導演獎，儘管他最終未能獲得這項榮譽，但該片贏得了五項大獎。

Nichols did win an Oscar for his second film, “The Graduate” (1967), a shrewd social comedy that defined the uncertainty of adulthood for the generation that came of age in the 1960s and made a star of an unknown actor, Dustin Hoffman, who was nearly 30 when he played Benjamin Braddock, the 21-year-old protagonist of the film, a Southern Californian and a track star who sleeps with the wife of his father's best friend and then falls in love with her daughter. A small, dark, Jewish New Yorker, he was an odd choice for the all-American suburban boy whose seemingly prescribed life path has gone awry.

不過尼科爾斯的第二部影片《畢業生》(The Graduate, 1967)爲他贏得了奧斯卡獎，這是一部老道的社會喜劇，精確地勾勒出在60年代成長的一代人成年後的不安定感，令籍籍無名的演員達斯汀·霍夫曼(Dustin Hoffman)一舉成爲影星。當時霍夫曼已經年近30，卻要飾演21歲的主角本傑明·布拉德多克(Benjamin Braddock)，本傑明是南加州人，田徑明星，和父親最好的朋友的妻子上牀，之後又愛上她的女兒。霍夫曼是個黝黑矮小的紐約猶太人，選他來飾演一個既定人生道路走上歧途的典型美國郊區男孩似乎很奇怪。

“There is no piece of casting in the 20th century that I know of that is more courageous than putting me in that part,” Hoffman said in an interview in The New Yorker in 2000.

“就我所知，20世紀的電影選角史上，沒有比讓我出演這個角色更加大膽的了，”2000年，霍夫曼在接受《紐約客》(The New Yorker)採訪時說。

By the end of Nichols' career, he was bravely casting the star Hoffman of a different generation — Philip Seymour — with whom Nichols made the rollicking political film “Charlie Wilson's War” (2007), and, later, more provocatively, the Broadway production of “Death of a Salesman.” He cast Hoffman, then 44, to play Miller's tragic American in defeat, Willy Loman, a man in his 60s. In addition to Nichols' Tony Award for directing, the play won for best had also turned his attention to television, winning Emmy Awards for directing adaptations of two celebrated plays for HBO: Margaret Edson's “Wit” (2001), about a woman dying of cancer; and Tony Kushner's epic AIDS drama, “Angels in America” (2003).

尼科爾斯事業生涯的末期再次大膽地選擇了另一代人的另一個霍夫曼——菲利普·塞默·霍夫曼(Philip Seymour Hoffman)——尼科爾斯讓他在歡謔的政治電影《查理·威爾森的戰爭》(Charlie Wilson's War, 2007)中飾演角色，後來又讓他主演了百老匯版《推銷員之死》(Death of a Salesman)，這一舉動更富爭議。霍夫曼當時44歲，要飾演米勒筆下遭受失敗的悲劇性美國人威利·洛曼(Willy Loman)，一個60多歲的老人。該劇爲尼古拉斯贏得了託尼獎最佳導演獎，以及最佳翻拍劇獎。他的目光還曾投向電視，爲HBO臺導演了兩部由著名舞臺劇改編的電視劇：瑪格麗特·愛德森(Margaret Edson)創作的《拋開自我空間》(Wit, 2001)，講述一個身患癌症的瀕死女人的故事；以及託尼·庫什納(Tony Kushner)關於艾滋病的史詩戲劇《天使在美國》(Angels in America, 2003)，兩部劇爲他贏得了若干項艾美獎。

Driven, forceful and, for all his wit and charm, known occasionally to strafe the feelings of cast and crew members, Nichols was prolific — too prolific, according to some critics who thought he sometimes chose his projects haphazardly or took on work simply for money.

尼科爾斯極其努力、令人信服，同時極具才智和魅力，但有時也會傷害演員和劇組成員的感情，他非常高產——有些評論家因爲他實在過於高產了，覺得他接片太隨意，有時候只是爲了錢。

Not every project was a winner; he had a number of duds, and for periods — part of the 1970s, when he made the science fiction thriller “The Day of the Dolphin” and a period comedy about bumbling hustlers, “The Fortune”; and the late '80s and early '90s, when his uninspired work included “Regarding Henry,” a sappy tale about a hard-driven lawyer who learns the true meaning of life as he recovers from a shooting; and “Wolf,” the macabre tale of a book editor (Jack Nicholson) who turns into a werewolf — his career lost a bit of luster.

他也有過若干平淡無聊、轉瞬即逝的作品，並不是每個項目都能獲得成功，比如70年代他的科幻驚悚片《海豚日》(The Day of the Dolphin)和關於笨賊的時代喜劇《財富》(The Fortune)；80年代末到90年代初，他枯燥乏味的作品包括《意外的人生》(Regarding Henry)，這是一個多愁善感的故事，講述一個拼命工作的律師如何從槍擊事件中復原，瞭解到人生的真諦，還有《狼人生死戀》(Wolf)，這是一個恐怖故事，講述傑克·尼克爾森(Jack Nicholson)飾演的圖書編輯變成了狼人——這些作品令尼科爾斯的事業生涯略爲減色。

Still, his projects almost always had a high-profile glow, mainly because stars flocked to work with him.

但是，他的作品一直都籠罩在高調的光輝之中，主要是由於他身邊總是簇擁着與他合作的影星。

“A director's chief virtue should be to persuade you through a role; Mike's the only one I know who can do it,” Burton said after “Virginia Woolf” was finished, a remarkable compliment from a renowned actor for a fledgling director. “He conspires with you to get your best. He'd make me throw away a line where I'd have hit it hard. I've seen the film with an audience and he's right every time. I didn't think I could learn anything about comedy — I'd done all of Shakespeare's. But from him I learned.”

“導演最大的美德就在於說服你進入某個角色，邁克是我認識的人裏唯一能做到這一點的，”伯頓在拍完《誰害怕弗吉尼亞·伍爾夫》後說，一位著名演員對新手導演如此讚美實屬非同尋常。“他和你一起努力，讓你做到最好。在我不滿意的地方，他讓我即興發揮臺詞。我坐在觀衆們當中看了這部電影，而他每一次都是對的。我演過全部莎士比亞戲劇，覺得自己已經不能從喜劇當中學到什麼了，但我從他身上學到了東西。”