(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
I'm Barbara Klein. And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about movie director and producer Sydney Pollack. He made many popular movies with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. The award-winning movies he directed in the nineteen seventies and eighties include "The Way We Were", "Tootsie" and "Out of Africa."
Sydney Pollack also acted in many films, including "Tootsie," released in nineteen eighty-two. In the movie, Dustin Hoffman plays an actor, Michael Dorsey. He has trouble getting acting jobs because he is very difficult to work with. He goes to see his agent, George Fields, whose job is to get him acting jobs. Sydney Pollock plays the agent.
Fields: "Nobody will hire you."
Dorsey: "Are you saying that nobody in New York will work with me?"
Fields: "No, that's too limiting. Nobody in Hollywood will work with you either. I can't even send you up for a commercial. You played a tomato for thirty seconds and they went half a day over schedule because you wouldn't sit down."
Dorsey: "Yes, it wasn't logical."
Fields: "You were a tomato! A tomato doesn't have logic! A tomato can't move!
Dorsey: "That's what I said! So if he can't move, how's he gonna sit down, George?
Later, Michael Dorsey proves his agent wrong. He dresses up like a woman and gets a job acting on a popular daytime television series. "Tootsie" was a huge success. But filming it was not easy. Hoffman and Pollack argued about the movie. Pollack wanted to bring attention to the love affair between the two main characters. Hoffman wanted to make a funnier version of the story. The movie cost more money and took more time to make than it was supposed to. But in the end, "Tootsie" received ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It earned over one hundred and seventy million dollars in the United States.
Sydney Pollack made movies with big stars, high production values and often political or moral subjects. His movies were popular with the general public while also remaining sharply intelligent. He said that his movies were not about special effects and high technology action scenes. He said his movies were character driven stories defined by the performances of the actors.
Sydney Irwin Pollack was born in nineteen thirty-four in Lafayette, Indiana. His parents were Russian-Americans who met in college in Indiana. In high school, Sydney discovered his love of theater. He later moved to New York City to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater. Pollack studied there for two years, then continued working as an assistant to the head of the school's acting department. In nineteen fifty-eight, he married Claire Griswold.
Sydney Pollack acted in many plays during this early part of his career. One person he met during these years was the actor Burt Lancaster. Lancaster suggested that Pollack try directing instead of acting. Pollack later said that his time as an acting teacher helped him a great deal in developing his method as a director.
During the nineteen sixties, Sydney Pollack began directing shows on television like "Ben Casey" and "Naked City." His first full-length movie, "The Slender Thread," came out in nineteen sixty-five, followed a year later by "This Property is Condemned." These were not successful.
Then, in nineteen sixty-nine, Pollack directed "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" This movie tells an intense story about a group of people in a dance competition during the Great Depression in the nineteen thirties. Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin give powerful performances as two struggling contestants. The film received nine Academy Award nominations, including one for Pollack.
Robert Redford starred in many of Pollack's movies. The two became friends in the early nineteen sixties. They worked together on seven movies. One is a western, "Jeremiah Johnson." Another is "The Way We Were" which stars the actress and singer Barbra Streisand. In "Three Days of the Condor" Robert Redford plays a worker at the Central Intelligence Agency who becomes caught in a deadly political plot.
Sydney Pollack's best movie is probably "Out of Africa" which was released in nineteen eighty-five. This beautifully filmed movie was based on a book by the Danish writer Karen Blixen about her life. She wrote the book under the name Isak Dinesen. She moved to Kenya in nineteen fourteen to buy land and operate a coffee-growing farm.
Pollack's movie version brought to life the great love story between Baroness Blixen and the big-game hunter Denys Finch Hatton. Two of the biggest stars of the nineteen eighties, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, play the lovers. Here they meet for the first time. Karen Blixen is looking at the wildlife on her land when her horse runs away. She sees a lion walking towards her.
Finch Hatton: "I wouldn't run. If you do, she'll think you're something good to eat."
Blixen: "Do you have a gun?"
Finch Hatton: "She won't like the smell of you."
Blixen: "Shoot it."
Finch Hatton: "She's had breakfast."
Blixen: "Please shoot her."
Finch Hatton: "Let's give her a moment."
Blixen: "Oh my God, shoot her!"
Blixen: "How much closer did you expect her to let her come?"
Finch Hatton: "A bit. She wanted to see if you would run. That's how they decide -- a lot like people that way."
Blixen: "She almost had me for lunch!"
Finch Hatton:" It wasn't her fault, baroness. She's a lion."
"Out of Africa" won seven Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture for Sydney Pollack. Five years later, Pollack directed "Havana", also starring Robert Redford. This movie was followed by "The Firm" and "Sabrina." In two thousand five Pollack directed "The Interpreter" starring Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman. Part of the movie was filmed in the United Nations building in New York City. It is the only movie ever filmed inside the buildings of the UN General Assembly and Security Council.
Sydney Pollack once said that he backed into filmmaking and never actually trained for the job. He said that directing movies made him very tense. He noted that every fifteen-minute period in making a movie represents thousands of dollars, so a director is concerned about the clock every minute.
Pollack also produced many films during his long career. He started a production company called Mirage Productions in the nineteen eighties. He said that he liked the creative part of being a producer. And he said he liked producing because not getting the praise or the blame for a movie was a big relief.
His production credits include "Sense and Sensibility", "The Talented Mister Ripley" and "Cold Mountain." He also produced "Michael Clayton" which was nominated for Best Picture in two thousand eight.
In two thousand five, he directed and produced "Sketches of Frank Gehry," a documentary about the famous architect. Here, Pollack talks about his friendship with Frank Gehry.
Sydney Pollack: "Frank's got his own original and sort of perverse way of doing things. We've been friends for several years. We spend a lot of time together bemoaning the difficulties of trying to find personal expressiveness within disciplines that makes stringent commercial demands. Several people approached him with the idea of making a documentary about him. When he asked me if I'd do it, I thought he was crazy. It's not just that I didn't know anything about making documentaries, I didn't even know anything about architecture. That's why you're perfect, he said."
Throughout his career, Sydney Pollack never stopped acting. He said that once in a while he could not resist being able to spy on other directors by acting in their films. He said that he learned new methods and techniques from these directors. Pollack has played many kinds of roles in movies such as "Husbands and Wives" directed by Woody Allen; "Eyes Wide Shut", directed by Stanley Kubrick, and "The Player", directed by Robert Altman. He even made appearances in television shows such as "Will and Grace" and "Entourage."
In "Michael Clayton" Pollack plays a high-powered lawyer named Marty Bach. He is head of a group of lawyers involved in a difficult case. Here is a scene with Pollack and George Clooney who plays one of the lawyers, Michael Clayton.
Marty:"Everybody knows how valuable you are, Michael, everyone who needs to know."
Michael: "I'm forty-five years old and I'm broke. I've been riding shotgun for twelve years and I got no equity. I'm sorry,I don't feel reassured."
Marty:" Nobody told you to go into the bar business."
Michael:" I only opened it so that I have something else, I'd have a way out."
Marty: "I had no idea that you were so unhappy."
Michael: "How many times did I ask you to put me back on a litigation team."
Marty: "Hey, anyone can go to court, you think that's so special?"
Michael:" I was good at it!"
Marty: "Wonderful, so are a lot of people. At this, what you do, you're great."
Later in his career, Pollack was involved in many film and acting organizations. For example, he served as director of the Actors Studio West in Los Angeles, California and as a chairman for the American Cinematheque. Sydney Pollack died of cancer at his home in Los Angeles, California in two thousand eight. He was seventy-three years old. His many films will continue to influence generations of movie lovers.
重点解析
1.commercial 商业广告
The government has launched a campaign of television commercials and leaflets.
政府通过电视广告和传单的形式发起了宣传活动。
2.dress up 打扮
You do not need to dress up for dinner.
你不必为了晚宴盛装打扮。
3.moral 道德的
She describes her own moral dilemma in making the film.
她描述了自己拍摄这部电影时面临的道德困境。
4.This movie tells an intense story about a group of people in a dance competition during the Great Depression in the nineteen thirties.
depression 不景气
He never forgot the hardships he witnessed during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
他从未忘记20世纪30年代经济大萧条时期他所目睹的艰辛。
5.Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin give powerful performances as two struggling contestants.
struggling 努力的；奋斗的
The company is struggling to find buyers for its new product
该公司正竭力为其新产品寻找买主。
6.We spend a lot of time together bemoaning the difficulties of trying to find personal expressiveness within disciplines that makes stringent commercial demands.
stringent 严格的；严厉的
He announced that there would be more stringent controls on the possession of weapons.
他宣布在武器的持有方面将会有更严格的控制。
参考译文
我是芭芭拉·克莱因。我是史蒂夫·恩贝尔。这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。今天我们将讲述电影导演兼制片人西德尼·波拉克的故事。他和好莱坞的一些大明星制作了很多著名的电影。在1970年代和80年代，他指导的获奖电影有：《往日情怀》、《宝贝儿》以及《走出非洲》。
西德尼·波拉克也出演过很多电影，包括1982年上映的《宝贝儿》。在这部电影中，达斯汀·霍夫曼饰演一名演员迈克尔·多尔西。他陷入了演绎困难之中，因为他非常难共事。他去见他的经纪人乔治·菲尔兹，经纪人的工作是给他介绍演绎工作。西德尼·波拉克就饰演这名经纪人。
“没人会雇佣你的。”
“你是说纽约没人愿意和我合作？”
“不是，这样说太局限了。整个好莱坞都没人愿意和你共事。商业广告都接不到。
你扮演一只西红柿，你害的他们加班，就因为你不肯坐下。”
“是啊，这样是不合规矩。”
“你就是个西红柿！西红柿是不会思考的！西红柿不会动！
“我就是这个意思啊！如果西红柿不会动的话，怎么能够坐下呢！？
之后，迈克尔·多尔西证明经纪是错的。他扮成女孩，在一档很受欢迎的日间电视节目里表演。《宝贝儿》取得了巨大的成功。但是拍摄并不容易。霍夫曼和波拉克就电影发生争执。波拉克想要将关注引到两位主演的婚外情上，但是霍夫曼想呈现一个喜剧故事。这部电影比预期的成本和时间更多更长。但是最终《宝贝儿》收获了十项奥斯卡提名，其中包括最佳影片奖。最终在美国取得了1.7亿的票房成绩。
西德尼·波拉克的电影里有大明星、高产值，还常包含政治或道德主题。他的电影很受大众欢迎。他说他的电影不仅是特效和高科技场面。他说他的电影是演员通过表演驱动故事发展。1934年，西德尼·波勒出生于印第安纳州拉斐特。他的父母是俄罗斯裔美国人，他们在印第安纳州的一所大学里相遇。在高中，西德尼就发现自己很爱戏剧。之后他搬到纽约市，在 Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater学习。波勒在那里学了两年，之后担任学校表演系主人的助手。1958年，他和克莱尔·格里斯沃尔德结婚。西德尼·波勒在早期职业生涯中出演过很多电影。其中他遇到了演员伯特·兰开斯特。兰开斯特建议波勒尝试导演而非表演。之后波勒说他的表演经历在很大程度上帮助他发展了自己做导演时所用的方法。1960年代，西德尼·波勒开始导演电视节目，比如《Ben Casey》和《Naked City》。他的首部电影《一线生机》于1965年上映，一年后又有《蓬门碧玉红颜泪》。这两部电影都不是很成功。然后在1969年，西德尼·波勒拍摄了电影《孤注一掷》。该电影讲述的是在1930年代，大萧条时期，一个舞蹈比赛中的一群人的故事。简·方达和米高·沙拉辛出演两名努力的竞争者，并贡献了强有力的演出。该电影获得9项奥斯卡提名，其中一个是提名波勒。
罗伯特·雷德福演过很多波勒的电影。在1960年代早期，两人成为朋友。他们合作了七部电影。一部是《猛虎过山》，另一部是《往日情怀》，搭档芭芭拉·史翠珊。在电影《秃鹰七十二小时》中，罗伯特·雷德福饰演中情局的工作人员，他身陷一场致命的政治阴谋之中。西德尼·波勒最好的电影可能就是《走出非洲》了，这部电影于1985年上映。这部拍摄美丽的电影是基于丹麦作家凯伦·白烈森叙述生平的一本书改编的。她用伊萨克·迪内森这个名字写了这本书。1914年，她搬到肯尼亚，在那里买了一块土地，经营一个咖啡种植农场。波勒的电影将白烈森男爵和巨兽猎人尼斯·芬奇·哈顿的伟大爱情故事拍摄的十分生动。1980年代的两位巨星，梅丽尔·斯特里普和罗伯特·雷德福饰演情侣。以下是他们第一次见面。凯伦·白烈森在自己的土地上瞭望野生动物，她看到一头狮子向她走来。
“我不会跑的。如果跑的话，她会以为你是什么好吃的东西。”
“你有枪吗？”
“她不会喜欢你的滋味。”
“朝它开枪。”
“她吃过早餐了。”
“请射死她。”
“给她点时间吧。”
“天啊，开枪！”
“你还要让她走多近？”
“再近一点点。她想看看你会不会跑。这是她们决定多数人命运的方式。”
“她都要把我当午餐了！”
“这不是她的错，男爵夫人。她是头狮子啊。”
《走出非洲》获得了七项奥斯卡奖，包括最佳导演和最佳影片。五年后，波勒导演电影《哈瓦那》，也是由罗伯特·雷德福主演。这部电影后又有《黑色企业》和《萨布里娜》。2005年，波勒导演电影《翻译风波》，由肖恩·潘和妮可·基德曼主演。部分片段拍摄于美国纽约的联合国大楼。这是唯一一部在联合国大会安理会拍摄的电影。西德尼·波勒曾说他无意中开始拍摄电影，从未有过训练。他说执导电影让他变得非常紧张。他注意到电影制作中每15秒就代表着几万美元，所以导演每分钟都在关注时间。
波勒在其职业生涯中也出品了很多电影。1980年代，他开了一家制片公司Mirage Productions。他说他喜欢制作电影的创造性，他说他喜欢制作电影，不为褒奖和批评，只把电影当做信仰。他出品的电影包括《理智与情感》、《天才雷普利》以及《冷山》。他还制作了电影《敌对同谋》，获得2008年最佳影片奖提名。2005年，他指导制作了电影《建筑大师盖瑞速写》，这是一部关于著名建筑师的纪录片。以下是波勒谈论他和弗兰克·盖里的友谊。
“弗兰克有着自己的独到的方法。我们是多年的好友。我们常在一起悲叹，想要在严格商业需求的规则中寻找个人表现力是多么困难的一件事。一些人想拍摄关于他的纪录片。当他问我时，我觉得他疯了。不仅是因为我对拍摄纪录片一无所知，也是因为我对建筑也一窍不通。但是他说，所以你才是最合适的人选。”
纵观的他职业生涯，西德尼·波勒从未停止演绎。他说他在别的导演的电影中出演时，他不自觉地会观看他们。他说他从其他导演那学到了新的方法和技巧。波勒在很多电影中出演，比如伍迪·艾伦导演的《丈夫、太太与情人》。斯坦利·库布里克导演的《大开眼戒》以及罗伯特·奥特曼的《大玩家》。他甚至在电视节目中露过面，比如《威尔和格蕾丝》以及《明星伙伴》。在《敌对同谋》中，波勒扮演一名位高权重的律师马蒂·巴赫。他是律师团中的领导，该律师团深陷一起难案之中。以下是波勒和饰演另一名律师迈克尔·克莱顿的乔治·克鲁尼对手戏。
“每个人都知道你有多么重要，迈克尔，每个人都需要知道。”
“我45岁还破产了。我奉献12年却连股票都没有。对不起，我没法子安心”
“没人叫你去跨足餐饮业”
“我只是想做点别的，有别的出路。”
“我不知道你这么不快乐。”
“我请你把我放回诉讼组多少次。”
“谁都能上法庭，那并不特别。”
“我以前很在行！”
“很好，很多人也一样。你很适合你现在的工作。”
在他职业生涯的后期，波勒涉足多个电影和演绎组织。例如，他担任加利福尼亚洛杉矶演员工作室的董事以及美国电影科技学会的主席。2008年，西德尼·波勒在其位于加利福尼亚洛杉矶的家中死于癌症。那时他73岁。他的很多电影都将继续影响着数代电影爱好者。
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