黑人演什麼才能獲得奧斯卡青睞

When the Oscar nominations were announced last month, revealing that not one black actor was in the running, the resulting furor touched on the performances that critics said should have been considered: What about Idris Elba in “Beasts of No Nation”? Michael B. Jordan in “Creed”? Will Smith in “Concussion,” or one of the stars of “Straight Outta Compton”?

上個月，奧斯卡提名公佈，沒有一位黑人演員獲得提名，引發強烈抗議，人們紛紛談論影評家們認爲應該予以考慮的演員：比如《無境之獸》(Beasts of No Nation)中的伊德瑞斯·艾爾巴(Idris Elba)；《奎迪》(Creed)中的邁克爾·B·喬丹(Michael B. Jordan)；《震盪效應》(Concussion)中的威爾·史密斯(Will Smith)；又或者《衝出康普頓》(Straight Outta Compton)中的其中一位明星。

The uproar over #OscarsSoWhite made me curious. What does the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences value in black performance? Black artists have been nominated for best actress or actor on 30 occasions, for work spanning 28 films. Over the last few weeks, I watched all of them.

#OscarsSoWhite抗議活動的喧鬧讓我很好奇：美國電影藝術和科學學會(Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)是如何評價黑人演員的表演的呢？黑人藝術家憑藉28部影片在30個獎項中獲得最佳女演員或男演員提名。在過去幾周裏，我觀看了所有這些影片。

These are movies with a lot in common, not least that most were written and directed by white men. Only three were written and directed by black men. None were directed by women. Perhaps these numbers aren’t surprising, given the well-known demographics of the film industry. Other numbers are more eye-opening.

這些影片有很多共通之處，相當重要的一點是，這些電影的編劇和導演大多是白人。只有3部的編劇和導演是黑人。沒有一部是女性導演的。這些數字可能並不令人意外，因爲大家都清楚電影業的人口構成。其他一些發現更令人吃驚。

Consider: In the history of the Oscars, 10 black women have been nominated for best actress, and nine of them played characters who are homeless or might soon become so. (The exception is Viola Davis, for the 2011 drama “The Help.”)

那就是：在奧斯卡歷史上，有10名黑人女性獲得最佳女演員提名，其中9名飾演的是無家可歸或很快就要無家可歸的角色（唯一的例外是維奧拉·戴維斯[Viola Davis]在2011年影片《相助》[The Help]中飾演的角色）。

The first was Dorothy Dandridge, for “Carmen Jones” (1954). That musical drama, like the opera from which it derives, is mostly known as the story of a sexually rapacious young woman and her obsessive, ultimately murderous lover. But it’s also the story of a wily, prideful human running out of places to go. Late in the film, Carmen and her fugitive boyfriend hide out in a seedy Chicago apartment. There’s no money for rent, and soon they’ll be evicted. Carmen, who’s spent the movie working hard to seem carefree and fierce, tries her best to summon that look again as she sets out to scare up food and rent money.

第一位是多蘿西·丹德里奇(Dorothy Dandridge)，她出演的影片是《胭脂虎新傳》(Carmen Jones, 1954)。這部音樂片改編自歌劇，它主要講述的是一名在性方面很貪婪的年輕女子和癡迷並最終殺害她的情人之間的故事。但它講述的也是一個狡猾驕傲、無處可去之人的故事。在影片末尾，卡門和她逃亡的男友藏在芝加哥一個破舊的公寓裏。他們沒錢交房租，很快將被趕走。在整部影片中，卡門都努力顯得無憂無慮而熱情，她出去張羅食物和房租時，也努力再次露出那副神情。

Nearly every black best-actress nominee has faced a similar plight, right up through “Beasts of the Southern Wild” (2012), in which Quvenzhané Wallis played a little girl about to lose her home to a flood. No black woman has ever received a best-actress nomination for portraying an executive or even a character with a college degree. (Though Gabourey Sidibe’s character in “Precious,” from 2009, seems likely to get one eventually.)

幾乎每位獲得最佳女演員提名的黑人女演員在片中都處於類似的窘況，一直到2012年的《南國野獸》(Beasts of the Southern Wild)，奎文贊妮·瓦利斯(Quvenzhané Wallis)在片中飾演一個即將因洪水失去家園的小女孩。從沒有一位黑人女性因飾演高管或者哪怕是擁有大學學位的角色而獲得最佳女演員提名（雖然加布蕾·絲迪貝[Gabourey Sidibe]在2009年影片《珍愛》[Precious]中飾演的角色似乎很可能最終獲得學位）。

All 10 performances for which black women have received best-actress nominations involve poor or lower-income characters, and half of those are penniless mothers. Two of the portrayals — Diana Ross’s incarnation of Billie Holiday in “Lady Sings the Blues” (1972) and Angela Bassett’s depiction of Tina Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do With It” (1993) — are of singers who enjoy a measure of wealth at some point. But Holiday begins broke, and viewers know she’ll end up that way, while Tina Turner doesn’t have money of her own until the film’s last five minutes. The remaining characters are maids, sharecroppers, criminal-drifter types, impoverished housewives and destitute girls.

獲得最佳女演員提名的10位黑人女演員所飾演的都是貧窮或低收入的角色，其中有一半是身無分文的母親。有兩位飾演的是一度擁有鉅額財富的歌手——黛安娜·羅斯(Diana Ross)在《難補情天恨》(Lady Sings the Blues, 1972)中飾演的比莉·哈樂黛(Billie Holiday)；以及安吉拉·貝塞特(Angela Bassett)在《與愛何干》(What’s Love Got to Do With It，1993)中飾演的蒂娜·特納(Tina Turner)。但是，哈樂黛一開始一文不名，觀衆知道她最終也會破產，而蒂娜·特納直到影片最後五分鐘纔有了自己的錢。其他角色是女僕、佃農、罪犯遊民，以及貧窮的家庭主婦和女孩。

A few more commonalities to note: Seven of the 10 best-actress nominees played characters with absent or incarcerated husbands, boyfriends, or fathers. And six of the characters suffer physical abuse, with five of them being raped.

還有其他一些共同之處：這10個角色中有7個沒有丈夫、男友或父親（或者在獄中）。其中6個曾遭受暴力虐待，有5個曾遭強姦。

The academy has tended to honor black men for different sorts of roles, and it has honored them more often. Black men have been up for best actor 20 times, with four nominations going to Denzel Washington, three to Morgan Freeman, and two each to Sidney Poitier and Mr. Smith.

奧斯卡似乎更青睞黑人男演員飾演的各種角色，而且更經常給予他們榮譽。黑人男演員共獲得20次最佳男演員提名，其中，丹澤爾·華盛頓(Denzel Washington)曾4次獲得提名，摩根·弗里曼(Morgan Freeman)3次獲得提名，西德尼·波蒂埃(Sidney Poitier)和威爾·史密斯各獲2次提名。

Thirteen of the recognized performances involve being arrested or incarcerated. Picture Chiwetel Ejiofor as the newly kidnapped Solomon Northup in “12 Years a Slave” or Mr. Washington behind bars as Malcolm Little, soon to change his name to Malcolm X. (His other nominated characters all face arrest, even his corrupt detective Alonzo Harris, before he flees in the last few minutes of “Training Day.”) Picture the police bursting through the bedroom doors of Jamie Foxx’s Ray Charles in “Ray” (2004) or James Earl Jones’s Jack Jefferson in “The Great White Hope” (1970). Most of the films deliver these men into bondage with the best of intentions — so we may identify with them, and hate the injustices done them. Nevertheless, the images seem endlessly — and sadistically — repeated.

獲得提名的角色中有13個曾被捕或遭到監禁。比如，切瓦特·埃加福特(Chiwetel Ejiofor)在《爲奴十二載》(12 Years a Slave)中飾演剛被綁架的所羅門·諾瑟普(Solomon Northup)；丹澤爾·華盛頓飾演的馬爾科姆·利特爾(Malcolm Little)被關進監獄，很快把自己的名字改爲馬爾科姆·X(Malcolm X)（他獲得提名的其他角色都曾被捕，甚至連他在《訓練日》中飾演的墮落警探阿朗佐·哈里斯[Alonzo Harris]在最後幾分鐘逃脫之前也曾被捕）。還有，警察衝開《靈魂歌王》(Ray, 2004)中傑米·福克斯(Jamie Foxx)飾演的雷·查爾斯(Ray Charles)的臥室門，或者《拳王奮鬥史》(The Great White Hope, 1970)中詹姆斯·厄爾·瓊斯(James Earl Jones)飾演的傑克·傑斐遜(Jack Jefferson)的臥室門。在影片中，這些角色大多是出於善意而被捕，所以我們可能會同情他們，憎恨他們遭遇的不公。但是，這些形象似乎在不斷地施虐般地重複。

In 15 of the 20 films, the nominated performances involve violent or criminal behavior. It’s often justified or victimless — or, as with the boxers in “Ali” (2001), “The Hurricane” (1999) and “The Great White Hope,” part of a day at the office. These characters tend to end up in jail anyway. (When the crime is not victimless, as in “Training Day” or “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” the perpetrators often never see the inside of a jail cell.)

在這20部影片中，有15部涉及暴力或犯罪行爲。這些行爲通常有正當理由或者沒有侵害他人，或者像《拳王阿里》(Ali, 2001)、《颶風》(The Hurricane, 1999)和《拳王奮鬥史》中的拳擊手那樣，暴力是他們日常工作的一部分。不過，這些角色最後似乎都進了監獄（如果犯罪行爲並不是沒有侵害他人，比如在《訓練日》或《與愛何干》中，那麼犯罪者通常從沒進過監獄）。

Ten of the characters have a white buddy or counterpart — or, when it comes to “Lilies of the Field” (1963), a whole convent full of them. In most cases, the white counterpart is the apparent protagonist. Think of Tim Robbins in “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994), Jessica Tandy in “Driving Miss Daisy” (1989) or Ethan Hawke in “Training Day.”

其中有10個角色擁有白人搭檔或對手，或者像《野百合》(Lilies of the Field, 1963)那樣，黑人主角的搭檔是一整座修道院的白人修女。在大部分情況下，那個白人對手是明顯的主角。比如《肖申克的救贖》(The Shawshank Redemption, 1994))中的蒂姆·羅賓斯(Tim Robbins)、《爲黛西小姐開車》(Driving Miss Daisy, 1989)中的傑西卡·坦迪(Jessica Tandy)，或《訓練日》中的伊桑·霍克(Ethan Hawke)。

Seven of the actors’ films feature no major black female characters. Seven of the characters abuse or mistreat women.

這些影片中有7部沒有主要的黑人女性角色。有7個角色虐待女人。

I shared these numbers with Dr. Todd Boyd, the author and professor of critical studies at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He wasn’t impressed, but he also said the focus on the Oscars was misplaced. “The Oscars are a symptom,” he said, and not the illness itself.

我把這些發現分享給南加州大學(University of Southern California)電影藝術學院(School of Cinematic Arts)的批評研究教授兼作家託德·博伊德博士(Todd Boyd)。他沒有感到震驚，不過他也說把焦點放到奧斯卡身上不合適。他說：“奧斯卡只是症狀”，不是疾病本身。

The academy president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, in announcing changes intended to address #OscarsSoWhite, cited the film industry’s failure to produce movies with diverse casts, and Dr. Boyd made a similar point: “You have to backtrack and look at the kinds of movies that African-Americans have been cast in.”

電影藝術和科學學會主席謝麗爾·博恩·伊薩克(Cheryl Boone Isaacs)在宣佈針對#OscarsSoWhite做出的改變時，提到電影業沒有製作選角多樣的電影是根本原因。博伊德也表達了類似的觀點：“你必須回溯和研究非裔美國人演的那種電影。”

And what kind is that?

哪種電影呢？

These 28 films are full of enormous characters, men and women of world-historic or pop-cultural significance, people who face seemingly intolerable oppression with nigh-unimaginable resolve, characters who are victimized or who encounter and occasionally inflict cruelty.

這28部影片充滿各種人物，講述的是具有世界歷史意義或流行文化意義的男女，他們以不可思議的決心面對似乎難以忍受的壓迫，他們受到迫害或殘酷對待，有時他們也殘酷地對待別人。

What they’re not full of is characters who resemble ordinary people. And when such people do make an appearance, the camera tends to linger on the parts of their lives most likely to interest white Americans struggling to reckon with their country’s racist past. We learn all about Miss Daisy — her son, her childhood, her politics. But we hear only a sentence or two about the family of her driver (Morgan Freeman). Similarly, there’s a lot of information about Billy Bob Thornton’s Hank in “Monster’s Ball.” But watching Halle Berry as the bereft Leticia Musgrove, we see only her wretchedness, and her eventual rescue by a white man.

這些影片所缺乏的角色是普通人。當這樣的角色確實出現時，攝像機似乎停留在他們最可能引發美國白人反思美國種族主義歷史的那部分生活。我們非常瞭解黛西小姐——她的兒子、童年和政治立場。但我們只聽到一兩句臺詞是講述她司機（摩根·弗里曼飾）的家庭。類似地，《死囚之舞》(Monster’s Ball)中有很多關於比利·鮑勃·桑頓(Billy Bob Thornton)飾演的漢克(Hank)的信息，但是關於哈莉·貝瑞(Halle Berry)飾演的失去親人的萊蒂西婭·馬斯格羅夫(Leticia Musgrove)，我們只知道她很不幸，最後得到一個白人男性救贖。

These are largely isolated characters, said Dr. Miriam J. Petty, an assistant professor in the department of radio, television and film at Northwestern University. “And they’re bound to the destinies of the white people with whom they appear in these films.”

西北大學(Northwestern University)的電臺、電視和電影系助理教授米利婭姆·J·佩蒂博士(Miriam J. Petty)說，這些角色大多很孤獨，“他們與影片中出現的白人的命運緊密聯繫在一起”。

It is not entirely surprising that so many of these nominees have portrayed the poor, imprisoned, great or tragic. The history of African-Americans contains many such people, and the academy loves history. Of the 10 most recent best-actor nominees, eight played historical figures. But the academy has never nominated a black leading actor for a role like Woody Grant in “Nebraska” (for which Bruce Dern was nominated in 2014) — an idiosyncratic person who is both fictional and unexceptional.

這麼多獲得提名的演員都是演繹偉大或悲慘的窮人和犯人，這並不完全出人意料。非裔美國人的歷史上有很多這樣的人物，而奧斯卡很喜歡歷史。最近獲得最佳男演員提名的10位演員中有8位是飾演歷史人物。但是，在奧斯卡提名過的黑人男主角中，沒有一位是《內布拉斯加》（Nebraska，2014年，布魯斯·德恩[Bruce Dern]憑藉在此片中的表演獲得提名）中伍迪·格蘭特(Woody Grant)這樣的角色——這個角色很獨特，但同時也是一個虛構的普通人。

“If you had a film about an ordinary black guy — well, that might mean that he knows other black people,” Dr. Petty said. “Those black people might need to be in the movie, too. And then it’s a black film.”

“如果一部影片講述的是一個普通黑人——呃，那可能意味着他認識其他黑人，”佩蒂說，“那些黑人可能也需要出現在影片中。然後它就變成一部完全是關於黑人的影片。”