《Monster's Ball》　死囚之舞　絕望的盡頭是什么

No.046　《Monster's Ball》　死囚之舞　絕望的盡頭是什么

英文導讀

Monster's Ball is a 2001 American romantic drama film directed by Marc Forster and written by Milo Addica and Will Rokos. The film stars Billy Bob Thornton as a widowed prison-guard, Halle Berry as a woman whose husband is on death row, and Heath Ledger as Thornton's son. Angela Bassett was originally scripted to play Leticia but later turned down the lead role because of the script's sexual content.

Director Marc Forster, winner of Best Feature at Slamdance for his debut film Loungers (1996) and the"Someone to Watch" Independent Spirit Award for his indie drama Everything Put Together (2000), follows up those acclaimed projects with this intense, racially charged romance. Billy Bob Thornton stars as Georgia prison guard Hank Grotowski, a hard-drinking racist ex-cop whose father, Buck (Peter Boyle), is dying of emphysema and whose son, Sonny (Heath Ledger), works the execution detail at the prison's death row. When Sonny commits suicide, Hank is devastated and quits his job, spiraling into a deep depression until, one night, he comes to the aid of Leticia (Halle Berry), a beautiful African-American woman whose son, Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun), has been hit by a car. When Tyrell dies, Leticia and Hank find themselves to be unexpected soul mates linked together by tragic grief. It's not long before Hank discovers that Leticia is the widow of Lawrence Musgrove (Sean Combs), the man whose execution by electric chair he and his late son helped to orchestrate.

Monster's Ball (2001) is based on a screenplay by actors Milo Addica and Will Rokos, who spent five years developing their script into a feature. The title of the film comes from a custom in medieval England of referring to prisoners awaiting execution as "monsters". The night before their execution, their jailers would hold a farewell feast known as a "monster's ball".

The prison scenes in Monster's Ball were filmed in Louisiana State Penitentiary in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.

The film received mostly positive reviews. Review website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 120 of the 141 reviews they tallied were positive. This resulted in a score of 85% and a certification of "Fresh". Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and stated that, "The movie has the complexity of great fiction" listing it as the best film of 2001.

Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, and the film won a Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay (Milo Addica & Will Rokos).

獲獎情況

2002年第74屆奧斯卡：最佳女主角獎，并榮獲最佳原創(chuàng)劇本提名。

影片信息

導演：馬克·福斯特

編?。好琢_·雅迪卡、威爾·洛可斯

主演：比利·鮑伯·湯頓、哈莉·貝瑞、希斯·萊杰、泰勒·辛普森

類型：劇情、愛情

制片國家（地區(qū)）：美國、加拿大

上映日期：2002-02-08（美國）

片長：111分鐘

又名：《擁抱艷陽天》《孽愛傷痕》《死囚的妻子》《怪獸舞會》

劇情簡介

漢克（比利·鮑勃·湯頓飾）生長在極端種族主義的保守白人家庭里，他在小鎮(zhèn)監(jiān)獄的死囚牢里當看守。在父親退休后，漢克接手負責執(zhí)行死刑。漢克的父親巴克是一個極端種族主義者，并且保守僵化，在他的家庭中，甚至連感情的過多流露也是不恰當?shù)?。漢克一輩子都生活在父親的影子中，他的生活和思想重復著父親的軌跡，如出一轍。

最近，漢克剛剛處死了一個黑人死囚。偶然間結識了黑人死囚的遺孀萊茜婭（哈莉·貝瑞　飾），并與這個貧窮的黑人婦女墮入情網(wǎng)，這在固守種族偏見的家庭中掀起軒然大波。在種族觀念保守僵化的環(huán)境下，這不可思議的命運交集，會像舞蹈般纏綿動人，還是舉步維艱呢？

制作花絮

瓦妮薩·威廉姆斯是扮演萊茜亞的最初人選，她因角色要求正面全裸而拒絕出演。

萊茜亞接到的遷出通知上的房主是本片制片主管羅伯特·奧蒂茲。

韋斯·本特利曾拒絕扮演索尼。

制片方曾考慮由奎恩·拉提法扮演萊茜亞。

杰弗里·懷特和唐·錢德爾曾為扮演馬斯格洛夫的最初人選。

本片曾入選《首映》雜志評選的“史上評價過高的20部電影”。

重點學習

Halle Berry as a woman whose husband is on death row

我們都知道，row在英語中是“行，排，街道，路”的意思，而在文中則不是這個意思，文中的death row相當于death house，主要用于美國英語中，是“（監(jiān)獄內的）死囚區(qū)，（關押待斃犯人的）死囚牢排，（待決）死囚牢房，死囚被行刑前的監(jiān)房”的意思，比如：This convicted killer has been on death row for 15 years.（這位被判決死刑的殺人犯住在死囚牢房已15年了。）

Follows up those acclaimed projects with this intense

Follow up是英語中一個常見的固定搭配，它最常見的意思是“窮追，緊追不舍；追究到底；干到底”，比如：The hunter is following up a wolf.（那獵人正在追蹤一匹狼。）它還能表達“用進一步行動來加強…的效果，對…采取進一步行動”的意思，比如：After Mary sent a letter to apply for a job, she followed it up by going to talk to the personnel manager.（瑪麗發(fā)出求職信后，她接著還找了人事部經(jīng)理面談。）此外，它還有“進一步照…行事”的意思，比如：I think we should follow up his suggestions; it sounds reasonable.（我想我們應該進一步照他的建議去做，它聽起來可行。）

單詞時間

charged[t?ɑ:d?d] adj. 充滿感情的；氣氛緊張的

racist[?reisist] n. 種族主義者

emphysema[?emfi?si:m?] n. 氣腫；肺氣腫

execution[?eksi?kju:??n] n. 執(zhí)行，實行；完成；死刑

mate[meit] n. 助手，大副；配偶；同事；配對物

medieval[?medi?i:v?l] adj. 中世紀的；[貶]原始的；仿中世紀的；老式的

custom[?k?st?m] n. 習慣；風俗；海關

farewell[?fε??wel] n. 告別，辭別；再見；再會

complexity[k?m?pleksiti] n. 復雜，復雜性；復雜錯綜的事物