经济学人精读 | 奥斯卡不再引领品味？

导读：

上个月，第91届奥斯卡金像奖的各大奖项颁出，电影《绿皮书》拿到了最佳男配角、最佳原创剧本、最佳影片三项大奖。但许多影评人认为《绿皮书》题材老套，不过又是一部与“政治正确”若合符节的讨巧片子。近年来，在世界电影都乏善可陈的大背景下，奥斯卡金像奖的评选结果也受到了很多影评人的诟病。今天这篇文章就以《绿皮书》的获奖作为引子，论述了如今奥斯卡获奖影片被人日渐遗忘的现状。

文章选自2019年3月2日《经济学人》Graphic detail栏目， 我们一起看看作者是如何引用数据来论证他的观点的。

“Green book”? Critics sneered(嘲笑) when Academy Award voters named this saccharine(矫情造作的) tale of a friendship between a black pianist and his white, tough-guy chauffeur(司机) the Best Picture of 2018\. Yet rather than being a rare injustice, the award reinforced a trend. The top Oscar has increasingly gone to films that are soon forgotten.

A film’s quality is in the eye of the beholder(观看者). Its influence, however, can be measured more objectively. IMDB, a crowdsourced(众包的) online database, contains a list of references to every film in subsequent films and TV shows. For example, “Casablanca” has over 1,600 references, including a discussion in “When Harry Met Sally” and a poster in “True Romance”.

The data are spotty(参差不齐的): films from the 1980s get four times as many references as those from the 1940s. However, the same bias presumably applies to all films made in a given year. So a rough proxy for a movie’s cultural influence is to count how many times it was referred to in subsequent years, and then compare its tally with those of all other films made in the same year.

Decades ago, Best Picture nominees were regularly among the most influential films. Fully 68% of references to films made in 1939 are to “Gone with the Wind” (a winner) and “The Wizard of Oz” (nominated). A statistical model shows that in the 1950s, Best Picture winners had a 20% chance of being the most-referred-to film.


That changed with the advent of “Star Wars”, summer blockbusters and sequels. Since the 1970s the films most referred to have been commercial flicks. Oscar voters usually spurn such movies; the ones they do like have become commercially less successful, and thus less culturally relevant. Best Picture winners today have just a 2% chance of leading the references table. By snubbing “Black Panther” (which already has 151 references) and the art film “Roma”, this year’s voters scoffed at both cultural influence and critical acclaim.

精读讲解

“Green book”? Critics sneered when Academy Award voters named this saccharine tale of a friendship between a black pianist and his white, tough-guy chauffeur the Best Picture of 2018\. Yet rather than being a rare injustice, the award reinforced a trend. The top Oscar has increasingly gone to films that are soon forgotten.

中译：《绿皮书》? 当奥斯卡的评委们将这部电影评为2018年“最佳影片”时，影评人们对此都嗤之以鼻，这部电影讲述了一个矫情造作的关于黑人钢琴家和他的白人硬汉司机之间友谊的故事。然而，这种不公的颁奖结果并不罕见，反而强化了这种趋势。越来越多的奥斯卡金像奖得主是那些很快就会被遗忘的电影。

critic /'krɪtɪk/  n. 批评家，评论家；爱挑剔的人

sneer  /snɪr/  v. 嘲笑，冷笑  n. 嘲笑，冷笑

saccharine  /'sækərain/ (GRE词汇)  adj. 极甜的；矫情造作的。朗文词典中的释义为“too romantic in a way that seems silly and insincere”，有点类似于网上说的“圣母绿茶婊，甜的发腻”。这里是说作者认为《绿皮书》的背景故事过于烂大街，矫情造作。

tale /tel/ n. 故事；传说；叙述；流言蜚语

pianist  n. 钢琴家；钢琴演奏者

tough-guy  硬汉

chauffeur  /ʃo'fɝ/  n. 司机

the Best Picture  最佳影片奖

injustice  /ɪn'dʒʌstɪs/  n. 不公正；不讲道义

reinforce   /,riɪn'fɔrs/  v. 加强，加固

A film’s quality is in the eye of the beholder. Its influence, however, can be measured more objectively. IMDB, a crowdsourced online database, contains a list of references to every film in subsequent films and TV shows. For example, “Casablanca” has over 1,600 references, including a discussion in “When Harry Met Sally” and a poster in “True Romance”.

中译：电影的质量取决于观者的眼光。然而，电影的影响力可以更客观地来衡量。IMDB是一个众包的在线数据库，该数据库包含了一个清单，列明了后来的电影和电视剧对之前的各部电影的引用次数。例如，《卡萨布兰卡》被引用超过了1600次，包括《当哈利遇见莎莉》中的一段讨论和《真实罗曼史》中的一幅海报。

beholder  /bɪ'holdɚ/  n. 旁观者；观看者

objectively   /əbˈdʒɛktɪvlɪ/  adv. 客观地

crowdsourced   众包的

database   n. 数据库，资料库

contain   /kən'ten/  v．包含；容纳；含有

reference  /'rɛfrəns/   n. 参考，参照；涉及，提及；引用，介绍信

subsequent   /'sʌbsɪkwənt/  adj. 后来的，随后的

discussion  /dɪ'skʌʃən/  n. 讨论，议论

poster  /'postɚ/   n. 海报，广告；招贴

The data are spotty: films from the 1980s get four times as many references as those from the 1940s. However, the same bias presumably applies to all films made in a given year. So a rough proxy for a movie’s cultural influence is to count how many times it was referred to in subsequent years, and then compare its tally with those of all other films made in thesame year.

中译：（被引用的）数据参差不齐：20世纪80年代的电影被引用的次数是40年代的4倍。然而，同样的偏见可能也适用于同一年拍摄的所有电影。因此，一部电影的文化影响力大致可以用以下方法来衡量：数一数它在随后的几年中被引用的次数，然后将其与同一年内所有其他电影的被引用次数进行比较。

spotty  /'spɑti/  adj. 〔尤指脸上〕脸上有斑点的，多粉刺的；〔质量〕有好有坏的，参差不齐的

**【写作积累】**Films from the 1980s get four times as many references as those from the 1940s. 表示倍数的句型“ ...times as many/much+名词+as+被比对象”。

例句：①There is four times as much water in this pot as in that one.这个壶里装的水是那个壶里的四倍.

②There are six times as many students as we expected.学生数量是我们预期的六倍.

bias  /'baɪəs/  n. 偏见；偏爱

presumably  /prɪ'zuməbli/  adv. 大概；可能

apply to  适用于；应用于

proxy  /'prɑksi/  n. 代理人；委托书；代用品

Decades ago, Best Picture nominees were regularly among the most influential films. Fully 68% of referencesto films made in 1939 are to “Gone with the Wind” (a winner) and “The Wizard ofOz” (nominated). A statistical model shows that in the 1950s, Best Picture winners had a 20% chance of being the most-referred-to film.

中译：几十年前，获得最佳影片奖提名的通常是最有影响力的电影之一。当提及1939年上映的电影时，有68%的引用是关于《乱世佳人》(获奖)和《绿野仙踪》(提名)的。一项统计模型显示，在20世纪50年代，最佳影片奖得主有20%的几率成为被引用最多的电影。

nominee /,nɑmɪ'ni/  n. 被任命者；被提名的人

nominate  /'nɑmɪnet/   vt. 提名；任命；推荐 

regularly  /'reɡjələli/  adv. 定期地；有规律地；经常

influential  /,ɪnflu'ɛnʃl/  adj. 有影响的；有势力的

That changed with the advent of  “StarWars”,  summer blockbusters and sequels. Since the 1970s the films most referred to have been commercial flicks. Oscar voters usually spurn such movies; the ones they do like have become commercially less successful, and thus less culturally relevant. Best Picture winners today have just a 2% chance of leading the references table. By snubbing “Black Panther” (which alreadyhas 151 references) and the art film “Roma”, this year’s voters scoffed at both cultural influence and critical acclaim.

中译：随着《星球大战》、暑期档和续集的上映，这种情况发生了改变。自20世纪70年代以来，被引用最多的电影都是商业电影。奥斯卡投票人通常会拒绝这样的电影；他们喜欢的电影在商业上不那么成功，因此在文化上也不那么相关。如今的最佳影片奖得主只有2%的机会在参考清单中领先。通过冷落《黑豹》(已经被引用151次)和艺术电影《罗马人》，今年的投票人对影片的文化影响力和评论界的好评都不屑一顾。

advent  /'ædvənt/  n. 到来；出现

blockbuster  /'blɑkbʌstɚ/   n. 大片；畅销书。在“经济学人是如何报道《流浪地球》的？”那一期中，《经济学人》用了“**China’s first blockbusting sci-fi film**”，“中国的第一部科幻大片”来描述《流浪地球》，这里的“blockbusting”是“blockbuster”的形容词形式。

sequel   /'sikwəl/  n. 续集；结局；续集影片

flick  /flɪk/  文中是作名词，“电影”的意思，如：an action flick 动作片

spurn  /spə:n/  v. 藐视，摒弃；踢开

relevant  /'rɛləvənt/  adj. 相关的；切题的；中肯的

snub  /snʌb/  v. 冷落；严厉斥责

scoff  /skɔf/   v. 嘲笑；嘲弄

acclaim  /ə'klem/  n. 欢呼，喝彩；称赞