虞琳敏书稿(二)

　　解说：作为一个记录片导演，虞琳敏比大多数人更敏感也更敏锐，更关注身边的人和事物，更擅于发掘行为的背景。一个意外的机会让她结识了一个特殊的群体，从而有了新片《生活博物馆》。

　　虞琳敏：它讲述的是纽约精神病院的艺术家群体。我拍摄这个片子的起因是我去访问一个地方，有人告诉我有一幢楼被捐献给了那些有精神问题的艺术家。然后我就去看了，我 并没有期望能看到什幺东西，然后我了走进去，你知道，你去医院一定会认为那儿很脏。然而整栋楼从楼顶到地板都充满了艺术，每一个角落都很精彩。我遇到其中一些艺术家。我们谈到他们的艺术，他们对自己作品的理解和艺术本身。It’s about an artistic community in a mental institution in New York. The reason why I was attracted to this subject is I went to visit this place and someone told me that there was a building that was devoted to the art of the mentally ill in this institution. And so I went to visit and I didn’t expect to see that much, but I walked in. You know you go to hospital you think it will be very drab. The whole building is filled with art from floor to the ceiling. Everywhere you look and it was really wonderful. I met some artists there. When we were talking about their art, just the level of sophistication in both their articulation about their art and their artist itself.

　　同期：人们在这里无需遵循任何规则，现代艺术的意义正在于打破成规和旧习。

　　沮丧和压抑使我逃离了自己的角色而被送到这里。

　　我始终抱着很多希望，而且我一直认为没有什么人能比我自己更有权力惩罚自己。

　　也许人们会从那些色彩中发现什么，就从那些简单的色彩中。

　　虞琳敏：我明白你的意思。当你讲述某个人的故事时，比如你拍一部关于有精神问题的艺术家的片子或一个患有小儿麻痹症的作家的片子，你不会总去强调这些人的特殊性。人们也许会说，哦，他们有这些问题，我们不一样。但其实，假如你去看过他们的艺术品或文章，我想你就能和他们沟通，你会找到共性的地方。而这就是人们的反应，突然间他们会明白这些人的生活和作品所表达的内涵。所以，是的，全力挖掘能够分享人性经历的方法是所有影片的目标。I think I understand your question. When you tell a story about someone…like you did a film about some artists who also have some mental illness or made a film about a writer who had polio that you don’t always want to concentrate on what’s different, right? I mean, people say ,oh, they have this problem, I can’t identify with them. But actually, if you go and look at the art that they make or the writing that they do, that’sswheresI think you can make the connection, that’s what you can find what’s universal. And that’s what people respond to, all of a sudden they say, oh I understand what this person, what their life is about, what their work is about. So, yes, I mean concentrating on trying to find the way share the human experiences is kind of the goal of the film.

　　虞琳敏：完全出乎意料，我想，天哪，我们真该做一部精彩的片子，因为人们从未见过这样的一群精神病人。我想每个人脑海中都会有一副关于疯了的人的想象，你看着这些人的艺术品，听他们的谈论，像是身处另一个世界。而这些艺术品就是人们去了解那个世界的途径。这就是那部片子的内容。拍摄中我们经常返回医院，别人说你们怎么那么喜欢去那个医院，那是因为我们非常愿意，你知道，当人们在创造作品时，即使是创造艺术也是痛苦的过程，所以这是很值得做的事情。每次回到那里，我们总是被那些热衷艺术的人们围绕，我们一起谈论他们喜欢的事情。他们痛苦的经历，他们同艺术的碰撞更是有别于常人，那部片子花了两年时间拍摄，那实在是一段难忘的时光。(So unexpected. I thought, God we should make a wonderful film because people don’t see people with mental illness like this. I think everyone has in their mind a picture of what someone who was crazy looks like. You see these people’s art and you hear them talk about it. It’s like a different world. And so you could use the art, it’s a way to getsintosthat different world. So that’s for that film is about. And in making it we kept on going back to the hospital. People would say you guys are always so happy to go back to the hospital. But because we enjoy it, you know when people are making art. Even if they are making art, it’s very torture. It’s a wonderful thing to be doing.swhereswe go back, we’ll be around people who were enjoying what they are doing and we’ll talking to them about what they enjoyed. Even though they touch about painful experiences, contacts of art, it took on a different level, so that film took about two years to make and it’s really wonderful time.)

　　画面：《生活博物馆》中眼睛、吸烟等镜头

　　解说：在《生活的博物馆》中，虞琳敏倾听克莱德默精神病治疗中心这些病人对于艺术的认识，呈现了大量原生的、充满想象力的艺术作品，还到处捕捉着他们每个人的眼神以及这眼神直指的灵魂深处。

　　虞琳敏：当你制作一部纪录片时，我想，除了资金问题外，真正的挑战在于能否抓住故事的精髓。你不能把所有东西都搬上去，那是在生搬硬套。你不可以把真实情况完全拍出来，这样永远都不够你拍。你所要做的是紧抓要害，努力抓住真实故事的精髓。这很不容易。你得不断地问自己，我做得对吗？我讲够了吗？我讲得对吗？要掌握平衡，而你唯一要做的是应该始终记着这个题目最初吸引你的地方。如果能时常回头看看，回顾一下走过的路，我如何探索的，我了解到什么，我惊讶于什么，我以前对什么不了解，如果能够把这些问题用你的作品表现出来，那就是最好的。你应该总是充满疑问，这是好现象，你必须要不断地确定自己走在正确的路上。有时你拍完了，可自己并不知道怎么样，但是人们看了以后，你和他们讨论他们从中得到什么，这就是最好的考察。

　　A: ok. When I’m making a documentary, I think, besides the challenge of raising the money, the real challenge is can you get the essence of the story that you trying to tell. You can’t tell everything, you know, people say you are telling the true story. You can’t tell the true story, you know, you could never put enough in the film. What you try to do is capture the essence, try to capture what is the sense of the truth in the film. And that’s the hard thing. You always question am I doing it right? Am I telling enough? Am I telling the right things? And it’s getting that balance and the only thing that I can do is to try to remember what it was that interested me about the subject in the first place. If I go back to that and I trace my own journey, how I explore this, what I learn it what point, what surprise me, what didn’t I know before. And I try to put thatsintosthe film, that’s the best way. But you always have doubts, I mean that’s good, you should always feel like you need to continue to test yourself to make sure that you are on the right path. Sometimes you finish it you don’t know, but you talk to people after they see and see, what they got from it, and that’s the best test.

　　同期:你觉得他们的生活状态会影响到你的心态吗？

　　虞琳敏：会的，是这样的，当你涉足某事很深时，比如进入一部影片的主题里，那么很难退出来说为什么我会对这个感兴趣，或它是如何影响我的生活的。因为你太投入了，所以假如你十年后问我，也许我可以回答。但现在我不能确切地说出来，除非我已经真正体会，欣赏过这些作品的来由，那些艺术家的创作意图和他们所做的事。A: I think so, the thing is that when you are very involved with something, with the subject of the film, it’s very hard to step back and say why am I interested in this, or how is this effecting my life. Because you so involved in it, so if you ask me ten years from now I can probably answer the question. But now I can’t really pinpoint except that I’ve really enjoyed exploringswheresthis work came from, what the artists, what they want to create, what they did.

　　虞琳敏：有些人觉得纪录片会很无聊，因为它们都是关于真实生活的。但是好的纪录片像任何故事片一样，应该是好看的，因为它能给你的总是比你想象的更多。有时你会怀着些许期待进入电影院，而当你出来时会说，天哪，这比我想象的精彩得多。有些纪录片，特别是怀斯曼拍的纪录片是比较长，像五个小时，六个小时，这是很长的时间。我试图把我的片子拍得短小，尽可能短小，因为我想如果你给人们。。。我宁可他们看完以后说，哦，我还没看够，也不愿意他们看完后说，这太长了。我记得一位当初一起工作的同事说过，他的原则是：不能乏味。你讲你的故事，尽可能讲好，但是必须记住，不要让你的观众感到无聊。我总是记着这一点。你不一定总要让他们发笑，但你必须保持节奏，不能走得太偏。你也不能只展现自己喜欢的东西，应该记住有人正坐在那里看。我认为优秀的影片在使人放松的同时还应该带给人们一些别的。(: some people think about documentaries will be boring, because they are about real life. But good documentaries like any films would be very exciting because it’s more than you thought that you gonna get. That’s the main thing, when you go in with some expectation, you come out and you go, God, that was so much more interesting than I thought. The thing about some documentaries, this person in particular, his films are very long, like five hours, six hours, that’s a long time. I try to make my films as short as they can be. I try to make them as short as I can get a way with, because I think that if you give people…I’d rather have them coming out saying, oh, I wish I had little bit more than come out and say, ok, that was too much. I remember one of the first people I started working with, he said that his rule was just don’t be boring. You tell the story, you try to tell well, just remember, try not to bore your audience. I try to keep that in mind. You don’t have to make them laugh and everything all the time but just make sure that you keeping on the story, you don’t go this way too much. You don’t show just the things that you like so much, you have to remember that there are someone who sitting thereshavingsto watch it. And I won’t level films need to entertain at the same time that they show you anything else. )

　　这是你对好片子的一个标准？

　　虞琳敏：没有，对于纪录片，如果故事的感觉很强烈，主题很鲜明，做片子的人眼光独到，那么即使他们套用陈旧的形式，使用破旧的摄像机，故事还是会非常吸引人，因为他们思路正确并紧扣主题，他们把精力花在应该花的地方。然而假如你去看一个故事片，你会期待爆炸，电脑特技，这是不同的标准，但对于纪录片来说，真实事件的冲击力比任何特技都来得强烈。(no, the think about documentaries is sometimes if the story telling is very strong, the subject is really strong, and the filmmaker has a goods vision, even if they shoot on a very bad format, even if they only have very old video camera the story can still be so powerful, because they actually went and they capture the story, they made the effort and they told it right. But if you go to see a feature film, you pay nine dollars and everything, people expect explosions, expect computer effects the standards are different. But for documentaries, power of something that actually happen can be more powerful than the all the special affects. )

　　解说：发现、沟通、了解、寻找到共性的地方，这是虞琳敏完成任何一个作品所必须经历的阶段，也是她的作品所要展现的东西。虞琳敏说，全力挖掘能够分享人性经历的方法，这就是我所有影片的目标。

　　虞琳敏：纪录片能够成功的因素和电影成功的因素应该是一样的，那就是它们把你带入一个从未经历过的故事里。我的意思是这是一种普遍的理论，而且是实用的。有时人们看一部他们喜欢的纪录片时会说，哦，我觉得像在看电影，如果片子拍得好看，有时当人们在看一部电影时，也许会说，哦，我觉得像在看纪录片。你知道我的意思吗？你想要一种真正被打动的感觉，真正发掘出你从未经历过的事物。(documentaries succeed for the same reasons that dramatic films succeed that if they take you somewhere that you haven’t been before they tell a story well. I mean that’s a very general statement. But I think it’s really applied. Sometimes people they see a documentary film they enjoy and they say, oh, I felt like I was seeing a dramatic story，if you tell it well that’s the way it feels and sometimes when people see a dramatic story they say, oh, I feel like I was seeing a documentary. You know what I mean, you want the feeling of really being emotionally involved and really exploring something or being somewhere that you haven’t been before.)

　　我想我最近拍的几部纪录片都是关于那些搞创作的人的。艺术家，作家或。。。我现在拍的是一个艺术家。我想我对他们的作品很感兴趣，这些人的生活很艰辛且非同寻常。令我感兴趣的是那些过着常人认为艰苦的生活，并且能从中找到有价值的东西的艺术家。且不说艰苦的生活换来优秀的艺术是一种补偿，我觉得每个人都愿意过好的生活，而有些人却能真正去做。。。我是说这些人能在天生比较恶劣的环境里做出杰出的事，这的确令我感动。(I think the last few documentaries that I’ve made have all been films about people who are creative. People who are artists, writers or…the film I doing now is about a man is an artist. I think I’m interested in their work, also these are people who have very tough life, very unusual life, I’m interested in the way is that someone who is an artist can take a very, what people would say is very terrible life, and find something that is very valuable in it. Not to say that it’s a compensation that a bad life is equal to good art, I mean everyone would rather have a good life but to me it’s amazing that someone can actually do something with…I mean these people particular can do something extraordinary with the circumstances that they were born into.)

　　解说：一个作品，要能够打动观众，就必须先打动自己，这个我们熟悉不过的准则就是虞琳敏成功的原因。回首过去，尽管很多片子显得稚嫩，但也因那里包含了拍摄对象和自己的情感、经历而显得弥足珍贵。

　　虞琳敏：虞琳敏：很难笼统地说，但我想纪录片能够成功的因素和电影成功的因素应该是一样的，那就是它们把你带入一个从未经历过的故事里。我的意思是这是一种普遍的理论，而且是实用的。有时人们看一部他们喜欢的纪录片时会说，哦，我觉得像在看电影，如果片子拍得好看，有时当人们在看一部电影时，也许会说，哦，我觉得像在看纪录片。你知道我的意思吗？你想要一种真正被打动的感觉，真正发掘出你从未经历过的事物。(A: it’s hard to generalize about films but I think documentaries succeed for the same reasons that dramatic films succeed that if they take you somewhere that you haven’t been before they tell a story well. I mean that’s a very general statement. But I think it’s really applied. Sometimes people they see a documentary film they enjoy and they say, oh, I felt like I was seeing a dramatic story，if you tell it well that’s the way it feels and sometimes when people see a dramatic story they say, oh, I feel like I was seeing a documentary. You know what I mean, you want the feeling of really being emotionally involved and really exploring something or being somewhere that you haven’t been before.)

　　是的，我现在正开始导演电视连续剧，这是不同的。你有剧本，你与作者合作，与制片人及演员合作。所以这是不同的。拍纪录片时，很多时候你采访某人，试图让他们说一些他们必须说的话，还得诱导他们。而与演员工作时你有剧本，你只要告诉他们应该说什么，比较轻松。两者是不同的，剧组情况不同。纪录片拍摄过程中，许多时候事情在发生，而你的工作就是要抓住事件发生的过程，你不能说“好，我们再来一遍”，你要么抓住了，要么失去了。拍电影时你可以一遍一遍地做，直到满意为止。两者节奏不一样。纪录片里你要追赶动作，而在电影里你是在创造，别人可以等一会。纪录片里，多数时候你都在追着人抓镜头。( Right. I’m gettingsintosTV directing which is directing on this dramatic series and it is different. I mean you working with script, you are working with writer, you working with producers and you are working with actors. So it’s different, it’s not worse or better, it’s different. In documentaries a lot of times when you interview somebody, you try to get them to say what you know they have to say, you have to sort of coax them. When you working with actors, you have the script, you just tell them what to say, which is you know, can be very liberating. But it’s different. The crew is very different. Think about documentaries, a lot of times things are happening, it’s your job to try to catch them of their happening and in the documentaries has a lot of times you can’t say”ok, do it again.”. If it happen, you get it or not…In dramatic film, it happens, you do over and over again till you get it right. So it’s a different pace. You know in the documentary you are chasing the action and in dramatic films you are creating, so everyone wait, wait….. In documentary, a lot of times you are running after somebody you are trying to get the action.)

　　有意思的是，当你看自己的片子时，如果刚拍完就看，你会发现许多错误，你知道，哦，我应该。。。这个镜头应该长些。。。但如果你过几年再去看，就会很喜欢，因为有了距离。但是当我在看“呼吸课程”的时候，我觉得自己的朋友在那儿，我好像又见到了他。所以对我来说，这成了个人化的情感，个人的经历，我现在又可以欣赏它了。(Well the funny thing is, when you watch your own film, if it’s very soon after you make it, all you can see is the mistakes, you know, oh, I should have…that shot should be longer…but if you wait, wait a couple of years, then you watch it again, then you can enjoy it, because then you can have some distance. But when I watch“Breathing Lessons”, I see my friend there, I feel like I am visiting him again. Sofor me it’s now very personal, personal experience, but now I can enjoy it again.)

　　解说：这个夸张幽默的“指挥家”的扮演者不是职业演员，而是虞琳敏的丈夫马克·赛尔斯曼，他还有幸尝过妻子那颗《酸死人的糖果》，演员只是兼职，他的本职工作是作家。

　　虞琳敏：其实，做电视剧时没有人告诉你应该做这个或做那个，你只要放开手脚，与大家协作，而且电视剧投入的要比纪录片多。而对于纪录片来说，真正的老板是故事本身，是故事里的人物，所以你不可能完全控制得了，你能控制的是你如何讲述故事，而这个故事又是不能被控制的。拍故事片也是一样，电视制作人可以说，我不想把那个镜头放在那儿。所以都不容易，不光是个人的事。You know, actually, when you working like on a TV series, that is not like someone standing over my shoulder, and say, you do this, you have to be very open, I mean it’s very collaborative, you get more input than you do on a documentary. But on the documentary again, your real boss is the story, the person the story is about, so that you never have total control. Justswheresyou control is the documentary is how you tell the story, but the story is nothing that has to control. In dramatic films, it’s too, sometimes a TV show producer can say oh I don’t want that shot in there, but it’s difficult, it’s not just about you.

　　马克·赛尔斯曼:我们开始相遇时，虞琳敏还在上大学(When we first met, Jessica was in college)

　　解说：优美的耶鲁校园，一个攻读英国文学的华裔女孩，一个拥有作家梦的德裔男孩，这段浪漫或许哪天会在马克·赛尔斯曼的书中重现。不过，之后的事则要由华裔女孩自己书写。1987年，虞琳敏自耶鲁大学毕业，在大多数华裔都选择法律专业继续攻读的情况下，虞琳敏选择了电影。

　　虞琳敏：其实从英国文学到拍电影是一个偶然的机遇。但是当我开始接触电影时我会从讲述故事的角度去把握。所以如果抛开所有技术因素，只看故事本身，两者的动机是相象的，就是要把故事讲述好。这就是我做的事(yeah, actually after studying English goingsintosfilm was, just by chance almost. But I think when I got involved in film I would always take it from the point of view of what is the story it’s being told. So if you put all the technical considerations aside, and you look at the story, it’s a kind of similar impose, you need to tell the story well. So that’s kind of what I did)

　　解说：为了学习电影制作，虞琳敏和丈夫来到旧金山。这里有热爱电影的观众，有各具特色的艺术电影，有全美历史最悠久的电影节“旧金山电影节”。虞琳敏在一家制作公司找到了工作。

　　虞琳敏：我从各种不同的工作干起，从很初级的开始，做助理，有时我会去帮忙停车，需要什么我就做什么，这样一点点学习。(but I started working on different productions, you know, at the very low level, as the production assistant, sometimes I would be parking the cars, just doing whatever work needed to be done, so i learned little by little,)

　　同期：在耶鲁大学你学的是英国文学，毕业后开始做纪录片，这种转变是怎么实现的？

　　虞琳敏：我进入电影界的初衷是如何开始我们所感兴趣的工作，而且我从没想过会因为这个引起众人注意。所以只要能继续拍自己喜欢的电影，能够过愉快的生活我就很满足了。我很快乐，因为所有这些都发生了。The think about gettingsintosfilms and everything is how we start the work that is interesting and I never really thought I will get a lot attention for doing it. So I am very happy as long as I continue making the films and making a living and everything, and alsoshavingssome sort of a life. But I’m happy because those things have happened.

　　同期：拍纪录片很辛苦，这个行业里也很少有女孩子，你的父母支持你做这个工作吗？

　　虞琳敏：是的，这是个很好的问题。事实上我父母非常支持我，我遇到很多在上大学的华裔美国人，他们都说很喜欢从事电影，但是说父母会杀了我的。而我的父母，我很幸运，我觉得他们想看看我会不会喜欢做点别的事，所以他们只是站在身后，支持我，有时他们会带点好吃的来，真的很好。(oh, yeah, that’s a good question. Actually my parents are very supportive, I meet a lot of Chinese–Americans, a lot of Chinese students in colleges and they say I would love to make films。But my parents will kill me. But my parents…I was lucky, they were…I think they wanted to see if I would enjoy doing something different, so they just stood back and were very supportive, sometimes they would bring us some food or something. Really good.)

　　解说：好莱坞，美国电影业的中心，每个电影人理想的造梦乐土，虞琳敏也不例外。1994年，她和丈夫迁往洛杉矶。

　　虞琳敏：我刚开始学电影的时候在洛杉矶一家制作纪录片的公司工作。纪录片剧组通常没有太多工作人员，所以总有事情可做，这正是我喜欢的，我喜欢在工作中学习。在那之前我为一些广告拍摄做过工作，他们有很大的工作组，所以你就总是做些无聊的事情。我的第一份工作是帮忙一个速冻面的广告，我的工作就是不断地把速冻面条放到叉子上，这样做一整天。你知道，你学不到任何东西，非常无聊。而在纪录片组里，如果他们需要帮忙，我就可以去帮忙录音。这样我就能学习操作机器。这就是区别，你会得到更多经验。(虞)A: When I started learning about films, I was working with a company here in LA that make documentaries, and so that’sswheresI learnt. Think about documentaries is usually you don’t have a big team of people, so there is always a lot of work to do and that’s what I like, I like learning on the job. Before that I have worked on some commercials that have such a big crew that you get a very boring job. My first job was on a frozen food commercial, my job was to take frozen noodles and put them on forks all day, you know you don’t learn anything, this is very boring job.swheresis in the documentary, they need help, so I was recording sound. So I got some experience with the equipment. So that’s the difference, you get a lot more experience early.

　　“重现昔日的人”是拍那些喜欢穿上国内战争时期服饰的美国人，他们在周末会假装回到那个时代，并进行“战斗”。对我来说，这很有意思，当他们穿戴上统一的服饰后，一切都回到了1860年。你吃那时的食物，如果没有地方泡澡，你就不能洗澡，因为你是在那个时代，国内战争时期，你没有地方去洗澡。我觉得很好玩，因为他们还是有工作，还互相发送电子邮件，他们活在这个年代，同时又为另一个时代所深深吸引，我只是想利用这个机会发掘一些事实，还有许多有趣的事人们想去实现，这是我花了几年时间做的一个影片，很有意思。(“Men of Reenaction”is about people you know Americans who like to dress up in uniforms of the people from the civil war year and they like to fight the battles of the war in the weekend. To me it was interesting, because these people they want to be very authentic, when they are wearing the uniforms, everything has to be the way it was back in the 1860s. You eat the food they would eat, if there is no place to bath, you don’t bath. Because you are out of the middle of nowhere. Your would not have showers during the civil war. It’s very interesting to me, because they still have jobs and send email to each other and they just live in the modern world but they are so attracted to this other time, so to me it was just a chance to explore that there’re still many funny things that the people do to try to make it real and so that was a film I work on for a couple of years and it’s a lot of fun.)

　　马克·赛尔斯曼：那时我整天都在写作。她那时也刚刚开始做电影的工作，所以对她来说很不容易，因为在电影这行里开始都很难，她每天要开一小时车到城市的另一边去和一群人工作。(At that time, I was writing full time. She was just beginning her film work. And so it was very difficult for her, because to begin in the film industry is always very difficult, and she was happen to drive everyday an hour to the other side of the city to work withsgroupsof people, )

　　同期：是什幺吸引你去做纪录片的？

　　虞琳敏：是我为什么喜欢去做纪录片是吗？通常来说，当你想拍一个纪录片时，是因为某个题材首先吸引住了你本人。对我来说，并非别人告诉我说，这个题材挺适合你，而是，当我在阅读的时候，去某个地方的时候，或看见什么的时候，觉得想多了解那些事物。所以这是一种个人的好奇心。也正因为如此，即使有再多困难，资金的困难等等，因为它是你自己感兴趣的，还是会带给你巨大的满足感。( is that why my attracted to documentary films, making them? Ok, the thing about documentary films is usually you start making them because it’s a subject that personally interests you. For me, it’s not someone calls up and says it’s a good subject for you, it’s a…I would be reading something or going somewhere, and see something and I think I want to know more about that. So it’s your own personal curiosity. So even though the film is much harder to make, it’s harder to raise the money and everything, because it’s something you personally interested in, it’d much more satisfying along a way.)

　　马克·赛尔斯曼:但那段时间并不艰难，我们过得很快乐，我们两个都刚刚开始各自的事业，开始熟悉洛杉矶，发现我们的新生活(But it wasn’t a difficult time and it was a fun time, we were both really beginning our careers, we were learning about L.A., discovering our life together, we’ve just been married. It was a fun time, I don’t remember it was being difficult at all.)

　　解说：在采访中，作家马克·塞尔斯曼又充当了我们的翻译，早些年到过中国的他，已将那段经历著书出版。

　　虞琳敏：我丈夫的前两本书和中国有关，因为他在中国呆了两年，后面那本书也有些中国的场景，但是那以后他也写些别的，他写了一个室内剧。最近那本书是写一个和尚，他写的题材很广，有趣的是他并不是中国人，他是个白人，但他会说中文。所以当我们去中国餐馆时，服务生总是先看看我，和我说中文，而我总是指指他。然后服务生就说，什么，他会说中文，你不会说中文？他说中文时我根本不知道他在说什么。my husband’s first two books has something to do with China, because he lived in for China 2 years, and the 2nd one also had a Chinese scene, but since then he’s written about other thing he wrote a chord room drama, his last book was about a nun, his book is about all different sorts of things, but the funny thing is that he is not Chinese, he is a white, but he speaks Chinese. You know, I’m Chinese but I don’t speak Chinese. So when we go to a Chinese restaurant , the waiter always says, looks at me and speaks to me in Chinese. I pointed to him always. The waiter says“what, he speaks Chinese, you don’t speak Chinese, he is saying Chinese but I don’t know what he says”.

　　But that was very embarrassing.

　　马克·塞尔斯曼：有时人们问我是不是因为我妻子是中国人，所以我说中文，我有没有教过她中文？答案是没有。这就是我们关系的特质。我不认为让我教虞琳敏任何事情是个好主意。她非常，她很明确自己要做的事，主意很硬，要我试着去教她什么是不可能的，我最好还是继续做我的翻译。Sometimes people ask me, because my wife is a Chinese, I speak Chinese, have I ever tried to teach her Chinese? The answer is no. It’s just the nature of our relationship. I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to try to teach Jessica anything. she is very…she knows what she wants to do, she has very strong ideas about things, and for me to try to teach her anything probably wouldn’t work , it’s better for me to just do the work of interpreting.

　　虞琳敏：他学中文甚至在上大学之前，还是十三，四岁时，他是从那时候开始学的，然后在中国住了一段时间，但他的口音非常地道，我也不知道，别人告诉我的。he learnt Chinese when, he studied even before college, when he was like 13 or 14. That’s when he started, then he lived there, but his accent is really perfect, I don’t know, but the people told me his accent is perfect.

　　同期：你小时候学过中文吗？Did you ever learn Chinese in your childhood?

　　虞琳敏：没有。我父亲的家庭来自上海，我母亲的也来自中国南方。所以一边是说上海话，一边是说广东话，在家里我们只说英文，我的祖父母都说英文。所以我从来不需要学。No. Growing up my father’s side is family from Shanghai, and my mother side the family is from southern China. So you have the one side speak Shanghainese and the other side speaks Cantonese, at home we just spoke English and my grandparents all spoke English , so then I never had to learnt it.

　　你去过中国吗？have you been to China?

　　虞琳敏：我去过中国几次，我丈夫的第一本书是在上海被拍成电影的，所以我去帮忙，我们去了杭州，我还去了上海和南方其它地方，我祖母捐献了一些艺术品，在那里帮助修建博物馆。从小，我父母就带我们去看电影，有很多功夫片什么的。I’ve been to China a couple of times, my husband’s first book was madesintosmovie that was shot in China, so I went over to help, we went Hangzhou, and I visited Shanghai and I was also in southern China, my grandmother was donating some art work, she helped build the museum there. But growing up, my parents always took us to see the China movies, there’re lots of Konfu movies and everything so.

　　你能看懂里面的中文吗？Q: Can you understand Chinese when you saw the movies?

　　虞琳敏：不懂，但是我可以读字幕。Could not understand, but I could read the subtitles.

　　想没想过在中国拍一个片子？In you mind, that you want shoot a film in China?

　　虞琳敏：在中国，是的曾经拍过，但不是我的片子，是帮忙别人。这是很有意思的经历，对我来说，如果某个题材需要在中国拍摄，我当然会考虑，但时机还不成熟吧。是的。关于此，人们问过我很多。我说作为一个华人对我帮助最大的是家庭对我的支持。正如你们所了解的，我母亲是中国人，她不仅告诉我关于中国和美国的历史，还包括我们家庭的故事。我从这些感受到了一点家庭的经历，因而才能有现在的机遇。我很喜欢这样，我觉得很幸运可以去尝试很多事情，甚至去拍电影。因此我认为这是很有价值的部分。我并非经常想这些事，但是我心里很明白，我父母也是，我父亲是医生，我母亲是作家并研究历史。但他们没有说你必须去当医生，你必须去做律师。他们对我说你自己去探索，去尝试做不同的事情。因此我很感谢他们。So film in China, I worked on a film, not my film, but I worked on the film that was in the China. It’s very interesting experience, for me, it’s just whether the subject came up would need to be shot in China, then I would certainly think about it, but the opportunity hasn’t come up or anything. Oh, yeah. People ask me that much. I said that what’s helpful about my being a Chinese is that my family, actually has been very supportive. I think also you know, going up my mother’s historian of Chinese-American history, so she would tell me stories about not only just Chinese and America , but also about my own family. And so you feel like you know a little bit about what you family went through so that you could have opportunities now. So I think you definitely feel like, I felt very lucky, to be able to try to, even gosintosmaking films and so I think it’s something that was very valuable. I don’t think about it all the time but I know I didn’t take it for grant, you know and also was my parents didn’t. My dad is a doctor, my mother is also a writer and historian. But they didn’t say you must be a doctor, you must be a lawyer. They said you go and explore, try some different things. So that I’m very thankful for them.

　　华人的背景对你有哪些帮助？

　　虞琳敏：如你所知，这个问题很难回答。因为我知道作为一个华人对我来说是一个事实。我的家庭是中国人的后代。我想，我们总是努力学习，了解家庭的历史和这种家庭的价值观。但涉及到我自己的工作上，作为一个中国人，我不知道是否受到直接的影响。但至少我清楚没多少华人从事电影工作，所以你必须尽量把自己的工作做到最好。因为很少华人从事这行。有时其它的中国人也问我，希望给他们一些建议什幺的。而我能告诉他们的只能是，坚持去做自己想做的事。因为慢慢会有更多华人加入这个圈子，从而更加促进这个行业发展，只是需要些时间，每个人都要尽力去做。You know, it’s hard to say.‘Cause I’m a Chinese and I know that certain things .You know, my family were probably were result of being Chinese. I don’t know we always try to do well in school, and also knowing about the family history and certain values of family. But in terms of my own work I don’t know what is directly related to my being Chinese, I don’t know. But I do know that since there are not many Chinese that I meet who are in the film business that you feel like you need to do as well as you can. Because you know it’s not many of you out there and you know sometimes other Chinese will ask me for advice or something ,and all I can tell them is just to keep trying to do what they want to do. Because slowly there getting to be more Chinese involved, more advancement, but it happens slowly and everyone just leads it to the best.

　　最开始对中国产生兴趣是什么时候？What’s the 1st time that you become interested in China?

　　马克·塞尔斯曼：我对中国的兴趣是从13岁开始的，我常看电视，先是看功夫片，那对我简直是一次警醒，因为那个主人公和我一样长得比较小，他是个和气善良的人，但总是成为别人欺负的对象，像我在学校总是被大孩子欺负一样。然而当别人来攻击他时，他可以自我防卫，然后很快又恢复平静，独自走开了。一点麻烦也没有。我想这就是我要的。无论如何，我想变成那样。因为坦白地说，当我还是十三岁的时候，我想，假如我能这样，假如我是一个佛教和尚，一个功夫大师，那么女孩子就会喜欢我，会很吸引她们。那是对浪漫生活的一种期待。所以我开始读有关中国的书，有关功夫的书，读有关佛教的书，并且开始试着自己练习基本步伐，什么拳，什么腿，最后我们发现离学校不远的地方有一个功夫学校，所以我开始上课。但我们那个老师不太好，他是个疯子，他经常喝醉，而且还打我们。但这还是培养了我对中国文化的兴趣，一些中学的老师看到我的兴趣，鼓励我学习中国历史和毛笔字，你知道，用毛笔写字。就这样开始了，当这种兴趣在我心里扎根后就没有停止过，所以大学里，我选择了中国文学。(My interest in China started when I was about 13 years old and I was watching television, I saw Kongfu片,功夫movie for the first time. It was a zif lightening came out the sky, struck me at the head. Because this character who is very small like I was always small, he was very peaceful gentle guy, he’s been picked on all the time like I was always being picked on in school by the bigger kids. But when they start to attack him, he was able to defend himself, and then right away be peaceful again, and just walk off. No trouble at all. I thought, that’s what I want. Whatever that is, I want. Because frankly, when I was thirteen years old, I thought that if I could be like that, if I could be a Buddhist monk, if I could be a Gongfu master, then girls would like me. That would be attractive. I wait to begin my romantic life. So I started reading books about China, reading books about Gongfu, reading books about Buddhism and try to learn in my practice my basement, doing punchers and kicks and finally we found there was a Gongfu school not too far from our school, so I started taking lessons. Now it turns out the teacher that I had was not a very good teacher, he was a kind of crazy person, he would get drunken, beat us up all the time. But still, it started my foundation of being interested in Chinese, a few teachers at my high school saw that I was very interested…and encourage me to learn Chinese history and Chinese brush painting, you know,用毛笔写字…..it just broom from the air, and when the roots were deep enough, then I just never stopped, so in college, I majored in Chinese literature.)

　　同期：

　　马克·赛尔斯曼:But one thing is very funny

　　虞琳敏：when we go to a Chinese restaurant , the waiter always says, looks at me and speaks to me in Chinese.

　　马克·赛尔斯曼: sometimes when we travel to Asia, of course people in China will begin to speak to her, they’ll say,“怎幺样?…..”,

　　虞琳敏I pointed to him always.

　　马克·赛尔斯曼:she had to say“I‘m sorry , I don’t speak Chinese, you have to talk to him“,

　　虞琳敏：The waiter says“what, he speaks Chinese, you don’t speak Chinese

　　马克·赛尔斯曼:and they criticize her“中国人……”really funny.

　　虞琳敏：that was very embarrassing.

　　他说话你还是可以听懂是吗？but you still can understand while he is talking, right?

　　虞琳敏：是，我可以听懂，没问题，但回答不行，最近我们家做了些改修，装修工人是东北人，所以当然他们说中文，有时和他们说话是件有趣的事，“谈话没问题。。。。”但有些词听不懂，像“水龙头。。。”之类的。(Yeah. I can understand fine, just answer, it’s…Just recently we had some work done on the house and crew, construction crew was all from Dongbei(东北人), so of cause they spoke Chinese, it was fun sometimes just chat with them, you know,“谈话没问题…….””, those kind of words I had a difficult time’’水龙头…..’’)

　　从祖父母那辈开始，英语就成为虞琳敏家里主要的交流方式，父亲的上海话和母亲的广东话都成为儿时的记忆。尽管如此，像所有的华裔一样，虞琳敏仍然有着深厚的中国情结。她的第一个片子就是一个关于中国城的故事。

　　虞琳敏：我的第一部片子叫“家族起点”，是关于一个中国城的故事，我的祖父是在那里长大的。所以这是一个历史性的题材，同时也是个人化的，因为我的祖父在那里成长，那是我的第一部片子。那以后，我开始对拍片子着迷，那是一次宝贵的经历，接下来，从“呼吸课程”之后我做了一些广告片。有些制作人的作品是比较相近的，他们只拍某种类型的片子，如果拍电影就只拍历史性或史诗类的片子。而我的片子是各种题材的，所以比较难概括。(Gosh, the first documentary I made which was called“Home Base”,“Home Base”is about a China Town, that’s the townswheresmy grandfather grew up, one of my grandfathers. So it was a historical film, but it’s also personal because my grandfather grew up there, so that was the first time when I did. After I did that, I got very exciting about making films. So it was a good experience. And also since making“Breathing Lessons”I’ve also made a few commercial things. Some film makers, their films are very connected, you see, they just make one, one type of film, you know just in dramatic films they make just historical or epic or something, my films are all in the place, so it’s hard to generalize.)

　　同期：

　　虞琳敏：我丈夫是个作家，他也是从事创作。两个人都是以创作题材为目标，所以都会从事某个项目一段时间，然后休息。然后等待下一个构思，接着你再为下一个构思去工作，所以很难。。。这不是持续的，有规律的工作。这不像每天上班下班。所以彼此理解对方做的事情是很重要的。所以当我努力在筹集资金时，他很支持我，而我也会支持他的工作。所以我想我们都理解什么是压力。(he also works in the create field. Both of them are very project-oriented, so you work on something for a while then you stop. Then you wait for the next idea, then you work on the next idea…so, it’s a very difficult thing…to be…it’s not very consistent. It’s not like a daily jobswheresyou going. So it’s important to understand what each other goes through. So he is very supportive when I’m trying to raise the money for something, and I try to support him when he is working on the fifth draft of the book, you know. So I think we both understand what the pressure is like.)

　　马克·赛尔斯曼夫：经常有人问这个问题，我写了两本书，一本是散文，写了我在中国的经历，另一本是小说，也是写在中国发生的故事。人们经常问，这和你妻子是中国人有关系吗？其实不全是那样，在我认识杰西卡之前，我就在中国住过，我们认识以后我开始写关于中国的小说。这就和她有关，她时常鼓励我，每天我都问她“你觉得这个想法怎么样？那个怎么样？”所以她和这本书很有关系，但这和她是中国人没有直接的关联，因为事实上她已经是第五代华裔美国人，和我一样，我是第五代德裔美国人，所以第一次见面还不了解她的人会说，“哦，你的英文真好，在哪里学的？”可是你知道她的家庭在美国的历史比多数美国家庭的时间还长，但因为她是个亚洲人，人们就觉得她一定是移民。有一件事很有趣，有时我们去亚洲旅行，当然中国人会先和她说话，他们会说，“怎么样？来中国怎么样？”她就不得不说，“对不起，我不会说中文，你得跟他说。”很有趣，然后他们就说她：“中国人不会说中国话，他外国人会说中国话，这是怎么的啦？”像这样，很好玩。(Well I’m often asked a question, I’ve written two books, one a non-fiction book about my experience living in China and also a novel that takes place in China, people often asked“does this have something to do with the fact that your wife is Chinese-American? Well not really, I lived in China before I met Jessica and when I wrote that book just before we met. After we met and that’s why I began writing my novel about China. That has lots to do with her, she was encouraging me to write that novel a lot, so everyday, I would ask her“what do you think about this idea? what do you think about that idea ? so she had a lot to do with inspiring me to write that book. But the fact that she is a Chinese, I can’t say that it has direct influence, because actually she is fifth generation American, which is the same as me, I am fifth generation German-American, so in a way, it’s funny, sometimes when people meet her for the first time, know nothing about her and they’ll say,“oh, your English is so good.swheresdid you learn it ?”. Oh, you know her family has been here longer than most American’s family has been here, but because she is an Asian of cause, people tended to assume you must be an immigrant. But one thing is very funny, sometimes when we travel to Asia, of course people in China will begin to speak to her, they’ll say,“怎幺样?…..”, she had to say“I‘m sorry , I don’t speak Chinese, you have to talk to him“, and so it’s pretty funny, and they criticize her“中国人……”really funny.)

　　虞琳敏她的确很专注，是个非常忙的人。她热爱她的工作，很认真。所以有时别人问我，她经常没有时间会不会影响你，比如她不能做饭，家里的饭都是我做，因为她没有时间做这些事，这会不会影响我。我说不会，一点也不，因为我也是个写书的人，我喜欢我的工作，我热爱写作时的那种感觉，而且我也需要有一个人的时间。她从来不会为此打扰我，她不会说，“为什么你不花时间陪我”不，她理解。所以轮到她忙的时候，我也理解她。

　　(Jessica, it’s true that she is very focused…very, very busy person. She loves what she does, she’s very serious about it. sometimes some people ask does that bother you that she can’t have much time…for example, she doesn’t cook, I do all the cooking, because she doesn’t have time for that kind of thing, does that bother me. I said no, it doesn’t bother me at all because I also being a writer, I love what I do, I love the fact that when I’m writing a book, and I really need time alone. She never bothers me about it, she doesn’t say,“why don’t you spend time….”no, she understands, so when it’s her time to be busy I also understand. )

　　我想这是件好事，我们两个在兴趣和个性方面很相似，这意味着我们明白，我很幸运能和她结婚，我希望她也是这么想，我们可以彼此支持做我们想做的事。(I’m very lucky to be married to her and I hope she feels she is lucky to be married to me)

　　虞琳敏：我很满意。几个月前我有了女儿，我感到很兴奋。因为有了比拍电影更多的事情，当然做电影很有意思，可这与拍电影是完全不同的事。真的是很棒。目前我正在制作一部专题片，已经拍了很长时间了，希望在明年可以完成。同时我也在为电视节目做一些导演工作。这部片子名叫“蜥蜴”，是一部系列剧。明年可能会有别的节目。可能跟我以往所做的有点不同，但我喜欢做不同的事情。(.I feel very satisfied with my current life. Mainly because we just had a daughter couple of months ago, and so I feel very exciting, You know, it’s more work than making a film, but it’s a lot of fun, actually making film is fun too, but it’s completely different thing. It’s really, really wonderful. But right now, I’m working on another documentary, I’ll be working on for a long time, but we are going to finish in the next couple of years I hope. And then also doing some directing for television. This film called“West Wing”, I mean the series called“West Wing”. And next year, probably on some other shows. So it’s little bit different for me but I enjoy I like doing something different every time)

　　同期：访客：你丈夫在吗？(Is your husband here?)

　　虞琳敏：在，他在看孩子。(yeah, he is taking care of the baby.）