Volume 1: Europe After The Reign
Chapter One, The Villain; Chapter Two, The Voice; Chapter Three, Victims; Chapter Four, Vaudeville; Chapter Five, Versions; Chapter Six, The Vision; Chapter Seven, Virtue Victorious; Chapter Eight, The Valley; Chapter Nine, Violence; Chapter Ten, Venom; and Chapter Eleven, The Vortex.
Volume 2: This Vicious Cabaret
Prelude; Chapter 1, The Vanishing; Chapter 2, The Veil; Chapter 3, Video; Chapter 4, A Vocational Viewpoint; Chapter 5, The Vacation; Chapter 6, Variety; Chapter 7, Visitors; Chapter 8, Vengeance; Chapter 9, Vicissitude; Chapter 10, Vermin; Chapter 11, Valerie; Chapter 12, Verdict; Chapter 13, Values; and Chapter 14, Vignettes.
Volume 3: The Land of Do-As-You Please
Prologue; Chapter 1, Vox Populi; Chapter 2, Verwirrung; Chapter 3, Various Valentines; Chapter 4, Vestiges; Chapter 5, The Valediction; Chapter 6, Vectors; Chapter 7, Vindication; Chapter 8, Vultures; Chapter 9, The Vigil; Chapter 10, The Volcano; and Chapter 11, Valhalla. The series also includes two interludes, Vertigo and Vincent.
5.本片宣传语,同时也是本片第一句台词,是“Remember, remember the 5th of November.” 这来源于至今在英国仍然存在的“Guy Fawkes之夜”。实际上,历史上的Guy Fawkes就是在1605年11月4日至5日的子夜之交被抓住的,他的谋反行动被称为“火药阴谋”(Gunpowder Plot),后人为了纪念这次事件——事实上是为了庆祝抓住Guy Fawkes——在每年的11月4日晚,在爱尔兰和不列颠岛的部分地区,都会有游行活动,通常会焚烧一个Guy Fawkes的布偶或者纸偶为标志。同时,小屁孩们还会唱些歌谣,名为“The Bonfire Prayer”,全文如下(不同地区用词略有变化,这是其中一个版本):
“Remember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent to blow up the King and the Parliament. Three score barrels of powder below, Poor old England to overthrow: By God's providence he was catch'd With a dark lantern and burning match. Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring. Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King! Hip hip hoorah! A penny loaf to feed the Pope. A farthing o' cheese to choke him. A pint of beer to rinse it down. A faggot of sticks to burn him. Burn him in a tub of tar. Burn him like a blazing star. Burn his body from his head. Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead. Hip hip hoorah! Hip hip hoorah!”
在“Guy Fawkes Night”被烧毁的那个假人,一般简称为“Guy”,信不信由你,从语言学历史来说,它正是现代英语——尤其是现代美国口语中用来泛指“人”的那个 “guy”的由来。例如“Are you guys ok?”“Guy”已经逐渐取代了以前同样泛指“人”的fellow,bloke,chap等代词。
还有,《哈里波特》迷们听到Guy Fawkes这个名字时难道没什么反应么?再仔细想想?想想Dumbledore校长的那只凤凰?~~对了,这只凤凰的名字——Fawkes,正是来源于 Guy Fawkes。事实上,已经有FANS开始认真对照Dumbledore的“凤凰秘令”(Order of Phoenix)与“火药阴谋”了,哈。
6.Valerie,这个原著与电影中不得不提的超重要配角,正是她的故事打动了“V”,也打动了伊芙,并最终促成他们两人的“重生”。她的那封信,真是一封超级感人的美文,现全文转录如下(文笔风骚的同学可以翻译一下投稿给《读者》啥的,^_^)
I don't know who you are. Please believe. There is no way I can convince you that this is not one of their tricks. But I don't care. I am me, and I don't know who you are, but I love you.
I have a pencil. A little one they did not find. I am a women. I hid it inside me. Perhaps I won't be able to write again, so this is a long letter about my life. It is the only autobiography I have ever written and oh God I'm writing it on toilet paper.
I was born in Nottingham in 1957, and it rained a lot. I passed my eleven plus and went to girl's Grammar. I wanted to be an actress.
I met my first girlfriend at school. Her name was Sara. She was fourteen and I was fifteen but we were both in Miss. Watson's class. Her wrists. Her wrists were beautiful. I sat in biology class, staring at the picket rabbit foetus in its jar, listening while Mr. Hird said it was an adolescent phase that people outgrew. Sara did. I didn't.
In 1976 I stopped pretending and took a girl called Christine home to meet my parents. A week later I enrolled at drama college. My mother said I broke her heart.
But it was my integrity that was important. Is that so selfish? It sells for so little, but it's all we have left in this place. It is the very last inch of us. But within that inch we are free.
London. I was happy in London. In 1981 I played Dandini in Cinderella. My first rep work. The world was strange and rustling and busy, with invisible crowds behind the hot lights and all that breathless glamour. It was exciting and it was lonely. At nights I'd go to the Crew-Ins or one of the other clubs. But I was stand-offish and didn't mix easily. I saw a lot of the scene, but I never felt comfortable there. So many of them just wanted to be gay. It was their life, their ambition. And I wanted more than that.
Work improved. I got small film roles, then bigger ones. In 1986 I starred in "The Salt Flats." It pulled in the awards but not the crowds. I met Ruth while working on that. We loved each other. We lived together and on Valentine's Day she sent me roses and oh God, we had so much. Those were the best three years of my life.
In 1988 there was the war, and after that there were no more roses. Not for anybody.
In 1992 they started rounding up the gays. They took Ruth while she was out looking for food. Why are they so frightened of us? They burned her with cigarette ends and made her give them my name. She signed a statement saying I'd seduced her. I didn't blame her. God, I loved her. I didn't blame her.
But she did. She killed herself in her cell. She couldn't live with betraying me, with giving up that last inch. Oh Ruth. . . .
They came for me. They told me that all of my films would be burned. They shaved off my hair and held my head down a toilet bowl and told jokes about lesbians. They brought me here and gave me drugs. I can't feel my tongue anymore. I can't speak.
The other gay women here, Rita, died two weeks ago. I imagine I'll die quite soon. It's strange that my life should end in such a terrible place, but for three years I had roses and I apologized to nobody.
I shall die here. Every last inch of me shall perish. Except one.
An inch. It's small and it's fragile and it's the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it, or sell it, or give it away. We must never let them take it from us.
I don't know who you are. Or whether you're a man or a woman. I may never see you or cry with you or get drunk with you. But I love you. I hope that you escape this place. I hope that the world turns and that things get better, and that one day people have roses again. I wish I could kiss you.
Valerie
以上是原著版本,电影版作了些细微改动,显得更为精致凝练。尤其是最后一句,听到那时,俺的眼角不由自主地一下湿润起来……
V一角由《骇客帝国》系列里的大反派雨果•维文饰演,之前在Matrix中他一直戴着墨镜,这次则要戴上面具,只凭声音演出。在片中饰演V的革命伴侣的是娜塔莉•波曼,她在片中被V所救,由一个女工成为反抗极权的革命份子。为了准备演好片中角色,娜塔莉•波曼搜集了多本参考书目,包括一本六七十年代美国激进份子劫狱行动书籍《The Weather Underground》,以及一本有关1605盖•福克斯革命行动纪录《Faith and Treason》。
[文 ﹕安那琪]无疑,电影〈V煞〉(V for Vendetta) ,在宣传上已经是那么充满政治鼓动。“人民不应该惧怕政府,政府应该惧怕人民”(People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people) ,那是一句震撼人心的号召,无论是因厌恶压迫而感到鼓舞,还是奴化太久而感到烦躁。还有V号召11月5日起义的行动宣传,是足以让任何一个政权感到不安的。
会跑去看〈V煞〉,并不是因为慕〈骇客帝国〉三部曲(The Matrix) 创作者Wachowski兄弟的大名,也不是仅仅要看饰演特务史密夫(Agen Smith) 的 Hugo Weaving怎么从头到尾戴着面具浪漫杀人,也不会是看目前好莱坞最具有演戏才华的美女Natalie Portman的剃光头(不是剥光猪) 演出,而是电影触动人心的的主题:自由、反对极权、那“刀枪不入” 的理念,还有就是革命。
这是一部染上强烈无政府主义色彩的电影。电影中有一段,接近“革命” 日子时,英国陷入一片混乱,一名戴着V面具的人打劫店铺后,临走前开了一枪,还说了一句:“安那其在英国!”(Anarchy in UK!意思就是:英国无政府状态!) 影片主角V的象征标志,写在圆圈上的V,跟无政府主义的A字标志极为相似,只是上下倒转和少了一横笔而已。
没想到,无政府主义竟然借助好莱坞电影,在商业化包装下在世界各地观众面前崭露头角。也许,有人会百思不得其解。但是,还是有无政府主义者不满电影对原著的歪曲,并设立一个网站:A for Anarchy,来为<V煞>重新注入无政府主义的政治思想,为受到<V煞>这部电影所“感召”的观众,提供一个更多思想资源的空间。
V 通过电视宣传他的革命行动,号召人民一起前往国会大厦前庆祝革命的到来,在某个程度上触动了活在国家恐怖下的人民,社会因行动宣传而开始出现混乱,统治者也开始慌张,甚至自相残杀。但是,统治阶级对社会支配的权力并不是建立在一座建筑上,也正是V所说的,那只是个象征。一个象征被摧毁后,真实的统治阶级还是会寻找新的象征来取代。那么,到时人民是否要寻找另外一个革命象征,另一个革命英雄来“救世” ?
现有体制的卫道者,肯定要把这部<V煞>骂个狗血淋头,斥责电影把恐怖主义摆上神台。美国保守派电台节目主持兼影评人Michael Medved形容<V煞>是“卑劣、恶毒、空洞、腐朽、害人和令人作呕的” (V for vile, vicious, vacuous, venal, verminous and vomitaceous.) 。在被主流功利主义消费文化熏陶,加上保守主义反动思想,随着世界局势动荡而借尸还魂的氛围下,有人会因看<V煞>到一半而离开,一点也不足为奇。
V 似乎没有否定群众的重要性,不然他也不会上电视进行鼓动群众,但是也没有多少重视的表现。电影中V的革命是要人民从一个法西斯政权中解放出来,目的就是自由。但是,要取得真正的自由,就必须是动摇甚至摧毁现有的统治机构,而这并不是炸毁一座大楼就能够实现的。V除了给人民留下催灿的烟火和爆破声中的 <1812序曲>,似乎就没有其它的了。
< V煞>中的故事情节和人物塑造,具有着影射历史时事的文化象征。Larkhill囚犯的橙色衣服,很明显是在影射被拘留在关达那摩 (Guantanamo) 和阿布格拉比 (Abu Ghraib) 的囚徒。而橙色囚服是目前美国监狱常用的囚徒制服,也是现在常用的对囚犯的文艺描述。还有被秘密警察逮捕时,被套上的“黑袋”( black bags) ,也在影射者关达那摩和阿布格拉比的被拘留者。
V 喜爱的电影,1934年版的<基度山恩仇记> (The Count of Monte Cristo,改编自大仲马的同名著作) ,而Evey重复地把V跟电影的主角基度山伯爵埃蒙. 但地(Edmond Dantès) 作比较。<V煞>本身的故事其实跟<基度山恩仇记>有很多相似之处,特别是关于囚禁和复仇的描写。