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Hollywood
好莱坞
No city of angels
并非天使之城
Los Angeles still inspires new takes on film noir.
洛杉矶仍为拍摄黑色电影提供灵感。
“Middle of a drought and the water commissioner drowns,” the mortician remarks drily to Jake Gittes, a private investigator played by Jack Nicholson: “Only in LA.”
“正值干旱时期，水利局长却淹死了，”殡仪馆的人冷冷地对杰克·吉特斯（杰克·尼科尔森饰演）说，吉特斯是私家侦探：“只有在洛杉矶才会发生这种事。”
Indeed.
的确。
June 20th marks the 50th anniversary of the release of “Chinatown”, the film truest to the Los Angeles of the countless noirs set in America’s second-most-populous city.
6月20日是电影《唐人街》上映50周年纪念日，这部电影是无数以美国人口第二大城市--洛杉矶--为背景的黑色电影中最真实的一部。
Other films revolve around Hollywood—or at least its dark, gritty edges—where every millionaire, wannabe actor and insurance agent has a secret worth killing for.
其他电影围绕好莱坞--或者至少是好莱坞黑暗、粗粝的边缘地带--展开，在那里，每个百万富翁、想成为演员的人和保险代理人都有一个能招来杀身之祸的秘密。
But Gittes was fixated on water, or the lack thereof, a perennial problem in a city that is otherwise constantly changing.
但吉特斯关注的是水，或者说缺水，这是这个城市长年存在的问题，除此之外，洛杉矶一直在变化。
Film noir was so named by French critics after the second world war.
黑色电影是第二次世界大战后由法国评论家命名的。
It is a style of film-making that often features a cynical anti-hero who either sleuths for a living or finds himself accidentally drawn into an investigation.
这是一种电影制作风格，通常以愤世嫉俗的反英雄为主角，他们要么以侦探为生，要么发现自己意外地卷入了一项调查。
Think of Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe in “The Big Sleep” (1946), a film based on Raymond Chandler’s novel.
想想《夜长梦多》（1946）里亨弗莱·鲍嘉饰演的菲利普·马洛，这部电影改编自雷蒙德·钱德勒的小说。
Or of Barton Keyes, an insurance claims investigator, hellbent on sniffing out fraud in “Double Indemnity” (1944).
或者是《双重赔偿》（1944年）里的保险理赔调查员巴顿·凯斯，他不顾一切想要嗅出欺诈行为。
There is a good chance that crooked cops, cover-ups, pretty blondes and business tycoons will turn up at some point in the story.
很有可能在故事的某个时候会出现腐败的警察、掩盖真相的人、漂亮的金发女郎和商业大亨。
The closest thing to a happy ending is that not everyone will end up dead.
最接近圆满结局的是人物没有死光。
“Chinatown” was released several decades after the genre’s heyday in the 1940s-50s.
20世纪40至50年代是该类型电影的全盛期，几十年后《唐人街》上映。
The film, and the “neo noirs” that followed it, tried to strike a balance between paying homage to the classics and turning the genre on its head.
这部电影以及随后的“新黑色电影”试图在向经典致敬和颠覆这一类型之间取得平衡。
In 1982 “Blade Runner” transported viewers to the futuristic Los Angeles of 2019.
1982年，《银翼杀手》将观众带到了2019年的未来主义洛杉矶。
Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) searches for bioengineered humans who are not supposed to be on Earth, let alone in the City of Angels.
瑞克·戴克（哈里森·福特饰）搜寻那些本不应该在地球，更不应该在天使之城的用生物工程制造的人类。
Crime flicks can be made about any city.
犯罪电影可以以任何城市为背景。
But Los Angeles cornered the market back when Chandler was writing screenplays.
但当钱德勒还在写剧本的时候，洛杉矶就垄断了犯罪电影的市场。
Many great crime novelists have lived there, including Chandler and, later, James Ellroy.
许多伟大的犯罪小说家都住在那里，包括钱德勒，以及后来的詹姆斯·艾尔罗伊。
But their novels need not be adapted faithfully.
但他们的小说不一定需要被忠实地改编。
“Double Indemnity”, after all, was based on a murder in Queens.
毕竟《双重赔偿》就是基于纽约市皇后区的一起谋杀案改编的。
Why does Los Angeles continue to play a leading role in film noir?
为什么洛杉矶一直在黑色电影中扮演主要角色？
Its status as America’s long-reigning film capital is part of it.
部分原因是它长期以来一直是美国的电影之都。
The city also lends itself to film noir because it is such a study in contrasts.
这座城市也适合拍摄黑色电影，因为这是如此鲜明的对比研究。
The relentless sunshine and skinny palm trees jar with the genre’s violence and corruption.
炎热的阳光和细长的棕榈树与黑色电影中的暴力和腐败格格不入。
LA is where people come to make it, and only a few succeed.
洛杉矶是人们追求出人头地的地方，但只有少数人能成功。
What happens to those who are disappointed?
那些失望的人会怎么样？
Wannabe starlets become call girls.
想成为明星的女演员沦为应召女郎。
Men who cannot pay their mortgage become muscle for mobsters.
无法偿还房贷的男人成了黑帮的打手。
Danny DeVito, who plays a smarmy tabloid journalist in the neo-noir “LA Confidential” (1997), based on a novel by Mr Ellroy, gives an oleaginous monologue that encapsulates the duality of LA noir.
丹尼·德维托在艾尔罗伊小说改编的新黑色电影《洛城机密》（1997年）中饰演一名谄媚的小报记者，他发表了一段油腔滑调的独白，概括了洛杉矶黑色电影的双重性。
“You’d think this place was the garden of Eden,” he says, “but there’s trouble in paradise.”
“你以为这个地方是伊甸园，”他说，“但天堂里也有麻烦。”
A newer spate of LA noirs fetishise the genre even while challenging its conventions.
更新的一批黑色电影在对其传统进行挑战的同时依然迷恋这种类型。
In the television series “Lucifer”, the lord of Hell solves murders alongside a city detective.
在电视剧《路西法》中，地狱之王与一名城市侦探一起侦破谋杀案。
There are sometimes musical numbers to offset all the killing.
有时会有一些插曲来中和所有这些杀戮。
In “Sugar”, which premiered on Apple TV in April, John Sugar, a private investigator, is a cinephile.
在四月份于AppleTV首播的《谜探休格》中，私家侦探约翰·休格是一位电影爱好者。
He wears a suit and drives an old Corvette in the mould of Marlowe or Gittes.
他身穿西装，开着一辆老式科尔维特，效仿马洛或吉特斯的风格。
A girl goes missing, and as Sugar investigates, he finds each member of her family to be corrupt in their own way.
一个女孩失踪了，当休格调查时，他发现她的所有家人都有各自的腐败行为。
Sugar, too, loses sight of himself the more he obsesses over the case.
休格也一样，他越是痴迷于这个案子，就越是迷失了自我。
The series even begins in black and white and features old film clips throughout.
这部剧开始时甚至是黑白片，并始终贯穿了一些老电影片段。
But unlike the classics, Mr Sugar is no sarcastic anti-hero.
但与经典作品不同，休格并不是一个尖刻的反英雄。
In fact, he is nice.
事实上，他是个好人。
He does not sneer, antagonise police or hit women.
他没有冷嘲热讽、与警察作对，也没有打女人。
He does not like guns.
他不喜欢枪。
He helps the homeless and even adopts a dog.
他帮助流浪汉，甚至还收养了一只狗。
It is a far cry from the blood-soaked impunity of “LA Confidential”, in which almost everyone is unlikeable and gets shot.
这与充满血腥、有罪不罚的《洛城机密》大相径庭，在《洛城机密》中，几乎每个人都不讨人喜欢，而且都被枪杀了。
He solves his case and saves the girl.
他破了案子，并且救了那个女孩。
Gittes is not so lucky.
吉特斯就没那么幸运了。
His efforts, like many a private investigator in film noir, prove futile.
他的一切努力，就像黑色电影中的许多私家侦探一样，最终都是徒劳的。
“Forget it, Jake,” his partner says when the woman he wants to protect is killed.
“别想了，杰克，”当他想保护的女人被杀时，他的搭档说道，
“It’s Chinatown.”
“这里可是唐人街。”
