Scientists have tracked a shocking series of changes to the Arctic.
2017年4月30日 星期日
2017年4月29日 星期六
伦敦始发铁路货运今天首达义乌 First freight train linking UK with China arrives in Yiwu
The first freight train linking China directly to the UK has arrived in the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu.
The first freight train linking China directly to the UK has arrived in the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu.
列车满载威士忌、奶粉、药物与机器，行程一万公里
http://rfi.my/18Hv.f
Taitung Aboriginal Gallery
The Taitung Aboriginal Gallery in Taitung, Taiwan aims to portray the architectural elements of the Austronesian culture. Designed by by Bio-architecture Formosana, the space is suitable for Austronesian activities. http://bit.ly/2qf4hVr
2017年4月27日 星期四
“The Promise”: an unflinching depiction of the Armenian genocide
“The Promise”: an unflinching depiction of the Armenian genocide
Due to geopolitical concerns, Hollywood had hitherto left the subject untouched
THE road that an idea takes from the screenwriter’s mind to your local multiplex is besieged by obstacles political, financial and practical in nature. The average blockbuster has to contend with budget fights and studio meddling; a film like “The Promise” is even trickier to bring to the screen. A sweeping historical drama about a national tragedy, it is the sort of movie that Hollywood used to love. But for more than a century, writers and studios have turned their faces away from the story. In many ways, the film succeeds simply by exploring an event that others will not.
Taking place in 1915, “The Promise” centres on a passionate love triangle but is set against the genocide perpetrated against Armenians by officials of the Ottoman Empire. Oscar Isaac plays a humble Armenian medical student who tries to escape the massacre and save his family, while falling in love with an American dance instructor (Charlotte Le Bon) thereby earning a rivalry with her journalist boyfriend (Christian Bale). It is a stirring, if somewhat by-the-numbers depiction of heroism and survival in horrifying times, but it will not make the pantheon of great historical films. The love story is shallowly written, and the charismatic performers often wilt under the haunting scenes of systemic violence. Without a meaningful story on which to hang its historical events, the actors are left looking like vehicles for a history lesson.
Latest updates
Perhaps that is what the film-makers intended. “I didn’t know about the Armenian genocide before,” Mr Isaac noted. “I think, unfortunately, a lot of us in this country and in the West and all around the world have been purposefully kept in the dark about it.” Indeed, the most basic facts are in dispute. Turkey claims that 500,000 Armenians died of hunger and disease in the Syrian desert: they were being deported for supporting Russia in the first world war. Armenian survivors and their descendants place the number of dead at 1.5m, observing Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on April 24th every year. They argue that it was a systematic killing rather than an unfortunate side effect of poorly executed policy.
Today most scholars recognise the massacre as genocide, yet many Turkish officials still do not. Because Turkey is such an important ally to the West, neither has America, Britain or Israel. On the campaign trail in 2008, Barack Obama pledged several times to reverse this policy of obfuscation, but he failed to do so once in office. This week, Donald Trump declined to categorise the events depicted in “The Promise” as genocide (though he was happy to call it “one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century”). America’s cultural machine is doing what its political machine will not.
“The Promise” is not for the squeamish. The slaughter is depicted with stark brutality and inarguable cruelty. Key characters are executed suddenly and without warning. A mother is shot in the head in front of her daughter. The population of an entire town is butchered in the matter of minutes, their bodies piled on top of each other beside a river. The film-makers do not use the word “genocide” until the film’s closing moments, but they do not need to: the actions are unmistakable. In one key scene, Mr Isaac’s character discovers a train full of starving Armenians, a sequence often found in Holocaust films, placing these dreadful events in moral context for the audience.
Indeed, while other genocides have found their way to the screen, politics seems to have prevented “The Promise” from making it through the typical channels. Studios are unlikely to take a chance on an expensive film that might anger government officials and geopolitical allies unless they can guarantee that it will be profitable. The film was instead independently financed by the late Kirk Kerkorian, an American billionaire of Armenian descent, who created a film company—Survival Pictures—with the express purpose of educating the world about the Armenian genocide. He sunk $100m into “The Promise”, casting Mr Bale and Mr Isaac to attract an audience. The choice of Terry George as director was inspired, too: his “Hotel Rwanda” (2004) proved that he is able to handle complex conflicts with nuance and sensitivity.
Still, when the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016, it did not set the festival alight. Reviews were middling, and no major distributors were interested. Open Road, a smaller company that had shepherded “Spotlight” to a best picture Oscar, picked it up, decided it wasn’t good enough for awards season, and dumped it in the spring. In its opening weekend it grossed only $4.1m, a historically low amount for a film that cost $100m to make. Insiders speculate that it could gross around $20m worldwide, which by most accounts would make “The Promise” a spectacular failure.
But “The Promise” cannot be judged in purely economic terms, as Kekorian had little interest in making back his investment. Perhaps we should not judge it on purely artistic terms either. “The Promise” doesn’t seek to break ground: it was created in order to shine light on an oft-ignored historical event, and even with mediocre reviews and middling box-office figures it is achieving that aim. One day, if the history of the Armenian genocide is officially re-written, “The Promise” will have played a part.
2017年4月24日 星期一
Les ponts des amoureux
Pont des Arts - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_des_Arts
The Pont des Arts or Passerelle des Arts is a pedestrian bridge in Paris which crosses the River .... Jump up ^ "A Paris, les jours des " cadenas d'amour " du pont des Arts sont comptés". Le Monde. Jump up ^ Yamiche Alcindor, USA TODAY (30 ...
Construction end: 1984
Construction begin: 1981
Design: Arch Bridge
Next upstream: Pont Neuf
一個冬末的夜晚，他問我想不想到塞納河進行一趟遊船晚餐之旅。這個季節天黑得很早，塞納河在夜巴黎的襯托下顯現出與白天截然不同的情調，我們換上正裝，在阿爾瑪碼頭上船，侍者安排了一個窗邊的觀景座位，替我們在酒杯裡斟滿了酒。
船隻緩緩在準點啟程出發，鐵塔於身後漸行遠去，樂隊開始演奏晚上的交響樂曲曲目。迎來眼前的，是被稱為世界上最美的的亞力山大三世橋（Pont de Alexandre III）。優美的單一橋墩是它最出色的特徵，由俄國沙皇亞力山大三世的兒子尼古拉二世奠基，為了見證一八九二年的法俄同盟。它是首座「預製」的橋，所有的零件都在工廠預先製作好，再由船隻運送過來搭建，只花了三年時間便完工，和一九零零年萬國博覽會同時開幕，以當時流行的新藝術風格打造，有著天使、仙女和飛馬雕像，兩側橋頭各有兩座高達十七米的立柱，其上鍍金的飛馬雕像，分別代表了科學、藝術、商業與工業。從船上往橋身望去，兩側的中央飾有兩尊女性古銅雕像，分別象徵巴黎的塞納河以及莫斯科的涅瓦河。橋上三十二座古典路燈已經點亮，在這個華燈初上的夜晚顯得一片燈海輝煌。
前菜我們選了檸檬蝦肉薄片配上蔬菜，吃來相當清爽。另外一道前菜則是以香菜花蜜調味的烤龍蝦尾，對於香菜氣味有點不適應的我，卻意外覺得十分美味。
船隻經過協和廣場旁時，他告訴我這一座看似不起眼的石頭橋，是由巴士底監獄拆下來的石頭建成的。協和橋（Pont de Concorde）的歷史與大革命息息相關，由路易十六下令建設，卻因為經費問題停滯不前，最後使用了大革命時期被攻陷的巴士底監獄所拆下來的石頭修建，才得以完工，讓人民每天每夜踏過代表王權專制的象徵，是協和橋的重要歷史意義。這個時節，協和廣場已經豎起了年末才有的高大摩天輪，在夜裡閃爍著白熾燈般的顏色。
連接世界三大博物館之一的羅浮宮和法蘭西學院的藝術橋（Pont des Arts），是最能夠被稱為「藝術之橋」的一座，建於一八零四年，這是巴黎第一座由鋼鐵鑄成的橋，被列入歷史古蹟。在橋上聚集許多藝術家展售其作品，讓人想起布拉格的查理大橋，夏季時也是巴黎人最愛野餐的地點之一。原本橋身鐵絲網上被情侶扣滿的愛情鎖已被政府強力拆除，裝上了壓克力板，倒是失去了那麼一些原有的浪漫氣氛。
侍者為我們送上主菜，鴿子肉佐饞豆泥配花椰菜，以及西班牙小辣椒兔脊肉佐南瓜泥，附上一籃棍子麵包。
「他們想讓遊客以為法國人每天吃這樣的食材嗎？鴿子啦、兔肉的。」他吃了一口鴿子肉，這麼說著。
「你忘了還有蝸牛和青蛙！」
「我們給人的印象原來就是一個愛好食用各種動物的民族？」他苦笑著。
「但你得承認在市場上看到老奶奶一邊牽著鬥牛犬一邊購買剝皮兔肉的確很驚人。」
「這可以解釋為，對寵物和對美食的愛不分軒輊。」
「法國人好辯真不是空穴來風。」
兔脊肉鮮嫩微辣的口感，佐以微甜的南瓜泥恰到好處，不得不說，追求美食是法國人永遠不會停止的嗜好，若對餐盤裡的任何芝麻細節感興趣，侍者都會如醫生看診般仔細介紹，甚至請出主廚，專程為你解釋。
新橋（Pont Neuf）無疑是塞納河上最浪漫的一道橋，優美的橋墩，連接了新橋廣場和太子廣場，中央則有有著綠林盜公園的西堤島穿過，不時有戀人依偎在島的尖端，看河水流逝。名為新橋，實際上卻是最古老的一座橋，從亨利三世在位時便開始建設，因財政及宗教問題花了近三十年才由亨利四世開幕於一六零四年，它的命名原由是因為新橋帶來了新的建築意義：這是當時第一座其上沒有建築物，專門給馬車和行人通行的橋，是國王為了不要阻礙到羅浮宮的視野而決定的策略；新橋亦是塞納河上最長的橋，由兩座包含了五個拱橋和七個拱橋相連而成。
橋中央有一處亨利四世的騎馬雕像，雕像內部藏有下令修建的法令和亨利四世的相關文獻。橋上突出的半圓形陽台，原是為了讓行人躲避馬車或休息的地方，現在成為眺望景致的好地方，走在寬闊的橋面上，巴黎的整片天空一覽無遺，讓人不禁懷想起電影「新橋戀人」。新橋見證了四百年來的歷史，從完工至今未曾重建，因此法文裡表現一個東西耐用、歷久彌堅，也可稱為「新橋」。
「過了新橋之後，差不多該能看見聖母院了吧。」他說，喝了一口紅酒。
巍峨的聖母院在船隻的左手邊現身，而僅長六十八米的主教橋（Pont de l’Archevêché）位在聖母院後方，擁有取景聖母院的最佳角度，由法王查理十世命令下修建，共有三個拱型橋墩，橋墩高度只有十一米，是塞納河上最窄又最矮的橋。雖然主教橋造型儉樸，卻有個吸引無數戀人們到此一遊的傳說，據說帶著刻有名字縮寫的鎖來鎖在橋上，便能將愛情鎖在永遠，這便是為何如今主教橋的兩側鐵網，毫無縫隙的掛了滿滿的愛情鎖。
甜點他選擇了以萊姆酒入味的萊姆巴巴蛋糕，其上綴有香堤伊奶油跟一顆櫻桃，強烈的萊姆酒氣息讓人感到暈眩，我則選了輪胎造型的巴黎布列斯特泡芙。然後我們各要了一杯黑咖啡。
船隻在聖母院之後折返，由右岸側繼續回程。瑪麗橋（Pont Marie）是僅次於新橋，巴黎第二老的橋，由法王路易八世所奠基，於一六三五年完工，仔細看它的五個橋墩，每個都有一點相異之處。建造之初，還曾蓋有五十棟樓房在其上。它被暱稱為「戀人之橋」，據說在此橋下接吻，愛情便能夠直到永遠。
「這裡看起來有點面熟。」他說。
「是嗎？」
「我想我們上輩子一起來過這裡。所以現在，我們又一起回到這裡。」
船隻慢慢的駛回終點，艾菲爾鐵塔整點的燈光在遠處閃爍起來，即使已見過無數遍閃燈，仍覺得美麗異常，世界彷彿只剩下眼前閃爍的燈海。這座城市無法細數的無盡美好，在今晚又寫下了另一章節。
※本文摘自《巴黎人要件》，健行文化出版。
【巴黎人要件 延伸閱讀】
Miho Museum
The Miho Museum was designed by I.M. Pei, the architect behind the Louvre's iconic glass pyramid.
