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“Oppenheimer” vs “Barbie”
《奧本海默》VS《芭比》
What two Hollywood blockbusters reveal about our times.
兩部好萊塢大片揭示了當今時代的何種真相。
They make an intriguing pair of rivals: he in a dark suit and porkpie hat, she in a gingham dress and matching hair bow.
他們是一對讓人玩味的競爭對手：他身著深色西裝，頭戴圓禮帽，她身著格子棉布裙，頭戴配套的蝴蝶結。
His domain is a vast scientific-research facility in New Mexico; hers is a fluorescent-pink party house with a slide.
他的領地是新墨西哥州的一個大型科學研究機構，而她的領地則是一個有滑梯的熒光粉色派對舞廳。
J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy, an Irish actor) spends his days corralling the finest scientific minds in America to create a nuclear bomb—work a colleague calls “the most important fucking thing to ever happen in the history of the world”.
羅伯特·奧本海默(由愛爾蘭演員基里安·墨菲飾演)整天忙于召集全美國最優秀的科學人才來制造核彈，一位同事稱這項工作是“世界歷史上發生過的最重要的事情”。
Barbie (played by Margot Robbie, an Australian actress) may seem like she has the perfect life, but she has existential worries too.
芭比(由澳大利亞女演員瑪格特·羅比飾演)似乎擁有完美的生活，但她也有存在主義的憂慮。
Do her friends and fellow dolls, she wonders, “ever think about dying?”
她想知道，她的朋友和其他玩偶伙伴“有沒有想過死亡”？
No recent movie matchup has been as eagerly awaited as “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”.
最近沒有哪兩部電影像《芭比》和《奧本海默》一樣備受期待。
Released on July 21st in America and Britain, the two films will serve as a test of whether viewers can be coaxed off their couches to return to cinemas.
這兩部電影將于7月21日在美國和英國上映，這將是對電影能否勸誘觀眾從沙發上起身，并回到電影院的一次測試。
The incongruity in the films’ subject and tone has delighted the internet.
兩部電影在主題和基調上的反差讓互聯網津津樂道。
People have created memes, remixed the trailers into jarring “Barbenheimer” hybrids and debated whether to see the biographical drama or the fantasy comedy first.
人們制作了表情包、將兩部電影的預告片重新混合成極其分裂的《芭本海默》，并就是先看傳記電影還是奇幻喜劇而爭論不休。
The brouhaha is partly a result of the film-makers.
這種哄鬧在一定程度上是因為兩位電影制作人。
Christopher Nolan, the writer-director of “Oppenheimer”, is the closest thing Hollywood has to a mad scientist.
《奧本海默》的編劇兼導演克里斯托弗·諾蘭是好萊塢中最接近瘋狂科學家的人。
He shoots on film and mostly eschews computer-generated imagery, blowing up an actual Boeing 747 for a previous film.
他用膠片拍攝，大多避免使用計算機生成的圖像，在上一部電影中炸毀了一架真正的波音747飛機。
The nuclear reactions in “Oppenheimer” were also created by producing actual explosions (albeit not nuclear ones), brightened by aluminium and magnesium powder.
《奧本海默》中的核反應也是真正的爆炸(盡管不是核爆炸)，用了鋁粉和鎂粉使爆炸發光。
His films toy with narrative conventions and tricksy subjects, such as the unconscious mind and theoretical astrophysics.
諾蘭的電影常常把玩傳統敘事手法和復雜的主題，如無意識思維和理論天體物理學。
They have earned a combined total of around $5bn in ticket sales; “Dunkirk”, released in 2017, is one of the highest-grossing films ever made about the second world war.
這些電影總共獲得了約50億美元的票房收入，2017年上映的《敦刻爾克》是票房收入最高的關于二戰的電影之一。
Greta Gerwig, the director and co-writer of “Barbie”, has her own large fan club.
《芭比》的導演兼聯合編劇格蕾塔·葛韋格擁有自己龐大粉絲群。
She started out in the “mumblecore” genre of independent film (so named for its focus on dialogue) but has since had hits with “Lady Bird” (2017) and an adaptation of “Little Women” (2019).
她最初在“呢喃核”(因注重對話而得名)這一類型的獨立電影中出演，但后來憑借《伯德小姐》(2017)和改編電影《小婦人》(2019)而大獲成功。
Her work claims humbler gross ticket sales of $300m.
她的作品的票房總收入略顯微薄，只有3億美元。
For “Barbie”, she has cited old Hollywood musicals and films about the afterlife, such as “Heaven Can Wait” (1943), as inspiration.
對于《芭比》，葛韋格稱借鑒了好萊塢老派音樂劇和關于來世的電影（如1943年的《天堂可以等待》）作為靈感。
The two films encapsulate some of the caprices of the modern movie industry.
《芭比》和《奧本海默》概括了現代電影業中的一些反復無常的東西。
“Barbie” is one of many productions to exploit decades-old intellectual property.
《芭比》是有數十年歷史的IP電影之一。
Mattel, a toymaker, has sold roughly a billion dolls since it first introduced Barbara Millicent Roberts (call her “Barbie”) to consumers in 1959.
自1959年向消費者推出芭芭拉·米利森特·羅伯茨(現在就叫“芭比”)以來，玩具制造商美泰已經售出了大約10億個玩具娃娃。
Ms Robbie, who is also a producer of the film, has said she was drawn to the project because the Barbie name is “more globally recognised than practically everything else other than Coca-Cola”.
羅比也是這部電影的制片人，她說她之所以被這個電影項目所吸引，是因為芭比這個名字“比除可口可樂之外的幾乎所有品牌都更具全球知名度”。
It is easy to imagine that a sequel is already in the works.
不難想象，續集已經在籌備中了。
“Oppenheimer”, by contrast, holds no such franchise potential.
相反，《奧本海默》則沒有這樣的系列電影潛力。
The scientist may be “one of history’s most essential and paradoxical” figures, as Mr Nolan has put it, but he is not likely to return for “Oppenheimer 2: Learning to Love the Bomb”.
正如諾蘭所說，這位科學家可能是“歷史上最重要、最矛盾的”人物之一，但他不太可能再拍一部《奧本海默2：學會熱愛炸彈》。
It is a serious, standalone drama—the kind of film made less frequently as studios focus on sequels and spin-offs.
《奧本海默》是一部嚴肅的獨立的電影，由于電影公司專注于續集和衍生作品，這種類型的電影不常被制作。
Its opening weekend is predicted to fetch $40m-50m in ticket sales, compared with around $80m for “Barbie”.
《奧本海默》首映周末的票房收入預計將達到4000萬至5000萬美元，而《芭比》的票房收入約為8000萬美元。
