《黃昏清兵衛》電影
accessed August 16, 2018
鄭重推薦。
這是少有的佳片。多年前看過，至今難忘。
充滿感人至深的情義;
和人生所遇兩難的困境;
逼出個人不隨俗妥協的內在正能量;
情節曲折精彩。
背景是武士即將沒落的世代。
身懷絕技不求聞達的窮武士每天下班便回家照顧老母，不參加同仁武士飲酒社交。被調侃叫作"黃昏清兵衛"。
一直到遇見無法置身事外的不平之事...。
是暢銷三部曲小說改編成的電影中最精彩的一部。(都精采)
他的童年女兒問他:
"你為何要我們讀論語?"
"因為這是亂世，我要你們活下去。"
看電影的我感觸良多。崇日的國家社會已開始要揚棄孔子了。而日本最受歡迎的武士片在推崇孔子!!!
林中斌 2018.8.16
神秘高峰會
La Cordillera/El Presidente /The Summit
accessed Aug 27, 2018
*這是一部有趣而不尋常的電影。融合了國際政治的詭譎、人性深層的複雜、和南美高層政治的拉丁氣氛。難得的是片中政治人物的言行沒有電影中常見誇張的"戲劇性"演出。他們看來很像真實政治中的人物。
An unusually interesting film that blends credible acting and talking of international intrigue, personal psychological complexity, philosophical exploration of good and bad，and ambience of Latin American high politics .
* 主角曾在2010年最佳外語片(阿根廷)"謎樣的雙眼"中視飾演退休的法官。他的強項是絲毫不像在演戲。
The lead actor Ricardo Darín who plays the fictitious president Blanco of Argentina is familiar to us from the 2010 Oscar best foreign film "Los Secreto de sus ojos" (謎樣的雙眼). His acting strength is never seeming to act.
* 這部電影於2017年推出，已贏得13項比賽提名。但美國影評筆下並非上選。是否拉丁文化超越了習慣好來烏單線線思維電影的影評家？不得而知。
The film, released in 2017， has gained 13 nominations, but has only received lukewarm receptions in English film reviews.
* 飾演美國總統密派特使的Christian Slater 表演出色，他的台詞一方面冠冕堂皇，另一方面不能公開，令人會心而笑。
The cameo performance by Christian Slater who plays the secret envoy sent by American president to meet with the Argentinian president is unforgettable, pompous and dirty at the same time. So are his lines.
*飾演進退得宜、又深度挖掘的記者西班牙明星Elena Anaya 也一新耳目，令人印象深刻。
The Spanish actress Elena Anaya demonstrates a refreshing style of a journalist, aggressively deep-digging and yet disarmingly sweet. Another unforgettable yet secondary role in the film.
*政治領袖內心的善良和邪惡是片中記者訪問阿根廷總統的哲學問題。看來這像偏離電影國際政治主題又未充分發揮的旁支。但在更深的層次，政治領袖內心的善惡何嘗不是故事無法避免的核心。何況阿根廷總統女兒心理失控的情節也有類似烘托的效果。
The philosophical question of evil and good that pops up in the journalist's interview with the Argentinian president appears to be half-cooked divergence from the main plot. Yet it may just be central to the underlying foundation of the story. So is the subplot of the president Blanco's psychologically troubled daughter.
林中斌 2018.7.9
Chong-Pin Lin July 9, 2018
犬之島
accessed June 3, 2018
極力推薦的佳片。
創意新穎。情節曲折。富有人性。視覺聽覺開展嶄新的領域。
導演Wes Anderson獻給黑澤明表示尊敬之作。
雖為卡通片，配音卻請到大群閃亮明星。
已贏得柏林影展銀獅獎。
林中斌 2018.6.3
《你只欠我一個道歉》 “Insult”
accessed April 24, 2018
★ 這部電影故事引人入勝、論理細膩多面、對於有族群問題的社會極有啟發的意義。難怪在台北上演許久，愈演愈旺。
● This captivating film is rich in content, sophisticated in logic, and educating in its relevance to us living in Taiwan.
★ 個體間的小誤會、小失言在有族群問題的社會很容易釀成失控的群體衝突，而上升至國家危機的層次。星星之火足以燎原。即使最初口角的雙方無此深仇大恨，後來已無法制止悲劇像滾雪球般的一發不可收拾。
● Trivial misunderstanding and minor unpleasant exchanges between ordinary individuals in a society with ethnic divisions may erupt uncontrollably into a crisis reaching the state level.
★ 寬恕是最重要的美德。僅有愛是不夠的。希特勒不是愛他金髮藍眼血統的同胞嗎？沒有寬恕，中東的衝突仇恨將永無了日。區域的核子衝突很難說不會發生。
● Forgiveness is the most important of all virtues. Love by itself is insufficient. Didn’t Adolf Hitler love his Aryan compatriots? Without forgiveness, the Middle East conflict may never end. No one can be certain that a regional nuclear conflict would not one day erupt.
★ 極度推薦。
● Highly recommended.
林中斌 2018.4.24
Chong-Pin Lin April 24, 2018
Maria by Callas: In Her Own Words
accessed April 15, 2018
Maria by Callas: In Her Own Words
卡拉斯: 為愛而聲
-- 她的歌聲從電影一開始就像海濤般淹覆了小我，把小我拉捲進入人類廣大共同感受的悲歡情愁的深層境界。
-- 幾乎兩小時不斷的撼人心弦音樂和臉部特寫的戲劇化演出。
-- 難得的按年份編撰集結了不朽的鏡頭和錄音。
-- "20世紀最偉大的歌劇女高音"。以前只是聽人如此讚美。今天看完電影才真心相信。
-- 音色變化多端從唱片可感受，但是電影同時呈現近距離特寫，讓觀眾體會她演技視覺和聲樂聽覺藝術上的造詣。
-- 高度推薦。
林中斌 2018.4.15
佳片推薦
英勇勲章(台灣)/Rescue Under Fire(英文)/En Zona Hostil(西班牙文)/敵對區域
-- 真實故事搬上銀幕。Based on a true story of NATO's war with the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2012.
-- 攝影，演員，情節皆有水準。
Good cinematography, credible acting, and engaging story-telling.
--Spanish production on how a Spanish military medical team led by a woman captain helped by the helicopter forces heroically saved wounded soldiers and Afghan civilians under fire.
-- More subtle and refined than the Hollywood war films
-- To my surprise, the real life woman captain of the military medical team is as good-looking if not more so than the actress Ariadna Gil as shown at the end of the film during the credit time when photos of the two were juxtaposed.
Chong-Pin Lin 2018.3.19
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/score_a_film_music_documentary/
accessed March 11, 2018
原先以為只是技術性的電影，意外的發現它居然有趣而感人。值得推薦。
林中斌 2018.3.11
Highly recommended for movie and music lovers. Thought to be a technical film, it surprisingly turned out to be quite moving.
Chong-Pin Lin
What makes a film score unforgettable? SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY brings Hollywood's elite composers together to give viewers a privileged look inside the musical challenges and creative secrecy of the world's most international music genre: the film score. A film composer is a musical scientist of sorts, and the influence they have to complement a film and garner powerful reactions from global audiences can be a daunting task to take on. The documentary contains interviews with dozens of film composers who discuss their craft and the magic of film music while exploring the making of the most iconic and beloved scores in history: "James Bond", "Star Wars," "Indiana Jones," "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Titanic," "The Social Network," "Mad Max: Fury Road," and "Psycho."
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%83%B5%E5%A0%B1%EF%BC%9A%E5%AF%86%E6%88%B0
accessed February 25, 2018
劇力萬鈞的佳片。鄭重推薦
Totally energizing!
A great film directed by Steven Spielberg, apparently with president Donald Trump in mind. The tempo is so pressing that almost leaves the viewer breathless. The music composed by John William impressively adds to the historical weight of the story. Meryl Streep, again, is at her best, refined, moving, and convincing.
Highly recommended.
Chong-Pin Lin February 25, 2018
《郵報：密戰》（英語：The Post，中國大陸譯《華盛頓郵報》，香港譯《戰雲密報》，馬新譯《郵報：密戰》）是一部於2017年上映的美國電影，由史蒂芬·史匹柏執導，莉茲·漢娜（Liz Hannah）與喬許·辛格編劇，並由梅莉·史翠普與湯姆·漢克斯等人主演。
該片的發展始於2016年10月，當時製片人艾美·帕斯卡獲得了莉茲·漢娜撰寫的電影劇本。該片的製片作業於2017年5月30日在紐約開始。《郵報：密戰》於2017年12月22日在美國發行。
最後的食譜：麒麟之舌
2018年2月11日
難得佳片。極力推薦。
-- 情節曲折，引人入勝。
-- 內容豐富。有歷史的懷舊，有國際的詭譎，有烹飪的巧妙，有人性的昇華。
-- 製片的價值善、正。和平、友愛、親情。感人!
-- 追溯千利修的人格典範。
-- 攝影、服裝等技術，講究用心。
-- 是在下看過最好的美食電影。
林中斌 2018.2.11
逆境棋蹟
The Chessplayer (2017)
哀而不怨。優雅的面對人生接近地獄的逆境。讓心境充滿陽光的寬恕不可避免的過去。這部西班牙，法國，德國演員合作的電影，雖未受美國影評重視，已贏得兩項獎，和十項提名。一九三零 四零的歐洲為 背景。看完有聽過浪漫時期adagio盪氣迴腸餘韻的感覺。
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt5732530/
林中斌 2018.1.16
Anthony Tommasini New York Times, December 22, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/22/arts/music/leontyne-price-met-opera.html
accessed December 22, 2017
●美國著名黑人歌劇女高音Leontyne Price是Marian Anderson的傳人
●Marian Anderson是首位進入卡內基演奏廳的黑人演唱家
●今年Leontyne Price在Metropolitan Opera House首演名作曲家Samuel Barber為他寫的歌劇“Antony and Cleopatra”(埃及豔后)
●Leontyne Price今年90歲
林中斌摘譯 2017.12.29
COLUMBIA, Md. — The soprano Leontyne Price, who retired from singing 20 years ago, assumed that the triumphs of her illustrious career were behind her. Not so. At 90, Ms. Price has become an unlikely movie star.
She may not quite be in line for a spot on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But again and again, Ms. Price steals Susan Froemke’s new documentary, “The Opera House,” which tells the complex, tense saga of the building and inauguration, in 1966, of the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center.
The “New Met” opened with the lavish premiere of Samuel Barber’s “Antony and Cleopatra,” tailored to Ms. Price’s radiant voice and prima donna grandeur. And she dominates the documentary, both in footage from the ’60s and in interview segments filmed just before her 90th birthday, in which Ms. Price recounts the opening night with impressive detail and droll humor, along with charming (and amply justified) self-regard.
“I really sang like an angel,” she recalls at one point. “You just want to kiss yourself, you sound so great.”
These delightful sequences make the movie: In an interview earlier this year about her documentary, Ms. Froemke said that when her interview with Ms. Price ended, she was so elated that she texted her colleagues: “We have a film now.”
But does Ms. Price like the results?
“Are you kidding?” Ms. Price said during a December interview in the homey apartment here, where she has lived for several years. “I’m having it put in my casket. It was so exciting for me to go back and remember all the things that happened that night.”
She said she considers the Met “the temple of grand opera,” so “to be there from the very beginning was a very great honor.”
On opening night, Ms. Price recalled in the interview, she was swept up in thoughts about the unlikely path she had traveled, from her birth to humble parents in a small Mississippi town in the segregated South — her mother was a midwife and her father worked in a sawmill — to her momentous Met debut in 1961 singing Leonora in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore,” to the 1966 theater opening in a made-to-order grand opera.
“It left me speechless,” she said.
Actually, in the film — which will be screened next month across Canada and the United States, including at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center and several others in New York on Jan. 13 and 17 — Ms. Price hardly comes across as speechless. She volubly recounts the mishaps that plagued Franco Zeffirelli’s monumental staging. And she was anything but searching for words during our recent interview, greeting me at the door with a diva-style vocal flourish.
She sings every day, she said proudly. “It’s practically the only thing in me that still works,” she added — at least without Bengay, athletic creams or Emu oil.
Ms. Price moved from New York to Maryland at the urging of her younger brother, George B. Price, a retired Army general whose large family lives mostly in the region. Mr. Price became his sister’s manager after she retired from opera in 1985, singing a final Met performance of Verdi’s “Aida,” and began a final phase of concert work, which lasted 12 years.
“I’m doing so good here, thanks to my brother and the kids,” she said. “I didn’t think I could be this happy without singing, without being center stage.”
She certainly relished her time in the spotlight. On opening night in 1966, Rudolf Bing, the Met’s general manager, came backstage to wish her good luck.
“I told him, ‘I’m about to scream — not sing — to scream with happiness,’” Ms. Price recalled. That afternoon, she had learned that radio stations in and around her hometown, Laurel, Miss., had been linked into the Met’s radio network and would carry “Antony and Cleopatra” live.
This represented a titanic shift from a painful event a decade earlier. NBC Opera Theater, a TV series that broadcast live opera stagings, had chosen Ms. Price to sing the title role of Puccini’s “Tosca” in 1955. This was “a breakthrough for me,” she said, before adding, almost as an aside, “My state didn’t carry it.” Indeed, many NBC affiliates in the South refused to show a program featuring a black Tosca and her white lover.
But racism was a reality for her from birth. When she was 9, her mother, celebrated for her singing in church, took the young Leontyne on a bus trip to Jackson, Miss., to hear the great contralto Marian Anderson in recital.
“She came out in a white satin gown, so majestic,” Ms. Price said. “And opened her mouth, and I thought, ‘This is it, mama. This is what I’m going to be.’”
Even though it was a concert by a distinguished black artist, the hall was segregated; Ms. Price and her mother sat in the “colored” section. Though just a child, she said she put this irony out of her mind. But even as Ms. Price argued that art “has no color,” she acknowledged that artists, of course, have origins and identities.
“One of the things about this extraordinary instrument that I have is the blackness in it, the natural flavor,” Ms. Price said. “It’s something extra.”
And something particularly appropriate, she added, when singing spirituals, which she called “black heartbeat music.” She speaks and sings with a Southern accent, she said, which gave her spirituals “even more of me.”
Barber, like so many, was captivated by her. At the recommendation of Florence Page Kimball, Ms. Price’s beloved voice teacher at the Juilliard School, he chose the young soprano, then 26, to give the premiere of his “Hermit Songs” in 1953. He wrote Cleopatra “for the timbre, the shadings — everything about my voice, which is not too shabby, actually,” Ms. Price said.
She still won’t hear a word against “Antony and Cleopatra,” though she knows how tough the initial reviews were. Most critics acknowledged the score’s beautiful moments, especially Cleopatra’s death scene, in which the character’s plaintive lyrical lines are capped by a chilling choral threnody. Still, whole stretches of the opera came across as splashy and grandiose, an impression reinforced by Mr. Zeffirelli’s overblown production. Barber revised the score significantly for a 1975 revival at Juilliard and that version has been slowly gaining attention.
He also adapted a concert suite of Cleopatra’s arias for Ms. Price. “I sang it all over the world, and I sang the hell out of it,” Ms. Price said. “I don’t think the opera was a failure. Finally — not totally — in time, Sam accepted that it’s great music.”
She hopes the film will call attention to the Met and Barber’s opera, and to his works more generally.
She spoke at length about his “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” for voice and orchestra, a wistfully beautiful musical setting of a James Agee text, with its description of a child’s memories of an evening at home. (“On the rough wet grass of the backyard my father and mother have spread quilts.”)
That poem “is like painting a picture of my hometown,” Ms. Price said, “and that’s the way I sang it.”
She recorded it in the summer of 1968, after the death of her father. While she performed the music in the studio, she “could see the lawn chairs made by my daddy,” she recalled. “He never finished the ninth grade, and he could fix anything, which was fabulous.”
Then she started singing the pensive child’s final line about the parents who provide so much love, “but will not ever tell me who I am.”
At first Ms. Price faltered. Then she shifted to a higher key and sang the phrase tenderly, right to me.
東方快車謀殺案 (2017新版)
Murder on the Orient Express (2017):
Intellectually enticing and spiritually enlightening
故事引人入勝 ，精神令人上昇
a first-rate entertainment, highly recommended
一級娛樂 高度推薦
Chong-Pin Lin 2017.12.11, two weeks before Christmas
"The scale of justice cannot always be evenly weighted. We must live with the imbalance and peace"
正義的天平無法永遠保持平衡。我們必須要與不平衡共存以保持和平。
●so said detective Hercule Poirot toward the end of the film to all the suspects of the murder on the Oriental Express who sit at a long table just as the disciples of Jesus Christ did in the painting "Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci.
這是巴羅探長在電影將結束時，對所有東方列車上謀殺案的險疑犯所說的話。
●How apt a statement, I thought, on the social agitation caused by the arduous pursuit of "transitional justice" in today's Taiwan. If a society pursues justice relentlessly in a reality that is more than just black and white and, as a result, sacrifices peace and harmony.
●This is the best performance of Kenneth Branagh as simultaneous film director and lead actor since his award winning "Henry V" in 1989 when he was 29, the same age as king Henry V during the tide-turning Battle of Agincourt where the British soldiers after crossing the British Channel defeated the French in 1415.
● In between 1989 and 2017, I must say, Branah had no lack of disappointing performances both as actor and director.
●The noble and chivalristic spirit that underpins the intriguing detective story is, to me, nostalgically missing in the 21st century.
這個引人入勝的電影故事夾帶了高貴而俠義的精神，真是21世紀裡令人深刻懷念的過往美景。
● It is no small feat for a detective story to be moving as it conveys with subtlety the spirit of forgiveness.
不簡單的是偵探故事居然還能以含蓄的寬恕精神感動人心。
● Agatha Christie enhanced an intellectually challenging "whodunit" with an elevating philosophical inquiry on judging good versus evil/right versus wrong. That too is a preciously rare scenery in today's movie landscape.
●The cinematography of the train going through the snow-capped mountains is gorgeously breathtaking, a feast to the eye and the soul.
Walk with Me 正念的奇蹟
accessed September 7, 2017
●"Walk with Me" a poetically spiritual documentary is truly "cooling to the mind and soothing to the spirit" in this chaotic time of human history. Highly recommended.
Chong-Pin Lin September 7, 2017
●"正念的奇蹟" 也許不適合習慣欣賞熱鬧動作片的觀眾。對於習慣內心探索的靈魂，這是炎熱天最好的清涼劑。高度讚賞，強力推薦。
林中斌 2017.9.7
極凍之城 Atomic Blonde
accessed August 9, 2017
●中文翻作: 極凍之城。
這將成為"女性007"電影的鼻祖。已獲3獎1提名。尤其適合大熱天觀賞。故事背景是圍牆倒塌前冬天的柏林。女主角冷峻的演出值得一看。
林中斌 2017.8.9
●Superbly crafted spy thriller with a skillfully sculpted heroine , it is a trail blazer for future "female James Bond" genre of films. It has already scored 3 wins and 1 nomination. Recommended for summer entertainment as the story was set in the cold Berlin city just before the Wall came down. The neat and "cool" performance of Charlize Theron is worth the trip.
Chong-Pin Lin August 9, 2017
Monk with a Camera
● "改變他人來解決問題，是一般人。改變環境來解決問題，是中等人。改變自己來解決問題，是智慧人。"
這句話令我難忘，是電影裡藏傳佛教上師引述伊斯蘭教的箴言。
●鄭重推薦電影「時尚僧侶新視界」。 紐約時尚天后的孫子，放棄繁華，剃度進入藏傳佛教，在印度弘法，靠自己攝影佳作募款，建立寺廟。並成為住持重要藏傳佛寺的第一位西方僧侶。
●這是一部還想再看的佳片。
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monk_with_a_Camera
林中斌 2017.7.24
● " Changing others to solve problems is the lowest approach. Changing the environment to solve problems is the middle-ranking approach. Changing oneself to solve the problems is the wisest approach." I was struck by this quote uttered by a Tibetan master who cited a Muslim adage.
● The documentary film "Monk with a Camera" was thoughtfully and artistically made about the life story of Nicholas Vreeland, the grandson of Diana Vreeland, the grand dame of fashion. Nicholas gave up a life of high society of refined taste to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk.
● He built a monastery in India with the fund raised by selling his artistic photographs, and was later appointed abbot of an important Tibetan Buddhist monastery in India by Dalai Lama.
● It is a film that I would love to see again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monk_with_a_Camera
Chong-Pin Lin July 24, 2017
塔莎杜朵，一個人的田園生活
Tasha Tudor : A Still Water Story
http://www.atmovies.com.tw/home/
accessed July 10, 2017
這是讓我從頭微笑到尾的電影。 塔莎杜朵 (1914 -2008)一生出版了八十本兒童畫書，養活了全家，丈夫及四位小孩。她從小就喜歡田園大自然，不趨時尚，不愛虛榮。在這動亂、紛爭、激情、暴力的時代裡，她的一生不只帶給無數兒童心中美好快樂的天地，也示範給大人安寧、和藹、知足的境界。有趣的是：這部電影居然是日本團隊製作！似乎意味了：講究心靈安詳的日本生活藝術家比好萊塢更欣賞塔莎杜朵。
林中斌 2017.7.10
Review: ‘Frantz,’ a Mysterious Frenchman and the Wounds of War
STEPHEN HOLDEN, The New York Times, March 14, 2017
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/14/movies/frantz-review.html?referer=http%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2F
accessed May 28, 2017
許久未看過如此情節引人如勝又細膩感人的佳片。故事發展至少轉彎七次。背景是一次大戰後的德國法國。劇本根據1932的老電影。我們仍可感受到19世紀20世紀初期那"美好時代"(la belle epoch)歐洲社會的教養，人際互動的內斂。
非常推薦這部難得的佳片。
林中斌 2017.5.29
It is gently and sensitively made. It moved me many times during the course of the showing. What makes it stand out from the similar movies is its intriguing development with at least seven turns of the story. Surprise after surprise and more to come. It is a film that touches my soul in way that has not occurred for a long time.
Chong-Pin Lin May 29, 2017
鋼鐵英雄 電影推薦
● 堅守博愛慈悲的信念，縱使被所有人認為不合時宜，縱使暗夜被毒打，縱使被長官同僚霸凌，仍不退縮，堅持到最後，贏得所有人的尊敬。
● 真人真事改編，我從開演20分鐘就開始掉淚，把林先生的手帕都哭溼了。在這混亂的世界，謝謝 Mel Gibson 導了這部片，讓我們看到耶穌真正的教導!
Alice Chang 和 Chong-Pin Lin 2016.12.26
Film Review: ‘A Man Called Ove’
ALLISA SIMON, Variety, March 8, 2016
http://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/a-man-called-ove-review-1201722435/
accessed September 11, 2016
Arthur M
Hiller, Director of 1976 Film ‘Love Story’, Died at 92
Dave Kehr, The New York Times, August 17, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/18/movies/arthur-hiller-dead.html
assessed August 26, 2016
出版書籍/books published (8) 論文與評論/papers & opeds (4) 講演與受訪/speeches & interviews (2) 全球磁變/Global shift (1) 休閒/leisure (9) 授課資料/teaching (4) 心靈探索/Spiritual Exploration (2)
