《The Company》這影集是關於CIA的「小說」。我刻意強調「小說」這兩個字,是因為 Robert Littell 在寫《The Company: A Novel of the CIA》這書時,虛虛實實引用了很多資料。而這本小說最可怕的地方在於,你根本搞不清楚到底哪些地方是真的,哪些地方是假的。
比方說,James Angleton是確有其人,並且他鼎鼎大名到我關於組織理論這門課所用的書裡(James Q. Wilson的Bureaucracy),還特別提出他作為CIA反情報部門首腦,是如何在CIA裡造成一連串組織衝突。在電影裡出現的鼴鼠(mole)Philby,也是Angleton的朋友。但構成故事的Jack MaAuliffe, Harvey Torriti, Leo Kritzky等人,則是虛構出來的角色,而小說裡用大量拋售美元帶來恐慌性賣壓的作法,也無從證明起蘇聯當初是否有這個計畫。而片中引領劇情前進的鼴鼠,在現實世界裡我們可以很輕易的從後來的新聞裡知道,那隻鼴鼠其實不是在CIA中,而是在FBI中(Robert_Hanssen: 也就是最近要上映的電影《雙面特勤》的原始故事)。於是真真假假,構成了一個非常好看的故事。
In 2003, aged eleven years old, Evanna was disappointed that she would miss the release of the novel “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” as she had been hospitalised. However, the hospital released her for an morning on the day of the launch where a local bookstore arranged for her to receive a copy that was signed by author J.K. Rowling. On the day, Evanna was dressed in a Harry Potter t-shirt and having scrawled ‘I love Harry Potter’ down her arms. She had also painted her nails blue with Harry Potter written on every second nail and the golden snitch on every other one as well as sporting painted-on black Harry Potter glasses on.
《竊聽風暴》,德文片名叫《Das Leben der Anderen》、英文片名則是直翻《The Lives of Others》。片名看起來與竊聽沒什麼關係。但看完以後,覺得原文與英文的片名是越嚼越有味道。這部片的劇情一點都不簡單。在周星星電影評論裡對電影本身提出了一些觀點;BART也對劇情做了些介紹;Loubodu對於即將到來的正義無敵竟沒將片子列入片單感到遺憾;很有趣的,對岸的王怡先生也寫了以天安門事件為基調的觀點。如果你還沒看這片子,建議你先不要看這些感想與評論。這部片子,有太多的空間可以充填於劇情內外。如果能不要有任何的預設觀點去看,也許可以感受的更多。