Katherine: No; it's not. Is it any good? Come on; ladies. There's no wrong answer. There's also no textbook telling you what to think. It's not that easy; is it?
Betty: All right. No. It's not good. In fact; I wouldn't even call it art. It's grotesque.
Connie Baker: Is there a rule against art being grotesque?
Giselle Levy: I think there's something aggressive about it...and erotic.
Betty: To you; everything is erotic.
Giselle: Everything is erotic.
Katherine: Girls.
Susan: Aren't there standards?
Betty: Of course there are. Otherwise a tacky velvet painting could be equated to a Rembrandt.
Connie: My uncle Ferdie has two tacky velvet paintings. He loves those clowns.
Betty: There are standards; technique; composition; color; even subject. So if you're suggesting that rotted side of meat is art... much less good art; then what are we going to learn?
Katherine: Just that. You have outlined our new syllabus; Betty. Thank you. What is art? What makes it good or bad? And who decides? Next slide; please. Twenty five years ago someone thought this was brilliant.
Connie: I can see that.
Betty: Who?
Katherine: My mother. I painted it for her birthday.
Katherine: Next slide. This is my mom. Is it art?
Susan Delacorte: It's a snapshot.
Katherine: If I told you Ansel Adams had taken it, would that make a difference?
Betty: Art isn't art until someone says it is.
Katherine: It's art!
Betty: The right people.
Katherine: Who are they?
Giselle: Betty Warren! So lucky we have one right here.
Betty: Screw you.
Katherine: Could you go back to the Soutine, please? Just look at it again. Look beyond the paint. Let us try to open our minds to a new idea. All right; back to chapter three. Has anyone read it? Okay.
妙詞佳句,活學活用
1. grotesque
這是這部電影里經(jīng)常碰到的一個單詞,意思是“(風格)奇異,古怪,荒誕的”。我們來看個例子:Everything seemed strange, so tawdry and grotesque. 一切都很新奇,很花哨,有點滑稽可笑。
在口語中還有一些其它常用的詞來表示“奇怪的”這一意思的詞,出現(xiàn)頻率都很高。比如 weird,如:Sabrina went out with Linus? That's too weird. 莎賓娜和萊納斯出去約會了?簡直太奇怪了!
Strange,這是一個大熟詞,就不舉例子了。
Odd,如 It's odd that she should have kept such an ugly name as Ellen. 真奇怪她居然一直用埃倫這么個難聽的名字。
Bizarre,如:For him, it was a bizarre and tedious experience. 對他來說這是一次奇特而又乏味的經(jīng)歷。
2. aggressive
這個單詞不知道怎么回事,很容易被大家記住的意思是“侵略性的,攻擊性的”,因而我們經(jīng)常把它當作貶義詞來使用。但是在英語中,尤其在美語中,這個詞還有另一個常用意思是“大膽的,積極進取的”。所以這個詞在本片段中的意思就不是侵略性的,而是“前衛(wèi)的,大膽的”。
e.g. He is an aggressive young executive. 他是一個進取心很強的年輕管理員。