Image courtesy Altimeter Films

回顾新电影“公民阿简：卫城之战”
Review of New Film 'Citizen Jane: Battle for the City'

由专筑网缕夕，严越编译

对于某些观众（比如说，Architectural Record读者），简•雅各布斯一定是个很熟悉的名字。她在1961年的“ 美国大城市的生与死”书中不仅彻底改变了一代公民如何看待城市空间，而且她十分重视保护城市的氛围和公民基础设施，给城市自身的风味和神韵。

但是对于更多的人来说，雅各布斯是一个难以读透的人，即使人们知道她的成就，但他们所知道的成就是模糊的，这可能是一个未知数。所以在构建纪录片“ 公民阿简：卫城之战”时，导演Matt Tyrnauer则认为是这样的一个组合。

For a certain audience (like, say, Architectural Record readers), Jane Jacobs is an old friend. Not only did her 1961 book The Life and Death of Great American Cities revolutionize how a generation of citizens view the urban space, she crusaded for the protection of neighborhoods and public infrastructure that give cities their flavor and verve.
But for more people than we might realize, Jacobs is an esoteric figure — if she’s even recognized at all — whose accomplishments are vague and, possibly, unknown all together. And it’s that group that director Matt Tyrnauer had in mind when constructing his documentary Citizen Jane: Battle for the City.


Image courtesy Altimeter Films

四月二十一日和四月二十八日，分别在纽约和洛杉矶上映，这个九十二分钟的雄心勃勃的电影是对雅各布斯以及她在城市交谈中的地位进行闪电般的介绍。这也是她的仇敌Robert Moses的报复，他曾经在纽约市和纽约州举行了12次非选举职位。他实力雄厚，实际上他强大到可以武装政府和公众以发展不稳定的住房项目，超级街区和邻里的高速公路，以重塑城市景观的方式，使汽车优先于人。

自然而然，公民简花了很多时间在雅各布的社区，为了能告诉Moses“足够”——从1959年的华盛顿广场公园和1961年的格林威治村的拯救，到1962年停止曼哈顿下城高速公路。但是许多地面覆盖在如此短的距离，你发现自己希望的八分满，Ken Burns式的短剧只是为了一切正义。

鉴于这种密度，有些地方你可以感到像被困在死路之中。例如，圣路易斯Pruitt-Igoe房屋的一部分是有趣的，但考虑专门针对这个问题，倒是有一些很好的纪录片，这是太久了。然而，当Tyrnauer以奇怪的速度传播历史、背景、轶事和分析时，它绝对不是权威性的。电影感觉比运行时间更长，你发现自己渴望挖掘更多雅各布斯的写作，更多的Moses的剪辑看起来，更多的来自世界各地的城市令人惊叹的画面。

Opening in New York on April 21 and Los Angeles April 28, the ambitious 92-minute film is a lightning-round introduction to Jacobs and her place in the urban conversation. It’s also a primer on her nemesis Robert Moses, who at one point held 12 unelected positions across New York City and New York State. He wielded so much power, in fact, that he could strong-arm politicians and the public to develop destabilizing housing projects, superblocks, and neighborhood-gutting highways to reshape the cityscape in ways that prioritized cars over people.
Naturally, Citizen Jane spends a fair amount of time on Jacobs galvanizing her community to finally tell Moses “enough” — from the fight to save Washington Square Park in 1959 and Greenwich Village in 1961 to stopping the Lower Manhattan Expressway in 1962. But there’s so much ground covered in such a short span that you find yourself wishing for an eight-part, Ken Burns-style miniseries just to do everything justice.
Given that kind of density, there are places where you can feel trapped in tangential cul-de-sacs. The section on St. Louis’ Pruitt-Igoe Houses, for example, is interesting, but goes on far too long considering there are a couple good documentaries dedicated to only that subject. Yet while Tyrnauer disseminates history, background, anecdotes, and analysis at an odd pace, it is never less than authoritative. The film feels longer than its runtime, in the best possible way, and you find yourself craving more: more of Jacobs’ writing, more clips of Moses looking dour, more of the amazing footage of cities from around the world.


Image courtesy Altimeter Films

这部电影随着时间的流逝会越发有味道。当Tyrnauer开始在电影中工作时，很少有人会想象得到唐纳德•特朗普那样担任总统。但在这里我们是，雅各布斯领导成抗议成功，泰坦尼克号的镜头更是鼓舞人心和迫切的。她的工作不仅仅是一个关于如何生活和管理城市的指南；这是一个成功的公民但又不服从的指南手册。在华盛顿广场公园的战斗中，部署成为前线面孔的策略仍然是大胆的。并且模仿X在窗帘上贴上眼镜和太阳眼镜的做法，坦率地说，很酷。

如果没有别的，公民简显示我们仍然可以从雅各布学习。她的观点和敏感性在今天也如在五十年代和六十年代如此。而不仅仅是在纽约，城市身份和社区凝聚力的问题也因为长期居民流离失所的租金上涨而爆发。世界各地的人们都面临着这些威胁，特别是在中国和印度等地。

美国主要吸收雅各布的教义、观察和教训作为最佳实践。但是，地球的其余部分是另一个故事。这部电影展现了现场描绘的景象，描绘了美国过去发展中失败的失败：贫民窟，人满为患，非人性化的高层塔楼，超级块排列。一个人描述了中国正在转化为城市地区的农田，就像“类固醇的摩西”。

The film also benefits from the passage of time. When Tyrnauer began working on the film, few expected someone like Donald Trump would become President. But here we are, and the footage of Jacobs leading successful protests against titanic figures is inspiring and urgent. Her work is not only a guidebook for how to live in and manage cities; it’s a manual for successful civil disobedience. The tactic of deploying mothers to be the front-line faces in the fight for Washington Square Park still feels audacious. And mimicking the practice of taping X’s on the windows of condemning buildings by doing the same on eyeglasses and sunglasses remains inspired and, frankly, cool.
If nothing else, Citizen Jane shows that we can still learn from Jacobs. Her perspective and sensibilities are as necessary today as they were in the 1950s and ‘60s — maybe more so. And not just in New York, where questions of urban identity and neighborhood cohesion have flared in response to rising rents that have displaced long-time residents. These threats face people all over the world—especially in places like China and India.
America has mostly absorbed Jacobs’s teachings, observations, and lessons as best practices. But the rest of the planet is another story. The film presents scene after scene depicting visions from America’s past failures manifested across the developing world: slums, overcrowding, dehumanizing high rise towers, rows upon rows of superblocks. One person describes farmland that China is converting into urban areas as “Moses on steroids.”


Image courtesy Altimeter Films

那个声明让我完全不在乎，而是应该通过每一个参与的观众发出一道声音。这让我们思考到可怕的概念，即雅各布斯在纽约赢得了战斗，她的想法可能已经失去了战争。尽管如此，Moses可以胜利吗？这是我们不想进一步考虑的现实。而那些中国超级大国和印度的贫民窟呢。在雅各布斯之后，我们如何解释这些城市的发展？

公民简在雅各布案中做得很好，好像她需要更多的防守。但是，在勃勃野心中，这些令人不安的概念就是地球上的城市空间和雅各布斯设想的未来，而且离开剧院很久，就像你心中的碎片一样。这可能不是Tyrnauer的意图，但他的电影超出了传统。事实上，它挑战了我们对自己的自信心。只是因为雅各布斯赢了并不意味着战斗已经结束了，而且显然有很多事情要做，这部电影在这个时刻是战斗的号令。

That statement caught me completely off guard, and it should send a chill through every engaged viewer. It makes us consider the terrifying notion that while Jacobs won the battles in New York, her ideas may have lost the war. Despite it all, could Moses have prevailed? It’s a reality we’re loath to even contemplate. And yet, there are those Chinese superblocks and Indian slums. How do we account for them in the evolution of cities, post-Jacobs?
Citizen Jane does an excellent job of making the case for Jacobs, as if she needed any more defending. But in its ambition, it plants these disquieting notions about the future of the planet’s urban spaces and Jacobs’ place in it — and they remain with you long after you’ve left the theater, like splinters in your mind. That may not be what Tyrnauer intended, but it elevates his film beyond mere biography. Indeed, it challenges us to confront our own complacency. Just because Jacobs won in her day doesn’t mean fight is over. Clearly there’s much to be done, and this film at this moment is a call to arms.


出处：本文译自www.architecturalrecord.com/，转载请注明出处。