班杰明的奇幻旅程(内含神奇特效化妆术步骤解析图片)
网志图片版 http://www.wretch.cc/blog/kisswatch/11942866
“We're meant to lose the people we love.
How else would we know how important they are to us?”
教班杰明弹钢琴的老奶奶不疾不徐的吐出这句她活了一甲子的智慧结晶；这
一幕，也是整部片中让我最有共鸣的地方，但它却是如此的朴实无华，像杯
白开水般不着痕迹的涌入我的心。
导演大卫芬奇的电影从“斗阵俱乐部”起，我就每部必向戏院报到，这次还
外加“阿甘正传”的编剧Eric Roth，当属今年最令我期待的电影。整部电
影改编自“大亨小传”知名作家费兹杰罗在1920年左右写出的短篇小说班杰
明巴顿的奇妙故事，原文才二十多页不到九千字，为短篇小说集“爵士传奇”
中的一篇，有心人可以去翻翻，很快就可看完。电影则是以非常平铺直叙的
细微情节渐渐累积情感，导演明显刻意的不制造任何高潮，但让观众默默内伤。
一开始由扮演老年时代的女主角凯特布兰奇翻开日记展开整段故事。凯特脸
上清晰可见衰老的皱纹伴随着飓风，在日落西山之际介绍班杰明的新生，这
个新生命，更很巧妙的诞生在死伤惨重的一次大战结束日；这个新生命，更
伴随着亲生母亲的逝世，“生与死”这老掉牙议题不啻一线之隔的一体两面。
生下来就是一个八十多岁老头的班杰明，被父亲遗弃至养老院，那个落寞、
槁木死灰、让人安享晚年的地方，小小的身躯与心灵因而开始早早体验人生
最后也是最严肃的议题“死亡”。但班杰明始终以正面而乐观的态度自处并
探索这奇妙的世界，只是在他得到与成长的同时，淡淡的失去了更多。
随着年岁的增长，班杰明却越来越年轻，这逆流的年龄让班杰明无法正常地
和爱人与家人共度一生，当下让我联想到风马牛不相及赵咏华的超甜蜜歌声
“我能想到最浪漫的事，就是和你一起慢慢变老”，但日益年轻没有岁月痕
迹刻划的班杰明，却不得不学习放下，选择离去。
这部电影还有太多可讨论的地方，毕竟在班杰明的一生中遇见了许多人，每
段历程都给予其某些启发，再搭配上大时代洪流的剧变演进，交织成班杰明
的日后的性格与命运。例如：
船长Mike的一段话巧妙的拉出这部电影的精神：
“You can be as mad as a mad dog at the way things went. You could swear,
curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go.”
被七次闪电击中的老翁，告诉班杰明生命的可贵；后悔的亲生父亲巴顿先生，
人生要懂得接受；半夜在旅馆幽会的人妻，六十多岁依然横渡海峡完成梦想。
布莱德彼特演技相当杰出诠释十分到位，但可能真的是太帅气了，也可能是
导演刻意的平淡手法，有几幕戏总觉得不够强烈：例如巴顿先生在纽扣办公
室告诉班杰明真实身世并带他回家看照片那两场戏，总觉得缺少了什么，或
许是当下的愤怒与释怀；环游世界后忽然回到舞蹈教室撞见女儿那场戏，那
场戏小布的帅绝对可媲美“第六感生死缘”时期那种惊天地泣鬼神的俊美，
帅到难以让人感觉到看见朝思暮想的爱人与女儿内心的悸动。
片末儿童社福机构通知黛西关于班杰明的下落，此时的班杰明身体已回归到
十岁左右的小朋友，但心智上却像是得到老年痴呆症的老人，不认识黛西并
且任性哭闹。老态龙钟的黛西陪伴班杰明走完他人生的最后一程，那幕黛西
步伐蹒跚的一手拖着柺杖，一手牵着小班杰明在公园散步的戏，黛西缓缓吃
力的弯下笨重身躯，给了小班杰明一个吻，我想那一吻，很多人不禁湿了眼
眶，两位相识了几十年的恋人如今却像祖孙般相互扶持砥砺。
电影最后一个镜头，滚滚的洪水冲走那“反方向的大钟”，暗喻岁月就像洪
水般流逝与淹没，所以我们必须勇敢真切的活在当下，认认真真的过每一分
钟，才能像蜂鸟一样，在有限的生命中努力振翅，不枉此生。
以下为返老还童神奇特效化妆术大解析：
不同年龄层的班杰明，除了最后出现的那个小孩和婴儿，均由布莱德彼特一
手包办。所以电影最前面的五十二分钟的班杰明，全拜现今电脑动画之赐！
小布正式上工的前几周，每天的工作就是在脸上涂满萤光剂，接着对着镜头
挤眉弄眼，让特效小组收集他各个角度的所有面部表情与肌肉运动，再将这
些表情连结上矮小老人的身躯。不过小布可得在棚内从头到尾再把所有镜头
一遍遍的一演再演，以便电脑动画人员找到最佳角度达到零缺点的结合。此
外，他和凯特每天都要花上六小时的时间上妆，堪称一超级浩大工程。
For "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," David Fincher, the film's director,
worked with the special effects company Digital Domain to best achieve the
backwards-aging process of the title character. Here Mr. Fincher and Ed
Ulbrich, Digital Domain's executive vice president for production, discuss
how Benjamin Button was built.
(图一)(图二)
STEP 1: Makeup artists created a life cast molded from Mr. Pitt’s head.
Then “they painstakingly sculpted 40 years on him,” Mr. Ulbrich said.
“They created a sculpture of him well into his 80s, and then did another one
of him in his 70s, another one of him appearing to be in his 60s.”
The sculptures, scanned into a computer, “hold up in extreme close-up in
real life,” Mr. Ulbrich said. “They look like the severed head of Benjamin
Button, right down to the beard stubble and eyelashes.”
(图三)(图四)
STEP 2: Using a motion-capture system Digital Domain scanned Mr. Pitt’s face
as he cycled through more than 120 different expressions. “What that gave
us,” Mr. Ulbrich said, “was a database that lets us know everything about
how Brad’s left eyebrow moves and how his right eyebrow moves and what happens
to that little furrow in between the eyebrows."
"And what happens to your left and right nostrils separately when you open
your mouth the widest," Ulbrich said. "We now had a library of pretty much
everything his face is capable of doing.”
(图五)(图六)
STEP 3: In New Orleans, where the movie was shot, Mr. Fincher directed the
scenes in which Benjamin, played by one of the body actors wearing special
headgear, appeared with the rest of the film’s cast. “They weren’t, in a
lot of cases, called upon to move the audience to tears, but they’re called
upon to hold sacred Benjamin’s inability to get easily across the lawn,”
Mr. Fincher said.
"They’re seeing a guy with a blue hood on his head, with all these tracking
markers. Yeah, it’s weird. It’s definitely weird. That’s why you hire really
good actors.”
(图七)(图八)(图九)
STEP 4: Mr. Pitt returned to a soundstage in Los Angeles to film his portions
of these scenes, seated at an exercise machine (to hold him in place) and
surrounded by several high-definition cameras.
The actor Robert Towers played this scene, in which Benjamin discovers his
newly youthful physique, with concern and uncertainty, but Mr. Pitt decided
the character should be more delighted.
“Brad said, ‘No, no, I think he would just be so stoked that this was
happening,’” Mr. Fincher recalled. “And he came up with that face.”
(图十)(图十一)
STEP 5: Using image-analysis software Digital Domain matched these
performances by Mr. Pitt, frame by frame, with the library of his facial
expressions and inserted his electronically aged face into the footage.
Instead of an artist’s rendition of how Mr. Pitt might have acted the scene,
Mr. Ulbrich said, “Now we have Benjamin Button played by Brad Pitt, performing
exactly what Brad Pitt gives us in a real-time live performance.”
最后再附上班杰明片中对女儿说的话：
Benjamin Button: [Voice over; letter to his daughter]
For what it's worth:
it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be.
There's no time limit, stop whenever you want.
You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing.
We can make the best or the worst of it.
I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you.
I hope you feel things you never felt before.
I hope you meet people with a different point of view.
I hope you live a life you're proud of.
If you find that you're not,
I hope you have the strength to start all over again.
很感谢我的父母，虽然从未跟我说过类似的话，但在日常生活中浅移默化的引导我实践了