班傑明的奇幻旅程(內含神奇特效化妝術步驟解析圖片)
網誌圖片版 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?」
教班傑明彈鋼琴的老奶奶不疾不徐的吐出這句她活了一甲子的智慧結晶；這
一幕，也是整部片中讓我最有共鳴的地方，但它卻是如此的樸實無華，像杯
白開水般不著痕跡的湧入我的心。
導演大衛芬奇的電影從「鬥陣俱樂部」起，我就每部必向戲院報到，這次還
外加「阿甘正傳」的編劇Eric Roth，當屬今年最令我期待的電影。整部電
影改編自「大亨小傳」知名作家費茲傑羅在1920年左右寫出的短篇小說班傑
明巴頓的奇妙故事，原文才二十多頁不到九千字，為短篇小說集「爵士傳奇」
中的一篇，有心人可以去翻翻，很快就可看完。電影則是以非常平鋪直敘的
細微情節漸漸累積情感，導演明顯刻意的不製造任何高潮，但讓觀眾默默內傷。
一開始由扮演老年時代的女主角凱特布蘭奇翻開日記展開整段故事。凱特臉
上清晰可見衰老的皺紋伴隨著颶風，在日落西山之際介紹班傑明的新生，這
個新生命，更很巧妙的誕生在死傷慘重的一次大戰結束日；這個新生命，更
伴隨著親生母親的逝世，「生與死」這老掉牙議題不啻一線之隔的一體兩面。
生下來就是一個八十多歲老頭的班傑明，被父親遺棄至養老院，那個落寞、
槁木死灰、讓人安享晚年的地方，小小的身軀與心靈因而開始早早體驗人生
最後也是最嚴肅的議題「死亡」。但班傑明始終以正面而樂觀的態度自處並
探索這奇妙的世界，只是在他得到與成長的同時，淡淡的失去了更多。
隨著年歲的增長，班傑明卻越來越年輕，這逆流的年齡讓班傑明無法正常地
和愛人與家人共度一生，當下讓我聯想到風馬牛不相及趙詠華的超甜蜜歌聲
「我能想到最浪漫的事，就是和你一起慢慢變老」，但日益年輕沒有歲月痕
跡刻劃的班傑明，卻不得不學習放下，選擇離去。
這部電影還有太多可討論的地方，畢竟在班傑明的一生中遇見了許多人，每
段歷程都給予其某些啟發，再搭配上大時代洪流的劇變演進，交織成班傑明
的日後的性格與命運。例如：
船長Mike的一段話巧妙的拉出這部電影的精神：
「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.」
被七次閃電擊中的老翁，告訴班傑明生命的可貴；後悔的親生父親巴頓先生，
人生要懂得接受；半夜在旅館幽會的人妻，六十多歲依然橫渡海峽完成夢想。
布萊德彼特演技相當傑出詮釋十分到位，但可能真的是太帥氣了，也可能是
導演刻意的平淡手法，有幾幕戲總覺得不夠強烈：例如巴頓先生在紐扣辦公
室告訴班傑明真實身世並帶他回家看照片那兩場戲，總覺得缺少了什麼，或
許是當下的憤怒與釋懷；環遊世界後忽然回到舞蹈教室撞見女兒那場戲，那
場戲小布的帥絕對可媲美「第六感生死緣」時期那種驚天地泣鬼神的俊美，
帥到難以讓人感覺到看見朝思暮想的愛人與女兒內心的悸動。
片末兒童社福機構通知黛西關於班傑明的下落，此時的班傑明身體已回歸到
十歲左右的小朋友，但心智上卻像是得到老年癡呆症的老人，不認識黛西並
且任性哭鬧。老態龍鍾的黛西陪伴班傑明走完他人生的最後一程，那幕黛西
步伐蹣跚的一手拖著柺杖，一手牽著小班傑明在公園散步的戲，黛西緩緩吃
力的彎下笨重身軀，給了小班傑明一個吻，我想那一吻，很多人不禁濕了眼
眶，兩位相識了幾十年的戀人如今卻像祖孫般相互扶持砥礪。
電影最後一個鏡頭，滾滾的洪水沖走那「反方向的大鐘」，暗喻歲月就像洪
水般流逝與淹沒，所以我們必須勇敢真切的活在當下，認認真真的過每一分
鐘，才能像蜂鳥一樣，在有限的生命中努力振翅，不枉此生。
以下為返老還童神奇特效化妝術大解析：
不同年齡層的班傑明，除了最後出現的那個小孩和嬰兒，均由布萊德彼特一
手包辦。所以電影最前面的五十二分鐘的班傑明，全拜現今電腦動畫之賜！
小布正式上工的前幾週，每天的工作就是在臉上塗滿螢光劑，接著對著鏡頭
擠眉弄眼，讓特效小組收集他各個角度的所有面部表情與肌肉運動，再將這
些表情連結上矮小老人的身軀。不過小布可得在棚內從頭到尾再把所有鏡頭
一遍遍的一演再演，以便電腦動畫人員找到最佳角度達到零缺點的結合。此
外，他和凱特每天都要花上六小時的時間上妝，堪稱一超級浩大工程。
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.
(圖一)(圖二)
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.”
(圖三)(圖四)
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.”
(圖五)(圖六)
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.”
(圖七)(圖八)(圖九)
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.”
(圖十)(圖十一)
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.”
最後再附上班傑明片中對女兒說的話：
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.
很感謝我的父母，雖然從未跟我說過類似的話，但在日常生活中淺移默化的引導我實踐了