「小城之春」「生死恨」－－費穆、梅蘭芳與中國電影詩學

A Spring That Brought Eternal Regret: Fei Mu, Mei Lanfang, and the Poetics of Sreening China

本文探討一九四九年前夕，中國電影與戲劇的相互借鑑與影響。全文以一九四八年「詩人導演」費穆的兩部電影《生死恨》與《小城之春》為焦點，指出前者脫胎於京劇大師梅蘭芳同名戲劇，後者的靈感得自於蘇軾詩詞。兩部電影背景與風格極為不同，但兩作同時製作，並皆探討戰爭與情義的主題，則似非巧合。並讀兩作，提供費穆、梅蘭芳、中國詩學之間的奇妙對話，以及一代影人思考呈現「民族電影」的意義。This article discusses the mutual illumination between Chinese opera, cinema and poetry on the eve of the Chinese Communist Revolution. I focus on two films made by the 'poet-director' Fei Mu in 1948, 'Eternal Regret and Spring in a Small Town'. The former is an adaptation of the Peking opera of the same title, starring Mei Lanfang, the most popular female impersonator of traditional theater; the latter is a contemporary melodrama allegedly inspired by the song lyric of Su Shi (1037-1101). The two movies cannot be more different in style and background. But the fact that they both deal with wartime romance and were produced back to back points to something more than a coincidence. It tells a compelling story of how Fei Mu, with the inspiration of Mei Lanfang and traditional poetics, negotiated a new way of screening China.