阿特拉斯耸耸肩
在一个家族传承的塔格特铁路公司,现任总裁为家族长子詹姆斯·塔格特,副总裁是达格妮·塔格特,兄妹俩为挽救公司岌岌可危的营运,想法与方法可说是南辕北辙,一位只是口头囔囔一些没有经过详细评估的墨西哥——圣赛巴斯蒂安支线的投资,却没有提出一丝一毫的规划与执行方案,常常以见不得别人成功的酸葡萄心态看待事情与诋毁他人;另一位是以“我是像一个饿疯了一样,去找任何一个能把事情做好的人!”为挽救塔格特铁路公司,与爱迪·威勒斯孜孜矻矻、焚膏继晷的努力工作,为顺利完成里约诺特的铁路支线,找上里尔登钢铁的汉克·里尔登合作,采用里尔登刚发明的新合金当铁轨,没想到成功营造出里约诺特的铁路支线,却是另一个不幸的开端。  幕后制作  《阿特拉斯耸耸肩》是上世纪美国著名哲学家、小说家安·兰德的代表巨著,这位俄裔美籍小说家推崇理性,认为人的最高美德便是理性。她不顾传统舆论的偏见,力倡个人主义,认为不能使个人利益得到最大伸张的社会,就不是理想社会。她的客观主义哲学自上世纪50年代起便风靡美国校园,影响了几代美国人,她本人也成为美国青年崇拜的偶像。  《阿特拉斯耸耸肩》是她最著名的一本小说,曾在美国社会产生巨大影响。书中宣扬金钱至上的思想,探讨了理性利己主义的道德性。1957年刚刚出版曾遭遇社会恶评,但却异常畅销,在美国的销售量仅次于《圣经》,并影响了当时社会的很多知识分子,甚至成为美国学生必读的课外书籍。
造物的奇迹
Wunder der Schöpfung is an extraordinary, fascinating Kulturfilm trying to explain the whole human knowledge of the 1920s about the world and the universe. 15 special effects experts and 9 cameramen were involved in the production of this film which combines documentary scenes, historical documents, fiction elements, animation scenes and educational impact. It its beautifully colored, using tinting and toning in a very elaborated way. Some visual ideas in the sequences with a space shuttle visiting different planets in the universe seem to have to be the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey.  In the context of Germany's Kulturfilm phenomenon, Wunder der Schöpfung was among the greatest achievements of the 1920s. The production was constructed, rehearsed, and shot over a period of two and a half years, under the supervision of Hanns Walter Kornblum. The idea to describe the universe and man's place in it well suited UFA's Grossfilm mentality, one year before the Metropolis catastrophe. Hundreds of skilled craftsmen participated in the project, building props and constructing scale models drawn by 15 special effects draughtsmen, while 9 cameramen in separate units worked on the historical, documentary, fiction, animation, and science-fiction sequences. Without star roles or even protagonists, the film's plot is crowded with meticulously structured and skillfully acted single scenes an artful mosaic of small vignettes. No less than four credited university professors ensured the factual background behind the scientific and historical events portrayed.  The film's symbol of progress and the new scientific era is a spacecraft, travelling through the Milky Way, making all the planets and their inspiring worlds familiar to us, with the extravaganza of their distinctive features. The film's educational intentions, however, become steadily more obscure, humorous, or even campy as this popularization project proceeds. With the excuse of presenting the end of the world a not-so-new concept as a new, undeniably scientific truth, the film veers happily along a new path, displaying detailed apocalyptic scenes of the end of mankind. For today's audiences, this amazing film demonstrates how the universe was comprehended in the 1920s, and how that view was sold to contemporary audiences.
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