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New film: 12 Years A Slave??新片上映：《为奴十二年》 Jan 9th 2014 / the Economist EARLY in Steve McQueen’s “12 Years A Slave”, a Louisiana plantation-owner returns home with the two slaves he’s just bought, a man and a woman. Waiting on the veranda, his genteel wife notices that the woman is crying, and asks why. “Separated from her children,”?sighs?the husband, not unsympathetically. “Can’t be helped.” 在史蒂夫?麦奎因执导的电影《为奴十二年》开头，有位路易斯安那的种植园主带着他刚买的一男一女两个黑奴回家。他温文尔雅的妻子等在阳台上，看到那个女奴在哭泣，就问为什么。“她和孩子分开了，”做丈夫的叹了口气，不无同情地说，“没办法。” Those last three words are the key to Mr McQueen’s?devastating?film, in that they, like so many other?sequences,?present?slavery as the?norm: long-established, legal and?legitimized?by scripture. To its mid-19th-century characters, there’s nothing unusual about keeping human beings asproperty, and no way that the?institution?can be changed. In the?preceding?scene, a jovial slave-trader (Paul Giamatti) is showing customers his wares. “This is a nigger?of considerable talent,” he remarks, but there’s nothing in the way the line is spoken to suggest that anyone in the shop might be shocked. The trader sees his terrified, naked?merchandise?as no different from any other commodity. 这三个字成为麦奎因这部令人震惊的电影的关键词，像许多镜头表现的那样，人们把奴隶制视为常态：由来已久、合乎法律、天经地义。对于本片19世纪中期的角色来说，把人作为财产是很平常的事，没有办法改变这种制度。在前面的场景中，有个快活的奴隶贩子（保罗?吉亚玛提饰演）向主顾展示他的货品。他说，“这是个很有才华的黑鬼，”可是这里没有台词暗示店里的人可能受到惊吓。在奴隶贩子看来，赤裸受惊的黑奴和其他货色没什么不同。 In another astonishing scene, the hero, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor, pictured), is hanged from a tree by a noose. For an agonizingly long time, he?gulps for air, his feet only just touching the muddy ground. But Mr. McQueen doesn’t ratchet up the?tension?with dramatic music or exploitative close-ups. He simply lets the?ordeal?carry on and on, while in the background, servants?go about their business?and children play. It’s not until the film is almost over that a Canadian laborer articulates the?notion?that slavery might be wrong. In the meantime, even Northup accepts that it’s a fact of l