By James Ferman 国华 树春 译注

　　本文作者弗曼曾长期担任英国电影分级委员会主任，执掌电影的生杀定夺大权。他对电影的前途充满信心。尽管从电视机发明之日起就有人预言电影会被电视取代，弗曼却说，在高级影院看电影和在家里看电视是两种不同的享受，不存在取代问题，而且将来人人都有机会过一过当制片人和电影演员的瘾。

　　The proportion of works cut for the cinema in Britain<注1> dropped from 40 per cent when I joined the BBFC<注2> in 1975 to less than 4 per cent when I left. But I don't think that 20 years from now it will be possible to regulate<注3> any medium as closely<注4> as I regulated film.The internet is, of course, the greatest problem for this century. The world will have to find a means, through some sort of international treaty or United Nations initiative,<注5>to control the material<注6> that's now going totally unregulated into people's homes. That said,<注7> it will only take one little country like Paraguay to refuse to sign a treaty for transmission<注8> to be unstoppable. Parental control is never going to be sufficient.

　　I'm still very worried about the impact of violent video games,<注9> even though researchers say their impact is moderated by the fact that<注10> players don't so much experience the game as enjoy the technical manoeuvres that enable you<注11> to win. But in respect of<注12> violence in mainstream films, I'm more optimistic. Quite suddenly, tastes<注13> have changed, and it's no longer Stallone<注14> or Schwarzenegger<注15> who are the top stars, but Leonardo DiCaprio<注16>—that has taken everybody by surprise.Go through the most successful films in Europe and America now and you will find virtually none that are violent. Quentin Tarantino<注17> didn't usher in<注18> a new, violent generation,<注19> and films are becoming much more prosocial than one would have expected.<注20>Cinemagoing will undoubtedly survive.<注21> The new multiplexes<注22> are a glorious experience, offering perfect sound and picture and very comfortable seats, things which had died out in the 1980s. I can't believe we've achieved that<注23> only to<注24> throw it away in favour of<注25> huddling around a 14-inch computer monitor to watch digitally-delivered<注26> movies at home.It will become increasingly cheap to make films, with cameras becoming smaller and lighter but remaining very precise.<注27> That means greater chances for new talent<注28> to emerge, as it will be much easier for people to learn how to be better film-makers. People's working lives<注29> will be shorter in the future, and once retired they will spend a lot of time learning to do things that amuse them—like making videos. Fifty years on<注30> we could well<注31> be media-saturated<注32> as producers as well as audience:<注33> instead of writing letters, one will send little home movies entitled My Week.-

　　(From CAM: Cambridge Alumni Magazine, No. 28, 1999)