Audrey Hepburn: Our Fair Lady
奧黛麗.赫本：永遠的窈窕淑女

By Susan Schindehette 譯/ 辛獻云 黃藝菱

Most of our images of her came out of Africa where, as a shirtsleeved ambassador for UNICEF, she walked in a ravaged Somalia, giving solace with that radiant smile—and focusing the world's attention on a starving land. Last September she asked to be taken to the famine's epicenter, a feeding camp in the town of Baidoa. As she arrived, she saw hundreds of small lifeless bodies being loaded onto trucks. The worst of it, she would later say, eyes welling with tears, was "the terrible silence."

Life was a brave journey for Audrey Hepburn. She was, after all, a woman who spent much of her girlhood in Nazi-occupied Holland, subsisting for a time on flour made from tulip bulbs. Along with her starving grandparents, she received food from a relief agency—UNICEF's precursor. "Your soul is nourished by all your experiences," she once said. "It gives you baggage for the future—and ammunition, if you like."

Hepburn's journey ended last Wednesday in Tolochenaz, Switzerland, where, at 63, she succumbed to the colon cancer that had been diagnosed just two months before. Death found her in a merciful setting: on a mild springlike night at her beloved 18th-century stone farmhouse on Lake Geneva. "She was able to make only one trip in the last days," says journalist Henry Gris, one of her oldest friends. "She went out into the garden. It's very gray this time of year, but she wanted to see her flowers." At the end she was surrounded by those she cherished most, including her companion of 12 years, Robert Wolders, 55. "He was very dedicated to her," says Gris. Also at Hepburn's bedside were her sons, Sean Ferrer, 33, and Luca Dotti, 22, and her beloved Jack Russell terriers.

For a time last week, as people recalled the luminous images of Hepburn in her 25 films, it seemed as if the whole world were in mourning. "You looked at her, and all you could think was that nothing bad should ever happen to her," said actress Arlene Dahl. "If there was a cross between the salt of the earth and a regal queen." said Shirley MacLaine, her costar in The Children's Hour (1961), "then she was it."

Hepburn saw herself a bit differently. "I was born with an enormous need for affection," she once said, "and a terrible need to give it." Born Audrey Kathleen van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston to an English-Irish banker father and a Dutch baroness, she had a near idyllic early childhood in Brussels. But her parents divorced when she was 9. Then came the war, and the baroness, seeking safe haven, moved with her daughter to her parents' home in Arnhem. During Holland's Nazi occupation, Hepburn carried messages for the Resistance in her ballet shoes. In time, as she would later recall, "the rationing started, and then, little by little, the reprisals began." An uncle and cousin were shot; her elder half brother, Alexander, was conscripted to work in a Berlin factory. The once chubby girl became gaunt and frail. Certainly the memory of those years never left her: More than a decade later she would turn down director George Stevens' offer to make The Diary of Anne Frank because, she explained, "I could not deal with it."

In 1948 the resilient teenager left for England to study ballet and landed a chorus girl's part in a London production of High Button Shoes. Three years later, in Monte Carlo for a movie bit, she was spotted by the novelist Colette, who instantly realized that she had found the girl to play her Gigi on Broadway. That role won Hepburn a Theatre World Award in 1952, and then-after she kept a photo of Colette on her dressing table, inscribed, "To Audrey Hepburn, the treasure I found on the beach."

電影《羅馬假日》海報

After seeing her screen test, director William Wyler cast Hepburn in his 1953 film, Roman Holiday. "She's not beautiful," said the crusty Wyler after Audrey picked up an Oscar for the part, "but she gets to you."

Over the years, of course, she didn't get to everyone. Humphrey Bogart, perhaps nettled by her romance with their costar William Holden in 1954's Sabrina, said she was "OK if you like doing 36 takes." And a film magazine she long outlasted called her "this weird hybrid with butchered hair." But the movie-going public worshiped her, and eventually even Bogie recanted. "You take the Monroes and the Terry Moores," he said, "and you know just what you're going to get every time. With Audrey it's kind of unpredictable. She's like a good tennis player—she varies her shots."

That she did—through a career that spanned divergent roles in which she somehow always maintained her ineffable aura of class. Though she had doubts about herself ("Oh, I'd like to be not so flat-chested," she once said; "I'd like not to have such angular shoulders, such big feet, such a big nose"), few other women saw these as flaws. A rail-thin gamine during the zaftigZeitgeist of the 1950s, she created a new ideal of beauty and with the help of her friend designer Hubert de Givenchy, established an impeccable—and frenetically imitated—look predicated on simplicity.

Hepburn was chronically, hopelessly civilized. On locations the world over, she made it a priority to establish a sense of home, especially after her 1954 marriage to actor Mel Ferrer, whom she had met when they costarred in Broadway's Ondine, a play that won her a Tony. Hepburn would clear hotel suites of standard-issue items and replace them with silver candlesticks, matching salt-and-pepper shakers, her own sheets.

The couple's eventual split in 1968 was one of her life's great disappointments, but she found it easier to bear than the five miscarriages she suffered. It was while on location in the Congo for The Nun's Story in 1958 that her depression over her childlessness suddenly seemed to lift. "After looking inside an insane asylum, visiting a leper colony, talking to missionary workers and watching operations, I developed a new kind of inner peacefulness," she said. In July 1960, her first child, Sean, was born. Ten years later, during a 13-year marriage to Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti, she gave birth, at 40, to another son, Luca.

Always she made it clear that family took precedence over her career. "The fact that I've made movies doesn't mean breakfast gets made or that my child does better in his homework," she said in 1980, explaining an eight-year screen hiatus that ended in 1976 with Robin and Marian. "I still have to function as a woman in a household."

Yet in later years, with her children grown, she found a new purpose. In 1988 she became special ambassador for UNICEF and immediately set off for Ethiopia to minister to famine victims. Gruelling trips to the Sudan, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Ecuador followed. "I do my best," she said simply. "I wish I could do more."

It was after her return from Somalia last fall that Hepburn began suffering stomach pain. Doctors at first suspected she had contracted an amoebic infection, but surgery in November found a graver cause. "Rob [Wolders] told me she never complained once," says a friend. "It's not that bad," she would say.

But it was. Toward the end, says Gris, "she was in such terrible pain. She could only speak in a whisper. She could not talk to all of the people who called."

Hepburn seemed to sense that she was destined to play a special role not just in movies but also in people's lives. "People associate me with a time when movies were pleasant," she said, "when women wore pretty dresses in films and you heard beautiful music. I always love it when people write me and say, 'I was having a rotten time, and I walked into a cinema and saw one of your movies, and it made such a difference.' "

Audrey Hepburn did, in the end, make a difference. "In a cruel and imperfect world," says critic Rex Reed, "she was living proof that God could still create perfection."

我們對她最深刻的印象來自非洲。作為聯合國兒童基金會一位穿著隨意的大使，她走在備受蹂躪的索馬里，以她那燦爛明媚的笑容給人們帶去撫慰——同時將全世界的注意力聚集到這片饑餓的土地上。去年9月，她申請被派往饑荒的中心，一個位于拜多阿的救濟營。抵達時，她看到成百上千失去生命的小尸體正被運上卡車。最可怕的是“那死一般的沉寂”，此后她一提起此事就止不住流淚。

對奧黛麗.赫本來說，生命就是一場勇敢的旅行。畢竟，她童年的大多數時光都是在納粹占領下的荷蘭度過的，一度靠著郁金香花莖磨成的粉艱難度日。她與飽受饑餓的外祖父母一起，接受過救濟機構（聯合國兒童基金會的前身）提供的食物。“你所有的經歷都會為靈魂提供滋養，”她曾經說過，“它為你的未來提供行囊——如果需要的話，還有彈藥?！?/p>

赫本的人生旅程在上周三結束于瑞士的特洛什納，享年63歲，兩個月前剛剛診斷出的結腸癌奪去了她的生命。死神還算仁慈，讓她在一個舒心的環境里離世：一個春天般和煦的夜晚，在她心愛的、坐落于日內瓦湖畔的18世紀石頭農舍?！霸谧詈蟮娜兆永?，她還能夠外出一次，”她認識最早的一位老朋友、新聞記者亨利·格里斯說，“她去了花園里。在一年中的這個時候，天氣很是陰沉，但是她想去看看她種的那些花兒?！痹谏谋M頭，圍在她身邊的都是她最珍愛的人，包括陪伴了她12年的人生伴侶、55歲的羅伯特·沃爾德斯?！八麑λ謱Ｒ??！备窭锼拐f。同在赫本床邊的還有她的兩個兒子——33歲的肖恩·費勒和22歲的盧卡·多蒂，還有她喜愛的杰克·拉塞爾犬。

上周有段時間，人們紛紛追憶起赫本在25部電影里那光彩照人的形象，整個世界似乎都沉浸在悲慟中。“你看著她，心里就會想，任何不好的事都不應該發生在她身上?！迸輪T阿琳·達爾說道。“如果說有一種人是社會精英和女王的重合體，那就是赫本?！迸c赫本聯袂出演了《雙姝怨》（1961）的雪莉·麥克萊恩說。

赫本本人看待自己則有些不同?！拔姨焐鷮Ω星榫陀幸环N強烈的需求，”她曾經說，“同時也有一種強烈的施予感情的需求。”赫本全名奧黛麗·凱瑟琳·范海姆斯特拉·赫本-拉斯頓，父親是一位英國-愛爾蘭銀行家，母親是一位擁有男爵頭銜的荷蘭人。赫本在布魯塞爾度過了一段幾乎是田園牧歌式的早期童年生活。但在她九歲那年，父母離婚了，緊接著戰爭爆發了。為了尋求庇護之所，身為男爵的母親帶著女兒搬到了位于阿納姆的父母家中。在納粹占領荷蘭期間，赫本利用芭蕾舞鞋為抵抗軍傳遞消息。據她后來回憶，荷蘭很快就“開始限額供應物品，隨后，漸漸地，復仇行動開始了”。她的一個叔叔和堂兄被槍殺了；她同母異父的哥哥亞歷山大被強征去柏林一家工廠工作。曾經豐滿圓潤的女孩兒已變得虛弱憔悴。當然，那些年的記憶從未離開過她：十幾年過去了，她還是拒絕了喬治·史蒂文斯導演邀她出演《安妮日記》的請求，因為，她解釋說：“我辦不到?！?/p>

1948年，這個適應性強的少女前往英格蘭學習芭蕾舞，還在倫敦版的《高跟紐扣鞋》里扮演了合唱隊的一名女孩。三年后，她在蒙特卡洛扮演電影里一個小角色時，被小說家科萊特發現，科萊特立刻意識到，她已經找到了在百老匯扮演吉吉角色的女孩。這一角色在1952年為赫本贏得了戲劇世界獎。此后，在梳妝臺上，她一直保留著科萊特的一張相片，上面題寫著：“贈奧黛麗·赫本，我在海灘上發現的珍寶?！?/p>

在看過赫本的銀幕試鏡之后，導演威廉·懷勒讓她在他執導的1953年電影《羅馬假日》里擔當主角?！八⒉黄?，”在奧黛麗因這一角色拿到一項奧斯卡獎之后，脾氣暴躁的懷勒說，“但她就是能打動你?！?/p>

當然，這么多年來，并非每一個人她都能打動。男演員漢弗萊·博加特就說過，“如果一個鏡頭你愿意重復36次”，她就算是“好樣的”。或許這是因為在1954年由他與赫本和威廉·霍爾登聯袂主演的電影《龍鳳配》中，赫本與威廉·霍爾登之間的艷聞惹怒了他吧。還有一部電影雜志罵她是“怪異的雜種，長著一頭亂蓬蓬的頭發”，不過，赫本的藝術生命要比這部雜志長久多了。盡管如此，喜歡看電影的公眾卻崇拜她，最后甚至連博吉（編注：博加特的昵稱）都公開認錯?！昂蛪袈杜c特里·摩爾之類的演員搭檔，”他說，“你每次都能清楚地知道你會得到什么。但和奧黛麗在一起就有點難以預測了。她就像個出色的網球手——每次擊球都變化多端。”

電影《龍鳳配》海報

事實的確如此——在演藝生涯中，她扮演過許多不同的角色，但不知怎地卻總能保持一種不可名狀的優雅氣質。雖然她也曾懷疑過自己（“噢，我真希望自己的胸不這么平，”她曾經說過；“我真希望自己沒有這么瘦削的雙肩、這么大一雙腳、這么大一個鼻子”），但很少有其他女人會把這些當做瑕疵。在20世紀50年代崇尚豐滿的時代潮流中，一個像電線桿一般瘦削的嬌小女人卻開創了一套新的理想之美的標準，而且在她的朋友、設計師休伯特·德紀梵希的幫助下，她在簡潔樸素的基礎上樹立了一個完美無暇的形象——這一形象很快就被人們瘋狂模仿。

一直以來，赫本總是那樣文雅，文雅得無可救藥。在世界各地拍攝外景時，她總是先要建立一種家的感覺，特別是在1954年與演員梅爾·費勒結婚之后。他們是在百老匯的《美人魚》中聯袂演出時相遇的，這出劇讓她贏得了托尼獎。赫本常常會清理酒店套房配置的標準用品，替換成自己的銀質燭臺、與之相配的胡椒鹽調味瓶，還有自己的床單。

這對夫婦最終于1968年分手，這是她一生中遭受的一次重大打擊，但比起她所遭受的五次流產來，這個還是容易承受一些。1958年，當她在剛果為《修女傳》拍攝外景時，她因沒有子女而產生的抑郁似乎突然消失了?！霸谔揭曔^一家精神病院、訪問了一家麻風病人療養院、跟傳教士義工談過話、旁觀了數次手術之后，我的內心產生了一種新的平靜?！彼f。1960年7月，她的第一個孩子肖恩出生了。十年之后，在與意大利精神病醫生安德烈亞·多蒂13年的婚姻中，她又生了另一個兒子——盧卡，那一年她40歲。

家庭永遠優先于事業，這一點她總是分得很清楚?！半娪把莺昧瞬⒉灰馕吨绮途妥龊昧耍膊灰馕吨⒆拥募彝プ鳂I就完成得更好?！?980年，她在解釋自己長達八年的息影經歷時這樣說道，這次息影最終以1976年上映的電影《羅賓漢與瑪麗安》而宣告結束?！拔胰匀恍枰鲆粋€家庭主婦?！?/p>

但在以后的歲月里，隨著孩子逐漸長大成人，她有了一個新的目標。1988年，她成為聯合國兒童基金會特別大使，隨后即刻出發前往埃塞俄比亞，去救助那里的饑荒災民。隨后又不辭辛勞地前往蘇丹、薩爾瓦多、危地馬拉和厄瓜多爾。“我只是在盡力，”她輕描淡寫地說，“我希望還可以做得更多?！?/p>

赫本胃部開始疼痛是在去年秋天從索馬里回來之后。醫生最初懷疑她是受到了變形蟲感染，但11月的手術發現了更嚴重的原因。一個朋友說：“羅伯[沃爾德斯]告訴我，她一次都沒有抱怨過?！彼偸钦f：“沒那么嚴重。”

但病情確實很嚴重。格里斯說，到了最后，“她疼得很厲害，只能用微弱的聲音說話。人們給她打電話，她也沒法跟每個人都說上幾句?！?/p>

赫本似乎感覺到，她注定要扮演特別的角色，不僅在電影里如此，在人們生活中也同樣如此。“當電影給人們帶來歡樂時，人們會想到我，”她說，“當女人們在電影里穿上漂亮的裙子，當你聽到美妙的音樂，人們也會想到我。我總是喜歡人們給我寫信，告訴我：‘我心情很糟的時候，走進了電影院，看了你的一部電影，結果我整個人都變了?！?/p>

最終，奧黛麗·赫本的確給人們帶來了變化。“在這個殘酷而充滿瑕疵的世界里，”評論家雷克斯·里德說，“她的存在是一個活生生的例子，證明上帝仍然可以創造完美?！?/p>