玛丽亚（苏菲·玛索）是个让人羡慕的少妇，完整的家庭，丈夫事业有成，然而她内心深处却有为人不知的寂寞。丈夫贝特朗（文森特·佩雷斯）终日忙于工作，即便假日也一心扑在自行车运动上，因为老板热爱这项运动。玛丽亚独自承担家庭压力，对现在的生活日渐感到厌倦。 　　偶然的机会她结识了剧作家安东尼（查尔斯·贝尔林）。英俊潇洒，颇为幽默的安东尼悄然打动了玛丽亚的心。玛丽亚决定追求自己的生活，向丈夫提出离婚。眼看妻子即将被别人抢走的贝特朗顿然醒悟，想到各种办法补救婚姻，甚至向情敌求救，与安东尼成为好友。 　　安东尼的创作灵感不断受到激发，他用戏剧的演绎帮贝特朗寻回丢失的爱情，而玛丽亚到底会不会像剧作家安排的一样，决定留下呢？

玛丽亚（苏菲·玛索）是个让人羡慕的少妇，完整的家庭，丈夫事业有成，然而她内心深处却有为人不知的寂寞。丈夫贝特朗（文森特·佩雷斯）终日忙于工作，即便假日也一心扑在自行车运动上，因为老板热爱这项运动。玛丽亚独自承担家庭压力，对现在的生活日渐感到厌倦。 　　偶然的机会她结识了剧作家安东尼（查尔斯·贝尔林）。英俊潇洒，颇为幽默的安东尼悄然打动了玛丽亚的心。玛丽亚决定追求自己的生活，向丈夫提出离婚。眼看妻子即将被别人抢走的贝特朗顿然醒悟，想到各种办法补救婚姻，甚至向情敌求救，与安东尼成为好友。 　　安东尼的创作灵感不断受到激发，他用戏剧的演绎帮贝特朗寻回丢失的爱情，而玛丽亚到底会不会像剧作家安排的一样，决定留下呢？

Los Angeles is depicted in 35 stationary shots, each 2 1/2 minutes long, in this non-narrative film. 　　Nearing the completion of El Valley Centro, I began planning an urban companion piece, Los, that was to be a portrait of Los Angeles. It seemed logical, for the politics of water certainly run from the Valley to the City. Los would have the same structure as El Valley Centro and would look and listen with the same intensity. The two films would be connected with the last shot of El Valley Centro pumping water out of the Valley over Wheeler Ridge while the first shot of Los would show Mulholland’s first spillway (still in use) bringing water into LA. 　　James Benning, December 2001 　　Conceptual-art portrait of Los Angeles County, comprising 35 two-minute shots of streams, hills, buildings, factories, gardens, highways, rivers, cattle, trains, people, the ocean, a cemetery, the skyline, policemen, back streets, a jail, soccer players… Bennings’ camera remains static, and in the absence of commentary the only sounds we hear are whatever’s audible in each of these places: snatches of dialogue, distant background music, the rumble of cars and trains. 　　Benning has been one of American leading avant-garde film-makers for over 20 years, but remains barely known by the wider cinemagoing public, especially abroad – partly because he doesn’t allow his works to be available on video. And while Los is no-one’s idea of ‘commercial’ film-making, Benning’s low profile is an indictment of the timid policies of our supposedly adventurous arthouses: this is much too fascinating a use of film for it to be relegated to art galleries. 　　Los can be taken as 35 short movies, each of them saying something about the county, each of them posing some question about Benning’s technique, providing Viewing becomes an active, enthralling experience – even when there’s apparently ‘nothing happening’ on screen. It soon becomes clear that the timing, order and contents of each image has been very precisely calculated, and in many cases it’s what we can’t see that’s the ‘subject’ of the shot. The penultimate shot is of ‘homeless people’, and at one point an unseen passerby exclaims “What the f*ck are you lookin’ at, stupid motherf*cker?” But there are no answers – everything about the film is a matter of subjective interpretation, and every response is equally valid. Benning’s gaze transforms the whole of ‘greater’ Los Angeles into a vast work of art, in the process making it even ‘greater’ still – and this is only the central part of a projected ‘Southern California’ trilogy. 　　The film is full of engrossing incidental details, cross-references, tantalising clues that might mean everything or nothing. Early one we see a DKNY advertising billboard owned by a company named ‘Outdoor Systems’, and this phrase sums up Benning’s real subject – the human and natural processes that combine to form the bizarre anomaly we know as LA: a huge cloud of dust rising from a brush fire; the evening lights of cars zooming along a six-lane highway; the flight path of a landing jet-plane. This is a game with specific rules of form (the length and horizon-lines of each shot are similar) and content (each shot must contain some aspect of human activity; each shot must be outdoors) and, finally, memory test. We’re exposed to each of the images for so long, that by the end, when Benning brings up a series of captions identifying the locations of each, we can run through the whole movie again, in our mind. 　　Needless to say, Los won’t be to all tastes – in today’s market-oriented climate, such a project necessarily runs the risk of ‘pretentiousness’ accusations – but it’s surprising how quickly you adjust to the film’s unique rhythms, and this is a very straightforward, accessible kind of experimentalism. In terms of an artist using cinema to express himself, it dwarfs almost all this year’s ‘conventional’ releases: if any film of 2001 can possibly change the way its audiences think about and view their world, it’s James Benning’s mysterious, majestic, magical Los.

Los Angeles is depicted in 35 stationary shots, each 2 1/2 minutes long, in this non-narrative film. 　　Nearing the completion of El Valley Centro, I began planning an urban companion piece, Los, that was to be a portrait of Los Angeles. It seemed logical, for the politics of water certainly run from the Valley to the City. Los would have the same structure as El Valley Centro and would look and listen with the same intensity. The two films would be connected with the last shot of El Valley Centro pumping water out of the Valley over Wheeler Ridge while the first shot of Los would show Mulholland’s first spillway (still in use) bringing water into LA. 　　James Benning, December 2001 　　Conceptual-art portrait of Los Angeles County, comprising 35 two-minute shots of streams, hills, buildings, factories, gardens, highways, rivers, cattle, trains, people, the ocean, a cemetery, the skyline, policemen, back streets, a jail, soccer players… Bennings’ camera remains static, and in the absence of commentary the only sounds we hear are whatever’s audible in each of these places: snatches of dialogue, distant background music, the rumble of cars and trains. 　　Benning has been one of American leading avant-garde film-makers for over 20 years, but remains barely known by the wider cinemagoing public, especially abroad – partly because he doesn’t allow his works to be available on video. And while Los is no-one’s idea of ‘commercial’ film-making, Benning’s low profile is an indictment of the timid policies of our supposedly adventurous arthouses: this is much too fascinating a use of film for it to be relegated to art galleries. 　　Los can be taken as 35 short movies, each of them saying something about the county, each of them posing some question about Benning’s technique, providing Viewing becomes an active, enthralling experience – even when there’s apparently ‘nothing happening’ on screen. It soon becomes clear that the timing, order and contents of each image has been very precisely calculated, and in many cases it’s what we can’t see that’s the ‘subject’ of the shot. The penultimate shot is of ‘homeless people’, and at one point an unseen passerby exclaims “What the f*ck are you lookin’ at, stupid motherf*cker?” But there are no answers – everything about the film is a matter of subjective interpretation, and every response is equally valid. Benning’s gaze transforms the whole of ‘greater’ Los Angeles into a vast work of art, in the process making it even ‘greater’ still – and this is only the central part of a projected ‘Southern California’ trilogy. 　　The film is full of engrossing incidental details, cross-references, tantalising clues that might mean everything or nothing. Early one we see a DKNY advertising billboard owned by a company named ‘Outdoor Systems’, and this phrase sums up Benning’s real subject – the human and natural processes that combine to form the bizarre anomaly we know as LA: a huge cloud of dust rising from a brush fire; the evening lights of cars zooming along a six-lane highway; the flight path of a landing jet-plane. This is a game with specific rules of form (the length and horizon-lines of each shot are similar) and content (each shot must contain some aspect of human activity; each shot must be outdoors) and, finally, memory test. We’re exposed to each of the images for so long, that by the end, when Benning brings up a series of captions identifying the locations of each, we can run through the whole movie again, in our mind. 　　Needless to say, Los won’t be to all tastes – in today’s market-oriented climate, such a project necessarily runs the risk of ‘pretentiousness’ accusations – but it’s surprising how quickly you adjust to the film’s unique rhythms, and this is a very straightforward, accessible kind of experimentalism. In terms of an artist using cinema to express himself, it dwarfs almost all this year’s ‘conventional’ releases: if any film of 2001 can possibly change the way its audiences think about and view their world, it’s James Benning’s mysterious, majestic, magical Los.

一群昔日关系亲密无间的朋友，在经历多年的分离后再度相聚。他们围坐在一起，深入探讨着各自复杂的抱负、相互间的人际关系，同时也感慨着时间究竟是如何改变了他们每一个人。

约翰（大卫•阿奎特 David Arquette 饰）是一位出卖自己的肉体来换取金钱的男妓。圣诞节快要到了，约翰拼了命的工作，外加借债，总算凑足了一笔钱。他决定要用这一笔钱来入住一间豪华的高级酒店，在每年一度的佳节里享受一下崇高的待遇。然而，让约翰感到无语的是，他藏着全部财产的鞋竟然不见了，所有和圣诞节有关的幻想都化为了泡影，在洋溢着节日气氛的大街上，约翰只能继续在寒冷中揽客。 　　唐纳（卢卡斯•哈斯 Lukas Haas 饰）是街上新来的男妓，初来乍到的他有着一股罕见的天真和乐观。唐纳喜欢上了桀骜不驯的约翰，而约翰却将他视为一个让他头疼的问题。

这部在多米尼加共和国拍摄的小短片，讲述了速度与激情的有趣的幕后故事。 　　The film, shot entirely in Dominican Republic, tells the intriguing back story about the characters and events leading up to the explosive oil truck heist in Fast & Furious.

这部在多米尼加共和国拍摄的小短片，讲述了速度与激情的有趣的幕后故事。 　　The film, shot entirely in Dominican Republic, tells the intriguing back story about the characters and events leading up to the explosive oil truck heist in Fast & Furious.

约翰（大卫•阿奎特 David Arquette 饰）是一位出卖自己的肉体来换取金钱的男妓。圣诞节快要到了，约翰拼了命的工作，外加借债，总算凑足了一笔钱。他决定要用这一笔钱来入住一间豪华的高级酒店，在每年一度的佳节里享受一下崇高的待遇。然而，让约翰感到无语的是，他藏着全部财产的鞋竟然不见了，所有和圣诞节有关的幻想都化为了泡影，在洋溢着节日气氛的大街上，约翰只能继续在寒冷中揽客。 　　唐纳（卢卡斯•哈斯 Lukas Haas 饰）是街上新来的男妓，初来乍到的他有着一股罕见的天真和乐观。唐纳喜欢上了桀骜不驯的约翰，而约翰却将他视为一个让他头疼的问题。