The starred's directorial debut Propeller One-Way Night Coach has premiered at Cannes - and one critic dubbed it a "disaster".
这位明星的导演处女作《螺旋桨单程夜班车》已在戛纳首映，一位影评人称其为一场“灾难”。
It's the latest example of an A-lister heading behind the camera with baffling results.
这是又一个一线明星转到摄影机后执导却结果令人费解的最新例子。
At the Cannes films Festival on Saturday night, the festival's dapper organiser, Thierry Frémaux, introduced a screening of John Travolta's new film Propeller One-Way Night Coach – the first he has directed.
周六晚，在戛纳电影节上，衣着考究的电影节组织者蒂耶里·弗雷莫介绍了约翰·特拉沃尔塔新片《螺旋桨单程夜班车》的放映，这也是特拉沃尔塔执导的第一部电影。
"I having a theory about films made by actors," said Frémaux.
“我对演员拍的电影有一个看法，”弗雷莫说。
"They're always intimate, unique, personal, and full of ideas of cinema."
“它们总是亲密、独特、个人化，并且充满电影方面的想法。”
Well, maybe.
嗯，也许吧。
But, is that just a tactful of way of saying that such films aren't any better?
可是，这是否只是委婉地说这类电影其实并不好？
Certainly the reviews for Travolta's film have been mixed to say the least: one critic dubbed it a "disaster".
至少可以说，外界对特拉沃尔塔这部电影的评价褒贬不一：有一位影评人称它是“灾难”。
And is it a coincidence that films directed by established actors are often seen at prestigious festivals like Cannes, and then rarely ever seen again?
而那些由成名演员执导的电影常常出现在戛纳这类知名电影节上，之后却几乎再也无人问津，这难道只是巧合吗？
It should be said that actors-turned-directors are some of the most successful film-makers in cinema history, from Charlie Chaplin to Clint Eastwood to today's favourites, including Greta Gerwig and Jordan Peele.
应该说，演员转型导演的人中不乏电影史上最成功的电影人，从查理·卓别林到克林特·伊斯特伍德，再到如今受人喜爱的格蕾塔·葛韦格和乔丹·皮尔等人，皆是如此。
But this is a different phenomenon.
但这是另一种现象。
There are certain actors who reach a certain level of fame, and realise that they can't get their quirky passion projects financed – or, if push comes to shove, they can finance those projects themselves.
有些演员成名到一定程度后会意识到，自己那些古怪的热情项目可以找到资金支持，或者真到不得已时，他们也可以自己出钱拍这些项目。
Even better, their films will be welcomed by festivals, however weird, ill-judged or, in Frémaux's words, "unique" and "personal" they may be.
更妙的是，他们的电影会受到电影节欢迎，无论这些作品多么古怪、判断失误，或者用弗雷莫的话说，多么“独特”和“个人化”。
A classic example is Ryan Gosling's Lost River, an exercise in David Lynch-ish surrealism, which premiered in Cannes in 2014.
一个典型例子是瑞恩·高斯林的《迷河》，这是一部对大卫·林奇式超现实主义的创作实践，于2014年在戛纳首映。
I quite respected its oddness, but not many other people did – and Gosling has never directed since.
我相当认可它的怪异之处，但没有多少其他人这样想，而高斯林自那以后也再没有执导过电影。
More recently, Chris Pine directed, produced, co-wrote and starred in Poolman, a hippy detective yarn which was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 and earned terrible reviews, before sinking without trace.
更近一些，克里斯·派恩执导、制作、联合编剧并主演了《泳池管理员》，这是一部嬉皮风侦探故事片，2023年在多伦多国际电影节放映后收获了糟糕评价，随后便销声匿迹。
Travolta's film is in that category.
特拉沃尔塔的这部电影就属于这一类。
He has been a Hollywood star for 50 years, so the fact that he has waited until now to direct, at the age of 72, suggests it wasn't always a burning ambition.
他当了50年的好莱坞明星，所以他一直等到72岁才执导电影，这表明导演梦并不一直是他强烈渴望实现的抱负。
Another sign that his film was never destined to be a box-office smash is its impossible-to-remember title.
另一个迹象也表明，他的电影从来就不可能成为票房大片，那就是片名难记得要命。
And then there's the autobiographical story – if "story" isn't an exaggeration – in which an eight-year-old boy takes a flight across the US with his mother in 1962, stopping off at various cities along the way.
然后还有那个自传式故事，如果称其为“故事”不算夸张的话：1962年，一个八岁男孩和母亲乘飞机横穿美国，途中在多个城市停留。
A sincere piece of nostalgia, Propeller One-Way Night Coach has enough in it to make a pleasant after-dinner anecdote, or a heartwarming newspaper column.
《Propeller One-Way Night Coach》是一部真诚的怀旧作品，其内容足够成为一则愉快的饭后轶事，或一篇暖心的报纸专栏。
In 1997, Travolta wrote it up as a children's novel.
1997年，特拉沃尔塔把它写成了一本儿童小说。
But he doesn't seems convinced that his trifling reminiscence is feature-film material.
但他似乎也不相信自己这点微不足道的回忆足以成为一部长片的素材。
The running time is just 61 minutes – and he uses his own non-stop voiceover to describe what's happening, rather than working up any dramatic scenes.
影片片长只有61分钟，而且他用自己从头到尾不停的旁白来描述发生了什么，而不是铺陈出任何有戏剧张力的场景。
But Propeller One-Way Night Coach was apparently the first film to be selected for this year's Cannes.
但《螺旋桨单程夜车》显然是今年戛纳选中的第一部影片。
Did Frémaux really love it at that much?
弗雷莫真的有那么喜欢它吗？
Well, bear in mind that Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, premiered at Cannes last year, to very little acclaim.
不过要记住，斯嘉丽·约翰逊的导演处女作《埃莉诺大帝》去年在戛纳首映时，几乎没有获得什么好评。
(Two other actors-turned-directors, Kristen Stewart and Harris Dickinson, got slightly better responses to their debuts last year.)
（另外两位演员转型的导演克里斯汀·斯图尔特和哈里斯·迪金森，去年凭各自的导演处女作得到的反响稍好一些。）
Bear in mind, too, that Kevin Costner, having not directed a film in more than two decades, made a self-financed two-part western, which opened at two major festivals in 2024.
还要记住，凯文·科斯特纳在二十多年没有执导电影后，拍了一部自筹资金的两部曲西部片，并于2024年在两个大型电影节首映。
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 was at Cannes in May, and Chapter 2 was at Venice in September.
《地平线：美国传奇》第一章于5月亮相戛纳，第二章则于9月亮相威尼斯。
They were so dreary that Chapter 2 wasn't even given a cinema release.
它们沉闷到第二章甚至没有获得院线上映。
• The Bruce Willis flop that became a cult hit
• 那部由布鲁斯·威利斯主演、后来成为邪典热门的失败之作
Festivals can't resist this sort of film, it seems, however self-indulgent it might be.
看来，电影节就是无法抗拒这类电影，不管它可能多么自我陶醉。
But you can see the logic.
但你能看出其中的逻辑。
The festival itself gets a flash of Hollywood glamour on its red carpet – especially welcome at this year's Cannes, when there are so few big US films in the line-up.
电影节本身也能在红毯上增添一抹好莱坞光彩；在今年戛纳片单中美国大片寥寥无几的情况下，这一点尤其受欢迎。
For the cinephiles who flock to festivals, it can be fascinating to see acting icons express themselves so candidly and vulnerably: it's like reading their poetry or looking at their paintings, so the very amateurishness of the results can be endearing.
对于蜂拥参加电影节的影迷来说，看到表演偶像如此坦率而脆弱地表达自己，可能很有吸引力：这就像阅读他们的诗作或观看他们的画作，因此成品中那种业余感本身也可能显得可爱。
And the would-be auteurs themselves get the ego-boost of a lifetime.
而这些自命作者导演的人自己，也获得了一生难得的自尊心提振。
Before Propeller One-Way Night Coach was screened, Travolta received four separate standing ovations, a celebratory career-spanning montage, and an honorary Palme d'Or, which he said was "beyond the Oscar".
在《螺旋桨单程夜班车》放映之前，特拉沃尔塔先后四次获得全场起立鼓掌，还收获了一段致敬其整个职业生涯的庆祝蒙太奇，以及一座荣誉金棕榈奖；他说这“超越了奥斯卡”。
Everyone's a winner… although an honorary Palme d'Or might be the only award that Travolta will be winning any time soon.
人人都是赢家……不过，一座荣誉金棕榈奖可能是特拉沃尔塔近期唯一能赢得的奖项。
Propeller One-Way Night Coach will be released globally on Apple TV on May 29
《螺旋桨单程夜车》将于5月29日在Apple TV全球上线。
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