Betty: What is that?

Katherine: You tell me. Carcass by Soutine. 1925.

Susan Delacorte: It's not on the syllabus¹.

Katherine: No; it's not. Is it any good? Come on; ladies. There's no wrong answer. There's also no textbook telling you what to think. It's not that easy; is it?

Betty: All right. No. It's not good. In fact; I wouldn't even call it art. It's grotesque².

Connie Baker³: Is there a rule against art being grotesque?

Giselle Levy⁴: I think there's something aggressive about it...and erotic.

Betty: To you; everything is erotic.

Giselle: Everything is erotic.

Katherine: Girls.

Susan: Aren't there standards? 

Betty: Of course there are. Otherwise a tacky velvet⁵ painting could be equated⁶ to a Rembrandt.

Connie: My uncle Ferdie has two tacky velvet paintings. He loves those clowns.

Betty: There are standards; technique; composition; color; even subject. So if you're suggesting that rotted side of meat is art... much less good art; then what are we going to learn?

Katherine: Just that. You have outlined our new syllabus; Betty. Thank you. What is art? What makes it good or bad? And who decides? Next slide; please. Twenty five years ago someone thought this was brilliant.

Connie: I can see that.

Betty: Who?

Katherine: My mother. I painted it for her birthday.

Katherine: Next slide. This is my mom. Is it art?

Susan Delacorte: It's a snapshot.

Katherine: If I told you Ansel Adams had taken it, would that make a difference?

Betty: Art isn't art until someone says it is.

Katherine: It's art!

Betty: The right people.

Katherine: Who are they?

Giselle: Betty Warren! So lucky we have one right here.

Betty: Screw you.

Katherine: Could you go back to the Soutine, please? Just look at it again. Look beyond the paint. Let us try to open our minds to a new idea. All right; back to chapter three. Has anyone read it? Okay.

妙词佳句，活学活用

1. grotesque

这是这部电影里经常碰到的一个单词，意思是“(风格)奇异，古怪，荒诞的”。我们来看个例子：Everything seemed strange, so tawdry and grotesque. 一切都很新奇，很花哨，有点滑稽可笑。

在口语中还有一些其它常用的词来表示“奇怪的”这一意思的词，出现频率都很高。比如 weird⁷，如：Sabrina went out with Linus? That's too weird. 莎宾娜和莱纳斯出去约会了？简直太奇怪了！

Strange，这是一个大熟词，就不举例子了。

Odd，如 It's odd that she should have kept such an ugly name as Ellen. 真奇怪她居然一直用埃伦这么个难听的名字。

Bizarre，如：For him, it was a bizarre and tedious experience. 对他来说这是一次奇特而又乏味的经历。

2. aggressive

这个单词不知道怎么回事，很容易被大家记住的意思是“侵略性的，攻击性的”，因而我们经常把它当作贬义词来使用。但是在英语中，尤其在美语中，这个词还有另一个常用意思是“大胆的，积极进取的”。所以这个词在本片段中的意思就不是侵略性的，而是“前卫的，大胆的”。
e.g. He is an aggressive young executive. 他是一个进取心很强的年轻管理员。

3. much less

这是一个固定表达，意思是“何况，更不要说……” 相当于let alone，例如：
1) I didn't even see your brother, much less speak to him. 我连见都没见过你弟弟，更别说跟他说话了。
2) I dare not speak to him, much less express my feelings to him. 我连话都不敢跟他说，更别说是表达感情了。

4. look beyond the paint

此句的意思是：别拘泥于图像本身。
很明显，这个句子中的关键词是beyond，在这里提出来是希望大家注意这个单词的意思在翻译的时候非常灵活，在本句里取的就是这个单词的基本词义：超越。我们可以看看一些其它的例子：
1）It's quite beyond me why she married such a heavy smoker⁸.
我实在无法理解为什么她会嫁给这样一个烟鬼。
2) Understanding this article is beyond my capacity. 我看不懂这篇文章。
3) The rumor⁹ is beyond belief. 这谣言不可信。