美国国家公共电台 NPR Germany's 'Babylon Berlin' Crime Series Is Like 'Cabaret' On Cocaine

Germany's 'Babylon Berlin' Crime Series Is Like 'Cabaret' On Cocaine¹

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

German TV series are getting popular here in the U.S. First there was "Deutschland 83." Then there was "Dark." And now the latest is a crime series set in 1920s Berlin. It's called "Babylon Berlin," and it's out today on Netflix. Esme Nicholson reports it explores the Weimar era's raging nightlife and brutal² criminal underbelly.

(SOUNDBITE OF SEVERIJA JANUSAUSKAITE SONG, "ZU ASCHE, ZU STAUB (PSYCHO NIKOROS)")

ESME NICHOLSON, BYLINE³: It's 1929, and the capital of the Weimar Republic is a hedonistic city of extremes. True to the party drug of the era, you could say this series is "Cabaret" on cocaine.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ZU ASCHE, ZU STAUB (PSYCHO NIKOROS)")

SEVERIJA JANUSAUSKAITE: (Singing in German).

NICHOLSON: The first season of "Babylon Berlin" is set a few months before the Wall Street crash, before the rise of fascism. And it depicts⁴ a city on the edge of an abyss. Co-creator Achim von Borries says a German period drama that's not about World War II or the Cold War is long overdue⁵.

ACHIM VON BORRIES: In the '20s, it was really the capital of the world. And nobody really knows about it because, of course, the monstrosity of the Nazi⁶ period afterwards is so huge.

NICHOLSON: In the city where Albert Einstein, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Marlene Dietrich set the artistic⁷ and intellectual pulse, "Babylon Berlin" follows a different beat - that of Police Inspector⁸ Gereon Rath. Writer and director Tom Tykwer, best known for his 1998 film "Run Lola Run," says Weimar Berlin was as rich in crime as it was in culture.

TOM TYKWER: We had some really famous serial⁹ killers¹⁰, some really ugly crimes that came from Berlin and that created a myth about the darkness and the filthiness¹¹ of the city.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOHNNY KLIMEK AND TOM TYKWER'S "EINE FRAU IN BERLIN")

NICHOLSON: In the first episode, Inspector Rath and his partner Wolter arrest a former colleague who's now a heroin¹² addict¹³ living on the streets.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "BABYLON BERLIN")

PETER KURTH: (As Bruno Wolter, speaking German).

NICHOLSON: Wolter mocks him for being a so-called trembler, a First World War veteran suffering from shell shock. Inspector Rath remain silent because he, too, suffers, but suppresses his shakes with regular doses of morphine.

ULRIKE ZITZLSPERGER: You've got lots of veterans. You've got people who've lost limbs, and thousands.

NICHOLSON: Ulrike Zitzlsperger is a Weimar Berlin specialist and professor of German studies. Sitting in a replica¹⁴ of a 1920s cafe, she says these men were visceral reminders¹⁵ of the trenches¹⁶.

ZITZLSPERGER: There's a lot of talk about an emasculated society at the time. In Germany, these men are no heroes. You can't talk about the war. You want to move on. So the trauma¹⁷ is absolutely horrific.

NICHOLSON: In "Babylon Berlin," this damaged generation that can't sleep for PTSD finds solace¹⁸ in night clubs. Director Tom Tykwer says clubbing was cheap, and all walks of life met on the dance floor or in the brothel below.

TYKWER: Nightlife then was spectacular and very experimental with lots of diverse clubs for more or less any kind of taste.

NICHOLSON: Tykwer's co-creator, Henk Handloegten, says there are similarities between the nightlife of 1920s Berlin and that of today. Take the music.

HENK HANDLOEGTEN: If you take techno music and you take people from the '20s on film and they are dancing the Charleston, it matches perfectly¹⁹.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOKA EFTI ORCHESTRA'S "TRESOR UNSER")

NICHOLSON: In one episode, Bryan Ferry takes to the stage to perform Roxy Music numbers for the Jazz Age, lending a bit of '70s glam.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE BRYAN FERRY ORCHESTRA'S "DANCE AWAY")

NICHOLSON: It's in one of these clubs that we reach the female lead, Lotte Ritter. By day she's a typist at the police headquarters, by night a casual prostitute in the club's fetish center, where she earns extra cash to escape her squalid tenement²⁰. She's an emancipated²¹ Weimar woman now even allowed to vote, and she's the perfect foil to Inspector Rath's shattered male soul. As his unofficial sidekick, Lotte ventures with Rath into Berlin's criminal underworld. Cultural historian Ulrike Zitzlsperger.

ZITZLSPERGER: It's a perfect setting. There's a real obsession²² with serial killers. You get types of cannibalism²³. Then you get political crimes. It is a tense climate between Communists and National Socialists²⁴ that's heating up. So the awareness²⁵ of an underbelly is really quite strong.

NICHOLSON: "Babylon Berlin" captures the dark glamour²⁶ of a briefly²⁷ exhilarating time between the wars. And for today's Berliners, faced with the city's steady, sterile²⁸ gentrification, the show offers a welcome dose of escapism. For NPR News, I'm Esme Nicholson in Berlin.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE BRYAN FERRY ORCHESTRA'S "DANCE AWAY")

1 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

2 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 depicts   

描绘，描画( depict的第三人称单数 )； 描述

参考例句：

• The book vividly depicts French society of the 1930s. 这本书生动地描绘了20 世纪30 年代的法国社会。
• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively. 他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。

5 overdue   

adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的

参考例句：

• The plane is overdue and has been delayed by the bad weather.飞机晚点了，被坏天气耽搁了。
• The landlady is angry because the rent is overdue.女房东生气了，因为房租过期未付。

6 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

7 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

8 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

9 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

10 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

11 filthiness   

参考例句：

• For all tables are full of vomit filthiness, so that there is no place clean. 8因为各席上满了呕吐的污秽，无一处乾净。
• Say it when you learn the Darkness, the Filthiness and the ugliness of its outside. 不是因为在象牙塔中，才说出我爱世界这样的话，是知道外面的黑，脏，丑陋之后，还要说出这样的话。

12 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

13 addict   

v.使沉溺；使上瘾；n.沉溺于不良嗜好的人

参考例句：

• He became gambling addict,and lost all his possessions.他习染上了赌博，最终输掉了全部家产。
• He assisted a drug addict to escape from drug but failed firstly.一开始他帮助一个吸毒者戒毒但失败了。

14 replica   

n.复制品

参考例句：

• The original conservatory has been rebuilt in replica.温室已按原样重建。
• The young artist made a replica of the famous painting.这位年轻的画家临摹了这幅著名的作品。

15 reminders   

n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 )；提醒…的东西；（告知该做某事的）通知单；提示信

参考例句：

• The film evokes chilling reminders of the war. 这部电影使人们回忆起战争的可怕场景。
• The strike has delayed the mailing of tax reminders. 罢工耽搁了催税单的投寄。

16 trenches   

深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕

参考例句：

• life in the trenches 第一次世界大战期间的战壕生活
• The troops stormed the enemy's trenches and fanned out across the fields. 部队猛攻敌人的战壕，并在田野上呈扇形散开。

17 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

18 solace   

n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和

参考例句：

• They sought solace in religion from the harshness of their everyday lives.他们日常生活很艰难，就在宗教中寻求安慰。
• His acting career took a nosedive and he turned to drink for solace.演艺事业突然一落千丈，他便借酒浇愁。

19 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

20 tenement   

n.公寓；房屋

参考例句：

• They live in a tenement.他们住在廉价公寓里。
• She felt very smug in a tenement yard like this.就是在个这样的杂院里，她觉得很得意。

21 emancipated   

adj.被解放的，不受约束的v.解放某人（尤指摆脱政治、法律或社会的束缚）( emancipate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Slaves were not emancipated until 1863 in the United States. 美国奴隶直到1863年才获得自由。
• Women are still struggling to be fully emancipated. 妇女仍在为彻底解放而斗争。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

23 cannibalism   

n.同类相食；吃人肉

参考例句：

• The war is just like the cannibalism of animals.战争就如同动物之间的互相残。
• They were forced to practise cannibalism in order to survive.他们被迫人吃人以求活下去。

24 socialists   

社会主义者( socialist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The socialists saw themselves as true heirs of the Enlightenment. 社会主义者认为自己是启蒙运动的真正继承者。
• The Socialists junked dogma when they came to office in 1982. 社会党人1982年上台执政后，就把其政治信条弃之不顾。

25 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

26 glamour   

n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住

参考例句：

• Foreign travel has lost its glamour for her.到国外旅行对她已失去吸引力了。
• The moonlight cast a glamour over the scene.月光给景色增添了魅力。

27 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

28 sterile   

adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的

参考例句：

• This top fits over the bottle and keeps the teat sterile.这个盖子严实地盖在奶瓶上，保持奶嘴无菌。
• The farmers turned the sterile land into high fields.农民们把不毛之地变成了高产田。