美国国家公共电台 NPR Lois Weber, Hollywood's Forgotten Early Pioneer, Has 2 Films Restored

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The number of women working behind the camera in Hollywood today remains¹ small. And that makes the career of Lois Weber all the more remarkable². She directed at least 138 movies, either shorts or feature length, in the silent film era. Most are lost, but two of her most important films have been restored. KUNC's Howie Movshovitz reports.

HOWIE MOVSHOVITZ, BYLINE³: Lois Weber became the first American woman to direct a feature-length dramatic film with "The Merchant Of Venice" in 1914.

SHELLEY STAMP: In her day, she was considered one of the three great minds of the early film industry, alongside D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille.

MOVSHOVITZ: Shelley Stamp, who wrote the notes for the Weber DVDs, says the filmmaker often took a different tack⁴ from her contemporaries.

STAMP: She was a very vocal⁵ advocate for cinema's ability to portray⁶ complex social issues in a popular narrative⁷ form. She considered cinema what she called a voiceless language. And by that, I think she meant cinema had an ability to convey ideas to anybody, regardless of their educational level, regardless of their command of English - right? - at a period when there were many immigrants to the U.S. who did not speak English as a first language.

MOVSHOVITZ: She was born in 1879 outside Pittsburgh to a religious middle-class family. She was a child prodigy⁸ pianist who spent two years playing organ and evangelizing around the city. Dennis Doros and his wife Amy Heller co-founded and run Milestone⁹ Films, which is releasing the restored versions of Weber's movies.

DENNIS DOROS: She started preaching on shop corners. And when she went to New York, she started working at these Salvation¹⁰ Army-type places to help people. She was never really a preacher. But she was always an activist¹¹ for the poor.

AMY HELLER: This is what she said. She said, in moving pictures, I have found my life's work. I find at once an outlet¹² for my emotions and my ideals.

MOVSHOVITZ: Before she became a filmmaker, Weber left evangelizing to tour the country as a concert pianist, until one night a key broke and shattered her nerve. She then left the concert stage for the theater stage and eventually, in 1911, directed her first short film. Historian Shelley Stamp says that early on, Weber advocated for complex roles for women and for serious engagement with social issues.

STAMP: She made films about the fight to abolish capital punishment, about drug addiction¹³, about urban poverty, about the campaign to legalize contraception.

MOVSHOVITZ: Weber took up the cause of young women going to work in her 1916 film "Shoes," which has been released by Milestone with a new score.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SHOES")

STAMP: She takes on an issue which many social reformers of the day were interested in. That is, the plight¹⁴ of young women who had entered the paid labor¹⁵ force were working in the retail¹⁶ sphere - either in department stores or five-and-dime stores - and were woefully underpaid. Many of them were supporting themselves or the primary wage earners in their family as the heroine of "Shoes" is.

MOVSHOVITZ: Forced to support her family by a layabout father, the heroine, Eva, prostitutes herself so she can replace her only pair of shoes, which are literally¹⁷ falling apart.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SHOES")

MOVSHOVITZ: The same year that Weber wrote and directed "Shoes," she was entrusted¹⁸ with Universal Pictures' anchor film, "The Dumb Girl Of Portici" - dumb as in mute. It stars internationally famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova in a sweeping¹⁹ historical epic²⁰. But Milestones²¹' Dennis Doros says it was not easy to restore the antiquated²² scraps²³ of surviving film stock.

DOROS: Universal had a major nitrate fire in the 1940s, so most of their master material went up in flames. About five years ago, the Library of Congress decided²⁴ that they would do it. And they got the 16 millimeter from the New York Public Library, the 35 millimeter nitrate material at the British Film Institute, as well as 35 millimeter material they had. And these were various different versions from different eras. And it took them two years to edit together what is most likely the version that showed in 1916.

MOVSHOVITZ: The fact that most of Lois Weber's films are lost is just one reason she's been written out of film history. Shelley Stamp says that the men who controlled Hollywood financing did not respect the notion of women filmmakers. And both the film industry and its audiences turned to entertainment over social commentary. Lois Weber died penniless in 1939. Friends paid for her funeral.

STAMP: History failed her. She has been forgotten in a way that does not do service to really an extraordinary pioneer of American filmmaking. Had we remembered her career early on, we would have had decades and decades of female filmmakers' work to look at. We don't, and that's the consequence of forgetting her.

MOVSHOVITZ: The films of Lois Weber are not simply museum pieces. She actually did what many young women filmmakers now say they want to do - bring a woman's perspective to American studio filmmaking. For NPR News, I'm Howie Movshovitz.

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

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 tack   

n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝

参考例句：

• He is hammering a tack into the wall to hang a picture.他正往墙上钉一枚平头钉用来挂画。
• We are going to tack the map on the wall.我们打算把这张地图钉在墙上。

5 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

6 portray   

v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等)

参考例句：

• It is difficult to portray feelings in words.感情很难用言语来描写。
• Can you portray the best and worst aspects of this job?您能描述一下这份工作最好与最坏的方面吗？

7 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

8 prodigy   

n.惊人的事物，奇迹，神童，天才，预兆

参考例句：

• She was a child prodigy on the violin.她是神童小提琴手。
• He was always a Negro prodigy who played barbarously and wonderfully.他始终是一个黑人的奇才，这种奇才弹奏起来粗野而惊人。

9 milestone   

n.里程碑；划时代的事件

参考例句：

• The film proved to be a milestone in the history of cinema.事实证明这部影片是电影史上的一个里程碑。
• I think this is a very important milestone in the relations between our two countries.我认为这是我们两国关系中一个十分重要的里程碑。

10 salvation   

n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困

参考例句：

• Salvation lay in political reform.解救办法在于政治改革。
• Christians hope and pray for salvation.基督教徒希望并祈祷灵魂得救。

11 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

12 outlet   

n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄

参考例句：

• The outlet of a water pipe was blocked.水管的出水口堵住了。
• Running is a good outlet for his energy.跑步是他发泄过剩精力的好方法。

13 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

14 plight   

n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定

参考例句：

• The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
• She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。

15 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

16 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

17 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

18 entrusted   

v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He entrusted the task to his nephew. 他把这任务托付给了他的侄儿。
• She was entrusted with the direction of the project. 她受委托负责这项计划。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

20 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

21 milestones   

n.重要事件( milestone的名词复数 )；重要阶段；转折点；里程碑

参考例句：

• Several important milestones in foreign policy have been passed by this Congress and they can be chalked up as major accomplishments. 这次代表大会通过了对外政策中几起划时代的事件，并且它们可作为主要成就记录下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dale: I really envy your milestones over the last few years, Don. 我真的很羡慕你在过去几年中所建立的丰功伟绩。 来自互联网

22 antiquated   

adj.陈旧的，过时的

参考例句：

• Many factories are so antiquated they are not worth saving.很多工厂过于陈旧落后，已不值得挽救。
• A train of antiquated coaches was waiting for us at the siding.一列陈旧的火车在侧线上等着我们。

23 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。

24 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。