VOA慢速英语2012 THIS IS AMERICA - In Theaters: 'Brave,' 'To Rome With Love' and 'Lola Versus'

 

THIS IS AMERICA - In Theaters: 'Brave,' 'To Rome With Love' and 'Lola Versus¹'

BOB DOUGHTY²: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I’m Christopher Cruise. This week on our program, we tell you about some new films.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: Summer is a popular time for Hollywood studios to release movies. Films for young people are especially popular, since most of them are out of school for summer vacation.

In the animated³ film "Brave," Merida is a young Scottish princess skilled with a bow and arrow. She goes against tradition and rejects marriage. Kelly Macdonald is the voice of Merida.

PRINCESS MERIDA: "I am Merida, firstborn descendant of clan⁴ DunBroch, and I'll be shooting for my own hand!"

QUEEN: "Merida! I forbid it!"

"Brave" is an example of a trend in fairy tale movies. Young princesses are shown as strong and independent. Two recent versions of "Snow White" also present her in untraditional ways. How are young audiences reacting to the new image?

(SOUND)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: In nineteen thirty-seven, Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs⁶" captured the imaginations of children around the world. The princess from the Grimm's fairy tale is weak and helpless. She waits for her prince to rescue her from the wicked stepmother.

(SOUND: "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs")

But fairy tales are being reinvented. In the new movie "Mirror Mirror," Snow White still ends up in the arms of the prince. But she also outsmarts the queen and wins the kingdom. The second new version of "Snow White" is called "Snow White and the Huntsman."

HUNTSMAN: "Who are you. Why the queen wants you dead?"

SNOW WHITE: "She wants everyone dead, all of us."

HUNTSMAN: "Why are you so damn valuable?"

SNOW WHITE: "You should know. You are the one hunting me."

SNOW WHITE: "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's fairest of them all?"

Snow White battles for her kingdom. She even saves her man.

(SOUND: Screaming)

BOB DOUGHTY: Wendy Tucker is a librarian at an elementary school in the Washington area. She says children are interested in these new versions of old fairy tales.

WENDY TUCKER: "When the movies come out, they want the book, which is great for me. I try to encourage them to read the book before the movie, and oftentimes they've seen the movie and I tell them there is a book. They get excited."

But young people still enjoy the classic stories.

GIRLS: "They give us a different look of different time periods and how people acted back then. Also, they include magic and fantasy." "Sometimes I like the calm elegance⁷ of the old ones. But sometimes I sort of feel like I need a big production to be in front of me."

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Librarian Wendy Tucker says once upon a time, parents read these stories to their children to teach them lessons.

WENDY TUCKER: "They wanted to emphasize how dark something was in order to make the beauty shine. And a lot of the fairy tales and fables⁸ were told to children before television, radio was invented, as a way for parents to control and teach good versus evil."

Today the stories still teach, but the lessons have been modernized⁹ for a new generation.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: Woody Allen has set most of his films in New York. But the writer and director has used other cities in the past few years, including London, Barcelona and Paris. His latest comedy is a collection of stories called "To Rome With Love."

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: The film begins with the camera moving past ancient ruins, classic fountains and modern high-rise buildings. "Volare," the hit song from the nineteen fifties, plays in the background. The stars include Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg and Alec Baldwin. But the movie begins with a real-life Roman traffic policeman who turns to greet the audience while directing traffic.

TRAFFIC OFFICER: “I’m from Roma and I see in Roma -- all is a story.”

Visitors and locals falling in love. A business executive who becomes famous. An opera-singing funeral director. These are all stories in Woody Allen's "To Rome With Love."

WOODY ALLEN: "A terrible title, incidentally. My original title was 'The Bop Decameron' and nobody knew what 'The Decameron' was, not even in Rome. Even the Italians didn't know."

"The Decameron" was a fourteenth-century Italian novel containing one hundred separate stories.

BOB DOUGHTY: "To Rome With Love" is Woody Allen's forty-third film. He says the script partly grew out of ideas he had collected on his desk.

WOODY ALLEN: "There will be a little note written on a matchbook or on a piece of paper that says, for example, 'A man who can only sing in the shower.' It will occur to me at the time that this could make a funny story."

Italian tenor¹⁰ Fabio Armiliato plays the funeral director who sings in the shower. But he loses his voice on stage in front of an audience.

Another story is about Antonio, a newlywed played by Alessandro Tiberi. His honeymoon¹¹ is interrupted by Anna, a prostitute played by Penelope Cruz. She mistakes him for a client she was paid to entertain.

PENELOPE CRUZ: "She is a character that has no filter in her brain and says everything the way that she feels. It is so liberating¹² and refreshing¹³ to be able to play somebody like that."

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Woody Allen himself has not appeared in his past six films, but he returns with an acting⁵ role in "To Rome With Love."

(SOUND)

He says he chose Rome for practical reasons, because his financial backers put up the money for a film to be shot there.

Alec Baldwin says the city created a light, breezy atmosphere.

ALEC BALDWIN: "I think Italy and Rome have more of a sense of humor than a lot of other places I've been. I mean every cliche¹⁴ I'd heard about, it was true. It was so pleasant and relaxed to shoot there."

"To Rome With Love" also features Italian comic star Roberto Benigni, Australian actress Judy Davis and American actress Greta Gerwig.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: In another new movie, "Lola Versus," Greta Gerwig demonstrates why she is quickly becoming popular in the world of American independent cinema. She stars as Lola in this comedy about the modern dating scene. Lola is almost thirty-four years old and planning to get married for the first time. Her fiancé is Luke, an artist.

(SOUND)

But Lola is so busy writing her doctoral paper and planning the wedding that she misses some major signals from Luke. They break up, and so does her carefully planned future. Lola, guided by her best friend, Alice, has to find her way back into the dating scene.

(SOUND)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Daryl Wein co-wrote and directed "Lola Versus."

DARYLY WEIN: "As a male writer, I try to put myself in the shoes of a woman and, obviously, I have a lot of female friends, and I can pick up on a lot of female experience, but we were trying to write what we thought was a necessary portrait of a single woman. We felt like there were all these broadly drawn¹⁵ romantic comedies like 'Sex and the City,' 'Bridget Jones's Diary' and now 'Bridesmaids.' They're all funny and glamorous¹⁶, but they didn't feel as authentic¹⁷ and specific to our reality."

Zoe Lister-Jones co-wrote "Lola Versus" and co-stars as Alice, Lola's best friend.

ZOE LISTER-JONES: "The trick is to always make that person grounded, so that was my challenge. But she is obviously the comic foil, so that's a really fun part to play."

Lola herself, Greta Gerwig, says this is not the usual romantic comedy.

GRETA GERWIG: "It is not a traditional rom-com, but if you tried to put it within that structure, then the person she is always meant to end up with is herself. And then she gets that ending and she falls in love with herself. As soon as she gives herself enough time to sit down and breathe, she realizes she is actually OK, that she doesn't actually have to fill any hole in her life that she was so sure was there before."

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: "Lola Versus" features Joel Kinnaman as Luke and Hamish Linklater as Lola's friend since high school. Debra Winger and Bill Pullman play Lola's parents. The movie was filmed in New York.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: Brianna Blake produced our program, with reporting by Penelope Poulou and Alan Silverman. I'm Bob Doughty.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I'm Christopher Cruise. We have videos about the movies we talked about today. You can find them at www.voanews.cn. You can also find texts and MP3s of our programs, along with podcasts and other activities for learning English. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

2 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

3 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

4 clan   

n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派

参考例句：

• She ranks as my junior in the clan.她的辈分比我小。
• The Chinese Christians,therefore,practically excommunicate themselves from their own clan.所以，中国的基督徒简直是被逐出了自己的家族了。

5 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

6 dwarfs   

n.侏儒，矮子（dwarf的复数形式）vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• Shakespeare dwarfs other dramatists. 莎士比亚使其他剧作家相形见绌。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The new building dwarfs all the other buildings in the town. 新大楼使城里所有其他建筑物都显得矮小了。 来自辞典例句

7 elegance   

n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙

参考例句：

• The furnishings in the room imparted an air of elegance.这个房间的家具带给这房间一种优雅的气氛。
• John has been known for his sartorial elegance.约翰因为衣着讲究而出名。

8 fables   

n.寓言( fable的名词复数 )；神话，传说

参考例句：

• Some of Aesop's Fables are satires. 《伊索寓言》中有一些是讽刺作品。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Little Mexican boys also breathe the American fables. 墨西哥族的小孩子对美国神话也都耳濡目染。 来自辞典例句

9 modernized   

使现代化，使适应现代需要( modernize的过去式和过去分词 )； 现代化，使用现代方法

参考例句：

• By 1985 the entire railway network will have been modernized. 等到1985年整个铁路网就实现现代化了。
• He set about rebuilding France, and made it into a brilliant-looking modernized imperialism. 他试图重建法国，使它成为一项表面华丽的现代化帝业。

10 tenor   

n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意

参考例句：

• The tenor of his speech was that war would come.他讲话的大意是战争将要发生。
• The four parts in singing are soprano,alto,tenor and bass.唱歌的四个声部是女高音、女低音、男高音和男低音。

11 honeymoon   

n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月

参考例句：

• While on honeymoon in Bali,she learned to scuba dive.她在巴厘岛度蜜月时学会了带水肺潜水。
• The happy pair are leaving for their honeymoon.这幸福的一对就要去度蜜月了。

12 liberating   

解放，释放( liberate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Revolution means liberating the productive forces. 革命就是为了解放生产力。
• They had already taken on their shoulders the burden of reforming society and liberating mankind. 甚至在这些集会聚谈中，他们就已经夸大地把改革社会、解放人群的责任放在自己的肩头了。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

13 refreshing   

adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的

参考例句：

• I find it'so refreshing to work with young people in this department.我发现和这一部门的青年一起工作令人精神振奋。
• The water was cold and wonderfully refreshing.水很涼，特别解乏提神。

14 cliche   

n./a.陈词滥调(的)；老生常谈(的)；陈腐的

参考例句：

• You should always try to avoid the use of cliche. 你应该尽量避免使用陈词滥调。
• The old cliche is certainly true:the bigger car do mean bigger profits.有句老话倒的确说得不假:车大利大。

15 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

16 glamorous   

adj.富有魅力的；美丽动人的；令人向往的

参考例句：

• The south coast is less glamorous but full of clean and attractive hotels.南海岸魅力稍逊，但却有很多干净漂亮的宾馆。
• It is hard work and not a glamorous job as portrayed by the media.这是份苦差，并非像媒体描绘的那般令人向往。

17 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。