VOA标准英语2010年-Girls Prove They Can Rock in 'The Runa

Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning co-star in new film about the groundbreaking all-girl rock band of the 1970s

Alan Silverman | Hollywood 26 March 2010

 
Photo: Courtesy of Apparition¹; Photo credit David Moir
From left to right: Dakota Fanning, Mickey Petralia, Michael Shannon, Alia Shawkat, Scout² Taylor-Compton, Stella Maeve and Kristen Stewart in “The Runaways⁴”

 

They hit the music scene 35 years ago with a burst of teenaged energy and budding sexuality. Their story begins in 1974 outside a music club on Hollywood's Sunset Strip when 16-year-old Joan Larkin adopted her stage name and screwed up her courage to approach legendary⁵ rock producer Kim Fowley.

"I'm Joan Jett. I play guitar. Electric guitar."
"Oh. Joan Jett - that's a cool name. You guys got a demo?"
"No …no guys. I want to start an all-girl rock band."

Kristan Stewart stars as Joan Jett in "The Runaways"

That band, "The Runaways," only stayed together about five years, but in that half decade proved the conventional wisdom in the music industry - that women could not rock - was wrong. Jett, executive producer of the film, says it gets most of the important details right.

"It's a story that is based on a real band that existed," she says. "It follows what 'The Runaways' did. There are a lot of real things in there, but there are embellishments. There are timeline shifts … more than anything, those little details are a little different, but nothing that makes it hard for me to watch at all."

"Of course they had to take some liberties, but I think it's pretty darned close," says Cherie Currie who was barely 15 when she became lead singer of "The Runaways" and later wrote an autobiography⁶ - "Neon Angel: A Memoir⁷ of A Runaway³" - with details of the band's beginnings that became part of the movie:

"To me it's just miraculous," she says. "Wow, 35 years later and all the hell that we went through and for people to finally get that is really a gift. I still haven't been able to wrap my brain around it. I'm very grateful."

Dakota Fanning, who has grown up in front of movie audiences - she was barely seven years old when she co-starred with Sean Penn in "I Am Sam" in 2001 - plays the racy and sometimes reckless Cherie.

"One of the reasons I wanted to do this movie was to do something different than I've done before and to have people see me in a different way than just being in 'I Am Sam' and being younger," she says. Certainly it was tough going to those places but, at the same time, the gritty parts and tough parts are the best parts and the parts I was most excited to do because that's when Cherie is really raw and open and you see her vulnerability and her innocence⁸ that she still has even though she has been through some crazy times."

Joan Jett (Kristan Stewart), Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning), and Robin⁹ (Alia Shawkat) practice in “The Runaways”

For the role, Fanning had to learn to sing like a rock star; and Kristen Stewart, who portrays¹⁰ Joan Jett, also learned to play Jett's in-your-face guitar licks.

"We both were really concerned about getting the music right," says Stewart. "They have a very distinctive¹¹ sound. It's not just singing. It's not just trying to sound good. It's trying to sound like them.

Italian-born photographer and music video director Floria Sigismondi makes her feature film debut¹² with "The Runaways" - both directing and writing the script; but she adds that to make it work, her stars had to work hard at recreating the raw energy of the original band.

Floria Sigismondi, Director, “The Runaways”

"I had two weeks with Kristen; I knew she could play guitar and she was already practicing on her own," she says. "She already had recorded a little bit so I knew that she would come in prepared. I had about a month with Dakota and I put her in front of a live band for many rehearsals¹³. Then when everybody got together I did numerous rehearsals as a band. So by the time I was filming they had already bonded¹⁴ and already knew what it was like to be in a band. I felt really confident on that level and so did they. I think that was really important. By the time we got to 'Cherry Bomb' they really excelled. We had a month of shooting and by that time they were a band."

"The Runaways" also features Stella Maeve, Scout Taylor-Compton and Alia Shawkat in the band; and Michael Shannon plays rock impresario¹⁵ Kim Fowley, who can still be seen on Sunset Strip looking for fresh talent.
 

1 apparition   

n.幽灵，神奇的现象

参考例句：

• He saw the apparition of his dead wife.他看见了他亡妻的幽灵。
• But the terror of this new apparition brought me to a stand.这新出现的幽灵吓得我站在那里一动也不敢动。

2 scout   

n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索

参考例句：

• He was mistaken for an enemy scout and badly wounded.他被误认为是敌人的侦察兵，受了重伤。
• The scout made a stealthy approach to the enemy position.侦察兵偷偷地靠近敌军阵地。

3 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。

4 runaways   

（轻而易举的）胜利( runaway的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They failed to find any trace of the runaways. 他们未能找到逃跑者的任何踪迹。
• Unmanageable complexity can result in massive foul-ups or spectacular budget "runaways. " 这种失控的复杂性会造成大量的故障或惊人的预算“失控”。

5 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

6 autobiography   

n.自传

参考例句：

• He published his autobiography last autumn.他去年秋天出版了自己的自传。
• His life story is recounted in two fascinating volumes of autobiography.这两卷引人入胜的自传小说详述了他的生平。

7 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

8 innocence   

n.无罪；天真；无害

参考例句：

• There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
• The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。

9 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

10 portrays   

v.画像( portray的第三人称单数 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The museum collection vividly portrays the heritage of 200 years of canals. 博物馆的藏品让运河200 年的历史再现眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The film portrays Gandhi as a kind of superman. 这部电影把甘地描绘成一个超人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

12 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

13 rehearsals   

n.练习( rehearsal的名词复数 )；排练；复述；重复

参考例句：

• The earlier protests had just been dress rehearsals for full-scale revolution. 早期的抗议仅仅是大革命开始前的预演。
• She worked like a demon all through rehearsals. 她每次排演时始终精力过人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 bonded   

n.有担保的，保税的，粘合的

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee.威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• This adhesive must be applied to both surfaces which are to be bonded together.要粘接的两个面都必须涂上这种黏合剂。

15 impresario   

n.歌剧团的经理人；乐团指挥

参考例句：

• The impresario will present an expanded series of concerts next season.下个季节将举办一次大型的系列音乐会。
• The impresario had buttoned his astrakhan coat.乐团经理扣好了羔皮外套。