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美国国家公共电台 NPR Rumors Of The Death Of The Rom-Com Are Greatly Exaggerated

时间:2018-08-30 02:58:56

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Here's a recipe for romantic comedy. Take two people...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WHEN HARRY1 MET SALLY...")

MICHELLE NICASTRO: (As Amanda) Sally, this is Harry Burns. Harry, this is Sally Albright.

BILLY CRYSTAL: (As Harry Burns) Nice to meet you.

SIMON: ...Then put up an obstacle to keep them from falling in love...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "COMING TO AMERICA")

SHARI HEADLEY: (As Lisa McDowell) What about the woman you're supposed to marry?

JAMES EARL JONES: (As King Jaffe Joffer) I do not love her. Why do you think I came to America?

HEADLEY: (As Lisa McDowell) Your father told me to sow your royal oats.

SIMON: ...And emotion.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT")

CLARK GABLE: (As Peter Warne) A normal human being couldn't live under the same roof with her without going nutty. She's my idea of nothing.

WALTER CONNOLLY: (As Alexander Andrews) I asked you a simple question. Do you love her?

GABLE: (As Peter Warne) Yes.

SIMON: And voila - box office gold - that was "When Harry Met Sally...," "Coming To America" and "It Happened One Night" - all classic rom-coms. But Hollywood's love affair with love affairs has had its ups and downs ever since Clark Gable went on the road with Claudette Colbert in 1934. There were no major studio rom-coms released in 2017. But like any good love affair, love always wins. And boy, is the rom-com back with success of "Crazy Rich Asians" and Netflix's "Set It Up" and "To All The Boys I Loved Before." We wondered. We wished. We hoped. Is the rom-com back? To answer that, we call in Linda Holmes, host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour and a romantic yourself. Aren't you, Linda?

LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE2: I really am. What a wonderful introduction and group of clips. Now I want to go watch them all.

SIMON: How do we define the rom-com?

HOLMES: I think you have your totally rom-coms like "When Harry Met Sally..." But actually "Crazy Rich Asians" has some other elements. It's also a family story. It has some drama in it. So it really does vary. And I think you have your meet-cute, which is your - they bump into each other, or they meet under strange circumstances. Then you have your terrible obstacle that keeps them apart, which can be anything from she falls in love with his brother while he's in a coma3. That's "While You Were Sleeping..."

SIMON: Right. Yes...

HOLMES: ...One of my favorites.

SIMON: ...Sandra Bullock - it's a great one, too. Yeah.

HOLMES: One of my favorites - or something more kind of normal, like differences in class or in profession. Like in "You've Got Mail," she's a little bookstore owner. And he's a big bookstore owner. Then you have a bunch of banter4 and conversation. And then at the end, they get together. And that gets you a romantic comedy right there.

SIMON: Yeah. I'm tearing right now.

HOLMES: I know - me, too - me, too.

SIMON: And it's a genre5 that's helped create some of Hollywood's biggest stars - right? - I mean, Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Rock Hudson. We could go on.

HOLMES: Absolutely.

SIMON: Meg Ryan...

HOLMES: Yes.

SIMON: ...Tom Hanks, for that matter.

HOLMES: Absolutely - Julia Roberts. Absolutely.

SIMON: What led to this slow slide of the rom-com?

HOLMES: I think that most genres6 that are aimed at adults that fall between big-budget studio blockbusters and little, tiny indies - most of those genres have taken something of a beating in the last 10 to 20 years, whether it's live-action family movies or sports movies or adult dramas. And I think romantic comedies got somewhat bound up in that. I also think it's much harder to create sweetheart actresses who are a big part of this because there's a - kind of a brutal7 cycle of building up and then tearing down actresses. We don't like her. She has a bad personality.

SIMON: Oh, yeah - the Anne Hathaway stuff.

HOLMES: The Anne Hathaway stuff - also Jennifer Lawrence - a variety of actresses have really kind of been ground down by those kind of phenomena8. And I think it makes it a lot harder to create the next Julia Roberts, the next Meg Ryan. And you'll notice that the two female leads of "Crazy Rich Asians" and "To All The Boys I've Loved Before" are both women of color who haven't been through this cycle yet - Constance Wu and Lana Condor9. And it'll be interesting to see how they progress through that cycle that's been so hard on a lot of other actresses in the past.

SIMON: There were critiques that the genre was getting tired?

HOLMES: Yes. There's such a fine line between a glut10 and a golden age. And I think...

SIMON: (Laughter).

HOLMES: ...If you look at the time between the late '80s and maybe the very early aughts - the time that brought you "When Harry Met Sally..." and "Sleepless11 In Seattle, "The Princess Bride" and movies like that - but also a lot of really forgettable romantic comedies. I think there did come to be a sort of an expectation that certain stars were just churning them out. And I think that developed during the early aughts.

SIMON: We should note. The rebirth of the genre - if that's what we're looking at right now - is headed by diverse cast, isn't it?

HOLMES: Hundred percent - and I think that one of the things you see there is Netflix, in particular, is zeroing in both on the underserved romantic comedy audience and the underserved audiences of color. So when you get that put together, a movie like "To All The Boys I've Loved Before," from the book by Jenny Han, is both a high school rom-com for people who miss those, and it's also a movie with an Asian-American cast - and which also does something that Hollywood hasn't been doing enough. So Netflix in some ways is trying to fill those spaces where studios aren't making films.

SIMON: Can I tell you what my favorite rom-com is?

HOLMES: I will be so sad if you don't.

SIMON: "Tootsie."

HOLMES: Really?

SIMON: Yes, exactly.

HOLMES: Scott Simon.

SIMON: And it has the advantage of being kind of gender-bending to make it ultimately contemporary. Yes.

HOLMES: It is gender-bendy.

SIMON: Sure.

HOLMES: How do you feel about Cleveland (laughter)?

SIMON: That's what the television cameraman says when he pulls back, taking in Dustin Hoffman dressed up as Dorothy...

HOLMES: ...To make her more attractive.

SIMON: Yeah. I love that film. They meet-cute because...

HOLMES: Right.

SIMON: Well, actually, he meets her at a New York party, and she wants nothing to do with him. And then when they meet later, he's impersonating as a woman. And that certainly is an obstacle to romance, isn't it?

HOLMES: Couldn't be meet-cute-ier (ph) - but I think that's a great example too of a film that has other elements. It has other pieces. But then that romantic comedy thread runs through the middle of it.

SIMON: While we have you and all of your expertise12 in our studio, any other rom-coms that maybe aren't as familiar you want to fill us into?

HOLMES: Well, if you haven't checked out the Netflix film "Set It Up," that's a very traditional rom-com that they put out a while ago that a lot of people were super into. I really liked "Trainwreck," which came out a couple of years ago with Amy Schumer and Bill Hader which didn't get a lot of play. But I loved that movie. And I think it has some great rom-com elements...

SIMON: And LeBron James is in that film...

HOLMES: LeBron James is great in that movie.

SIMON: ...Robbed of an Oscar, by the way.

HOLMES: Robbed of an Oscar - couldn't agree more - couldn't agree more.

SIMON: But he's genuinely good in that film.

HOLMES: Oh, he's extremely funny in that film, playing himself.

SIMON: Yeah.

HOLMES: He could go have a totally successful comedy career any time he decides that he doesn't want to make a billion, swillion (ph) dollars playing basketball anymore.

SIMON: Linda Holmes, of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, thanks so much.

HOLMES: Thanks, Scott.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ISN'T IT ROMANTIC")

ELLA FITZGERALD: (Singing) Isn't it romantic?


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 harry heBxS     
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼
参考例句:
  • Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天,人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
  • Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。
2 byline sSXyQ     
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。
3 coma vqxzR     
n.昏迷,昏迷状态
参考例句:
  • The patient rallied from the coma.病人从昏迷中苏醒过来。
  • She went into a coma after swallowing a whole bottle of sleeping pills.她吃了一整瓶安眠药后就昏迷过去了。
4 banter muwzE     
n.嘲弄,戏谑;v.取笑,逗弄,开玩笑
参考例句:
  • The actress exchanged banter with reporters.女演员与记者相互开玩笑。
  • She engages in friendly banter with her customers.她常和顾客逗乐。
5 genre ygPxi     
n.(文学、艺术等的)类型,体裁,风格
参考例句:
  • My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
  • Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看, 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。
6 genres f90f211700b6afeaafe2f8016ddfad3d     
(文学、艺术等的)类型,体裁,风格( genre的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Novel and short story are different genres. 长篇小说和短篇小说是不同的类别。
  • But confusions over the two genres have a long history. 但是类型的混淆,古已有之。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译
7 brutal bSFyb     
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。
8 phenomena 8N9xp     
n.现象
参考例句:
  • Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
  • The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系,如果存在着任何联系的话。
9 condor ip1zl     
n.秃鹰;秃鹰金币
参考例句:
  • The condor soars above the mountain heights.禿鹰翱翔于高山之上。
  • A condor prepares to fly in Colombia.一只兀鹰在哥伦比亚准备振翅高飞。
10 glut rflxv     
n.存货过多,供过于求;v.狼吞虎咽
参考例句:
  • The glut of coffee led to a sharp drop in prices.咖啡供过于求道致价格急剧下跌。
  • There's a glut of agricultural products in Western Europe.西欧的农产品供过于求。
11 sleepless oiBzGN     
adj.不睡眠的,睡不著的,不休息的
参考例句:
  • The situation gave her many sleepless nights.这种情况害她一连好多天睡不好觉。
  • One evening I heard a tale that rendered me sleepless for nights.一天晚上,我听说了一个传闻,把我搞得一连几夜都不能入睡。
12 expertise fmTx0     
n.专门知识(或技能等),专长
参考例句:
  • We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
  • You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

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