美国国家公共电台 NPR--《唐顿庄园》编剧朱利安·费罗斯新作品《镀金时代》

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HBO's 'The Gilded¹ Age' is a story about money and class in 1882 New York

Transcript²

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes has developed a new TV show for HBO called The Gilded Age. Our reviewer says it has its own charm, despite feeling a lot like Downton set in America.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

"Downton Abbey" creator Julian Fellowes has developed a new TV show for HBO. It's called "The Gilded Age," and it debuts³ tonight. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans says the show feels a lot like "Downton" set in America but still has its own special charm.

ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE⁴: It's tough for me to admit, but there's a lot I like about the new show Julian Fellowes has created about the white, wealthy and powerful in 1880s-era New York "The Gilded Age." Chief among my likes here is Christine Baranski, who breathes fire as widowed matriarch Agnes Van Rhijn. Agnes is an old-money Dutch American socialite who objects to newly wealthy families trying to enter the city's elite⁵ society. That's epitomized by railroad tycoon⁶ George Russell and his wife, Bertha, who've just moved in across the street. Agnes explains this to her son, Oscar, played by Blake Ritson.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE GILDED AGE")

CHRISTINE BARANSKI: (As Agnes Van Rhijn) New York is a collection of villages, my dear. We know the people who live in our own village.

BLAKE RITSON: (As Oscar Van Rhijn) The Russells live in your village, Mama.

BARANSKI: (As Agnes Van Rhijn) I'm not concerned with facts, not if they interfere⁷ with my beliefs.

RITSON: (As Oscar Van Rhijn) I give you prejudice in a nutshell.

BARANSKI: (As Agnes Van Rhijn) I'm going up to change.

RITSON: (As Oscar Van Rhijn) I doubt it, Mama. I'd say you'll come down again without having changed at all.

DEGGANS: If you know Fellowes' previous TV hit, the drama about wealthy British families in the early 1900s called "Downton Abbey," then you will recognize many of "Downton's" the signature flourishes in "The Gilded Age." In both shows, there is a well-meaning but rigid⁸ head of household holding on to increasingly outdated⁹ social rules, and there are rebellious¹⁰ younger people. In "The Gilded Age," that's Louisa Jacobson's Marian Brook¹¹, a niece forced to move in with Agnes when her father dies. And Marion realizes he has lied about their lives, and she is penniless.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE GILDED AGE")

THOMAS COCQUEREL: (As Tom Raikes) I've looked into the estate of the late Mr. Brook.

LOUISA JACOBSON: (As Marian Brook) The late General Brook.

COCQUEREL: (As Tom Raikes) And I cannot find any assets beyond the contents of his bank account.

JACOBSON: (As Marian Brook) And the house.

COCQUEREL: (As Tom Raikes) The house is rented, Miss Brook. I will waive¹² my own fee.

JACOBSON: (As Marian Brook) There's no need.

COCQUEREL: (As Tom Raikes) There is every need. You will have in your possession somewhere in the region of $30.

DEGGANS: Cynthia Nixon, playing Agnes' spinster sister, Ada, is a bridge between her rigid sibling¹³ and rebellious Marian. Fellowes loves to humanize his rigid heroes. Here, Ada accomplishes that by explaining why she and Agnes hated Marian's father, their brother, so much.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE GILDED AGE")

CYNTHIA NIXON: (As Ada Brook) He sold our family farms. He sold the house where we were born and where we had lived for a century and a half. He bought nothing. He saved nothing. He gave us, his sisters, nothing.

DEGGANS: What annoys me most about "The Gilded Age" is how it makes me root for robber baron¹⁴ George Russell and wife, Bertha, played impeccably by Morgan Spector and Carrie Coon, who are constantly snubbed by pretentious¹⁵ old-money families. The list of new-money families Agnes and her allies despise includes J.P. Morgan, the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts, a telling commentary that yesterday's grasping upstarts are tomorrow's pillars of society. Fellowes even corrects one serious drawback from "Downton," including a prominent Black character in "The Gilded Age" from the beginning. Denee Benton's Peggy Scott learns a white newspaper, The Christian¹⁶ Advocate, will publish her fiction if she hides her identity.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE GILDED AGE")

DENEE BENTON: (As Peggy Scott) The Christian Advocate is asking me to lie.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) There are at least two white men sitting in a bar around the corner drinking away their sorrows because I turned them down. They'd kill to be in your position.

BENTON: (As Peggy Scott) But they'd never be in my position.

DEGGANS: Moments like this turn "The Gilded Age" into a compelling story about the struggle for status and progress in the early days of New York City. It's a tale that should resonate with today's times if the show can shake off the long shadow of its creator's previous hit. I'm Eric Deggans.

(SOUNDBITE OF KIEFER'S "FRIENDS")

1 gilded   

a.镀金的，富有的

参考例句：

• The golden light gilded the sea. 金色的阳光使大海如金子般闪闪发光。
• "Friends, they are only gilded disks of lead!" "朋友们，这只不过是些镀金的铅饼！ 来自英汉文学 - 败坏赫德莱堡

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 debuts   

演员首次演出( debut的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He never really debuts the idea of taking money from his parents any longer. 他从此就再也没有认真起过向父母要钱的念头。
• This young soprano debuts next month at the metropolitan opera. 这位年轻的女高音歌唱家下个月将在纽约大都会歌剧院举行首演。

4 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。

5 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

6 tycoon   

n.有钱有势的企业家，大亨

参考例句：

• The tycoon is on the verge of bankruptcy.那名大亨濒临破产的边缘。
• The tycoon has many servants to minister to his needs.那位大亨有很多人服侍他。

7 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

8 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

9 outdated   

adj.旧式的，落伍的，过时的；v.使过时

参考例句：

• That list of addresses is outdated,many have changed.那个通讯录已经没用了，许多地址已经改了。
• Many of us conform to the outdated customs laid down by our forebears.我们许多人都遵循祖先立下的过时习俗。

10 rebellious   

adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的

参考例句：

• They will be in danger if they are rebellious.如果他们造反，他们就要发生危险。
• Her reply was mild enough,but her thoughts were rebellious.她的回答虽然很温和，但她的心里十分反感。

11 brook   

n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让

参考例句：

• In our room we could hear the murmur of a distant brook.在我们房间能听到远处小溪汩汩的流水声。
• The brook trickled through the valley.小溪涓涓流过峡谷。

12 waive   

vt.放弃，不坚持(规定、要求、权力等)

参考例句：

• I'll record to our habitat office waive our claim immediately.我立即写信给咱们的总公司提出放弃索赔。
• In view of the unusual circumstances,they agree to waive their requirement.鉴于特殊情况，他们同意放弃他们的要求。

13 sibling   

n.同胞手足(指兄、弟、姐或妹)

参考例句：

• Many of us hate living in the shadows of a more successful sibling.我们很多人都讨厌活在更为成功的手足的阴影下。
• Sibling ravalry has been common in this family.这个家里，兄弟姊妹之间的矛盾很平常。

14 baron   

n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王

参考例句：

• Henry Ford was an automobile baron.亨利·福特是一位汽车业巨头。
• The baron lived in a strong castle.男爵住在一座坚固的城堡中。

15 pretentious   

adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的

参考例句：

• He is a talented but pretentious writer.他是一个有才华但自命不凡的作家。
• Speaking well of yourself would only make you appear conceited and pretentious.自夸只会使你显得自负和虚伪。

16 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。