美国国家公共电台 NPR--Try as she might, Bram Stoker's widow couldn't kill 'Nosferatu'

Try as she might, Bram Stoker's widow couldn't kill 'Nosferatu'

Transcript¹

The world's first vampire² movie premiered 100 years ago. After a long copyright battle, Florence Stoker, widow of the author of Dracula, asked for all copies of Nosferatu to be destroyed. Were they?

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The world's first full-length vampire film, "Nosferatu," premiered in Germany 100 years ago today. And like a vampire, the film itself seems unable to die, but not for lack of trying. NPR's Avery Keatley has more.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

AVERY KEATLEY, BYLINE⁴: Before the public premiere of "Nosferatu" 100 years ago in Berlin, the audience was primed with an ominous⁵ advertisement for the film. Nosferatu does not die. You want to see a symphony of horror? You may expect more. But no one could have expected how "Nosferatu" would turn out to be a curse to its very makers⁶.

The film is a loose adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula." We follow our hero, Hutter, who visits Count Orlok's castle. Orlok is overcome with desire for Hutter's wife, Ellen. And Hutter discovers that Orlok is, in fact, the terrible Nosferatu.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

KEATLEY: Nosferatu brings plague and death to their town before Ellen sacrifices herself, allowing Nosferatu to suck her blood until the sun rises. When day breaks, Ellen is dead and Nosferatu is transfigured into a puff⁷ of smoke. While that may sound like pretty typical vampire lore³, Nosferatu was the first vampire to be vanquished⁸ by sunlight.

LOKKE HEISS: Whatever else "Nosferatu" does, you can credit that movie for creating that new aspect of vampires⁹.

KEATLEY: That's film scholar Lokke Heiss. He says "Nosferatu" was a relative success and slated¹⁰ for multiple screenings, but...

HEISS: Very quickly after the film was screened and it first premiered, Prana, the company that produced it, got into some business trouble.

KEATLEY: Prana Film went bankrupt just a few months after "Nosferatu" premiered. And then came Florence Stoker, Bram Stoker's widow, who was living in London.

HEISS: Florence Stoker received the program of the Berlin premiere. And on the program, it said this was adapted from Bram Stoker's "Dracula."

KEATLEY: Florence realized that this freely adapted film was violating copyright and costing her royalties¹¹.

BRENT REID: Her husband had died. She's a widow. So she was pretty much entirely¹² reliant on her husband's legacy¹³.

KEATLEY: That's silent film writer and researcher Brent Reid. He says with few options available to her, Stoker decided¹⁴ to act.

REID: She went for it. She went after it in the same sense that she would have gone after anybody who she felt was ripping off her husband's work.

KEATLEY: What ensued was a years-long international legal battle between Florence Stoker and the company that took over Prana after they went belly¹⁵ up. After years of appeals, bankruptcies¹⁶ and liquidations, Florence changed course and requested instead that all copies and negatives of "Nosferatu" be destroyed. And eventually, the German court ruled in her favor. But no one ever provided any physical evidence that the film had actually been destroyed.

REID: There's no one original complete print, but there are certainly lots that are more or less complete and some that are fragments.

KEATLEY: Those handful of prints that survived eventually made their way to film archives and museums in Germany, France and New York. And film preservationists took up the painstaking¹⁷ task of restoring Count Orlok to his original glory.

REID: Our current versions of "Nosferatu" that exist today are patchwork¹⁸ compilations¹⁹ of all of those prints. It's literally²⁰ been piecing together the film, almost frame by frame.

KEATLEY: Like the film, the original score that accompanied "Nosferatu" also had to be pieced back together.

GILLIAN ANDERSON: The word silent has meant to many people that it was silent, which is far, far from the truth. The fact of the matter is that the sound, the music, was 50% of the experience.

KEATLEY: That's silent film conductor Gillian Anderson. The original composer, Hans Erdmann, had published other suites²¹ derived²² from his score of "Nosferatu."

ANDERSON: I had to try and piece together where this music went with what part of the film.

KEATLEY: Her reconstructed score is what you've been hearing throughout this piece.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

KEATLEY: Florence Stoker's mission to have the film destroyed seems to have only contributed to its mythology²³. Here's Brent Reid again.

REID: It retains its power to bewitch and entertain and horrify²⁴ as much as it did a hundred years ago. Count Orlok is immortal²⁵.

KEATLEY: That century-old warning was true after all. Nosferatu does not die.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 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。

2 vampire   

n.吸血鬼

参考例句：

• It wasn't a wife waiting there for him but a blood sucking vampire!家里的不是个老婆，而是个吸人血的妖精！
• Children were afraid to go to sleep at night because of the many legends of vampire.由于听过许多有关吸血鬼的传说，孩子们晚上不敢去睡觉。

3 lore   

n.传说；学问，经验，知识

参考例句：

• I will seek and question him of his lore.我倒要找上他，向他讨教他的渊博的学问。
• Early peoples passed on plant and animal lore through legend.早期人类通过传说传递有关植物和动物的知识。

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 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

6 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 puff   

n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气

参考例句：

• He took a puff at his cigarette.他吸了一口香烟。
• They tried their best to puff the book they published.他们尽力吹捧他们出版的书。

8 vanquished   

v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制

参考例句：

• She had fought many battles, vanquished many foes. 她身经百战，挫败过很多对手。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I vanquished her coldness with my assiduity. 我对她关心照顾从而消除了她的冷淡。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

9 vampires   

n.吸血鬼( vampire的名词复数 )；吸血蝠；高利贷者；（舞台上的）活板门

参考例句：

• The most effective weapon against the vampires is avampire itself. 对付吸血鬼最有效的武器就是吸血鬼自己。 来自电影对白
• If vampires existed, don`t you think we would`ve found them by now? 如果真有吸血鬼，那我们怎么还没有找到他们呢？ 来自电影对白

10 slated   

用石板瓦盖( slate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Yuki is working up an in-home phonics program slated for Thursdays, and I'm drilling her on English conversation at dinnertime. Yuki每周四还有一次家庭语音课。我在晚餐时训练她的英语口语。
• Bromfield was slated to become U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. 布罗姆菲尔德被提名为美国农业部长。

11 royalties   

特许权使用费

参考例句：

• I lived on about £3,000 a year from the royalties on my book. 我靠着写书得来的每年约3，000英镑的版税生活。 来自辞典例句
• Payments shall generally be made in the form of royalties. 一般应采取提成方式支付。 来自经济法规部分

12 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

13 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

14 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。

15 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

16 bankruptcies   

n.破产( bankruptcy的名词复数 )；倒闭；彻底失败；（名誉等的）完全丧失

参考例句：

• It's a matter of record that there were ten bankruptcies in the town last year. 去年这个城市有十家破产是事实。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Business bankruptcies rose 50 percent over the previous year. 破产企业的数量比前一年增加５０％。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

17 painstaking   

adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的

参考例句：

• She is not very clever but she is painstaking.她并不很聪明，但肯下苦功夫。
• Through years of our painstaking efforts,we have at last achieved what we have today.大家经过多少年的努力，才取得今天的成绩。

18 patchwork   

n.混杂物；拼缝物

参考例句：

• That proposal is nothing else other than a patchwork.那个建议只是一个大杂烩而已。
• She patched new cloth to the old coat,so It'seemed mere patchwork. 她把新布初到那件旧上衣上，所以那件衣服看上去就象拼凑起来的东西。

19 compilations   

n.编辑，编写( compilation的名词复数 )；编辑物

参考例句：

• Introductory biology texts tend to be compilations of conclusions. 导论式的生物学教科书，多倾向于结论的汇编。 来自辞典例句
• The original drafts were mainly chronicles and compilations of regulations. 初撰本主要以纪事本末体和典志体为主。 来自互联网

20 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。

21 suites   

n.套( suite的名词复数 )；一套房间；一套家具；一套公寓

参考例句：

• First he called upon all the Foreign Ministers in their hotel suites. 他首先到所有外交部长住的旅馆套间去拜访。 来自辞典例句
• All four doors to the two reserved suites were open. 预定的两个套房的四扇门都敞开着。 来自辞典例句

22 derived   

vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• Many English words are derived from Latin and Greek. 英语很多词源出于拉丁文和希腊文。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derived his enthusiasm for literature from his father. 他对文学的爱好是受他父亲的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 mythology   

n.神话，神话学，神话集

参考例句：

• In Greek mythology,Zeus was the ruler of Gods and men.在希腊神话中，宙斯是众神和人类的统治者。
• He is the hero of Greek mythology.他是希腊民间传说中的英雄。

24 horrify   

vt.使恐怖，使恐惧，使惊骇

参考例句：

• His family were horrified by the change.他的家人对这一变化感到震惊。
• When I saw these figures I was horrified.我看到这些数字时无比惊骇。

25 immortal   

adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的

参考例句：

• The wild cocoa tree is effectively immortal.野生可可树实际上是不会死的。
• The heroes of the people are immortal!人民英雄永垂不朽！