Capítulo 12 de 18 · 2'16"
Myrna Dalgleish locks herself in her room and refuses to come down for the scene. When the maids go up, she admits what really frightens her: "I'm washed up, as the Yanks say." They refuse to humor her and remind her she is rich and famous, then tell her to dust herself off.
❝ Monólogo · 5 frases The Maids Talk Myrna Into Coming Down
❝ Monólogo · 5 frases Anna names the sister
The pep talk drops into 1919 and a flu death, and the star is suddenly just a face they have seen before.
On the day's shoot, the star Myrna Dalgleish will not leave her room, and Jack Barber can get nothing done without her. Mary suggests sending the maids up instead, and they talk their way in. Myrna admits she always knew sound would end her career, and the maids answer with plain sense rather than flattery.
The funniest and saddest thing in the scene is that the great movie star is being comforted by the staff she looks down on. Myrna, who has spent the film terrified of the microphone, finally names the fear out loud: "I knew I was finished the moment I saw The Jazz Singer," and adds, "It's been like a sword hanging over me." She is not wrong, and the audience knows it. What changes the temperature is the maids' refusal to flatter. They grant her beauty and fame and money and then administer the harder truth, that she is "yesterday's news" unless she picks herself up, and that she should "try being polite to the people who serve you." The class note lands both ways: the servants see her as "one of us, not one of them," and the star's survival now depends on them.
A1–C2 es la escala MCER. Las tarjetas por encima del nivel elegido se atenúan y la reproducción no se pausa en ellas.
“It's been like a sword hanging over me.”
The sword of Damocles as everyday dread: not the fall, but the hanging.
literary
“And while you're at it, try being polite to the people who serve you.”
A casual aside that lands a direct hit: while you're up, mind your manners.
Informal
“You're one of us, not one of them.”
Two camps in seven words: one of us, not one of them.
Informal
“I knew I was finished the moment I saw The Jazz Singer.”
A whole career dated to a single instant: I knew the moment I saw it.
Neutral
“But the fact is I'm washed up, as the Yanks say.”
Self-pity avoided by slang and distance: washed up, as the Yanks say.
Informal
You're famous, beautiful and rich. So what if your film career is over? There's any number of things you can do. Now, dust yourself off. And while you're at it, try being polite to the people who serve you.
I had a sister just like you once. I miss her. Every day. You remind me of her. She died of the Spanish flu in 1919. Didn't think it would touch our family, but you never know, do you?
Siguiente · 13had in mindLa escena: Violet Says Goodbye to TomShe is afraid of being humiliated on set over her accent, and she believes sound film has already ended her career.
Mary suggests it, and the maids can get Myrna to listen when the director and crew cannot, so they go to talk her down.
Her accent and voice make talking pictures a problem for her, so she thinks The Jazz Singer has made her obsolete.
Because Myrna has been rude to the servants, and the maid says she should treat the people who serve her with respect.
