Norma Desmond's Comeback Falls Apart, Explained：nothing would please me more

What's really going on

This is a farewell wearing the mask of a meeting. DeMille is warm to Norma and careful never to say no outright; he praises the script ('It has some good things in it'), then buries it under cost and change. His line 'pictures have changed quite a bit' is the verdict, and Norma either cannot or will not hear it. 'Oh, I don't care about the money. I just want to work again,' she answers, which is everything in one sentence: the comeback is not a career plan but a need. DeMille's 'Nothing would please me more, Norma, if...' trails off exactly where the refusal should be. Around them the studio keeps moving — crew calls, lights, a shot — while Max walks Joe past empty dressing rooms and reminds him, 'You see where it says Readers' Department?' The place she remembers no longer exists.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• DeMille says yes with his tone and no with his grammar.
• Norma hears a promise where there is none.
• Joe gives his story away like an apology.
• A comeback dies inside a sentence about change.

発音のポイント

• don't care about — Link care into about; the t in don't is light.
• Hit 'em — Link hit and 'em so it sounds like one word.
• Roll 'em — Roll and 'em run together into one quick word.