A poor, sloppy flower seller woman; a flower seller with an inaccurate mouth; a flower seller woman with a foul mouth, we can all predict what the final result will be. But the life of the Hollywood remake of George Bernard Shaw's "Flower Girl" is something you and I didn't expect.
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) was an Irish playwright who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925 for his "idealistic and humanitarian works", and was one of Britain's preeminent modern realist dramatists and a world-renowned master of humour and satire.
"Flower Girl" is a story about how a poor flower girl is portrayed as a lady and recognized by high society. Attacked the decadent conservative hierarchical consciousness of England at the time. Later Hollywood remade the movie "Lady" accordingly.
The story goes: Higgins, a phonologist, and his friend, Colonel Pickering, bet on Eliza, a street flower seller, for experiments.
In six months, she changed her language and appearance to become a noble lady who seemed to be from a famous family. Through a series of trainings, Eliza was completely out of the atmosphere of being born poor and vulgar in words and deeds.
When entering or leaving any noble occasion, it can attract the attention of all. However, Eliza was put in an awkward position and could no longer return to the market to sell flowers.
Of course, the Hollywood remake of "The Lady", the ending of the flower girl ended perfectly. She finally stepped into high society and married the professor who transformed her.
My Fair Lady is a 1964 song and dance film by Warner Bros. Pictures, directed by George Cook and starring Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, and Jeremy Brett.
George Bernard Shaw's The Flower Girl was also translated as Pygmalion. This myth is from Ovid's Metamorphosis, Book X. Pygmalion, the king of the island of Cyprus and a famous sculptor, was determined not to marry for the rest of his life due to his antipathy towards the depravity and debauchery of women.
Once he carved a statue of a young girl from ivory and couldn't help but fall in love with his work, so he prayed to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, to give life to the statue. Eros granted his wish and transformed the statue into a beautiful woman named Galathea, and eventually they married.
In Shaw's day, standard pronunciation was extremely prevalent. Pronunciation is a sign of a person's social status, and the dialect of indigenous language is despised by high society.
As in the preface to The Flower Girl, George Bernard Shaw points out the social significance implied by language: "The moment one Englishman speaks, another Englishman shows a look of contempt. ”
The importance of language and pronunciation has a lot to do with changes in social structure: in 1762, "speech is just an ornament for a person's conversation"; by 1833, speech had developed into a symbol of one's social identity.
Modern English has taken shape since the beginning of the sixteenth century, and in order to make it easier for people to communicate, linguists have promoted the accent of the British political, economic, cultural and educational center in the southeast of England.
When we learned English, the teachers taught us standard English pronunciation, although not many of us could speak standard English pronunciation, most of us spoke English with a Chinese accent.
I think at the beginning, watching this film, I also went to correct his pronunciation. Watching how the professor in the film corrected the pronunciation of the flower girl, I also learned. So this movie, for me, is not just a movie, it's full of IELTS memories.
In the film "Lady of the House", there is a Royal Jockey Club - Royal Ascot. Today, every June, across the ocean in Britain, there is an annual event, the Royal Ascot. The prestigious jockey club has been hailed as "the most luxurious and extravagant race in the world".
In June of that year, my daughter and I also went to the Royal Jockey Club to see the British ladies dressed up and dressed up for the Royal Jockey Club.
Now watching "The Flower Girl", how many memories have come to mind.