4. A Later Film Star Lingyu Ruan

4. 影星———阮玲玉

In September 1983, forty-three old Chinese films were shown in Beijing at the exhibition "A Retrospective of Chinese Films from the 1920's to the 1940's. "One film star of the 1930's caught the attention of the viewers because her films were still so fresh and touching. She was Ruan Lingyu.

1983年9月，在“20世纪20—40年代电影回顾展览”，30年代的一位影星特别引人注目，因为时隔半个世纪，她的表演依然感人，使人回味元穷，她就是阮玲玉。

Ruan was born in a poor family in Shanghai in 1910. Her father, died when she was only five years old. Then she lived with her mother who worked as a maid for a rich family. After Ruan finished primary school, she had to find work to support herself. In 1926, she was recruited by Mingxing Film Company in Shanghai. From then on she stepped onto the movie stage. The following year she made her first screen appearance in the film Husband and Wife in Name. After that she played the leading roles in a number of films including A Tablet of Blood and Tears and The White Cloud Pagoda¹. In these films she started to show her talent in acting². In 1929, she transferred to Lianhua Film Company. Among the films she starred in, the more mature works were those made in the later period of her career such as Three Modern Women, Little Toys, and New Women. These films made her a first-class film star at that time.

阮玲玉1910年出生在上海的一个贫困家庭。五岁丧父，与做仆人的妈妈相依为命。小学毕业后，阮玲玉不得不开始工作以维持生计。她于1926年进入上海明星影片公司，从此踏人影坛。次年，阮玲玉主演处女作《挂名夫妻儿之后，她相继在《血泪碑》、《白云塔》等多部影片中扮演主角，逐渐展现出她的演艺才华。 1929年离开明星影片公司，进入联华影业公司，阮玲玉便成为“联华”的基本演员。她主演了《三个摩登女性》、《小玩意》、《新女性》等多部影片。这些影片使阮玲玉一举成名。

She succeeded because of her superb acting skills as well as her exceptional beauty. She acted so naturally and realistically that the roles she played always had an artistic³ appeal to the viewers. Her charm and performance took the country by storm. In order to overcome the limitations of silent films, she managed to convey meanings through her gestures and eyes. Her acting skills represented the highest level of the performing art in Chinese silent films. She was a versatile⁴ character actress. In the twenty-nine films she left us, she created various images of Chinese women such as factory worker, writer, social butterfly，wealthy woman, prostitute, and nun⁵. Her success in playing Sister Ye, a country woman in Little Toys, shows she was diligent⁶ in creating that character, for Sister Ye's life was beyond her own life experiences.

阮玲玉之所以能走红，主要是由于她的精湛演技和花容月貌。她的演技自然传神，所演人物刻画得惟妙惟肖，令观众为之动情，她用魅力和演技征服了观众。为了打破无声电影的局限性，她准确地运用眼神和动作来表现人物的性格和情感。阮玲玉的演技堪称中国元声影片的最高水平。她饰演的人物类型各异，在现存的她出演的29部影片中，塑造了形形色色的女性，如工厂工人、作家、交际花、富婆、妓女，也有修女。在影片《小玩意》中，她成功地塑造了超出她自己生活阅历的劳动女性形象叶姐姐，这足以说明阮玲玉的表演天赋。

Success in work did not bring her happiness in her family. In 1935, while her last film was being shot, a divorce suit and slanders⁷ in local newspapers put Ruan in great mental anguish⁸. On the eighth of March，Ruan Lingyu committed suicide leaving behind her a final message "Gossip can kill." She lived for only twenty-five years. When the news was made public, the whole city of Shanghai mourned her death. Several hundred thousand people came out to the streets to watch her funeral procession. Indignant at the persecution⁹ of Ruan，the great writer Lu Xun (1881-1936) published an article entitled "Gossip IsαFearful Thing ," which denounced the newspaper blood hounds and gossip-mongers.

1935年，由于婚姻的问题，报刊对阮玲玉诽谤和攻击，令她无法承受，被逼元奈，于1935年3月8日服毒自杀，年仅25岁。消息传出后，整个上海沉浸在悲痛之中，成百上千的群众走上街头为阮玲玉送行。愤怒之下，著名作家鲁迅(1881-1936)发表文章《可怕的流言蛮语》，公开抨击传播流言蜚语的人。