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102 Fiction and reality 08 LANGUAGE SKILLS EXPLORE LOOK AGAIN EXTRAS What ideas do you think English-speaking people have about Austria? Choose the top five stereotypes from the list below. cakes skiing lederhosen waltz a READING 12 Film versus reality Work in pairs and find out whether you have chosen the same ones. Give reasons for your choice. Why would anybody associate kangaroos with Austria? You are going to read about a film which has contributed a lot towards coining Austria’s image especially in English-speaking countries. The film is called The Sound of Music . Have you seen it or heard of it? Do you know what it is about? Read the article below. According to the text, is The Sound Of Music an accurate account of the Trapp family’s story? b a 13 b Much better known in the English-speaking world than in Austria itself, Sound of Music is a movie of which many people believe that it shows the real Austria. However, you need to remember that this idealized picture of Austria – all beautiful mountains and lakes and people in traditional clothes who break into song at the drop of a hat – has nothing to do with reality. Similarly, the plot of Sound of Music o…ers a sanitized version of the Trapp family story. Whoever is interested in a more accurate picture is well advised to consult the National Archives of the USA – which holds the Trapps’ immigration papers and applications for citizenship – or read interviews with family members that were published in American newspapers at the time. In the movie, Naval Commander Georg Trapp is a rather serious and intimidating character, who is saved from his loneliness and converted to music by Maria. Actually, his children remember making music with him long before Maria joined their household. And Maria, forever sweet, caring and understanding in the movie, is said to have had a terrible temper. Both her stepchildren and her own children remember how scared everybody was of her angry outbursts, which were over quickly, though, like thunderstorms. While Georg’s refusal to ’y the Nazi ’ag from the family estate and the family’s refusal, in general, to have anything to do with the National Socialist regime does correspond to reality, their escape from Nazi-occupied Austria was much less adventurous in real life than in the movie. One of the daughters remembers leaving by train to go to Italy and then to London before boarding a ship to America. In short, it was much less sensational than the spectacular hike across the Alps to Switzerland – with the family members balancing heavy suitcases and musical instruments – that is shown in the movie. What is also true is that, before leaving Austria, they won rst place at the Salzburg Music Festival in 1936 and became successful, singing folk songs and Renaissance and Baroque madrigal music all across Europe. Another daughter, Eleonore, remembers that their father was initially rather reluctant to allow his family to perform in public. However, ašer the family’s nancial ruin in the 1930s and, later, when they were rather poor immigrants in America, makingmusic was a welcome source of income.ey toured the States as the Trapp Family Singers, and later bought a farm in Vermont, known as the Von Trapp Family Lodge, where they ran music camps. In 1998, Johannes von Trapp reminded people that neither the movie nor the successful Broadway musical gave an accurate picture of his family. In an interview with the New York Times , he said that reality might be less glamorous than the myth but more interesting. Considering that his motherMaria, ašer her childhood as an orphan, her aborted career as a nun, ašer raising ten children and building up a successful music career while running the family lodge, in her later life went o… to New Guinea as a missionary, he might have a point. So, whenever you come across a fascinatingmovie, musical or novel about real-life people, remember to check the National Archives or a similarly reliable source to get the true story. THE SOUND OF MUSIC music kangaroos yodelling sauerkraut mountains National Socialism Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv