In Memoriam: Pamela Berger

Dr. Berger, who joined what was then the Boston College Fine Arts Department in 1974, had a special interest in iconography and published a book, The Crescent on the Temple, 它描述了圆顶清真寺是如何在基督教中代表所罗门神庙的, Jewish, and Muslim art. She also published The Goddess Obscured, 太阳城官网了中世纪农民想象中的播种女神是如何变成女圣人的.

在她教授的中世纪艺术史课程中，有一门是《太阳城网赌平台》, which covered such areas as the imagery of Judaism and early Christianity, the mosaics of the First Golden Ages of Byzantine Art, Celtic-Early Christian Irish art, and the art of the Vikings and of Islamic Spain. Another class, Image and Imagination, 专注于象征主义和意义的多样性在艺术作品从莫扎拉布西班牙和罗马式和哥特式北部.

In the mid-1980s, Dr. Berger took her scholarly interests in a new direction, 灵感来自一篇13世纪的拉丁文本，该文本描述了一位名叫Etienne de Bourbon的多米尼加修士和一位被她的社区认为具有治愈能力的农妇之间的冲突. 她发现自己被故事和它所代表的主要主题所吸引, as well as its revelations of everyday life in medieval France.

“我知道我想和尽可能多的人分享这个故事，突然想到, ‘l'll make a movie,’” Dr. Berger recalled in a 1987 interview with the Boston College Biweekly. When she told her family, she added, her husband and two teenage children “fell on the floor, laughing.”

But Dr. Berger wasn’t deterred. She did some historical research in France, wrote a 125-page script, and received National Endowment for the Arts funding to set the film in motion; she also received financial support from the French Ministry of Culture and other sources. She recruited Suzanne Schiffman, a former co-screenwriter and assistant director to Francois Truffaut, to help her refine the screenplay and direct the film. Although Dr. 伯杰的角色主要是创意顾问——提供照片和信息，以帮助确保中世纪的真实性——在八周半的拍摄过程中，她每一场戏都在场.

The result was Sorceress, which Dr. Berger told Biweekly, 例证了“中世纪农民村民的民间文化与官方文化的戏剧性对抗”, particularly that of the Church.这部电影于1987年在多伦多电影节上首次亮相, and earned Schiffman a French Academy Award (César) for best first work.

In a companion booklet posted on the film’s website, Dr. Berger wrote that while Sorceress was a recreation augmented by insights from historical sources, folklore, botany, anthropology, and art history, it was also “a work of the imagination, 一个中世纪作家创作的小说，他试图塑造每个场景，使其他中世纪作家觉得整个故事是真实的. 戏剧叙事不仅是在中世纪生活和思想的框架内设计出来的, 但中世纪的物质世界却被尽可能真实地再现了.”

Dr. Berger went in a different direction for her second film. Looking for a story set locally, 她读到亚伯拉罕·卡汉写的一部中篇小说，讲述的是20世纪初，一位犹太移民在波士顿回到波兰家乡后，在女儿不知情的情况下为他美国化的女儿选择了一个新郎——一系列事件引发了新旧世界价值观的冲突.

Dr. 伯杰写了一个剧本，借鉴了其他20世纪早期移民作家的作品, particularly Anzia Yezierska, and reworked the female roles, creating stronger and more fully realized characters. Having observed her Sorceress colleague Schiffman at work, Dr. Berger felt she could take on the challenge of directing, 并参加了美国电影学院的大师班，进一步为自己做准备.

Her directorial debut, The Imported Bridegroom, 该片于1989年在蒙特利尔电影节首映，并在波士顿电影节首映.

In a 1990 Biweekly 在影片在布鲁克林的柯立芝角电影院上映前不久接受采访时说. Berger described her approach to filmmaking, and the pleasure she took in the process: “At the scripting stage, I love picturing what it will look like. As I write it, I sometimes visualize possible cuts. I love the writing and can see some of the pacing as I write it. I also love sensing the rhythm of how a film will move. Then I immerse myself in objects, architecture, manuscripts, images, books and paintings of the period. I also love the casting process, 决定谁能最好地将自己的个性融入角色中. 我发现拍摄是至高无上的，喜欢编辑过程，喜欢和作曲家一起工作.”

Kilian's Chronicle: The Magic Stone, which Dr. Berger wrote, directed, and produced, was released in 1994. The story takes place five centuries before Columbus, when the Vikings were lost in the North Atlantic. According to the Icelandic Sagas, the Norsemen sent two Irish slaves ashore to explore the land, 其中一个叫基利安的从船上偷走了一块导航石，这样维京人就找不到回家的路了. Dr. 伯杰的电影讲述了基利安的冒险经历以及他与美洲原住民的相遇.

Dr. 伯杰补充了她对维京人的了解，并从美洲原住民学者那里获得了专业知识, Scandinavian, and Irish studies, as well as elders from the Native American community. 20世纪70年代和80年代在纽芬兰的考古发现为该项目提供了进一步的动力.

“I wanted to tell the first story of America,” she told the Boston College Chronicle in a 1994 interview. “The sagas reveal that, in a unique occurrence, 当时的印第安人实际上是在第一次有记录的相遇中赶走了欧洲人. 当我阅读古代文献时，我很清楚，这是印第安人历史上唯一的胜利篇章之一，直到最近. It hadn’t, however, 历史学家一直是这么认为的，直到新发现的材料才使之成为可能.”

Two years later, Dr. Berger revisited The Imported Bridegroom 1998年1月，他把它变成了一出音乐喜剧，在罗布舍姆戏剧艺术中心上演. As she had done in filmmaking, Dr. Berger—a Cole Porter fan who loved musicals like Annie Get Your Gun, Guys and Dolls, and South Pacific—went the do-it-yourself route, 她向《太阳城官网》解释道:“我从不列颠哥伦比亚省图书馆找了一些关于如何制作音乐剧的书. 我总是告诉我的学生，一旦你接受了博雅教育，你就可以自学任何东西.”

Dr. 她说，伯杰联系了一些专业作家来创作剧本 Chronicle, but did well enough on her own: Within two weeks, she had written 10 songs, and by the fall of 1997 had nearly 30, though not all were used in the final production.

Dr. 伯杰忠于自己的教学和太阳城官网，并参与了一些具有里程碑意义的校园活动. She contributed to Visualizing lreland: National Identity and the Pictorial Tradition, 这是一本太阳城官网17世纪末至20世纪初爱尔兰艺术作品的文集，是麦克马伦艺术博物馆展览的伴奏作品. 她还参加了另一个纪念美术系成立25周年的麦克马伦展览.

At the 1994 Faculty Day event, Dr. 伯杰加入了一个教师小组，他们对即将退休的大学校长唐纳德·莫南的管理进行了反思, S.J.

Dr. Berger retired after the 2020-2021 academic year.

A native of New Britain, Conn., Dr. 伯杰在康奈尔大学获得学士学位，在纽约大学获得博士学位.

She was a founding member of Our Bodies, Ourselves, a nonprofit organization that published a book of the same name in 1970, 其中提供了与妇女健康和性行为的许多方面有关的信息. Dr. Berger contributed to early editions of the book, including a chapter on alternative modes of healing.

Dr. 伯杰身后留下了她的丈夫艾伦，他们的孩子诺亚和劳雷尔，以及两个孙子.

Funeral services were private.