dirac

I'd say Hepburn is at least as well known these days as a clotheshorse than for her film career; her image regularly crops up in fashion magazines, online sites, and Vanity Fair more for that reason than anything else. Young people may not actually have sat through Breakfast at Tiffany's, not that I blame them, but they have seen Hepburn in stills from the picture. The skinny waif look that she exemplified rarely goes completely out of style and her Givenchy outfits are still (relatively) recent have held up well. Garbo was a great camera subject but she wasn't a mannequin. As far as not being able to relate to a star like Garbo - well, your loss, kiddies. Not everybody is "relatable" and Garbo wasn't everyone's cup of tea even at the height of her US popularity; by the end of her career it was her European grosses and her prestige value that made her valuable at MGM. There is also the paradox, which I mentioned previously, that although old movies are more readily available upon request than ever before via DVD or online, they're no longer ubiquitous as filler for TV downtime as they once were. If you don't have TCM, they're hardly present at all, except for Westerns. Bette Davis told Dick Cavett that television had brought her new generations of fans. I don't think that's happening any more on the same kind of scale. Not too long ago I was standing in line in a repertory theater listening to a woman behind me explain to her millennial daughter who Katharine Hepburn was. It's also true that many of Garbo's movies are interesting primarily because of her presence and have not aged well, so even people who seek them out may be underwhelmed, at least initially. I'd hope that a skilled and knowledgeable film studies prof could help them overcome that, however.

I would say primarily jazz and classical, mimsyb, although there was overlap between all 3 categories in Gershwin's era.

Yes, Bernstein was a classical composer who also wrote for musical theater, but Gershwin was a theater and pop composer first (in his day, of course, theater music was pop music) and then later began working in classical forms, which he was still in the process of mastering at the time of his death. I wouldn't call On the Town or AAiP classical for the most part, but the latter does have the symphonic poem at its center. Also, much of the Great American Songbook has assumed a sort of light classical status over time. Thank you for the link, sidwich, it is a good read. Fairchild's comment is actually in regard to her husband, Andrew Veyette, it looks like. Her brother, of course, has had plenty of musical theater on his schedule recently.

That is interesting. I looked it up and it appears to have been an original screenplay, using Portis characters but not an adaptation. I remember seeing it, or part of it, years ago on TV. I thought it was a bit of a knockoff of The African Queen and Wayne and Hepburn were seriously too old for their parts. Actors usually go in for directing instead of writing - the latter having less prestige as well as being harder to do -- so I'm impressed. Emma Thompson has also written screenplays.

Thank you for starting this topic, Mailied. I believe the scale of Osipova's jump is unparallelled, so she might not be an ideal point of comparison, but you raise an interesting question, and thanks also to those who've responded so far. I hope there are others better versed in the nuts and bolts of technique than I who will also contribute here. Anyone?

That's cute, Buddy, thanks. I have a feeling that things haven't changed much and Fairchild wouldn't have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the movies.

Fontaine, I understand, had a sharp wit and sometimes she sharpened it on her sister. Her book was said to be not all that reliable – it’ll be interesting to see what de Havilland has to say. But I tend to think it was just one of those things. They didn’t get on, and on top of that they were competing in the same profession in the same town for the same things. I imagine it would have been a difficult situation even if they’d been close as children. De Havilland’s name cropped up in a biography of JFK I was reading. (No, not what you think.) As a young naval officer he paid a visit to her house in Hollywood with some friends. Kennedy exerted himself to make a good impression and asked de Havilland to dinner some time. Unfortunately, when it came time to depart, he suavely opened the wrong door and found himself in a hail of hatboxes and tennis equipment, not the last impression he wanted to make. Later on he saw her with someone else and he was convinced the Closet Incident had done him in.

kfw, I refer you back to what you originally wrote. Yes, you've made that amply clear. Since you've brought it up, all I can say is: Physician, heal thyself.

If you should ever have the good fortune to meet de Havilland, KarenAG, I strongly advise that you assure her she was the more glamorous. (The sibling rivalry, as you may know, was intense.) I wonder what the odds are that all the actors named above in the quote save de Havilland - Gable, Howard, Leigh, and McDaniel -- would all be gone by 1967? She's been the only surviving GWTW star for a long time now. Looking forward to that autobiography.

Yesterday was Olivia de Havilland's birthday. Many happy returns and best wishes for many more to come! An interview from earlier this year.

You were the one who said you didn't know much about those two dancers and that you knew more about Copeland because of the media fuss. I was responding to that. I presume this is your manner of describing what you regard as my M.O. in these threads. I do not always have the time, inclination, or, frankly, the stamina and intestinal fortitude to post here and very often someone else makes a good point before I do. I don't know who you're referring to when you say "the next guy trying the same strategy" (no, that is not an invitation or a demand for you to name names), but it seems to me that many valiant posters here have taken up the cudgels in exactly the way you claim you desire them to do, without making a good deal of headway. No one is under any obligation to take the unserious seriously, including yourself, of course. I am sorry that you choose to characterize gender bias as a "pet P.C. theory." As you note, it does indeed exist, and I don't think it's out of line to speculate that it may be operating here to some degree.

Plisskin seems to be doing fine. And...since you have mentioned it -- you could know more about Seo and Kochetkova if you wished to do so, surely? The buzz around Copeland is not so insistent that it’s unavoidable; she’s getting a lot of attention for a ballet dancer, true, but that isn’t really saying all that much. As for saying something vindictive about Copeland, -- again, since you have brought it up -- I should say that your posts and those of others taken altogether in these multiple threads speak eloquently for themselves. It’s not a matter of, “Gee, I criticized Misty Copeland for something and now these meanies think I’m a racist.” As Pique Arabesque observes, there have been many judicious criticisms made of Copeland’s dancing. I also don’t think the occasional suggestion that she’s a tad overexposed would be out of line, whether or not it’s arguable. (Personally, I don’t think she needs to refer to the “little brown girls” she wants to inspire any more. She sounds like George H. W. Bush.) But the kind of beating and insinuations that Copeland has taken in some quarters are not the usual, even by the passionate standards of balletomanes. For what it’s worth, I suspect gender is also an issue here, and not only because historically it's been harder for black female ballet dancers to achieve acceptance than male ones. Copeland has been uncommonly forthright, even aggressive, about her ambition and goals – not what is expected of women, even today, and particularly not what is expected of female ballet dancers.

Oh, I don't know, Plisskin. The bit about a "segment of the audience" that "prefers to see non-white bodies in a lead role" pretty much made my day, especially "non-white bodies." More of that to come, I'm sure. And of course to many headline writers any female ballet dancer is a "ballerina."

Yes, it would. However, some biopics use footage of the real person at the conclusion and/or under the closing credits. If some rarity could be unearthed for the purpose that would be pretty neat.

Juan Felipe Herrera is the incoming guy. I haven't read any of his (many) books. Has anyone here? Sounds like a very different Mission District. Related.

Willing suspension of disbelief will enter heavily into it, I imagine. I don't think there's a dancer who could play Nureyev convincingly in all stages of his life, but if this project concentrates on, say, the defection, I think you could and should cast a dancer in the role. I wonder if it would be possible to reconstruct the solo Ashton did for RN when he first arrived at the Royal?

It would be preferable not to have to do so, and certainly not at such length. But that's how it is.

Some of the things said here about Copeland have not been at all pleasant for me to read, but sometimes it's necessary to read them, and speak up with differing views.

Hey, this could be fun. Misty Copeland is rumored to become the first African-American woman in what position? A) Fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force B) High Keeper of the Queen’s Turtle Doves C) Plural wife to King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud D) Doctor Who E) Pope

Well, it's been said before here, but I'm happy to say it again: If those "many minds" believe that Copeland was promoted (if she is) because ABT was running scared, it isn't a problem for Copeland or for the people who don't share this belief. it's only "unfortunate" for those who will be doing this mental asterisking and not as a matter of the general welfare. Everybody else is going to be just fine.

That's what I'm asking. Of what will this "huge and immediate" groundswell consist? Where will the "tons of attention" come from? I also note that you've added "if she then calls that racist." That really is a pretty big if.

Good points, Mailied. And welcome to the board. I was actually somewhat surprised by the BBC biopic. No masterpiece, but a respectable effort. Duff was certainly not an ideal choice for Fonteyn, but she's a good actor and always interesting to watch, and Michiel Huisman, who played Nureyev, wasn't bad either.

"Huge and immediate"? Really? I rather doubt 60 Minutes is going to do a follow up story on how Misty Copeland didn't make principal. Most of the articles I've seen on the subject also say something alone the lines of, "Even if Copeland doesn't become a principal, she's had significant impact on the discussion," not "If she doesn't make principal, there'll be hell to pay."

I'll say.

David Hare, who's worked with Fiennes before, is writing the screenplay. The casting problem is no less difficult than the one that confronted Herbert Ross with Nijinsky. Let's hope that Fiennes reaches a better solution. The only dancer I would cast as Nureyev is Nureyev. It's too bad that in the Sixties nobody had him play himself in a movie about his defection. Something like The Jackie Robinson Story, only better.