dirac

I'd say it's the least they can do.....

Well, so much for Boyhood. Ouch. Also, can we have Seth MacFarlane back? Harris actually made me feel nostalgic for the "We Saw Your Boobs" number.

You generally do that if you won because you played somebody with a moviegenic affliction. Redmayne did the same thing. Dakota Johnson's frock was smashing. That particular red was just perfect. The choices overall were generally conservative, mainly because the actresses don't want to get keel-hauled for taking risks. I can't fault them for that. I rather liked Lady Gaga's red carpet outfit, although the red gloves were better in concept than execution. Lots of white and off-white, generally not great ideas.....

No, Barkleys isn't really that bad (and it did well at the box office), it just has weird vibes for the reasons mentioned above, and the script by Comden and Green is one of their lesser efforts. But certainly there is enough in it to remind you of why Ginger was so right for Fred, and it's nice to see the older Astaire with a partner who is at least roughly in his age cohort.

I like that one, too. Not one of their most famous dances, but a lovely number, and Rogers is especially good in it.

Ah, but Cyd Charisse in a spangled red dress is what the movies are all about, no? IMO, GeorgeP, AAIP has survived the years much better than A Place in the Sun.

No worries - you weren't that far off topic. Thank you for giving me an excuse to revive the old thread! And you're holding your own quite well.

FYI to all, I cut and pasted Parma's last post into our old Fred and Ginger thread in Other Arts. Thanks, Parma (and welcome to the board!)

A quote from Parma in the Aesthetic Issues forum: "The Barkleys of Broadway" does play off the real-life Astaire-Rogers story, in a rather creepy way, with the partnership breaking up because the woman wants to do dramatic roles. Rogers wanted to branch out because she realized her shelf life as a musical lead was pretty short and she was eager to prove herself in straight comedy and drama, which she did. I can definitely understand that (although you are right, she is terrible reciting the Marsellaise in TBoB!). As you might know, the Rogers part was originally intended for Judy Garland, so it was a sort of "reunion film" of necessity. (I remember the director, Charles Walters, saying that although Astaire and Rogers were perfectly agreeable to each other, it was as if they'd just met on the set.) It does have a nifty number, "Swing Trot," although you have to peer at it behind the credits. In "That's Entertainment III" the number can be seen in pristine form. My favorite Astaire-Rogers is still "Top Hat."

I value Michael Kidd's "Girl Hunt" ballet if only because the choreography for the chorus of hoods anticipated the hyper-physical style of Édouard Lock, Ginette Laurin, Jean-Pierre Perrault and other choreographers from the 1980s Quebec school by about 30 years. Yeah, the choreography for the hoods is striking. Not much to be said for the rest of it, though, although I do enjoy Astaire's voiceover.

I would substitute "ambitions" for "pretensions" - Kelly was very much a proselytizer for dance and ballet, although the latter was not his metier (as he knew). This was a time when musical comedy was beginning to aim for something different. I don't think his reputation as a dancer will ever be where it once was, right by Astaire's, and that's appropriate, but Kelly's accomplishments should not be overlooked. I like "An American in Paris" better than I used to do. It gets off to a dubious start with "By Strauss" but it recovers.Lerner's script is one of the rare instances where a writer won an Oscar for the script of a musical. The things that were unusual and even revolutionary about it are things we now take for granted. As mentioned previously, the "ballets" of the period generally suck - even the "good" ones, like "The Girl Hunt" in The Band Wagon aren't very good. For the most part -- although one of Kelly's best numbers is the "Alter Ego" routine from "Cover Girl."

The "dream ballet" was a staple of the more ambitious musicals of the period. Few of them have worn well. (And most choreographers don't look so good compared to Balanchine.) Perhaps you are thinking of Ziegfeld Follies, the revue-style picture directed by Minnelli in 1945? I think also of Astaire partnering a coat rack in the "Sunday Jumps" number of "Royal Wedding."

There was a very nice tribute to Attenborough at this year's BAFTAs.

Thanks for the heads-up, miliosr. Should be worth a read.

Latest odds on the awards. Things continue to look up for Redmayne.....

I have Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins by Greg Lawrence (Gelsey Kirkland's first husband): http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Demons-Life-Jerome-Robbins-ebook/dp/B000OCXGI2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1423436855&sr=1-1&keywords=dancing+with+demons+jerome+robbins I believe it was criticized at the time for sourcing, but it does go into the controversies early in his adult life, when he "named names" before Joe McCarthy's HUAC committee, destroying many careers. McCarthy reportedly threatened to "out" him as a closet homosexual, which would have ruined his career in the early 1950s. The episode apparently haunted him for the rest of his life. Robbins had ambitions at the time to do more work in Hollywood, which work would have been cut off had he been an unfriendly witness. In the end he did go to Hollywood and got canned, which some no doubt regarded as just deserts. cobweb, we have several different threads on the various Robbins bios in our "Writings on Ballet" forum. If you do end up reading one of them, please think about telling us your thoughts! I'm enjoying reading all these reports on the season from the West Coast.

Definitely -- with the note that some have characterized some of Hodson's work as more reimaginings than reconstructions.

Truly a thing of beauty, Kaysta. And the ballerina looks pretty good, too.

The spread favored the Seahawks for quite some time, although as game day approached it was more or less a pick 'em. Closely matched teams in a year where no one team really dominated. Football players can display a dancer's grace, and some studies have shown that ballet is as punishing on the body as football, if not more so. Apollo's Angels put forth a lot of earthly effort.

As a rule the mayors of the respective cities of the two Super Bowl teams make a bet, so it's nice to see the ballet companies getting in on the act. There was a hitch this year - Boston's Mayor Walsh, a two-time loser, would not bet with Seattle's Ed Murray. He said he didn't want to jinx the Patriots, but maybe he just didn't have confidence in his team. O ye of little faith! Providence's Jorge Elorza stepped into the breach, and will reportedly be rewarded with Northwest alder-smoked salmon from Pure Food Fish Market, coffees from the original Starbucks at Pike Place Market and a giant bag of Marshawn Lynch’s favorite snack, Skittles. Plebeian? Not really. The NFL's current popularity is unprecedented in American sports but until fairly late in the 20th century American football was college football, at a time when relatively few people went to college - it was very much the game of the American elite.

Kael and Croce had some things in common personally and stylistically, but aesthetically they could sometimes be at different poles. Kael once called Croce -- with all respect, as Michael says in "The Godfather" -- a "romantic perfectionist," a description which would only be partially and occasionally true of Kael. Quite a thread you started here, miliosr.

Thanks so much for that information from your experience, cubanmiamiboy. I'll bear that in mind when I catch the movie. Luise Rainer, who died recently, got her first Academy Award basically for one scene involving a telephone call. It happens, particularly in the Best Actress category.

Well, that wouldn't bother Balanchine any. Suzanne Farrell said in her book that he loved to partner her in rehearsal even though she was quite a bit taller than he when she was on pointe, and in fact the height differential helped their partnering. ("Look how we fit together," he'd say. Subtle.) Le Clercq was always called coltish, as she noted herself, and she was indeed considered quite tall and angular for the time. By today's standards her outline is rather soft; she's more curvy than you would think from contemporary descriptions. Fashions in bodies, particularly women's bodies, tend to change over time. Pavlova was considered almost dangerously thin in her day, but she doesn't look so to us. A digression: I remember reading that the late Nelson Mandela told a Western reporter that she was too thin, and in his young day they liked women with more meat on their bones. I suppose that was sexist of him but I'm sure he meant well, and it's a remark any dieting woman should appreciate. I like that word "coltish", and what it connotes. It's interesting to me how the preferred female form has changed through the years and in different cultures. Paintings from the Renaissance period show women that are rather heavy by today's standards, but back then, such figures were a sign of being well fed, something that wasn't taken for granted the way it is today. One of Balanchine's other muses was Maria Tallchief. I've read she was a whopping 5'9, so I'd say you're right, Balanchine wasn't bothered by it. I saw film of her next to Le Clercq, and there didn't seem to be a huge difference. Maybe Le Clercq was 5'7? My hunch is canbelto is on or near the target and 5'5 or 5'6 is about right for Le Clercq. A woman as tall as 5'9 would probably not even have been accepted to a company back then, even Balanchine's. (I've seen photos of Le Clercq and Tallchief on pointe standing next or near each other and Le Clercq is noticeably taller.) Right. In fact, today it's the reverse - thinness is one social indicator of class, the thinner the higher, and sometimes even a moral one - fat people are regularly and quite openly scolded for a lack of self-control and are routinely discriminated against in various ways. Balanchine once said, "Tall is better because you see more."

Well, that wouldn't bother Balanchine any. Suzanne Farrell said in her book that he loved to partner her in rehearsal even though she was quite a bit taller than he when she was on pointe, and in fact the height differential helped their partnering. ("Look how we fit together," he'd say. Subtle.) Le Clercq was always called coltish, as she noted herself, and she was indeed considered quite tall and angular for the time. By today's standards her outline is rather soft; she's more curvy than you would think from contemporary descriptions. Fashions in bodies, particularly women's bodies, tend to change over time. Pavlova was considered almost dangerously thin in her day, but she doesn't look so to us. A digression: I remember reading that the late Nelson Mandela told a Western reporter that she was too thin, and in his young day they liked women with more meat on their bones. I suppose that was sexist of him but I'm sure he meant well, and it's a remark any dieting woman should appreciate.

I add my thanks for this, Mme. Hermine. Austin also looks great in the Dance in America broadcast of Ballo.