dirac

All I can say is....wow. This is going to be interesting. Indeed: that statement reveals a worrying ignorance of bothe the company and the repertoire. This is the quote in full: That doesn't sound bad at all in theory. (And given some of the stuff I saw the troupe performing in the Wiseman documentary I see the point.) The article notes that he's not going to "prioritize" his own choreography, a good thing, I gather.

FYI "Beasts of the Southern Wild" did unexpectedly well in the Oscar nominations, mimsyb. There are several big-name directors with their noses out of joint....

No doubt, but there's always been a strong element of cultism among Austen fans of a certain stripe (the kind Marvin Mudrick used to denounce) who tend to emphasize the more sentimental aspects of her appeal and her times. Pride and Prejudice has its 200th anniversary this month!

ROTFL! Hurt Locker is maximum excitement compared to Zero Dark 30! At least they were looking for bombs in Locker. Imagine a story being moved forward by a (whining) CIA agent tediously sifting through interrogation tapes. After the first waterboarding scene at the start of the film, they all flow together (no pun intended). I honestly fail to 'get' the praise heaped on Chastain for this film but, hey, I realize that I am in the minority. I've admired Chastain in past films like The Help. Besides Argo, my favorite films of 2012 are The Impossible (set in Thailand during and after the tsunami of 2004...focus on the ordeal of one family), Skyfall (007 at his greatest) and -- most especially, although not talked about so much in the US -- The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. I have yet to see Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook, among the top faves. Thank you for the tactful correction. I conflated the titles of two Bigelow movies. Chastain runs hot and cold for me, too. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel isn't the kind of picture that gets loaded with Oscar nominations, but I was pleasantly surprised by it. And you can't beat that cast.

True, California, but it’s more like part of the business these days for female stars and less vanity and/or conspicuous consumption. Livia Firth doesn’t have to dress to impress on the red carpet, but for actresses it can make a real difference in terms of visibility and income. I'd applaud any renegade with the nerve to skip the whole business, but I certainly understand why others get with the program. I liked Nicole Kidman in Alexander McQueen but her face is looking increasingly plasticized.

I haven't yet seen Near Zero Dark Thirty, having been less than enthralled by The Hurt Locker, which I found tedious (another day, another bomb). If Bigelow and her screenwriter Mark Boal do for the bin Laden raid what they did for ordnance disposal then it sounds like a long two hours. I think Lucy Liu's gown is gorgeous and she carried it off well. Chastain's frock looked better on her than it appears in that shot. Judging by the undistinguished numbers in which Rebecca Miller generally appears and Livia Firth's outfit from last year's Oscars, my theory is that the women married to the most desirable male stars don't have to try as hard, the message being, "I can wear whatever costly and faintly ridiculous outfit I like, because I'm Mrs. [Daniel Day-Lewis, Colin Firth, Daniel Craig] and YOU'RE NOT! MWHA-HA-HA-HA!"

Watch Jodie Foster online--Her speech defies comments. Well, doesn't defy them but they are very divided. It was something else, that is for sure. Sure was. I now understand why she's inclined to give Mel Gibson the benefit of the doubt. Or maybe she just imbibed too much champagne, which happens regularly at the Globes. She did manage to get it together towards the end, but it was still confusing - if you weren't paying close attention you might have thought it was a retirement speech. It was a bit of a headscratcher to this viewer because Foster did come out a few years ago with no great fuss (and even then the announcement was hardly news to anyone paying even casual attention - Foster never did much to hide, unless you count a bizarre and brief flirtation with Russell Crowe back in the day).

I confess I've never gotten around to Doctor Zhivago. I watched the movie again recently and could easily have devoted the three-plus hours to reading the book instead.

I'd be interested in hearing comments on the show and the awards from anyone who did watch "the thing," not that I take the Golden Globes with undue seriousness.

Too bad. . The company claims they didn't see this coming. Times are still hard, of course.

I think they all "match up" this year, vipa. (The Academy does have a habit of splitting the difference between Best Picture and Best Director, which arguably doesn't make much sense, given the dominance of the director in the contemporary filmmaking process.)

Best Actor and Best Director are usually two of the most competitive categories, unfortunately for Ben. He or Trintignant could have been happily substituted for a couple of those who did make the cut, IMO.

Oscar nominations are out. Rooting hard for Emmanuelle Riva, who's spent a lifetime perfecting her craft only to have the Academy pit her against a nine-year-old. Pleasantly surprised for Life of Pi.

Thanks, atm711, this is good to know. (I'm reading the new bio as well - haven't gotten to the book under discussion yet.)

Hello, swanchat, and welcome to the board. Good point. It's very possible that the intense competition among women in ballet has something to do with it (although Rojo herself didn't mention that). I've read that in the tennis world, for example, the men on the tour are often able to establish camaraderie and even friendships among themselves, the women, not so much.

I can't imagine the gift shops actually flogging odorous pointe shoes (or bloody ones, or any others exhibiting too much wear and tear). Offhand I can't think of another dance form where collecting shoes is such a central aspect of fandom and I suspect it has more to do with the totemic value of the pointe shoe than anything else.

It's a free country, of course, but I tend to agree with Birdsall, the Europeans, and Eva/Zoe on this one.

Many thanks for the heads-up, Lynette.

In my working life I've come across more than one woman who will say that she doesn't like working for or with women, and women who prefer dealing with men, and I'm always interested when I come across this sort of thing. You rarely hear the reverse from men (they may actually prefer the society of women but it's not often you hear them saying so).

Oh, I agree, aurora. I thought she was also trying to say that not having children didn't define her as a person, which is certainly fair enough. That said, some of her generalizations are far-reaching, to say the least. And a male company director who announced he didn't have many female friends because they're all about emotions.....ouch.

From The Guardian: An interview with Tamara Rojo. Seems to me company director Tomas Rojo might find himself in a bit of hot water for coming out with this. It's only recently in the ballet world that more female dancers have been able to have children during their peak childbearing years and return to work. It took a long time to get to that place, and for many years and for many female dancers it was a sacrifice and not a real choice at all. I would assume that Rojo isn't going to let these views affect maternity leave policy, however. Thoughts?

Well, BA is on the Internet. I wonder as well why these particular comments earned Kobborg's ire - surely there's harsher criticism out there - but it's nice to know he's reading BA. It was a big night for Cojocaru, of course. I was excited to see her, even if I didn't think she was shown to best effect.

Claire Bloom played Juliet at the Old Vic when she was about 21, younger than Dench. The Zeffirelli stage production was indeed groundbreaking in style and approach, however. Zeffirelli cast teenagers Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting in the movie, to dubious effect. I'm sure Fonteyn was a perfectly convincing Juliet onstage, Paul, but not in the movie, at least for this viewer. Really sad, if inevitable, that Seymour and Gable, still at the Royal at the time of filming, didn't get to play the roles.

When Nureyev was a sapling it was SOP for the new young men coming up to work with senior ballerinas. In the early years of the Fonteyn-Nureyev partnership the age difference wasn't significant in the theater. It was more noticeable on film, especially in the later years of the partnership. In general chronological age has traditionally meant less on stage. It used to be said that an actress had to be forty before she knew how to play Juliet properly and Mrs. Patrick Campbell was nearly 50 when she originated the role of Eliza Doolittle. Wouldn't happen today. Kent seemed lissome and lovely last night to this eye - not at all like the F&N Romeo and Juliet on film (where Fonteyn does look like Aunt Juliet, unfortunately).

Yes, thank you, Drew, for putting it so well. I think the Kingdom of the Shades opening could have come off well on the smaller screen. It wouldn't have had the same effect that it has in the theater, but it was shot effectively by Herbert Ross for the opening credits of "The Turning Point" and it might have turned out quite well well here. They had also shown footage of Makarova rehearsing the corps in the piece, so that would have been a tidy connection of past to present.