dirac

Bumping this up in case anyone wants to comment on the broadcast. Didn't see it myself.

It's been kicked-up a notch to Yahoo News: http://movies.yahoo....horeographer-ap Will the wedding be before or after the Oscars, I wonder? Congrats to the beautiful couple - and they truly are that. I was wondering if the wedding will be before or after the baby is born. No one's business but theirs. Congratulations and good luck to them. Their publicists leaked the information to PEOPLE magazine, I understand. That's showbiz. Congrats to both.

Thank you for these lengthy descriptions, yiannisfrance. Very illuminating. I appreciate the depth of her humanity in what could have been a shallow send up in a shallow movie. It's skillful, but would be very cold if not for her.

Thank you, innopac, for the heads up. Looks promising.

I hear it's also up for the Beijing Film Festival's coveted Crying Monkey Award.

Thank you for posting this, papeetepatrick. I missed it in print. Their dedication is most moving.

Great post, yiannisfrance, thank you!

Thanks, Natalia. My reasoning, per my PM, is that inevitably discussions of awards will run up against talk of the competition, and we already have a pre-existing Black Swan thread to note any honors received by the movie. It's a gray area, true.

Thanks, yiannisfrance. Hayworth has a sweetness and reserve you don’t always find in sex bombs. It’s worth noting that in “Put the Blame on Mame” she doesn’t take off more than a glove. She wasn’t much of an actress but was impossible to dislike even when not at her best. When she came back to movies after the split with Aly Khan she was not the same. Whether that had to do with her private problems or not I have no idea – sometimes it happens after a long absence. Also, with the bloom of youth slightly off she had to rely more on force of personality and acting chops, which were insufficient. I think if her marriage had worked out she would have been pleased to retire.

Thanks for posting, Natalia. We usually have a thread on movies of the season around this time of year and I hadn't gotten round to starting it, so it's appreciated. The Golden Globes aren't exactly prestigious and they're not particularly reliable as Oscar predictors, but the show itself tends to be good fun. Almost everybody gets an award of some kind, and the stars sit at dinner tables and get tipsy.

I’m not sure what the public at large had to do with it. Macaulay made a comment and many people didn’t like it. They have a right not to like it, say so, and offer reasons to back up their opinion. I too am tired of the subject and hope that Ringer will hold her TV appearances to one and not prolong the affair further, but even though I tend to side with Macaulay I also understand the fuss. Weight is a sensitive issue for women in our culture and I was bothered by Macaulay’s apparent inability to acknowledge that fact, instead opting to accuse his attackers of reverse sexism, or something like it. Well, if he didn’t know before, he certainly knows now.... True, but begging the question. Anyone with an advanced eating disorder will not be able to dance but that does not address the issue of how s/he got that way in the first place and what environmental factors were involved. Nutcracker Chronicles, anyone?

Apparently the movie is still running in a few theaters, a big accomplishment for a small art house picture. The word of mouth has been good even if the critics mostly sniffed, so cheers for "Mao's Last Dancer" !

I add my thanks, Mel.

I expect the appearance by Ringer on national television had something to do with keeping the story going.....

The Times does have stricter rules than many news organizations about under what circumstances its reporters are allowed to appear on television, although I don't know enough about chapter and verse to know if Macaulay would be forbidden to appear on Today. The paper might well not think it appropriate and one could see why, but I don't know. Macaulay's already responded to the criticism. If Ringer wants to appear on the teevee to talk about it that's entirely up to her. Actually, it might make him look better, if the wimmenfolk appear to be ganging up on him. I'm sure he would receive a square deal from the ladies, however. Good stuff.

Thanks for the link, sandik. Sounds like a cozy time was had by all.

Lucky for the prima not all the young dancers chose to show their, uh, admiration that way or she'd have been blowing a lot of dough on perfume.

True...but neither is it the viewer's obligation to buy what he is selling, or to refrain from objecting to the depiction of the art form. Haven't seen the movie, myself, but I plan to eventually.

Nobody's questioning that, I'm sure. But I think we've exhausted the subject, at least for the moment, and look forward to reading any more comments about the Nutcracker Chronicles, which seem to have got lost in the shuffle.....

Alas, checkwriter, I have not been so blessed, not that I regard such arguments from authority as germane to the discussion, but since you asked. Over time I've commented regularly on this site on the special demands placed on women to look good and stay thin. As for Macaulay, we can agree to disagree.

Forgive me, checkwriter, but I wonder if one sentence in a review by Alastair Macaulay is going to have much influence over young dancers with body image issues, since they clearly acquired those issues from other, more immediate, sources. (In addition, a lot of the younger people of my acquaintance seem ignorant of where the news they read comes from, surely those more responsible for the fuss are those using the Internet to attack the guy, thus spreading his unhealthy message that slim is better to some who probably would never otherwise seek out Macaulay's reviews.)

melange, I just realized I misread your post and took "she's tubby" out of context when I responded previously. I actually agree with that entirely. I would be inclined to doubt that, given some of the responses he's received. Many seem to think he went over the line in mentioning the subject at all.

Good post, melange thanks. However, if a critic were expected to take every case of disorded eating, bulimia, or anorexia in ballet into account when composing his reviews and appraising dancers' appearances - that is not workable, to me, and I'm entirely with Macaulay on that one. Another example I can think of is when Arlene Croce noted that Gelsey Kirkland "had put on a lot of weight all over." She got rapped on the knuckles by Suzanne Gordon for that one. A bald statement like that can be quite as harsh to the recipient as if it is made (or cushioned) with humor. Kirkland, too, had her eating problems. I'm not sure that a frank statement of "she's tubby" would have helped out Macaulay - in fact he might have got worse. Good point, as bart said.

Very true, yiannisfrance, and thank you for that wonderful post in tribute to Boyer. Conquest is mostly DOA for this viewer but it's nice to see GG acting with one of her peers in the profession. I feel the same way about Garbo and Gable.

Even the definition of "womanly" changes over time, though. Allegra Kent, who had her own intermittent weight problems, notes in her Dancer's Body Book that the current ideal weight for female dancers is somewhat lower than what's considered normal for women, while for men the desired dancer's weight is much closer to the norm, making it that much more difficult for dancing girls to stay in line. Dancers seem to be becoming more thin over time, men and women both but especially women, and that accords with changing styles in the wider culture. 19th century womanly is not 21st century womanly. And in that tutu she looks fine. In other styles of tutu, less so, perhaps. I remember when I was a kid watching her on TV in 'Chaconne' for the first time I thought, "Gee, she's kind of fat." My niece, looking through my copy of Keith Money's book on Pavlova, said "She's a little chunky, isn't she?" And of course in her day Pavlova was considered very slender. I agree, Quiggin.