dirac

Well, among recent recipients, Doris Lessing and Harold Pinter are pretty well known. I guess this year it was Latin America's turn. An author who many people know and have read and not some obscure little unknown poet. Very amusing mental image. Thanks for the detailed comments, Pamela.

Dylan? Oh, brother. Cormac McCarthy's name has been mentioned as well. We'll see. Thanks for keeping us up to date, Pamela. The Booker Prize winner will be announced soon, too. Edited to thank the right person for starting this topic. Thanks to Helene for pointing out my boo-boo. Sorry, Pamela and Marga!

Thanks for the detailed review, abatt. I would also be interested in hearing from others who see the production.

What a nice article, Mashinka. A quote: Jones somehow missed this:

I saw the movie last weekend. (I have not read the book.) It isn't bad at all but it didn't leave much of an impression on me – bland, very bland.The dramatic high point, the defection, doesn't get high enough. We don't learn enough about Li as an individual to make him interesting and key points, such as Li's and Liz's mutually ambiguous motives for marriage, are addressed in a rather perfunctory manner. The Chinese characters are roughly divided into a) warmhearted proles or b) yammering apparatchiks, not a terribly nuanced view. The scenes I liked best were the early ones in China, and the three actors playing Li were all great to watch in their different ways. The performances are generally solid if not dazzling, with the only really weak link being Kyle MacLachlan's high powered lawyer. Chi Cao is gorgeous to look upon and his acting is respectable and only occasionally awkward. Madeleine Eastoe as Lori was a standout. As for the dancing, I was not bothered by the slo-mo and I appreciate the time it gives you to look at a leap or a turn as much as the non-dance fans do. I was bothered by the jagged unmusical cutting and the plethora of reaction shots – the dancers hardly finish a pirouette before we cut to somebody in the audience or at home smiling, frowning, cheering, etc. I did expect better of Beresford. I sure hope not. One sympathizes with the puzzlement of Li's parents on viewing their beglittered, half naked son in the awful finale. However, the non-ballet fan I saw the movie with didn't have that reaction and was pleased enough by the dance sequences.

I think that he's particularly remembered for The Persuaders in France too. This show has been especially popular in France, and has been shown a huge number of times on TV (almost every year). Actually, part of its success was due to the dubbing voices, and especially Michel Roux's dubbing of Curtis (Michel Roux, who also was a theater actor, died in 2007, and his obituaries mentioned mostly that dubbing). That's interesting, Estelle. Curtis could have used dubbing in some of his English-speaking roles, as well.....

Thanks very much for telling us about it, cubanmiamiboy.

The Vikings is on the silly side but it looks breathtaking, with splendid work from the master cinematographer Jack Cardiff. It was shot on location in Norway, has some great action sequences, and the long ships are stunning. As for the cast, Ernest Borgnine is awesome, Kirk Douglas and Curtis get by. Janet Leigh has nothing to do but look pretty and she surely does.

Sorry to hear this. Curtis was a most engaging interview as Mashinka says, enthusiastic and unpretentious, although it must be admitted that he had much to be unpretentious about, as Churchill might say. He made some good movies - Some Like It Hot, Spartacus, Sweet Smell of Success, The Vikings, etc. - and he was good in them. His face was his fortune, no doubt.

Arthur Penn, film director and brother to Irving Penn, has died at age 88.

Not long-winded at all. Thank you for the details, and bringing back this old thread. The singers' acting is very old fashioned, very clutch your breast, but the singers execute this very traditional type of acting with great conviction, so that helps a bit. I often miss the old style. It doesn't bother me and sometimes tastefully restrained acting can be frightfully bland.

The more the better, I say. I like this one:

Last Friday, unbeknown to me, was National Punctuation Day. Check out the haikus.

You know, tchaikovskyfan, the more I think about it the more I like it. We would try to avoid "The Music Lovers" on pointe but there are episodes in Tchaikovsky's life that could be danced. Boris Eifman, take it away....

I think Lange would be at least as good as Pfeiffer and she had a wonderful lush figure in her day. Maybe too American, but we'll never know now, unfortunately. "Cheri, please put down the light saber for just a minute. We need to talk." Sorry. I think he is a good choice, although I'd not have thought of him myself. I was thinking Hugh Grant or another Rupert, Everett. DiCaprio?

That is a shame. Lange would have been promising casting and physically very close to Lea (at least before the unfortunate plastic surgery that has robbed her face of expressiveness and puts one in mind of the late Doris Duke). Dench would have been good as Charlotte, too, but if we're going British then I might give preference to Joan Plowright. It is unfortunate that so many good projects wind up never seeing the light of day. The old studio system had its flaws but movies did get made.

I feel strongly that Rupert and I would have hit it off just fine, as well. Alas, indeed. A few years ago Pfeiffer made another movie with a May - December theme, the very weak comedy 'I Could Never Be Your Woman.' She played a sitcom writer having an affair with the much younger Paul Rudd, and some things never change - as in Colette's day, it's all about the woman's age.

Fredric March is the best movie Vronsky I've seen. When you consider that the role might have gone to Robert Taylor, he looks even better. ( Invariably screen Vronskys come in for a fair amount of criticism. Either they're all flawed, which is possible, or the role is harder than it looks.) He lacks dash and you feel he's a little too responsible, but he's very good. Granger is far too soft and squishy, IMO. I thought he was a liability in Senso as well, in a similar role. It would have been an interesting role for the young Olivier, still callow in 1935 but worth a try. The movie is classic MGM - just don't come looking for Tolstoy or much of a Tolstoyan sensibility. Well acted, well staged in the studio's grand manner, and it's a measure of Garbo's talent that even though she is not quite at her best she's still the supreme Anna. I thought they were perhaps her best scenes in the picture. She has a real maternal glow, tender with no soppiness.

It's clearly a play on "lesbian feminist." Wouldn't surprise me if it's in Johnston's writings somewhere if it's not the writer's coinage. It rings a bell.

Susan Lenox is a curio - odd but interesting, in a good way. Gable and Garbo generate quite a bit of heat. It is interesting to speculate on what kind of movies they could have made together - Gable was not at home in the heavy historical vehicles Garbo began making in the 30s, and I can't imagine Garbo in, say, Test Pilot. Hope to hear more from you when you return, yiannisfrance. We still have a few precincts not yet reporting. miliosr? (Or anyone else who'd like to yak about Garbo?)

I thought Bates was miscast. Her performance was too broad, which isn't always the actor's fault. She wouldn't be right for Lea for some of the same reasons she wasn't quite right here. It has less to do with weight or lines than type. Lea's beauty is fading somewhat, but she is still a gorgeous, sexy woman. Bates has little sex appeal and she's a shade too common. She certainly has charm, but it's not Lea's. Bonnette, Deneuve is certainly the only actress currently active who comes close. I should note, since I've been hard on Pfeiffer, that Patrick is right - she's not a bad choice for Lea given our current options. It was good to see her again, too.

Thanks for reminding me, 4mrdncr. The music for "Tinker, Tailor....." was wonderful as well. Great series, too.

Seen any Garbo pictures lately?

I'm sorry I didn't like the movie more. papeetepatrick. I expected to like it and wanted to. I really don't think Friend is the central problem although casting is an issue. The whole tone is off, right from the opening credits as Bonnette notes. Stephen Frears, Christopher Hampton, and Pfeiffer are all alumni of "Dangerous Liaisons" but lightning didn't strike twice. I suspect that graduating Pfeiffer from naif to woman of the world may be part of the problem. Not that Lea is as nasty as Merteuil but they are similar in certain respects. Yes and no, I'd say, Mashinka. 25 years is still a very serious obstacle in romantic relationships when the older lover is the woman, less so in reverse.

Thank you for posting the obit, sandik. I saw it, meant to post it in the Links, and forgot. Johnston was not a ballet critic but she did write for Ballet Review back in the day. Marmalade Me is great reading. Johnston's website, here. An appreciation.