dirac

Wonderful clip. Thanks, innopac, for posting it and reviving this interesting thread.

Whatever Balanchine may have been thinking, when the costumes arrived he was unpleasantly surprised according to Mary Ellen Moylan, the original Sanguinic. (Balanchine: “Where is Mary Ellen? No one can see Mary Ellen!” Seligmann: “Where is Seligmann?”) And Balanchine went snip, snip, snip. I think the costumes look striking in still photographs, but it is hard to see the dancers' bodies.

I guess at some point the adage "two wrongs don't make a right" has to be invoked., otherwise the discussion becomes like those sports Hall of Fame arguments, with the admittance of underqualified Player X justified by the previous admittance of underqualified Player Z.

. It's interesting how the morality of the time insisted that Diana, as a "scandalous woman," be treated badly by everyone and ultimately sacrifice herself, but that doesn't diminish the allure of her freedom and unconventional sexuality. Which is also true of other pictures Garbo was making around this time.

Oh, absolutely. Although I have to say Valentino was fabulous in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The contrast is certainly striking. But in defense of the younger pair, they aren't longtime partners dancing roles of intimate familiarity made on them by their coach. Thanks so much for posting these, GeorgeB fan. Wonderful to watch.

Joffrey was truly an embarrassing omission. Olivia de Havilland is still alive and in pretty good health when last I heard. She would certainly be worthy. (They could honor Joan Fontaine in the same year and watch the sparks fly.) Reinking would be a decent if iffy choice but it's really unfortunate they didn't get to Gwen Verdon and/or Bob Fosse before it was too late. It would have been nice to honor them together.

Yes, thanks for the correction on Tharp, Patrick.

Thanks for the information, yiannisfrance. (Generally on Ballet Talk we address posters by their chosen IDs rather than their Board member status, so please feel free to call us miliosr, papeetepatrick, dirac, etc. ) I agree - the score for a silent film is most important, and when the two are poorly matched it can really affect one's appreciation of the movie. Carl Davis has a true knack for it. It is sad in a way that Gilbert is probably best remembered not even for being one half of the most famous love team of the silent era but as the most notorious victim of the coming of sound. I can't say he was the world's greatest actor but he had looks and charisma. Unfortunately his style and type have dated (the theatrical eyeliner and lipstick that was still thought appropriate for some male screen stars doesn't help). One can still watch Colman, Barthelmess, Barrymore, et al. in their silent pictures making few allowances for time and place but that's less true for Gilbert, although he comes across better in The Big Parade than in some of his hyper-romantic vehicles.

Personally I think they should honor Charo.

Indeedy. If they're fretting about ratings, Carter could always be cushioned by a pop star or a movie star or two. Certainly popularity and ratings are considerations, but in view of the fact that the Kennedy Center Honors were intended specifically to honor the less popular arts, Carter should be included, and if they can't find room for him then there's not much point to the proceedings. (If only Jackie were still here. She'd get him on.) The point isn't that Oprah isn't connected with showbiz but that those connections aren't strong enough to justify her presence. She's there as the host of an afternoon talk show and entrepreneur with boatloads of cash, not as an actor or producer. Granted she's a phenomenon, but not one of a kind for which these awards were intended. Carson's selection was arguable but not in the same class. As GeorgeB pointed out, Carson's talk show was structured primarily around entertainment and he was a performer himself. And let us not forget the Mighty Carson Art Players. If talk show hosts counted by definition as entertainment, then Phil Donahue shouldn't be overlooked. Whatever you think of him his show was a substantial one - by current standards unimaginably so. Fair enough.

Good point. Sutherland was born in Australia but her parents were Scottish and her career began at Covent Garden, so she falls among several stools. I still wouldn't have given her a Kennedy Center honor, though, despite her great successes here in the States. Heaven knows she's received plenty elsewhere.

Winfrey's Book Club selections are a generally respectable lot, trending mostly to middlebrow fare with a few exceptions. Her promotion of varieties of medical quackery is less edifying. Are there any performing artists who haven't been honored yet that BTers would like to see recognized? Suggestions?

I agree. I think a British performer such as Lansbury who makes her name and career in the States is an eligible honoree no matter how many honors she has received back home. Tudor qualifies in this respect, too. Gregory is most deserving. They’ll get around to her one day, I’m sure. Quite so. Carson was a stretch but I can understand the Kennedy Center recognizing him. Winfrey has been an actor and film producer and acquitted herself well in both capacities, but her achievements in that arena would hardly warrant her inclusion. I wonder if the Chicago connection was a consideration – Winfrey was a prominent early supporter of Obama and is close to the family.

I finally did see Bright Star and was very pleasantly surprised, my previous experiences with Campion's movies not being entirely happy ones. Beautiful performances from the two leads and Paul Schneider and little Edie Martin in support, a believable period setting, and Campion presents her fields of flowers with lyricism but no gush and none of the Masterpiece Theater feel one gets from such period films. She has her cultural points to make but makes them without the sledgehammer she's inclined to wield on occasion and they fit perfectly with story and characters. That's a bit much, I'd say. You can never find images that will equal the verses but you can create vivid images all the same and use them to help tell a moving story. Inevitably this makes for a certain reductiveness and at times Campion veers toward the amusingly obvious - Keats recites a line about laying his head on his lady's bosom and guess what happens next - but I enjoyed hearing the lines recited with the conviction that Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw give them, and although these are some of the most famous lines in English lit Whishaw persuades you that they are new minted and still works in progress. Nice movie.

Thanks for posting, Helene. Good to see that they are honoring a figure from the dance world this time around and Jones is deserving. I have reservations about the Kennedy Center honoring Brits, since they have their own such awards and Macca's contributions have surely been recognized fully. The inclusion of Oprah is a real eye-roller.

Claire was excellent but Garbo more than held her own. The chief interest of their scenes together for me is the contrast between Claire's high theatrical style versus Garbo's made-for-the-camera technique, given spice by the fact that the women are playing rivals for the same man. Welcome to the board and the discussion, yiannisfrance! Hope to hear more from you. I too revere her performances in Camille and A Woman of Affairs. I've never seen The Painted Veil and it would be interesting to compare-contrast it to the recent version with Edward Norton and Naomi Watts (which itself made for interesting comparisons with the Maugham original).

Has anyone else seen this?

Thank you, volcanohunter.

Not I, alas, but perhaps someone else on the board has. It sounds fascinating.

Great news, CM. Thank you very much for posting this!

You can watch the show for any number of reasons. There's the camp element, the dance element, the reality show element. To each his own.

"The Wrestling Swan" starring Mickey Rourke and Natalie Portman, about two people whose love affair can never be. Rourke meets Portman by knocking out Prince Siegfried backstage and crashing a performance of "Swan Lake" in full wrestling regalia and an initially repelled Portman proves her love for Rourke by wrestling Marisa Tomei and/or Mila Kunis in a giant vat of Jell-O before a cheering throng. Sorry.

That's my take on it too, GWTW. It's basically a come-on for straight guys, like the lesbian flirtation between Gina Gershon and Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls, although Gina and Elizabeth never got to first base.

Thanks to both of you for these links, which I'll click on when I can. So many good links, so little time...