dirac

When I introduced Toby to the household, my senior cat spat and stopped talking to me for a week. (That sounds like anthropomorphizing, but I mean it quite literally.) They get along much better now than in the beginning, but it was hard going there for awhile.

It surely is about time. I urge all BTers to write PBS and/or their local station (regular mail if possible) telling them how much you appreciate this broadcast, that you want more, and will support them to get more.

Yes, I know and I believe much of that was in my post The question had been asked as to where the gay and straight guys were in ballet films, and it was to those questions I was responding. Brief scenes are not necessarily unimportant ones; the question of male dancers' sexuality is all over "The Turning Point," beginning with the scene where Skerritt observes that Yuri's success will make it okay for American boys to be dancers. John Simon pointed this out in his review at the time and he also observed that the prominent heterosexuality was essentially a false view, agree or disagree as you like. Mitchell's character is not purely heterosexual - he had an affair with Emma in the distant past but it is also suggested that the affair ended because of his preference for men. (As I said, the movie talks mostly of bisexuality - I think that Ross, Laurents, and Kaye may also have wanted to assure the public that it was okay for American boys to be dancers - the ballet dancer equals queer perception hadn't gone away at all, and "Center Stage" is evidence that it still hasn't.) Baryshnikov is the only ballet dancer to become a mass market movie star and he did so playing variations on the public perception of himself, if you'll forgive my repeating myself. I don't think it could have happened any other way. If the question becomes, "Is there a ballet film with a boy meets boy love affair at its center?" then the only one I can think of off the top of my head is, "Nijinsky" and that's likely to be true for some time to come.

I don't think there is a general concern about ballet becoming an overt vehicle for propaganda. The question, if there is one, is where arts organizations should or shouldn't draw a line in regard to the source of donor money, and as far as I can tell the general opinion is that there is no such line.

And how many ballet movies are there out there about gay men? How many ballet movies are there about men? How many movies are there about gay men? A fair number I can think off offhand, going back to at least "The Red Shoes," where it's made clear, without any overtness, that Lermontov's possessiveness of his ballerinas is not sexual. The next major ballet feature film, "The Turning Point," also dealt with the issue, sort of, by having the male dancers played by Baryshnikov and Tom Skerritt be heterosexual but talking freely of "bisexuality." "Nijinsky" was of course about Nijinsky and Diaghilev. "Center Stage," like "The Turning Point," was at some pains to suggest that there are plenty of straight guys in ballet, with only one gay supporting character of any prominence. I don't remember much about the supporting players in "Dancers," but Baryshnikov plays a character based on his reputation as famous danseur and ladies' man (also see "White Nights"). "The Company" has Malcolm McDowell's big speech. In the recent BBC film about Fonteyn, her artistic mentor is gay and she has an affair with a gay man. One way or another, the matter of which sex the guys are sleeping with is often hovering around in ballet movies. It sounds as if the ballet master in "Black Swan" played by Vincent Cassel is aggressively heterosexual, so we'll see how that works out. It is true that the protagonists of ballet films tend to be women, in part because ballet is popularly identified with women, but there are also Baryshnikov's starring vehicles to be considered and the Nijinsky biopic. Also, the only two dancers of the dance boom era who had meaningful careers as movie stars were two men, Nureyev and Baryshnikov.

I haven't heard those recordings. That's interesting to know. Yes, I think the death of Onassis was the last nail, so to speak, and after that she seems to have turned her face to the wall.

The Kochs have been very successful in flying under the radar since David's ill fated run for president on the Libertarian ticket several decades ago. Despite Koch's public complaints this weekend that the liberal media are being really mean to him, Mayer's article is the first mainstream article to go into such depth following the Kochs' money trail and as such it's caused quite a fuss. True, but I don't think NYCB will be putting any wiseguys on the board any time soon. I agree. Ballet is a cloistered world, but not that cloistered.

We have an active thread on the topic of arts funding and the New Yorker article here.

Has anyone else seen this, BTW?

Hello, miliosr, welcome back. Queen Christina’s not that great. However, I didn’t think the tavern scene was that bad and the bedroom scene is amazing, Garbo’s approach anticipates the Method. But apart from her there’s little else to watch. Garbo is splendid in Ninotchka and it's an excellent movie if overrated in some quarters at one time. Two-Faced Woman was a more ordinary kind of farce, however, and Garbo was a fish out of water in it. At that point she and the studio realized the game wasn't worth the candle and until the European market opened up again Garbo and her expensive vehicles were no longer viable. Nobody viewed her retirement as necessarily permanent.

Thanks, Kathleen.

No, the tempo is not at all what we are used to these days. The dust jacket of my book, printed in 1965, states that 'the book thunders on from melodrama to melodrama', but it's a very slow-gathering storm. Richard Chamberlain as Dantes? The book describes him as very-dark haired and, after being imprisoned, very pale skin, something like Keanu Reeves. In fact, Reeves would also fit the melancholic-yet-inscrutable look the Count affects. Very slow gathering, as I remember. It's been years since I've seen the TV movie but Chamberlain was good. Keanu could certainly look the part but I'm afraid at some inappropriate point that Valley Boy diction he's never quite been able to shed would appear. ( It's too bad there was never a Bill and Ted's Excellent Dumas Adventure.) Those all sound interesting, Ambonnay. Goodwin is not my favorite popular historian but her books generally read well.

Thanks for telling us about it, Marga.

I'm not a New Yorker but it would seem to me a real loss to the city if NYCO can't make it. Very sad situation.

Please tell us about it when you're finished, Bonnette. A quote from the review: I will say there's nothing necessarily wrong with a biographer focusing on the life and less on the work, as long as we don't forget why we're reading about the fellow. It's a different approach.

New member Bonnette posted this to the General Reading forum and I thought it should be copied here:

bart writes: "Trickle" being the operative word these days.

Oh, you should, it's real history. Tell us if you do. The studio was state of the art and innovative at the time, as the article notes. (Electric Lady has a cameo appearance in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.) The article also notes that another Hendrix album is in the works. Oh God.

I would suggest courteously that SanderO's scientific credentials or lack thereof are beside the point. Koch gives money to cancer research, which is a good thing, and then lobbies against the EPA classifying formaldehyde as a carcinogen, which would seem to pose a considerable conflict of interest since Koch Industries happens to produce enormous amounts of the stuff. (Mayer quotes a former honcho at Sloan Kettering as saying that tobacco dough is the only type of money they won’t accept. ) True.

I tried to read 'The Count of Monte Cristo' many moons ago and didn't finish it. It wasn't bad, but Dumas' leisurely tempo wasn't what I was used to. The two movie versions I like best are the old Robert Donat one and a made-for-TV version with Richard Chamberlain that I remember as very enjoyable.

Thanks, Mashinka. Rather unnerving to think that all the original members of the Experience are gone. It's a nice gesture for the Handel Museum to note Jimi's residence. The Guardian article managed to avoid the usual phrase "drowned in his own vomit," which invariably makes me wonder about those, like the Spinal Tap drummer, who drown in someone else's.

Thanks, GNicholls. If someone sees it I hope they tell us about it here.

I think I explained my view. We can agree to disagree.

I don't think bart meant that the tobacco companies have gone away entirely. They still give but it's more on the downlow than it used to be and organizations are more chary of being associated with them too openly. Some of that is window dressing, yes, but nevertheless there has been a sea change in how the tobacco companies and their sponsorships are viewed. So all of those protests and complaints weren't all in vain. Absolutely true. Social climbing is not an activity generally held in high repute but it's possible for arts organizations to cadge a lot of dough from the climbers looking for a foothold.

Thanks, bart. You have a point about location - maybe "Ballet News and Issues" or "Other Arts" would be better? I think people do realize that Republicans of the Rockefeller-Javits persuasion have been and still are – those that are still around, anyway - supporters of public support of the arts. But liberal Republicans of their type have almost vanished. I don't think the Endowments will ever be abolished, but their opponents have learned since Stockman's day that you don't need to get rid of them outright, with the attendant bad publicity.