dirac

Yes, it is. Privilege, yes, but also many expectations and assumptions to deal with. Best of luck to him in his new endeavor.

Gergiev, hmmm? Should be interesting. Thank you as always for these alerts, volcanohunter.

As Drew noted above, Rivers was always at least as hard on herself as she was on others. But female comedians are held to different standards, even today. Rivers doesn't come across as "desperate," at least not insofar as one thinks of the "desperate" as pathetically hanging on. She rebuilt her career from a very low point, no easy thing to do in her business, and had many ups and downs. Doubtless she would have preferred it if one of her talk show efforts had become a franchise but them's the breaks. She seems to be in good financial shape and works because a) she wants to and b) she likes living in a certain style and is willing to work to maintain it. From Forbes:

Thanks very much for posting this, Ray, I hadn't seen it. I can't really visualize Shelley howling with laughter or otherwise, but the sentiment is spot on. It is indeed a fascinating case as Ray says. The work is centuries old and so copyright doesn't enter into it. I was especially flummoxed by the attitude of the TLS. Surely the point is not whether or not the poem is a missing masterpiece but that it is Shelley's and worth knowing for that reason alone regardless of historical and/or aesthetic interest. No one begrudges a bookseller making a buck but the public interest is also involved, as Ray and the author note. If Quaritch can make a bundle selling the pamphlet itself, well and good. But if they're trying to jack up the price by withholding work by Shelley that no one has seen it's quite a different matter. Ray, I can't say that I see any parallels with the Balanchine Trust in this situation, however. One may disagree with some of the Trust's decisions or think that it is over-vigilant at times, but the Trust's actions are generally explicable in reasonable terms and I doubt they are motivated by greed. Balanchine has been dead only thirty years and many of his heirs are still very much with us, with a strong interest in where and how his work is performed.

Thanks for reporting the report, Patrick. I didn't find Rivers to be a particularly sad case myself but I can certainly understand how someone might.

Wiith a dance substitute, you don't need to have any special knowledge of ballet to know when the double goes into the game, sometimes even when the shot is very brief. It will be especially obvious if the dance excerpt goes on for any meaningful length of time. If the ballerina protagonist is having identity issues, then maybe the mask is part of an incident in the plot. Portman sees Kunis in the same costume and mask and gets freaked out, or something. Or maybe somebody just thought it looked cool.

Thanks for telling us about it, sandik. I too have sometimes wandered through a gallery and wished for a few thousand burning a hole in my pocket.

I suspect that's right. From what I know, MGM actually seems to have tried its best to find something, anything that would suit Novarro given that his type was going out of style. One of the things I remember from Mata Hari was how immature and unimposing Novarro is next to Garbo and the Talkies probably showed up his limitations - which wouldn't bode well for a future as a character actor. The big success of the picture probably had little to do with Novarro's participation in it and thus wouldn't provide more than a temporary boost if Novarro couldn't find a niche on his own. He came in with the Latin lover tide that followed Valentino's success and tides run out. It happens.

http://www.collider....an_image_02.jpg Say again, what was the title of the film? Black 'Coon? Raccoon is good, but I was thinking along the lines of "Zorro - as you've NEVER seen him before!"

Lane is unlikely to be indistinguishable or anything like it, but at least we'll get to see some dancing, although the use of a double limits options when shooting the dance. So glad Michael Powell hired a ballerina to play a ballerina. Of course without Portman's participation this might not have gotten made. Portman's squeeze, Whatshisname, apparently also has a speaking role in addition to his choreographic duties, so we'll see how that turns out, as well.

Well I'm just outa school Like I'm real real cool Gotta dance like a fool Got the message that I gotta be A wild one Ooh yeah I'm a wild one I too hope SFB will bring it back, although I'll still miss Garcia.

"Black Swan" is about to make its debut in Venice. "....the psychological thriller due to make its debut in late fall features Natalie Portman as a prima ballerina on the verge of a breakdown after winning the lead in 'Swan Lake.'" Ballerina On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown? It's an Almodovar waiting to happen. Late fall is the beginning of Oscar season, so Natalie must be gunning for a nomination.

Thank you for mentioning that, DanceActress. I do recall some mention of Garbo for the role played by Alida Valli. I agree, I don't think it would have improved matters any. That movie is chloroform, for this viewer anyway. ( Agreed here as well. It's too bad that she wasn't in top form for Conquest. Gable and she were an interesting pair. The love scenes are surprisingly hot but in others they appear not to have been properly introduced, as I think I've said before. But certainly he's got screen presence to match hers. No - Grant had a lightness of touch even in drama that would have made him a bad match for the Big Emotional Ladies.

What I meant was that Hitchcock's leading ladies, by and large, tend to be just that - leading ladies, with all existing exceptions noted. Not so much in the size of the part but where the story is focused. Rear Window and Vertigo are centered on the James Stewart character; Cary Grant is the protagonist of To Catch a Thief and North by Northwest. You could put Garbo in such a role, but there wouldn't be much point and she'd probably swamp it. Similar to what sidwich said about her being too strong for such parts (although Garbo's strength never precludes vulnerability).

Thanks, Patrick, that would be great.

Has anyone else seen this? Would be interested to hear others' reactions.

I agree that Garbo would not have made a good match for Hitchcock. She was too powerful a presence for most of his leading lady roles although she alone might have made "Marnie" watchable. (Garbo and Sean Connery - what a matchup.) I think I see what you mean, sidwich, but I don't think Dreiser ever intended to suggest that Carrie became a star of Garbo's caliber (Carrie's not big enough for that.) "Dated" can be in the eye of the beholder. As papeetepatrick says, all these movies are dated in a sense. The question is whether the culture has changed so much that the style, content, and perspective have become too remote for genuine audience identification (as is the case with many silent pictures and some from the golden age). The expensive prestige vehicles that Garbo made in the 30s tend to have less zip than many of the comedies and melodramas of the era, but her "Anna Karenina" is as decent an adaptation as we've seen and screen Annas have been compared to her unfavorably ever since, much as her Marguerite Gauthier became the standard for the role. If the players surrounding her were not always up to par she's not necessarily responsible for that, unless you count her loyalty to Gilbert at the time of Queen Christina. She was often at her best when playing opposite actors who really gave her something to play against, as in her scenes with Barrymore in Grand Hotel and Henry Daniell in Camille. (It would have been nice if she'd nixed Robert Taylor, oh well.) Godhead is a distancing effect. But when I first saw Camille years ago in an art house revival, when Garbo died the audience snuffles were highly audible and some were barking like seals. miliosr has mentioned her expressive and fluid acting in her silent pictures. When sound arrived she became a different kind of presence but she was hardly Old Stone Face. miliosr, where's the next report? Waiting eagerly.

That's a lovely story, Drew, and I'm sure it's the gold-plated truth. Thanks for sharing it with us.

The limited mobility necessitated by the new sound equipment and the flower arrangements were the subject of some of 'Singin' in the Rain's better gags ("I CAN'T make love to a BUSH!"). Brantley's "dull and stingy" is no more than a concise way of putting what seems to be close enough to the truth, although as papeetepatrick points out there is some evidence in the opposite direction. Garbo was fortunate in that by good luck, good management, and canny friendships she did not have to work or else there's every possibility we might have seen her in less exalted formats. A fair number of stars got gypped out of their earnings; some of their less dignified appearances might be called "selling out," but people have to eat. Others simply wanted to go on performing, and female stars couldn't go on for decades without heavier compromises than aging male stars had to make. Like all performers some of them went on too long, but that's not "selling out," either, merely poor judgment. Any writer reveals something of himself in such an article. There were a lot of people who got the same thrill he did from a Garbo sighting. You didn't share it, but we're all different. I daresay we give away about as much ourselves in these little forum posts of ours. I do find articles of this kind interesting although not necessarily in the way the writers intend.

I don't remember the break between the conventions of silent film acting and young Garbo's as being quite that stark. Not that she isn't plainly different from the eye-poppers and most natural within the style of the time, but still within the style. I haven't seen Anna Christie for many moons, my impression being much the same as yours, miliosr, but given the transition underway at the time Garbo's falling back on certain stock gestures would not be surprising.

Good questions.

Thanks, Jane. Sounds lovely.

Cute story. Dressler was hugely popular for a time and although I don't know off the top of my head it would not surprise me if she was the most popular actress then. I do remember reading that somewhere. Nerves, perhaps? It was a very tense time and the actors had to get used to a completely different way of filming.

Thanks for the link, papeetepatrick. I don't think it's a bad article by any means, even if some of his points are easy shots and disputable ones at that. Keeping only to his discussion of Garbo, it's quite true that her particular kind of stardom was only possible in that era, although that in itself doesn't necessarily tell us much. However, his points about the vanishing of mystery aren't off the mark. It is too bad, in a way.

Thank you as always for these alerts, volcanohunter. That is quite an intermission ???