dirac

I remember reading, maybe in Leigh's own BR article, that Taylor sets his dances on his own company first and then they're restaged for the ballet company. I wonder if that was a factor here. (I missed the SFB program "Changes" appeared on.)

Alexandra’s quite right. But considering the bluntness of this announcement, your phrasing was all too appropriate, alas. (Of course, one of the signs of economic hard times is the ingenious deployment of euphemisms for firing people. These days “headcount reduction” seems to be quite popular. In Britain they’ve always referred to “redundancies.” I remember Spike Milligan used to play a character whose occupation was "retired redundant.")

Leigh reviews the Paul Taylor company in the Post:

Welcome back, Simon G. Thank you for posting. The article notes that this news was not released to the press (but it doesn’t include ‘in response to press inquiries’ language, either, so it’s hard to say what happened). Ray, Carlson says that it was Cunningham’s decision, so perhaps it’s not quite fair to dump all on the PR guy, although taking the flak is a flack’s job. Dancers are artists working for artists but they are also employees and workers (union members, in this case). The union is quoted in the article as saying because the firings took place for “artistic” reasons there’s nothing they can do. I wonder if such considerations played a role. Interesting also that the company didn’t even thank the dancers for their accomplishments and long service, as kfw notes.

I saw a photograph of Malakhov in full flight in Bayadere, and the bottoms of his feet were almost touching his head.

Ray writes: To insist that this was an ‘artistic decision’ seems a grave insult to three dancers of distinction. (Rather like those companies who announce that their layoffs are ‘performance-based,’ implying that the employees got what was coming to them, not that their employer has any problems.) I don’t doubt it. Thank you for posting this unhappy news, miliosr. I admire the forthrightness of your topic title.

From the Times:

I remember she threatened to blow up the Warner Brothers lot if they changed a word of her script (they did, she didn't). The movie of "The Fountainhead" was indeed made with complete sincerity on the part of everyone involved and you're right to say that probably intensifies the camp (that and Rand's total lack of humor) -- it's too bad, in a way, that it didn't turn out well, but I also think that was probably inevitable. I confess I've read The Fountainhead more than once and although I haven't picked it up in years I'll probably wind up reading it again some day. I agree, high school is an ideal time to encounter Rand. The Fountainhead was probably the first novel of ideas I ever read. Rand is good at explaining systems and at action, too, and some of the peculiarities of her prose can be explained by the fact that she wasn't writing in her first language and certain aspects of English were always troublesome to her. (To the end of her life she'd say things like, "It's an ungulfable bridge.")

Luckily, Tony isn’t a Puerto Rican and they didn’t put the lyrics in Spanish, so people can appreciate them as written. “Something’s Coming” is a fine Bernstein tune, as well. It’s my favorite song in the score. The NYT article EricMontreal22 links to is well worth reading. Now that we have Spanish speakers and Anita gets raped, more or less, do we also have a sufficient amount of profanity to make it all really real? Thanks for the detailed review, printscess. I hope others will report. If you see it a second time, tell us about that, too, please.

Sure is. A note: My previous post referred to 'Lulu' and 'Pandora's Box' when obviously there's just 'Pandora's Box.'

People who don't care for Slumdog tend to be divided into two camps - either it's too much of a fairy tale or not enough of one. It's a fine line.

I think the closest we have come to something like the classic femme fatales have been in neo-noirs like "L.A. Confidential," "Body Heat" and "Brick." Interesting post, sidwich. I tend to think of Body Heat not so much as a noir as a noir manqué (and Kathleen Turner is a noir heroine manqué). I don’t think you can bring back a genre whose time has passed (BH was an effort to do that, and you could see the strain, although I liked the movie), but you can have modern variations on the theme. Sharon Stone in the first “Basic Instinct” is certainly an FF. I don’t recollect any real femmes fatales in “L.A. Confidential,” (not really in the book, either, that I can recall, but it’s been a long time since I tried Ellroy in print). Kim Basinger is the whore-with-the-heart-of-gold who might look potentially fatale on the outside but isn’t at all, and she shows her hand pretty early. (“Brick” I haven’t seen.) The type itself in film goes back to Theda Bara, at least; I can’t think offhand of real femme fatale types in the 20s and 30s, both periods in which there were a lot of strong women characters not defined by their sexuality in this way. (Although Louise Brooks in Lulu and Pandora's Box is a kind of femme fatale.) Styles in film aside, social changes in the role of women also plays a part here, as the article sandik linked to (and cubanmiamiboy) point out. The femme fatale does represent a distinctly hostile view of female sexuality (the men in noir are often criminals and killers, but they generally do have a code and stick to it; often as not the woman has no code and betrays without a second thought). The article also says that Wong Kar Wai is working on a film inspired by The Lady from Shanghai. Should be worth seeing.

I used to read a lot of Rand in high school and college, although I was never remotely tempted toward Objectivism. She was a fascinating woman with some great qualities and some bad ones. “We the Living” is a very good first novel.

Oh, it's a splendid gigglefest. The 'masterpieces' the studio devised for Roark to design horrified Ayn Rand, and the skyscrapers and a classic scene involving Patricia Neal, Gary Cooper, and a pneumatic drill make the whole thing a Freudian phallic paradise. (I felt bad for Cooper, who looks perfect for the part but was completely at sea with the character.) I'd be curious to see Atlas, camp or no. They could try to eliminate Rand's more powerful melodramatics (Rand characters are always screaming or emitting peals of laughter), but Rand isn't Rand without them. There are some good set pieces in the book - a trainwreck and a plane crash. And would they do Galt's speech word for word?

Ekberg also appeared in two Martin and Lewis features directed by Frank Tashlin, Hollywood or Bust and Artists and Models.

I can think of many perfectly good reasons why a young student would remain at a reputable school despite feeling uncomfortable with aspects of her training. It’s a very good interview, well worth hunting down if you are not a subscriber.

Apparently some folks are planning to head out for Galt’s Gulch: There’s reported to be a movie version in the works with Angelina Jolie to star as the intrepid Dagny Taggart. This is bound to be another camp classic along the lines of the 1949 version of “The Fountainhead.”

Thanks for the article, Mashinka. I tend to remember Ekberg best for a movie in which she did not appear, “From Russia with Love,” in which an assassin tries unsuccessfully to escape pursuit by crawling through her open mouth in an oversized poster for “Call Me Bwana.”

His death was all over the news (by today's coverage standards for novelists).

I like her, too. It's a difficult role, also - another put upon wife, or so she seems. (I'll bet Sissy Spacek, who was the other woman threatening Bedelia's marriage in Violets Are Blue, thanked her lucky stars she didn't confront this Bedelia. ) The supporting cast in Presumed Innocent is good in general, too. I sure miss Raul Julia. I didn't much care for Greta Scacchi, however - would even a temptress like Carolyn wear that much eye shadow around the office?

I liked Melissa Hayden’s interview style. Cogent, articulate, without affectation of any kind, and a splendid husky tone.

The movie is actually on the dullish side, although it livens up when it gets to the court scenes. I'd recommend the book, though.

Jack Kerouac’s first novel will be published. Related article. David Foster Wallace, too:

There is a time, yes, but not everyone is going to agree on when that time is, and one could argue that a performer of Kistler's stature has earned the right to call her own shots. She wouldn't be the first ballerina of distinction to hang on a few years too long. (Please note that a long discussion of Macaulay's article was already held on the thread related to the NYCB layoffs.)

The movie has shown up before, so it'll be back. The last time it was on I tuned out after the first twenty minutes. I didn't know there was a ballet excerpt in it either, so thanks for the heads up, Mme. Hermine. Next time I'll wait for that.