dirac

It was a device called the 'Astaire dolly,' devised by technicians so that the lens was off the ground by a couple of feet, enabling shots of the dance that were continuous but also mobile and close in.

I hope you'll report back and tell us what you think if you do read any of these, Patrick.

Thanks very much, Pamela. Please keep this tradition going. Not having read the gentleman, I have nothing intelligent to add, but I hope others familiar with his work in addition to Pamela and Estelle will do so! Pamela, is there one in particular you would recomment to someone not familiar with his work?

It will certainly be interesting to see what they do with Liebeslieder. Farrell always was a risk-taker.

My two cents (note I haven't read deeply in the subject): Martha Graham’s Dancers Remember, by Robert Tracy The Agnes De Mille biography. It is highly opinionated, to put it mildly, but it is well written like everything else by De Mille, and by one who was there. The collection of photographs, “Martha Graham,” by Barbara Morgan.

An article in The Los Angeles Times by Diane Haithman on that perennial subject, the aging of the classical arts audience, with a slightly different take: Thoughts?

Thanks for posting, Dale. The 'Classical Symphony' is a nice piece. Someone on another thread was mentioning that no ballet has been made to it yet.

I suspect problems on the author's end. Writer's block, illness, who knows. But I wouldn't hold my breath for this one. Would be happy to be wrong.

Thank you so much, Mashinka. You always come up with something interesting. This interview is indeed a lot of fun:

The arts and culture pages and the sports pages were often excellent, but that's about all I can say. They've been doing everything short of trying to give it away for some time, so this is no great shock.

There was a nice professional balance in the marriage, which I suspect helped it to survive: he was the bigger star, she the better actor. In addition, Woodward put her career on the back burner to keep the family stable, and it is very much to Newman’s credit that he recognized and appreciated this and Woodward’s greater range and ability -- ‘Rachel, Rachel’ is in effect his thank-you to his wife.

Thanks for the heads up, innopac.

Thanks for posting those articles, Helene. What can you say. A prince of a guy, and the end of an era. I think there was a book written about him called The Last Star and there’s a sense in which that’s quite true. As an actor he was indeed limited, despite his best efforts (I remember his wife acting him off the screen in Mr. and Mrs. Bridge without too much difficulty), and he spent more time than he should have in the sixties making not-so-hot pictures with not-too-great directors. But in the end it doesn’t matter. He always worked hard at his craft when he could have gotten by easily on looks and charm and he looked out for other actors, as well. Never a special favorite of mine but he was impossible to dislike, becoming a very canny performer as he matured, and it was always good to see him. Nobody’s mentioned Absence of Malice, so far – I thought he was excellent in that. They handled a dicey personal situation very tactfully, too. Not many actors could have divorced a reluctant wife, with three young children in the picture, and emerged from it with no career damage. He was very funny and charming, always, in those appearances.

Thanks, abatt, for posting the news, and thanks to Dale for the additional information. I hope anyone who sees them will report back in this space!

Some might argue that 'scarcely performed at all' is still too often. I'm disposed to agree with you.

I kinda liked The Firm, too, until the Big Revelation at the end, which was a letdown. No apologies needed, sometimes a little airport reading can be fun.

Thank you for this, innopac. Sendak is quite a character. It's easy to see where 'Where the Wild Things Are' came from. Here's a quote from the article:

As the Times article says, it's kind of a slap in the face to NYCB.

What a great idea!

We were just using Tracy as an example. Alcoholism can in some circumstances be a symptom of underlying medical illness and it has chemical effects on the brain, but it’s not a mental illness in the sense that a bipolar disorder or schizophrenia is. Tracy seems to have been a handful even when he was perfectly sober.

Exactly. Only Hepburn and Stanley Kramer seem to have been able to deal with him. Tracy was alcoholic, but not mentally ill. I love Pat and Mike. It's not as good as Adam's Rib, but Tracy is unusually charming in it. There's also a nice switcheroo in that he is usually cast as the manly common fellow putting the high-strung Hepburn in her place, and in Pat and Mike he's supporting her and fighting for her, not putting her down. Nice movie.

Generally when an actor is described as difficult it's because they are considered unusually demanding or any of the other uncomplimentary adjectives I used previously. Mental illness generally doesn't come under that umbrella, because it's a different category of behavior. I think that's the point canbelto was making originally.

That’s interesting, cubanmiamiboy. ECT does seem to have worked for Leigh, to an extent, although Olivier said in his autobiography that after her first round of ECT she was better when she returned home, but not the same person he had known. Yes, we are wandering a bit off topic, I guess. I don't know if you'd call it underrated, but I've always been fond of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir with Tierney and Rex Harrison.

Thanks for the tip, FauxPas. I've never seen it. Leigh was not ‘difficult’ in the sense that ‘difficult’ means temperamental, unprofessional, or inconsiderate of colleagues. Elia Kazan praised her for her hard work and dedication. In her youth she was a trifle spoiled as great beauties sometimes are, and late in her career her manic episodes did sometimes affect her offstage behavior but I’m not sure how you could call that being ‘difficult.’ Kenneth More didn’t care for her and the feeling was mutual, but that’s showbiz. She sometimes clashed with David O. Selznick during the making of Gone with the Wind, but it was in the interests of being true to her character and the book. There was also a dispute with Selznick about her contractual obligations to him. She had a wide circle of friends and colleagues, as canbelto notes, and as a person (as opposed to an artist) it was sometimes noted that she was more cultivated, and, well, interesting than Olivier. She was wonderful in ‘Waterloo Bridge.’ The ‘Anna Karenina’ is not especially good but she is fine in her scenes with Ralph Richardson and obviously understands the part very well. She’s not maternal, unfortunately. Kieron Moore is indeed better than generally stated.

Very true, Hans.