dirac

Everyone seems to agree that Seyfried is perfectly charming, even if they didn't like the movie.

I haven't seen it yet but I plan to. If it's good but not great that's fine with me. ABBA has always been a guilty pleasure of mine and Streep is a not-guilty pleasure along with Christine Baranski. Also, I gotta see Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth in this. I'm hearing very different things - one friend whose opinion I respect loved it, and another acquaintance of reliable good judgment in such matters didn't care for it. I didn't care for 'Prairie' myself but it wasn't the fault of Streep or anyone else in the cast.

It was the National Ballet of Canada.

My comment was in reference to what might have been her state of mind at the time of her execution, if you look at the entire sentence. Sorry if I wasn’t clear. As for ‘evidence’ -- life as the Countess of Ormonde or the Countess of Northumberland would have been quite comfortable, but not necessarily exciting unless the married pair were at court. Certainly nothing that would place Anne in any history books. (The proposed Ormonde marriage, in which Anne apparently had no say, might have landed her in Ireland.) Alone in the Tower, awaiting her fate – who knows what she thought. (I’m not sure what you mean by ‘her own behavior’ but it’s true she was no shrinking violet.)

Here is that other thread: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=26449

We have a pre-existing topic in the Other Arts forum on portrayals of Elizabeth I in film which went into some detail on this topic, and Anne Boleyns, including Bujold, were mentioned and discussed. I think it would be best to stay on the topic of books for this thread.

“Something’s Coming” is my favorite song from the score, which in general I find rather derivative (although “Maria” is my secret vice, one of them, anyway).

I had that impression from the book, too. Not that Kent isn’t clearly crazy about her kids and happy she had them, but I thought that the pregnancies were also a form of rebellion. She had three very dominating people, Balanchine, her mother, and her husband, pressuring her from all sides and each desiring to control her in one way or another. Motherhood is one choice she had complete control over – in fact, I think she even says something to that effect. It wouldn’t be surprising that she had mixed feelings over the effect on her career, which was a great one, but also had potentialities that went unfulfilled. (The early marriage was a terrible blunder, her mother’s responsibility of course.) I particularly remember the anecdote in the book about a conversation she has with Balanchine after the Russian tour. She was a huge hit and Balanchine was delighted with her, but he also saw more work needed to be done, and he talks to her hopefully about future plans. She resolves inwardly to have another child as soon as possible.

Very nice picture, thanks. It will be interesting to see how things go in future. Wagner family relations are always interesting. Kind of like the Kennedys.

True, but not quite to my point. It’s been noted above that the opening sequence of the “West Side Story” film is probably the highlight. It takes place on real streets, yes, but it’s stylized and the dance is not presented naturalistically. Later on things get confused – you can tell by the staging of the deaths of Riff and Bernardo that the director, Robert Wise, isn’t sure how to go, and the scene falls between the two stools. WSS really has nothing to say about street kids or ethnic relations, and decorating it with emblems of social commentary it can’t carry is unhelpful IMO. Sondheim hates the lyric to that song. In fact, I have the impression that every time WSS comes up in an interview he says something like “I HATE that lyric.”

You may well be right. I tend to think of Female Trouble as one his more popular films, but I'm not really a Waters expert and could be mistaken.

Thanks, Ray. We have a thread on this production already started in the Modern Dance forum, and I copied and pasted your post there and will now close this thread, although I appreciate your thinking of Other Arts.

Tamblyn was great. Ray also found and posted the link, independently, and here's his post: Yes, it is good that Laurents is still around and interested in trying new things. My only cavil would be that WSS has nothing to do with actual street kids of any kind, never has and never will. Sure, add Spanish if you want, as long as the audience can follow without supertitles, but it's not going to add verismo to something that was never verismo to begin with. (Part of what's wrong with the movie version is a failure to understand this.)

It is an interesting scene. I understand it was staged for the movie and not an actual coaching session. I remember Kirkland writing in her first book that she had wanted to bring in Kent to coach her for Sonnambula, but Baryshnikov said, "Oh, she's too crazy," or words to that effect.

Yes, if you're wondering why kicklines show up in Petit ballets at oddly inappropriate moments, that's why. My comment in the Links may seem a little high handed. I'll allow I was feeling a wee bit testy. I guess that ' most daring ballet choreographer' line was the last straw. I can't tell you, innopac, how many articles and reviews of Bourne I come across that describe him as a ballet choreographer when he isn't one for the reasons Alexandra provided. Just because the name is "Swan Lake" or "Nutcracker" doesn't make the work ballet. I didn't intend it as a knock, although I admit I'm not an admirer. I follow the same policy with regard to Mark Morris and Twyla Tharp, two choreographers with ballet credentials that Bourne doesn't have. But they are still modern dance choreographers, and usually described as such. Morris just did a widely reviewed "Romeo and Juliet" to the Prokofiev score - but it's for his own troupe and it's not ballet. However, if any modern dance choreographer gives an interview where he's making general remarks about ballet or his work for one of those classical companies, I certainly post those.

??? bart, she died an early and lonely death. I suspect she would have traded the (mostly hostile) historical mention for an obscurer but happier life. True, her daughter turned out quite well, but Anne would have had no way of knowing that. There were serious biographies of Katharine of Aragon and others well before the eighties, I believe.

Oh. I thought that this was the same version with a more dramatic title. I have the older book. I guess I'll have to buy the new version at some point. Is it very different?

It's an excellent book and a serious research effort.

I'm sure in Kent's case this is correct, but there are all kinds of ways and means for graduating early and skipping grades.

Indeed, it is not a transcript. I would definitely recommend listening to the broadcast. I thought Kent was just fine, and I suspect the occasional ditziness is more a kind of protective coloration than anything else. She's obviously a clever woman. Rose isn't perfect, but we all owe him a vote of thanks for hosting dancers regularly on his program. Thanks for posting this, canbelto, I missed this interview the first time around.

Didn't she handle that well? She's awesome. The Dance in America segments were welcome - they just seemed a tad familiar because they've been available on video for so long. I remember reading that Farrell was upset at not getting legal clearance for the Lincoln Center broadcast of Mozartiana, which I can understand. A lost opportunity.

I always think of Pauline Kael's crack, "No one else can handle the ups and downs of wistful sentiment and corny humor the way Capra can, but if anyone should learn to, kill him." (From memory, could be a word or two off.) I actually think he did okay with it until Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. ("You Can't Take It with You" was a Kaufman and Hart play first, so Capra and Robert Riskin -- his screenwriter, a crucial figure) aren't totally responsible. Some of his very early movies, like The Bitter Tea of General Yen, are really interesting.

Elusive Muse is essential but it suffers from the same structural flaw as “Holding on to the Air” (which it follows fairly closely, diary entries and all), in that it loses direction and momentum after Farrell returns to NYCB in the seventies. The avoidance of any discussion of what happened between Farrell and Martins is a huge hole in the movie, as is the missing Martins. It’s not that I don’t understand the reasons for this, but the omissions are glaring and they hurt the last half of the film. Balanchine thought the same way, it seems. Farrell says in her book she did try reading the novel, but admitted to Balanchine that she found it heavy going, which is quite understandable, and he told her not to worry, it wasn’t crucial. I’m sure he thought he could give her what she needed to know about the story and her role in it.

I've tried to like The Paradine Case, but I can't get through it. But I agree, it would definitely qualify as an underrated film if you wanted to make a case for it, as it were, although I can't really say that I'm up to the job. I would be interested to know more of your thoughts on it, and maybe I'll take another look.

I'm shocked this is underrated. It's a masterpiece! I'm not sure I'd describe Waters as underrated. He’s a cult figure, which isn’t quite the same thing. If we we were talking about one of his less-heralded effots, then the adjective might qualify, but "Female Trouble" is one of his best-known titles, I think.