dirac

I agree. I thought Talk to Her was overrated, and while I appreciate Almodovar’s willingness to push the envelope I was inclined to draw the line at raping coma victims. I too thought the excerpts from Bausch were excellent. (I loved Bad Education, too.) I would be willing to make a case for A.I., which I thought was fascinating although ultimately unsuccessful, and a film anyone following Spielberg’s work should see. There’s not much to say about Catch Me If You Can, is there? (One thing I did enjoy was the evocation of a time when air travel was glamorous and fun and an occasion to dress up for.) You know, I think there is beauty and magic in E.T., and a real sweetness as opposed to the sticky-gooey kind. Then you have Peter Pan, which tries for something similar and is horrid. I thought she was passable in the first Godfather. It was in Part II, where Kay has a more central role, that her deficiencies really hurt. I think her nadir was the big “I had an ABORTION!” confrontation with Pacino. Yes, she was one of the few good things about Part III, which really is bad, isn’t it? That’s okay – your post was fun to read. Sometimes we all have to get this sort of thing off our chests, and it will help you cope the next time Spielberg totes home another truckload of Oscars. I think that’s definitely the effect AB was trying for, and achieved occasionally, but for me its vision of the New was rather banal – for instance, when Spacey has his scene with ‘Brad’ at the office, you know immediately that the fellow is superficial and hollow because his name is Brad. You know that Bening has surrendered to the conventional because she listens to “Bali Ha’i” at dinner. That kind of thing.

Briefly, I thought American Beauty was glib and shallow, and it made its points with sledgehammer subtlety. The treatment of the Annette Bening character had a very nasty, borderline misogynist edge even allowing for the satirical intent, although Bening herself was excellent and gave the character humanity with not much help from the script. The movie seemed to be saying that you break free of bourgeois constraints by reverting to adolescence, as far as I could make out. I didn't buy that. Keaton was awful in both Godfather movies. She was not ready for them and was quite out of her depth.

Thank you for posting, Davidsbündlertänze. I agree about the last three films you listed. They are all wonderful. I disagree about The Godfather, which gets better every time I see it, and I like many of Spielberg's early movies. (As mentioned, I also like Schindler's List, but I would also say that's where the rot begins to set in.) I didn't get the whole Lost in Translation business, either, and if someone who liked it would care to defend it, I would be sincerely interested in hearing why.

That’s also my understanding, atm711. Gore Vidal records that he asked Kaye about the marriage to Farrell and she said, “No one’s supposed to know about that.”

I agree. I appreciated Villella’s candor about the rewards and difficulties of his relationship with Balanchine, his account of life in the company, and his later struggle with injury. He provides a view that no one else, not even another male NYCB star, could supply. I also enjoyed reading what he had to say about his work with Stanley Williams. printscess, what was ‘dreadful’ about the book? It’s not perfect by any means, but I wouldn’t say anything that harsh about it. (By asking, I don’t mean to put you on the spot or on the defensive. I really do want to know what you thought.) "All those girls.....and Edward Villella."

In Rauschenberg’s case, it seems to be the critics with conservative taste who are stirring the pot, while the majority give him the respectful Old Master treatment. His art was controversial in a wild artistic era but as Quiggin notes you’d not know it from reading some of these obituaries. I’m no more in favor of neologisms with the suffix “-ize” than Updike is, but surely writers use a fair number of words that haven’t yet made it into the dictionary?? (I've enjoyed reading these responses, everyone.)

In the cases of Derrida and Said, the tone of the NYT obits bothered me because of a) the prominence of the NYT as a forum and b) they were part of a pattern reflected elsewhere. I happen to like Perl’s writing, but I also think he’s speaking a bit strongly because the tone of the Rauschenberg obits has been so bland.

Jed Perl rudely interrupts the amen chorus.

Thanks, Vivian. What did you think of the exhibition?

I guess that just goes to show how people can differ in their definitions of the’ right’ tone and treatment, because then and now “The Great Dictator” has been criticized for making tone deaf jokes, however funny some of them are, about something too grim for them. (My opinion, Chaplin and Jack Oakie are superb, the rest of the movie is okay.) It was a good story very well told, never unnecessary in my book. Would that we had more such. ,Try “Always.” Or rather, don’t.

I’m sorry to hear this news (thank you for posting it, FauxPas) and I will miss seeing Dunning’s byline. I don’t remember that she was up for the top job, either, although there was beefing at the time about a man being chosen for the job with all the eligible women available. We don’t know the background – maybe it was a good offer and Dunning was ready to go – but buyouts are never good news. At least Macaulay isn’t going anywhere and his replacement of Rockwell seems like a vote of confidence in dance. And I would think that if the paper can support two regular classical music writers it could support two regular dance critics. However, the freelancers appear regularly and even report from abroad, so we must be grateful for what we have.

Thank you for those recollections, Marga.

Boys Don’t Cry contains two superb performances from Hilary Swank and Peter Sarsgaard, a very good one from Chloe Sevigny, and the director, Kimberly Peirce, did a fine job. I did not agree with the overall interpretation of the story – presenting the protagonist as a sort of unconventional freethinker instead of a sad case who needed help and didn’t get it – but it’s a good picture. I’m not sure what you mean by the characters not being ‘sympathetic.’ They’re not the most appealing bunch of kids, obviously, but even the rapist/killers are recognizably human and not made out to be monstrous, although they’re guilty of monstrous acts. I believe the release date was 1999, if you’ll pardon the pedantry. I don’t have much use for Saving Private Ryan either, but Schindler’s List, for all its well-rehearsed failings, is a fine film and didn’t strike me as any kind of ego-trip. I was less than thrilled with it on its first run, but it’s a movie worth revisiting. Did you really think it was too long? It bogs down a bit at the end but I certainly wasn’t sneaking peeks at my watch. Cruise is a good actor within a (very) narrow range and he is a genuine star. I would make no further claims for him. Nicole Kidman (I assume you're not referring to Mimi Rogers ) doesn’t have his level of star quality and she’s not a particularly warm or sympathetic performer, but she can act him off the screen without difficulty. I don't recall that 'Eyes Wide Shut' was treated with any great respect apart from its connection with Kubrick, who had just died when it was released.

It hasn't stood up so well, although Brando is still amazing. But it was a great movie of its moment.

Moving this post of Helene's to this thread:

Thank you for the long review, papeetepatrick. The recording certainly has value for that and other reasons, but it wasn't to my taste. The score is too far from opera for the singers to sound right, for me anyway.

Thanks for the report, cubanmiamiboy. No one will ever approximate the sound of the castrati – which is probably for the best, all things considered. I can take or leave countertenors, although some of them are very fine singers. Marilyn Horne in a suit of armor worked fine for me.

Hi. Thanks for bringing this thread back. Well, Juno was last year's cute 'n' quirky comedy, and quite a decent example of the type, -- it improved as it went along, although I too had some trouble figuring out what the fuss was about. But it was a nice break from some of the other movies of the season, which quality aside tended to be heavy going.

Thank you for telling us about your visit!

Thank you for posting, Ray. Sad news, but also a long life and a magnificent career to be celebrated. A quote from Macaulay's article.

The NYT obituary.

Thank you for posting this sad news, richard53dog. I have Gencer in Anna Bolena and Rigoletto around somewhere. (Her timing was off, in a way - the competition was very intense in her repertory, what with Callas, Caballe, Sutherland, et al in the running.) RIP.

Thanks, whetherwax. I like a guilty wallow now and then, myself. I'm not familiar with Pratchet's work, unfortunately.

Ross Macdonald, mentioned by papeetepatrick, set many, if not most, of his books in a fictional city called Santa Teresa, which is actually Santa Barbara, where he lived. Raymond Chandler’s Bay City is Santa Monica.

Unfortunately, many of the details just can’t be trusted. But if you want an overview of Hollywood scandals past they’re a good place to start. Hello, Quiggin, thanks for mentioning ‘The Last Tycoon.’ IMO it’s not really ‘An Unfinished Novel’ as Edmund Wilson described it. It’s a fragment, and who knows how much of it Fitzgerald would have kept in the end. As you note, it’s romanticized but there are things in it that still apply in the Hollywood today. (“Writers are children.... I’ll give them money. But I won’t give them power,” etc.) Chandler was a kind of expatriate, too, raised in England for many years. I think of Hockney, also. The detective motif comes from Chandler mainly, I think. It’s impossible to imagine Macdonald’s work without Chandler’s precedent, and the same is true of Ellroy, even if only in reaction to Chandler. (Ellroy’s heroes are often cops and not private detectives, I think, and he also avoids using a lone protagonist.) I read Chandler, Fitzgerald, and Macdonald as a kid and I don’t think they will do any harm. I issued a parent alert about Anger’s books because of the graphic photographs – you want to see Carole Landis dead on the bathroom floor, here’s your chance – and the sometimes crude prose. I’ll dissent from the Didion chorus and say that I thought ‘Play It As It Lays’ was annoying. Yup. Graduated at fifteen, I remember reading. Disgusting.