dirac

zerbinetta writes: I think also of the wonderfully extravagant Charles James. I may not have been fair to him, zerbinetta. I was speaking about those frilly glorified prom dresses he used to produce in such numbers and still does for all I know. I hated those! I think that's the crucial point. Very true, GWTW.

Andrew73, welcome to the thread, and you'll have to forgive me for simultaneously welcoming you and disagreeing with you. I don’t have the time to look up the stats, but leaving aside ancient Oscar history, in recent years I can recall that Jamie Foxx, Nicole Kidman, Helen Mirren, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlize Theron, Forest Whitaker, Adrien Brody, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts, and Hilary Swank (her first award) all won Best Actor or Actress for playing such roles, whether or not the films were formally called biopics. I think there is a bias in favor of Stories from Real Life. I also think that a few of those pictures weren't that great -- basically made as Oscar bait for the leading actor, and successful on that level, but not as much else. Actors can be magnificent under such circumstances - I think of De Niro in 'Raging Bull' and Day-Lewis in 'In the Name of the Father' offhand - but by and large this isn't the place where I look for acting as art. I miss Geena Davis, too. But I'm not talking only about missing the flamboyant bad taste of the days of yore. These days nobody takes any risks at all, and you reach the point where 'good taste' is 'no taste.' Diablo Cody's frock was not a success, to put it mildly, but at least she was in there swinging.

Quite so. I suppose the difference is that when he was still around, his work was published as he wanted it done. No, he hadn’t much control over the way his work was interpreted, although he did like to put in puzzles and red herrings to play Confuse-A-Critic -- but it was out there in the form he chose. Good to hear from you, Drew.

I forgot to add that it was totally cool for Day-Lewis to kneel in front of Helen Mirren, and he gave a lovely speech, too. Another favorite moment: Cate Blanchett in the audience grimacing after they showed a particularly ghastly moment from “Elizabeth: the Golden Age.” At least she knows.

Interesting question, miliosr. I don't think you can call it a high art, but you could call designers like Balenciaga artists. (You can call designers like de la Renta something too, but not on a family-friendly board.)

I see what you mean, but I do think it would be possible for both roles to be effective without the actor going overboard. I agree, though, that after a certain point Day-Lewis had run out of options. It seems to be a trend. I don’t know why people think it’s charming to show up at the biggest show of the year and babble and fall all over yourself. I thought: ‘If I see another simple sheath I ‘m going to run from the room.’ The subtitle for the show could have been The Red and the Black. Another recent trend has been for the actresses to dress as conservatively as possible, justifiably fearing the savaging they’ll get for wearing anything remotely daring. Heigl’s dress looked ravishing on her. Loved the ruching. I liked Kidman’s dress and the necklace. Unfortunately, she moved and talked like a zombie. And I don’t know what she’s putting in her skin but she’s gone too far. I had the same thought when the nominations were announced – if Cotillard, why not Tang Wei, who was just as good? Maybe if she’d appeared in a biopic about a junkie Chinese singing star they might have noticed. I’m not sure about this but I don’t think it was disqualification, just neglect. (It was the most neglected high profile film of the year, IMO.) He’s gotta start screaming more.

It's not especially surprising. The two top contenders for Best Picture were not huge popular hits, European actors dominated the acting awards, and the strike truncated the awards season and actually dampened down a lot of the talk and hype - no sense making too much fuss over a show that might not happen.

And she was so thrilled to get it - I haven't seen an actor that excited to win since Adrien Brody. As I mentioned on the Oscar thread, I think there should be a moratorium on actors winning for playing 'real people,' but how could you not be happy for her.

I liked the show. A fine speech from the production designer Robert Boyle, who received an honorary award, and cheers to Tilda Swinton for bagging a Best Supporting (and she was great, too). Her speech sucked, but you can’t have everything. Couldn’t have been happier about the Best Song win for “Falling Slowly” – best moment of the evening. (Up yours, Disney.) Jon Stewart did a graceful thing and brought Marketa Irglova back onstage for her thank-you when Glen Hansard and she were pushed off the stage untimely. Nice to see the camera cutting several times to Cormac McCarthy as No Country for Old Men started to rake in the prizes. I had mixed feelings about Day-Lewis’ win. He carried an impossible movie but on the other hand I’m not sure he should be so extravagantly rewarded for his recent displays of ham hock. Cotillard was touchingly excited about her win and good for her. My only concern is the Academy’s penchant for handing the Best Actor/Actress awards to actors in biopics – it’s always been that way, but the bias is getting pretty ridiculous. Laura Linney and Julie Christie were great, too, and they didn’t have any visual and vocal blueprints to work from. So at least Day-Lewis won for playing a fictional character, which is good news.

Just a quick thank you for posting the obit and sharing the story.

Thank you for the heads up, vagansmom. Speaking for myself as well, I find these supercolossal collections to be of questionable use. If you’re a fan of long standing, you already have a good idea of what you want and don’t want and if you are a newcomer to an artist’s work it’s not always helpful to have too much to deal with at once, especially if said artist was prolific in output. And, as Patrick notes, Gould’s work is not exactly inaccessible. Much of it has already been re-released and is not hard to locate. (I don’t know how much new stuff this set contains.) There is also the matter of shelf space..... If you do buy it (or even if you don’t) you might check out Gould’s recordings of earlier music by Orlando Gibbons and William Byrd if you haven't already.

One of the notable things about the show is that the minor characters (Bobby’s lovers) have a larger share of the big numbers than the more important ones (Bobby’s married friends) and as I remember the original cast album reflects that – the stronger singers and dancers had those roles. (Which is why some of the weak singing last night didn’t bother me that much – those characters weren’t meant to tear the house down anyway.)

Thank you for speaking up, Amanda. We express ourselves freely in this forum. Like you, I only know “Company” from recordings, and what I’ve read of other productions. This one started off pretty well, but for me it just went downhill. You’re more familiar with Esparza’s work than I am (this was my first look at him), so I’ll take your word for it that he was good in The Homecoming and seeing him live makes a difference, I’m sure. When the show is repeated I’ll make a point of tuning in toward the end to hear “Being Alive.” Liking or disliking an actor can be very much a matter of taste – and I don’t mean that invidiously, as in good or bad taste. I just didn’t find him terribly attractive or appealing. It’s a marvelous song. I hate you. I think it is out on DVD in fact, but not for two dollars, obviously. The last time I saw it was years ago on a Blockbuster VHS, back when they actually made room for things like that. Anyone else see this, live or on TV?

Thanks for that tidbit, Old Fashioned. I knew Cotillard was lip synching but not the details. (Fine by me, incidentally. I much prefer a convincing job of lip synching to inferior vocals.)

Well, I’m glad it wasn’t just me. I switched it off around about “Another Hundred People.” I may take a look at one of the repeats. Very dull to look at and listen to. And evoking that time and place is the only way to revive it successfully, I think. The depiction of male-female relations is hopelessly dated, and putting the characters into a contemporary setting does not work. I know nobody thinks you need dancing in a musical these days, but the lack of it here was deeply felt. Esparza was a disaster. What woman could resist that nondescript appearance and vacant gaze? I wonder if that great D.A. Pennebaker documentary of the recording of the original cast album is on DVD. I expect some of it is on YouTube somewhere.

I have a copy of the book and am dipping into it now. My first impression is that it’s written with Kavanagh’s customary fluidity and the first part of the book is superior to the second, where she tends to get bogged down with Rudi Went Here Then He Went There He Did This He Did That (Acknowledgments to Frank O’Hara. May not be entirely Kavanagh’s fault, either; it happened to the estimable Keith Money in his wonderful Pavlova bio, too. Perhaps it comes with the territory when you’re dealing with these compulsive performers always on the move). I don’t find her view to be ‘bitchy’ or mean-spirited, at least not so far. Nor do I think her discussion of Nureyev’s sex life dwells overmuch on the ‘sordid’ although we hear far too much detailed testimony from various parties concerning Nureyev’s deficiencies in the bedroom; Kavanagh could have saved herself and us a good deal of time by stating that many of his lovers found him to be mechanical in the sack and leaving it at that. I note also that she gives Vera Volkova something like her due. Meredith Daneman in her Fonteyn bio didn’t ignore Volkova, exactly, but she did not accord her a capsule biography or a sufficient degree of emphasis, in my view. Alexandra Tomalonis in her biography of Henning Kronstam was the first, I believe, to give Volkova’s influence the attention it deserved, at least before the Volkova bio that came out not too long ago – but it was good to see Kavanagh’s discussion (don’t remember offhand what Diane Solway had to say in her book).

Here's a good one.

Thank you for posting. I'm sorry that he's gone, but it's good to know that he lived a long and full life. I know his work mainly via ‘Last Year at Marienbad,’ a favorite of mine, and through the cogent explanations of the late Susan Sontag. Not a denunciation, really, I think Bellow just missed the point. Not a wide audience, but a wide influence, as sometimes happens. The English-language obits I’ve seen so far are not terribly satisfactory.

It's going off topic, miliosr, but how was the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven different from the theatrical release?

Welcome, Scorpiodncr. I hope you share some of your thoughts with us as your dissertation proceeds. Best of luck.

Thank you, Nanarina, for reviving this thread. An important distinction.

Thanks for the heads up, Amanda. I do watch PBS regularly and had seen their alerts for the show, but I didn't think to post. Tell us what you thought after you see it (you, too, Patrick, and the rest of the usual suspects).

I agree, but I also understand the filmmakers’ plight. It’s no longer possible to make a film that glorifies the crusaders in the naive way that Hollywood used to do, which was not ahistorical but virtually anti-historical. They could have made the movie with Saladin as a more or less sympathetic protagonist, but such a film would not have been a suitable vehicle for Orlando Bloom, which was the basic raison d’etre for Kingdom of Heaven. So they end up with a script where the hero expresses inclusive sentiments such as “Jerusalem is for everybody!” (from memory) and eventually winds up surrendering the place to the opposition. Cute story, AmandaNYC. She missed the performance but eventually gained a husband (and you), so I guess it was worth it!

I add my thanks for the photographs. She was indeed a wonderful Juliet in the film. I hope those who had the good fortune to see her in performance live will talk about it here.

I quite agree. We may reach a point where CGI is as good as the real thing, but we're not there yet, certainly, even with an action director as good as Scott. Nothing else did, unfortunately. But the trebuchets were really cool, it was fun checking out the different types of armor, and the in-close fight scenes were good.