dirac

The Other Arts forum was set up to talk about arts other than dancing and so it's not necessary for dancing to be involved in a given topic. Of course, you can always feel free to bring it up. Never saw Hairspray myself but from what I have read your reaction does not sound out of bounds.

I, too, saw it this weekend. Anthony_NYC and sidwich make excellent points with which I agree for the most part. All in all, I actually prefer “Chicago.” (I loved “Gods and Monsters” and looked forward to what Bill Condon would do next. I was disappointed by “Kinsey” but it’s closer to where he should be headed than this, I think.) sidwich writes: No, it certainly didn’t. I’m not familiar with the stage production, but it did seem clear that there a) must have been some major cutting and/or b) Michael Bennett worked a miracle of staging. In this version, too many important matters happen offstage while we watch endless montages to mediocre-to-terrible music. (It’s really quite relentless; as soon as I’d recovered from one assault, another music cue started up.) As scoop noted, it’s not at all clear until quite late exactly what’s going on between Effie and Curtis; we don’t see what’s developing between the two of them and we don’t understand what’s going on later between Deena and Curtis until we’re told about it in some awkward exposition. The movie tells, it doesn’t show. Anthony_NYC writes: I was reminded of the same number but not in a good way. (I thought Streisand’s rendition of “My Man” overstated and devoid of true emotion.) (I always thought “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” would make a splendid theme song for Monica Lewinsky in “Impeachment: the Musical.”) The mediocrity of the songs wouldn’t be so bad, except there are so many of them and also that a major theme of the movie is the sanitizing of African-American music for mass consumption -- the score supplies several items that could qualify as Horrible Examples of the phenomenon the film is supposed to be deploring. As a Supremes fan, I found this all rather offensive. Regarding the performances – Jamie Foxx has nothing to do except stand around looking crafty, the girls as written are all undercharacterized ninnies – even Effie. Jennifer Hudson got on my nerves. Danny Glover came off best, IMO. Beyonce Knowles looks beautiful in her Diana getups but she’s not up to a dramatic situation. (She is also given a new big number toward the end of the film, to remind us that she’s the star and so it will be clear that She Doesn’t Really Sing Like That.) Anthony_NYC writes: I thought was well done, really. The cutting is fast but fluid. I looked for the editor’s name at the end – it was Virginia Katz. The movie really does look great. Just put cotton in your ears. And for the record, Diana Ross is a goddess. Please continue commenting, everyone.

Oh, yes, 'Band of Angels.' I saw it at a drive-in and wouldn't shut up about it till my other sister said she'd had enough about 'that movie.' that's when drive-ins used to have sheets with the whole month on them and tiny ads spread through the run of each film. It was an Ava Gardner reject - De Carlo got several of those.

Thank you for the long review, Ed. Good to hear from you.

Thanks for the heads up, balletchic101. I hope others can go.

What a wonderful review. Thank you so much for talking your way in to the exhibition - I was hoping someone would go. We are indebted to the Blade for the heads up. (I'd also be interested to hear from anyone who saw it in London.)

Odd kind of inside joke, which I presume it was. Bonanova also played the martyred voice coach of Kane’s mistress/second wife in “Citizen Kane.”

That’s particularly true in the very big multiplexes, where the individual theatres are smaller and there is stadium style seating. The sound level is hideously loud and when I saw Chicago in one such place it was as if the performers were singing right in your face. Regarding price, I still think that movies are a relatively good deal compared to other forms of entertainment-at least around my area, where the price is between $9-10. Wouldn't go much higher than that, though. scoop, thanks for the review. Keep 'em coming, people.

Thank you, sz, for that report. Seventeen dollars, my God. It just turned up in my area this weekend, so I may see it. (It’s already been playing locally for weeks in the Multiplex So Big It Ate New Jersey but I loathe those places and won’t go. Once the two little area miniplexes shut down, as they are due to do shortly, I’ll be waiting for a lot more DVDs.)

Here is a more detailed obit. She was amusing in “The Captain’s Paradise,” as the article notes, although the movie was hurt by the casting of Alec Guinness, who was not the philanderer type. “Band of Angels” is a fine piece of camp. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/arts/tel...r=1&oref=slogin

Yvonne De Carlo has died, age 84. She’ll always be here for some of us, though.

Has anyone seen it yet?

I, too, would be interested in hearing from anyone who catches the exhibit.

leonid writes: From every description I have read or heard of from witnesses Dame Margot simply triumphed in the role and her performance led to the companies international standing.

Good to hear from you in this forum, Old Fashioned. I wasn’t bothered by that quite as much as I was by similar boo-boos in The Good Shepherd, because I didn’t take the story as an attempt to tell us what it was really like –it’s not a realistic story at all in that sense -- and I doubt that people will take it as such (although you never know). But I know less about the Mayans and that probably affected my response as well.

I did not get around to posting about ‘Apocalypto.’ Gibson is a real director – rich visuals, clear and cogent action. His action sequences are not the most original but they are exciting and clear, and Rudy Youngblood dashing through the jungle in his thong makes Daniel Day-Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans look like Grandma walking her miniature poodle. The digital photography, by Dean Semler, is remarkable. The movie is intense – there is a very long chase sequence that’s terrific but also just skirts Perils of Pauline territory and I can understand deciding that it’s just Too Much. Gibson begins the movie with a quote from Will Durant to the effect that civilizations rot from within, and the climactic human sacrifice seems to confirm that – it’s not merely the killing, but the bizarre ritualized extravagance and scale of the executions that is truly horrible. But this idea is not fully worked out. There is also a sequence early on in which a village elder tells a story that seems to suggest that what we’re about to see is not so much a story of a civilization in decline but that human beings are fated to die violently at the hands of others as a result of innate human desires - because people are perpetually discontented with their lot and because one man would dominate another. (The movie is dedicated to Abel.) A point of departure from recent movies, including some involving Gibson, is that revenge is not central. Instead of Jaguar Paw’s wife and child being horribly dispatched and the rest of the movie occupied with his pursuit of vengeance, which is what one usually gets these days, he’s trying to protect, not avenge. (His father notes early on that Jaguar Paw is motivated by fear and in his view that’s not good. But that proves to be the motivation that drives him throughout the film.)

Thank you, leonid. The names of Torvill and Dean have come up in the past - they have many fans on this board! (My own favorite British skater was Robin Cousins.)

Thanks, FauxPas. (It's interesting that when Luchino Visconti staged the ballet for the post weight loss Maria Callas, he chose to dress her as a Romantic ballerina, deliberately echoing Taglioni.)

The death of Ruthanna Boris was noted in The New York Times today. Her interview in Robert Tracy's book 'Balanchine's Ballerinas' was one of the most interesting in that volume. Does anyone have recollections related to Boris, her dancing, or her choreography? I would be interested to hear any.

Robert Weiss is quoted in today's NYT article as saying that there tends to be a lot of money and enthusiasm at the start - but things become more difficult over the long haul. I imagine that will be true even for someone commanding as much attention as Wheeldon.

I missed it, but thanks to all for your reports!

Drew writes: Thank you, Drew, for speaking up! I’m afraid I found the plot implausibilities difficult to take. I can’t really speak in detail about them without spoilers, but for me they went beyond the subplot involving the son, although I agree that was the most outstanding one. I’ll also add on a positive note that the film picks up considerably once the deadening flashbacks are out of the way, and the scenes with Damon and his young son are genuinely touching. I didn’t think the problem was so much with the casting of Jolie, although that was part of it, so much as the lack of characterization provided for the wife. And it was certainly not her fault that her first scene with Damon put me in mind of Isla Fisher’s assaults on the virtue of Vince Vaughn in ‘Wedding Crashers.’

Hello, Drew. Good to hear from you. I suspect that the ticket sellers aren't necessarily aware of the difference between cut and uncut when it comes to opera.

Collaboration is part of the choreographic process for many choreographers, as I understand it. That makes sense. But collaborative casting? How workable is that? My hunch is that eventually he will find himself having to handle casting issues in a less than 'perfectly sensitive way.’ Maybe he'll send flowers or a nice gift along with the bad news?

Folks, not to play the role of hall monitor, but I do suggest that we all: keep our tone as civil as possible; be careful, as Leigh noted, not to repeat ourselves; and try to avoid any suggestion that our fellow posters have deficient understandings of democracy, free speech, etc. Thanks very much.