papeetepatrick

Very true, Michael. I've gotten used to some of Macaulay's idiosyncrasies by now, and don't notice things like that as much as I did. One can mature a bit even in middle aged and with 'set ways'

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/arts/tel...aves&st=cse http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/arts/tel...?ref=obituaries http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/arts/tel...?ref=obituaries Three important TV stars died in ten days' time. I remember Fess Parker from Davy Crockett as a child, but not very well, although I think I did have the coonskin cap and some hunting knife that were 'Davy Crockett'. Graves was of most interest to me, with a stunning all-American handsomeness (more than his brother James Arness, I thought) that i first saw already playing fathers while in his 30s in 'Fury' and later debonair and suave in 'Mission Impossible', which I believe he entered even after most of the legendary cast was already assembled. Also was good in an old pleasant period thing with Terry Moore even before his TV career started, 'Beneath the 12-Mile Reef'. Remember this cast? Wow. I remember being nuts about Barbara Bain as well, and never heard of her after the show was finished. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm527144704/nm0336335 Robert Culp I saw a little on TV, not that much, but he's good in a marvelously enjoyable cheap-budget early-70s B-Movie 'See the Man Run' with Angie Dickinson, although she definitely steals the movie when she berates him for 'being a loser'.

I think it's 'her voice is full of money'. Didion/Dunne did a take-off on it with Pfeiffer and Redford in their screenplay of 'Up Close and Personal'. I didn't find that the case with Grace Kelly, but did think her unconvincing in 'the Country Girl' and not especially distinguished in 'High Noon' either (I always only remember Gary Cooper), as opposed to 'To Catch a Thief', which is the only thing I ever really remember vividly, because of this shining look she always had in it--she and Cary Grant do look good together. Maybe I get the 'voice full of money' part when the character obviously has it or is wearing it. Agree her death was very sad.

I grew up with the Mary Renault books and she loved Alexander. In some ways his father Philip is a more attractive character based on what we know but back then war wasn't a moral issue and going out to conquer the world was considered a pretty splendid thing to do even if a lot of people got hurt along the way. Alexander could be savage if you tried to fight him but in other respects he wasn't so bad. Yes, agreed for the most part, the perspective from the 21st century is not the same. However, Plutarch does add some extra personal crimes that even Alexander felt extremely guilty about, a murder of, I believe (it's been about 10 years since I read Plutarch), a close friend or fellow soldier. One of his hangers-on had to convince him that 'as Alexander', he had no right to feel guilty about anything he did, and Alexander 'recovered' from his guilty. The rest of it, the military engagments, were accepted, and I don't think it's accurate to compare Alexander to Hitler or really any modern despot (in fact, most of the Romans and Greeks Plutarch wrote about were extremely bloodthirsty, and even though it was all cruel 'back then' too, it wasn't seen the same way in a hero, one reason being that warfare is now conducted at a distance, so that even if, say, a U.S. president or secretary of defense is referred to as a 'war criminal', he never did it with his own hands with a knife, etc., just bombs and the rest, letting others do the dirty work. I believe there was also the accusation, often considered a never-proven rumour, in the Plutarch that Aristotle, Alexander's teacher', had been involved with a plot to poison or in some way kill Alexander. In any case, Alexander was suspcicious of this, and I think it was the reason Aristotle fled. After all, we may admire Aristotle more, but the pecking order back then was definitely Alexander being far more the important person than Aristotle. I haven't read any follow-up on this, but I agree with dirac's general thesis here, with the main point that this personal homicide was pretty creepy (even for then.)

What about O'Neill? I think the 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' is the most amazing performance I ever saw (well, one of the top 3 or 4), don't know enough to judge the transition to screen. A friend saw Vanessa do it a few years ago, said she was incredible, which I can easily believe, but I stupidly didn't even know she was doing it. Which reminds me of 'Orpheus Descnding', in which I saw her recreate her B'way role. It was just a filmed play, although I liked her better than most, but now am thinking about the old 'Fugitive Kind' when we were discussing Williams, and that comes across better than the filmed plmed play. Back to O'Neill, like Garbo's talkie 'Anna Christie', but never saw on stage either--really wouldn't be able to judge much about it. She also did a German version, I think (don't remember whether it was silent or talkie), which is maybe the only major film of hers I haven't seen. Anybody see that? I don't much care for 'Desire Under the Elms', even without seeing it onstage, although I'd read it--can't believe Tony Perkins cast next to glorious Sophia, just something about the chemistry didn't work. Then there are things like 'Picnic', that I find so near-perfect I don't ever want to see a stage version, even if I should.

Yes, and I just found the quote too: He says "I'm no actor, and I've got 64 pictures to prove it!" He also said he did well in these pictures because "I can make with the holy look".

Mashinka, I like that you said that about Victor Mature. HE even says he's a bad actor, but I find that I like him quite a lot too in these old movies. dirac--are the two Ten Commandments swords-and-sandals? I haven't seen the famous 50s one since childhood, but thoroughly indulged in it then (love the cobra and the Red Sea parting), but really like the silent version a lot, which I watched twice in the last few years. I don't know if with the modern half that means it's not of this genre, but I think it is really a good film, and boasts NITA NALDI, oh, she is just wonderful as Sally Lung, femme fatale eurasienne...

dirac--forgot to mention that Charles Hemminger of San Francisco was the architect for that gallery with the beautiful wood. I've never been to S.F., but once saw a magazine spread in the 80s of some beautiful old restaurants that used wood wonderfully, but cannot remember the name of it. A friend had told me that that was a specialty in S.F. in using wood so well in interiors.

http://www.robertmillergallery.com/index2.html I am so ignorant of such things I just wandered through the Chelsea gallery district, as is my wont when I can, and found this gorgeous huge show of De Meyer's photos. Sexy photo of Nijinsky in 'Afternoon of a Faun'. but mostly socialites and some movie stars. You mean you haven't seen your requisite rare Ina Claire photo? They've got it. Plus Hedda Hopper in repose on a chaise longue. Pretty campy, that last one, as are also some utterly hilariously mannered photos of Mary Garden and Cecile Royale. More seriously beautiful one of Eleanora Duse, and good one of Ellen Terry. Also campy is one of the Vanderbilts in a Red Cross uniform leaning agaist a small chest and standing with feet crossed. There are several other buxom Vanderbilts, and unusual things like a young Mrs. Havemeyer, plus early perfume ads for old Vanity Fair, etc., Through April 3rd, this is a great show. There is a formidable 'Miss J. Ranken', who is quite frightening, and is like some of the New England ladies in the movies from Henry James novels. There are several good self-portraits of the Baron too, and lots of the Baronesse. This is the main show that BTers would fancy, I imagine. http://www.sundaramtagore.com/home/ This has a group show, looked okay, I mention mainly for connoisseurs of gallery spaces, this is a beautiful, relatively new gallery, 4 years old only, and has remarkable exposed beams vertical and horizontal at the ceiling, in both cases in three layers of wood, each layer of different sizes. Really spectacular new space. http://oneartworld.com/James+Cohan+Gallery.html This is only two more days, but those into the brilliantly bizarre ought to catch this Child of the Cultural Revolution gone seemingly mad sometimes: Yun-Fei Ji has dozens of man/animal combination creatures who are also hermaphrodites, the most extraordinary being a half-elephant half-man whose is 9 months pregnant and also wearing a bulging jockstrap. A half-pelican half-pony is observing the first creature's unusual accomplishments. There are, in fact, many pelicans and vultures throughout this dizzying exhibition. I totally endorse this brilliant show.

Yes, I agree with him, and think we should be allowed to talk how awful he looked too, though. Somebody did it here once, and got in some trouble. Actually, I don't care that much, critics are going to write what they can get away with. I liked Rockwell's remark about the 'hothouse flowers in Balanchine's day'. The absence of that means NYCB has lost much of what was its special character. How can you leave things like that out when it's very obvious we're not looking at the same company any more. And if they don't think the 'beauty part' is that important, then they don't have to pay attention to 'spectacular dancers without being spectacular beauties' line. I think that was appropriate myself, even if you can look at it either way, it is all right to say it. Dancers have long been expected to be beaitiful, and now a lot of them do look quite plain, as do actors. But Macaulay probably knows not to read this, since sometimes people have described his own appearance at the theater (I've never seen him, and don't care what he looks like, but I dislike other kinds of grand statements he makes, because he, like the rest of us, doesn't know as much as he thinks he does, very often. I mean, as when they want to make the big 'historical statements'. Those are boring. Probably my claiming that POB is the greatest company in the world is equally stupid, though. He probably doesn't care about making a fool of himself any more than I do; I think that's how you learn. In movies, John Simon has been much more brutal about actors' looks for decades than Macaualay ever is.)

What an odd coincidence, i never even knew the term 'Swords and Sandals Epics' till a couple of days ago. I started checking all these videos from the library like 'Demetrius and the Gladiators', ' The Eqyptian', and 'The Robe' already, and have been using them to go to sleep by. Hadn't thought of them since a child, and don't even listen to the dialogue, just watch the garish colour. 'The Egyptian' really looks campy, you can tell it was filmed in SoCal and the sets so bright. Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Gene Tierney, and BELLA DARVI, wow...can't believe some of these things, and Susan Hayward in two of them. I like to fall asleep and then wake up and see what Victor or Susan is up to then. Sounds completely insane, I know, and probably is. I think the oldest I saw as a child was 'Samson and Delilah', and then Beh-Hur, Ten Commandments, El Cid I always liked them while I was watching them and never thought about them again. Spartacus too, didn't know till your post that that was Kubrick.

Thanks for reviving this, sidwich, and for many interesting new perceptions. I think that's very good on 'The Sound of Music', you had said things about it before, but I understand what you mean more now. I'm never going to like the movie, since I don't care for the material, but I can understand better 'what the fuss was all about' now, although it's the story itself that had to appeal to so many people in a way that went way beyond even the most popular of the other R & H film adaptations. Olivier's 'Hamlet' may seem too stagey, but I like it tremendously anyway, he's superb as an actor and a physical presence onscreen here. I had thought I followed the entire text once while watching and found a few, but not many, cuts in the text, but I may not have followed it all the way through, it's been probably 10 years since I did this. Have not seen Branagh's film. Do like 'Good News', too, although I know nothing of it as a stage piece. I can't say I value 'Amadeus' at all, given that it's very fictional, very black-and-white in characterizations, about important historical musical figures, but I only saw the movie, so can't speak to the matter of what the transition matters might consist of. If you hadn't revived this, I probably wouldn't even mention that old film version of 'No No Nanette' with Anna Neagle and Victor Mature. It's the strangest thing I've nearly ever seen that calls itself a musical. It has a certain charm, and Ms. Neagle is lovely, Mature very young and already very handsome, but only 'Tes for Two' is even sung once straight through, although it's a nice enough way to do it, with Tom and Nanette singing from different locations. There's a snippet of the title song just after or with the opening credits done by Ms. Neagle, and here and there they'll throw in the first line of 'I Want to Be Happy', but it is not sung straight through a single time. There's some sort of dream ballet for Ms. Neagle, and her dancing is not terribly arresting, and finally a bit of background music toward the end in which I think I picked up 'Take a Little One-Step, Two-Step', but this has almost no resemblance to the show with the big Youmans score. Even the Doris Day 'Tea for Two' is closer, although I recall little of it. Interesting, as an aside of my own, that Day did so many musicals, but only a couple from B'way, I don't know what people feel about 'Pajama Game' (she has some of her very loud-sound problems in one of the songs) and 'Jumbo', and I've never seen them onstage. I preferred her original movie musical pics like 'Calamity Jane', though. Thanks for the info on the Dench clips, I'm going to look them up.

Now that is what I call a, "just you look at me" entrance and your'e right to include it. There was always a frisson of excitement amongst audiences before Rudolf Nureyev came on and a swell of applause as he arrived centre stage. Yes, and you can see some El Greco 'Portrait of a Cardinal' in the eyes even on this youTube, although given the difference in professions, Nureyev's can seem even more extreme and overtly fierce without need to conceal it from his patrons.

Yes, now that I think more in terms of a one-actor, it seems more feasible. It still seems pretty incredible how bad Reinking's show turned out, I had thought it was going to be great. Probably part of it was that it was evening-length (doesn't matter that it was a B'way show instead of ballet theater, I don't think, except that such a thing would be unlikely to even be dreamed up by any ballet company. Probably any composer in the pop realm ought to be the short kind of piece for dance.)

Oh yes. In fact, almost any entrance he made, but you make me remember his SB I saw with RB in 1973--and even when he was in repose at one point, I remember the magnetism still sustained moment to moment, almost with the same charged sensation as the entrance. If SB Aurora entrance counts, I'd include that, although I didn't think Bouder's entrance I saw recently as electrifying as she became within minutes and sustained to the end. Sizova's 'entrance' on film is another thing, but then i don't have any objectivity when it comes to Sizova. I sing her praises to anybody who will listen at the risk of being a nuisance. I always claim she even might be the one dancer who ever inadvertently upstaged Nureyev, which she seemed to do in that old class film of 'Le Corsaire'. Suzanne Farrell's entrance in 'Nijinsky Clown de Dieu', it was up some kind of catwalk thing at the Palais des Sports, I believe we had to look back at herm and she then proceeded onto the stage, but that first moment had been stunning in itself.

I have little to base this on except a sensation I do get from this company at this point in time, and this company alone. I noticed it on DVD of Paquita, Don Q, and the clip of 'Wuthering Heights' especially convinced me that they were close to being on something of a cutting edge, with dynamism closer to what NYCB had in the 70s and 80s. The mistakes like 'Caligula' may not really be mistakes, maybe even if they are bad, they are worthwhile experiments. I don't know, now that I've seen the movie I'm more than ever convinced of their magnetism. You can't even imagine having such odd phenomena as has the traditionally most imperious company, the Kirov, in all this business of Somova (I liked her in 'Ballet Imperial', but I don't think that's typical, and the nonsense that we see on the clips does seem more often the case, down to those absurd non-balances in the SB clip), can you? It doesn't seem imaginable after that film that anyone like Somova would be able to enter into proceedings so well-organized that it doesn't hurt the art, and even keeps them from having to resort to gimmicks. You're not yet getting 'the new Balanchine' at the POB, but I'd wager they'll be the one to find what and who could be most truly pioneering in ballet more likely than any company in the U.S. They also have dancers as brilliant as NYCB had in the Golden Age as well, plus better male dancers; they're not modelling themselves on anyone else, I don't think, and are fully confident that they really are all those things Mme. Le Fevre told them to 'keep on with' in her marvelous pep talk (I never heard such a smart pep talk: she said their continued striving for excellence AS BEING the Paris Opera Ballet would elicit the money, pensions, etc., not quite that vulgarly, of course, but oh, was that ever clever the way she streamlined the quality of artisty and the finances of the individual dancers.) Mel once mentioned that it was only NYCB and POB schools that have this 'secrecy' around certain traditions, I don't know quite what he meant specifically, and with secrets, one may not get to know more. But these near-religious schools may have something in common, I hope he or someone else might fill this in. I think there has been much discussion of the Royal Ballet School, but I haven't heard much about it, and somehow haven't had much exposure to the RB in the last 20 years, except for the famous dvd's which I've watched: None of these impressed me in the way that the POB dvd's did (even granting that I don't care for Ms. Letestu's 'Diamonds' at all, I imagine some of the others can do it quite pristinely from what I saw in the film.) I'd like to hear more about the 'secrets known only to the inner sanctum' even though asking for secrets seems a contradiction in terms. But every time I see POB, I get a sensation of aliveness that I don't get from any of the other great companies to quite this degree. They seem focussed as a whole company, the way the Kirov sometimes does as in the dvd of SB with Lezhnina, but POB always seems that way. Nothing seems to be missing, but I clearly may be imagining some of this, because even if I don't always care for Macaulay, he knows and I don't from ballet. I'm not sure whether that many BTers are that crazy about POB, at least to the degree bart and I are talking about. I probably am saying that, in one of those polls I believe Alexandra put up, if I had to choose the 'greatest company in the world', I would choose this one. The fact that they are so precise that the two girls in 'Paquite' (I think) are described as 'they've done this so many times you just have to plug them in' doesn't bother me in the least. I just couldn't see much of any 'mess' anywhere. Another way of putting this 'sensation' I uniquely now get from POB is that they seem to embody a kind of 'center of the City of Paris' which I felt NYCB used to do for New York. I do not feel that NYCB does this in any way in its current incarnation, despite magnificent dancing that one can clearly obviously sitll see. But a ballet company that seems the 'most central place in a metropolis' or maybe 'the hottest place in a metropolis' is, I think, what I think 'it is about this company', that bart asks about. In the 80s, I still felt NYCB was the most perfect metropolitan experience one could have in Manhattan, and POB is now able to embody this IMO, although for Paris.

I don't think so, unless they're also sung. Maybe so, in that case. As we've discussed Sondheim over the years, I think recently I began to realize that even the best of his tunes are informed by the lyrics more than the other way around. Made me think of Ann Reinking's failed attempt a few years ago to do a whole evening of Burt Bacharach tunes--"The Look of Love". When we were talking about comparisons to other Broadway composers, I didn't even think about Bacharach, whose only show is 'Promises, Promises'' this I saw with the original cast and was full of good tunes, as well as Jerry Orbach and Jill O'Hara. The best of these sounded even better when Dioone Warwick sang them, as she had made so many Bacharach/David songs into hits that were also often quite intense artistic experiences. So, now that he comes to mind, that's an example of a much better tunesmith IMO than Sondheim (there's a danceable airiness and lilt in Bacharach that I've never heard in anything of Sondheim), and all his efforts went into the songs, with most of the lyrics of the big hits being written by Hal David--although last week's reports of the NYPhi at the birthday galal would naturally make one imainge 'Losing My Mind' and 'Send in the Clowns' sounding lusicious that way, in any case. The only dance music that comes to mind from a Sondheim show already existing is the sexy stuff Donna Mackechnie did in 'Company', but that's pretty much in the context, I'd think. There must be more, but I can't think of parallels to 'dream ballets' in the shows as there are by composers of other shows. Lar Lubovitch did choreography for 'Into the Woods', I believe, but I don't remember any of it just from watching the tape some years back, don't think there were big numbers, but just not sure. But sho knows? There is probably some choreographer in love with Sondheim's songs who might come up with something of interest, although it doesn't strike me as worthwhile, even if the songs were sung, because they'd be taken out of their context, where they sometimes work, sometimes dont'.

Will Dupond be guesting with NYCB this spring? I might go to see her. Best news is that POB will be here in 2012.

Agreed, all of it, I thought LeFevre had incredible breadth of vision, extremely intelligent.

I think he was right to never use captions, because this made it a real film, which was his interest. he wasn't doing just a PBS documentary. Some of us knew who some of the dancers were, etc, but not all, and if we didn't, we could find out easily enough (here, if nowhere else) who they were. It was very seamless that way, and I thought it brought POB to life as a film, but still let you see what POB was as a very real company. If anything, not putting the captions kept the 'magic' in a way that captions might have, if not destroyed, at least interrupted. It was wonderful to see Marie-Agnies come in with the fouilletes, and even 'in family', they couldn't keep from saying 'elle est incroyable', since they had certainly seen it before, and something that good just doesn't get old. She didn't even seem to have to pay much attention to them, much like the male dancer a few minutes later in the same segment, to which the narration added 'indecently easy'.

This was marvelous, but I missed about the first 20 minutes of it, was that where there's discussion of Nureyev? I may get a chance to look back through the thread, where people are talking about him, but I kept thinking it was going to come up and didn't. Will maybe have more to say later, love Aurelie, Marie-Agnes of fouette perfection (she's the one, isn't she?), Mathieu, and all the rest. Ms. LeFevre marvelous--I don't have an educated understanding of what some may find as her flaws as artistic director, but she comes across her as totally competent, exemplary and always warm and firm at the same time. Some of the dancing was just stupendous. I adore this company, and that they never come to New York just seems a shame. There's not a single company I'd rather see live.

This is a gorgeous piece, it's on a tape/DVD which is called, I think, '4 by Kylian'. Has Jeanne Solan in it, she was always beautiful. It's my favourite Kylian piece I know (not very many, I admit, but I've liked most of what I've seen.)

Louis Auchincloss's 'East Side Story', from 2003, brilliant in its portraits of Old New York, as usual. After his death and the article dirac linked to, I realized that there was a LOT of information I could find out from Auchincloss, and that fiction is the most enjoyable route to it, although he's got a lot of books on authors like James and many others I want to look at too.

I got my ticket today, but they only had 19 left, and said they were going pretty fast. So if anybody still wants to go this Sunday's showing, they had better get them beforehand this time, I'd guess.

You'll do anything for a catchy tune... oh lord yes, Kahtleen, this is the best news I've heard in years about a renovation, and actually saying that the priority will be the one that should be the priority--almost unheard of. I don't even care if they decided to rename it after some terrible person all that much.