papeetepatrick

Hi, 4mrdncr. I had read no reviews before posting my thoughts above--I didn't want to be swayed by something I knew had to have been praised if only because of the Sunday Times Mag and the Oscars. Yours is therefore only the second time I've heard about the John Huston imitation, which was so obvious when watching it to me, but that I had no idea anybody else would see. Just this morning I find that this has been pretty frequent in people's perception, and yet it's just not the real thing, it's all technique, it's hollow, and you see him acting all the way through it. It's as if you see him in process of producing his legacy right onscreen, becoming a 'part of history'. John Huston in Chinatown is all the way there; you don't think about John Huston because he is that good. Not for a moment do you think he is afraid to be corrupt. I also had paid almost no attention to anything till just starting to watch this last night--so I didn't know this was Anderson. Interestingly, the one Anderson movie I've seen (and I've only seen 3) that I do not find pornographic is 'Boogie Nights', which is about pornography. I like it a great deal, with its amazing stylistic recreation of the milieu and terrific real performances by people like Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, and Heather Graham. The other one I've seen is 'Magnolia', and that's the one where I think Tom Cruise's odiousness is very effective, but the plague-rain of the rubber toads is the pornography in that movie. It is so uttterly asinine that it ruins the entire rest of the movie retroactively and you just remember skilful bits. Anderson is therefore the perfect director for Day-Lewis to haul out his whole bag of tricks, start making gestures full of infinite significant 'great-actor' portent even when it is a character who has no sensibilities to speak of, etc.

There Will Be Blood easily wins my Most Overrated Film and Oscar-Winning Performance of all films I've ever seen. I see it as nothing more than a piece of performance art, with the closing 'I'm finished' revealing the whole sham of this one-dimensional burlesque, really just a kind of pornography. If Upton Sinclair's novel was worth turning into a film, this can't have been the solution, with Day-Lewis sounding like a hyped-up version of John Huston's character in Chinatown. Over-acting makes no sense when it's about a character of no complexity at all. Something like what Jeremy Irons did in 'Reversal of Fortune' is an example of really good over-acting, appropriate exaggeration. There was nobody and nothing in this except Day-Lewis, whose NYTimesMag ad in the form of a 10 + article goes right along with the whole pitch. I also this week finallly got to 'American Gangster', which I think a fine film, tells a story in a contemporary way and has at least one human-size performance of perfection in it--that of Ruby Dee. But it's got a beautiful blend of sound, music, dialogue, cinematography and understated performances--but especially the use of music, because you really hear and notice the songs (even while they blend) without being surprised when their titles pop up in the closing credits. One of the most sickening things about 'There Will Be Blood' is the idiotic use of piano trios. I can't quite believe how much I loathe this film and this actor's indulgence in endless artiness to little purpose other than some garden-variety S&M. I realize most people think this is a masterpiece and its actor the 'great actor of our time', so I apologize in advance for despising it. I think 'American Gigolo' (yes, the Rodeo Drive business) a far better film.

Actually, me too, I think I really meant to say that I really just notice it when there's little or no traveling, because there's no way that's not thrilling when it's sharp as a tack like that.

Well, I think it's the fouettes that are most telling, because they really prove that numbers don't come into it much, i.e., the exception proves the rule: You don't count them and I don't either, but we do hear about the 32 all the time. I don't count them because I'm always watching to see if they can keep them within a few reasonable inches of where they started, although it usually gets into a couple of feet.

I try to keep track of this kind of stuff locally, particularly the number of times an artist has done a particular role. That answers Ray's earlier question of keeping up with numbers of roles and performances as in opera which I was sure would be the same. That's different from the sports stuff, which is why Ice Dancing is obviously never going to go that much beyond Bolero, although they might try a Rubies if there weren't too many skaters in it, no Tall Girl needed for the Nike and Mobil decal sets. Very nice, I've been working on this sort of thing too and still find it difficult. Are you a Ben Katchor fan? Reminds me of some of his Julius Knipl Real Estate Investor things, and also the Beauty Supply District cartoons, which I love.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/28/arts/music/28fest.html?hp This is the most interesting thing I've seen come up in the exotic revival department for some time. I put it here because the article says 'it's as much a ballet as an opera', but explaining it that way means it's slightly more an opera, which they do call it. Roussel is a fine composer, always worth hearing, but I was used to smaller chamber works and hadn't known about this. I think it sounds fabulous and I would love to be among those seeing the couple of performances. Seeing this at Spoleto in the summer sounds pretty heavenly, and the best use of Bollywood personnel I've yet seen. Sounds somehow beyond 'Bombay Dreams'. This is the kind of thing that would come up in 'what would make a good ballet' threads here, except this is like one someone might imagine but that had already been done without anybody much knowing till now. Also wrote: Bacchus et Ariane, ballet in two acts Aeneas, ballet Padmâvatî, opera in 2 acts (1913–18, Louis Laloy, after T.-M. Pavie). f.p. Paris Opéra, 1 June 1923 Sarabande (1927; for the children's ballet L'Éventail de Jeanne, to which ten French composers each contributed a dance)

Oh well, volcanohunter, you're becoming my tutor, as there's no way I'm going to miss this...will report back in a week or two. although I'm never going to like anything Ms. Crawford does as much as Lena Horne being all tropical in 'Love' in 'Ziegfeld Follies. "Lena said they told her 'Lena, go out the-ah...and smol-duh... That's something Lena and Cyd both had--they could smol-duh :

I couldn't find this on the DVD I got hold of. There is a long 'watching the Bandwagon' special feature with Liza Minelli and Michael Feinstein in which they discuss 'Two-Faced Woman' and why it was cut (singing and dancing at the same time as Michael Kidd had made the number, replaced by something else they mentioned and thought much better). Cyd didn't think it was a good number, according to Minelli, who says she went to the set every day after school. I wasn't quite up to listening to this chitchat all the way through, but hardcore show-biz fans will like it, and Liza is very cute sometimes, very funny. So what happened, volcanohunter? Does this sound like a different DVD? I don't know if there are different features on some editions of DVD from those on others. Her 'La Femme Rouge' number was not quite as smart-looking as I'd remembered it, and she looks more beautiful in other parts of the film. Edited to add: 'Dancing in the Dark' definitely holds up though, even with that peculiar spell-breaking bit of jingle-jangle as they segue from hansom-cab into somebody's stagehand-slangy talk about 'the fa-nal-ee'. Prefer this number to anything he did with Ginger Rogers, who is not glamorous even though the numbers sometimes seem romantic anyway--emphasis on the 'breathless' not to my taste, much prefer Cyd's flawless statuesque body and confident technique; she seems more independent of Astaire, not swept away, so it is like a more formal conversation and therefore looks much more elegant. Further edited: I had no idea there was a 2nd disc till I was putting it away, usually associate those with 'Parsifal', etc,. so there was 'Two-Faced Woman' on Disc 2. Cyd's dubbing is by Pat Michaels aka India Adams, and the discussion earlier between Liza and Feinstein was about how 'terrible' Cyd thought the number was. Feinstein said Cyd didn't even want it put on the DVD as an extra, that it was 'not her at her best.' Liza said she couldn't believe that was Cyd singing, and that that's why they had cut the number. It truly does not sound right, although it's very good singing. It reminds one a bit of one of the B'way Haitians in the cast album of 'House of Flowers' and sometimes even has little flecks of Pearl Bailey in it even--much too earthy, although I would think Ms. Michaels/Adams must have been successful elsewhere. I liked the number for the dancing though myself, thought she looked good in it.

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Oh vell, Cristian, while I can hardly thank you in the most sincere way for that one, I may, however, repay you with one of her productions from 2005, in the New York Review of Books: In the full-page ad, her beautiful, mournful gaze, twenty years after losing her maestro, peers like a blond widow out of a black web. She, the last muse of the Man Who Knew Time, is posed with her arm across her neck like a noose. Unlike the Joan Acocella review of Bentley's book, you don't even have to pay for this one. I can't imagine why...on the other hand, I may be because, even though quotable, I'm not sure if for the best reasons. The one you placed is along the same lines, very 'The Days of Our Lives.' Edited to add: Sorry I forgot, she was talking about Darci. It's possible one might not have known.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-pr...article_id=3487 That's the preview of the Joan Acocella review from NYReview of Books 1990 or 1991, which Cristian may want to read. I'd have thought it was free, but it isn't, and I've long lost my copy of it. Was very interesting and is called 'Dancing for Balanchine'. Don't know whether Ms. Ashley picked up her title from that or not. Anyway, her take on Farrell's ego or 'non-ego' was very intelligent, whether or not one accepts it. I liked most of what Ms. Acocella wrote here--she thinks for herself, that's for sure.

I've always liked her, and was at NYCB the night Balanchine died. I remember 'Piano Concerto No. 2' with Von Aroldingen wonderful in it, lots of lightness. I didn't know this was the same as Ballet Imperial till the Kirov in April. Then took someone to see Farrell and von Aroldingen in Davidsbundlertanze in 1985 or 1986, and so glad I got to see it with much of the original cast (Adam Luders too, but not Peter Martins by then.)

Not so sure I agree with that. I believe Arlene Croce was talking about how he tried to mold Von Aroldingen during the period Farrell was away. This was in an essay that is (I think) called 'Farrell and Farrellism', and Croce was having quite a field day with the minor talent she found in Aroldingen and how what Balanchine was trying to do with her was not working. I found a quote from David Daniel on the net saying something like 'Farrell already existed by inference...' and went to say how much of what Balanchine found to work with in the Farrell material, as it were, had already been evolving in Kent and LeClerq. He's not the most unbiased observer (could be quite the Kool-Aid drinker, I knew him fairly well) to be sure, but I thought that was interesting. In the piece where I found this, someone wrote then that, given Farrell's various attributes of strength, musicality, intelligence (I can't remember this quote perfectly) he had in her a dancer from whom he could ask anything. And, of course, he got a great deal of it, I'll leave it to someone else to say if she delivered all. So that--he would have continued to work with someone else, or many other people, but at this point I think it does go into that area in which she alone contributed what was hers uniquely--and that she was thereby indispensable in the late period. Because the Balanchine/Farrell collaboration is special, ultimately. Although I think it is good to phrase it as you did, because it goes along with what Neryssa and I were talking about, with the 'monopolizing' aspect: I know you weren't necessarily trying to do that, but there is something a little off-balance about the Muse Hierarchy, so that making accurate assessments is troublesome, i.e., Farrell does sometimes seem to be too emphasized, on the other hand it is like Tallchief said soon after Farrell's first arrival at SAB: 'the talent! you could see it, it was everywhere...' Which does remind me how much I do like to hear Tallchief speak, there is a lot of strength in every thing she says--she just seems to know.

No, but anyway I already agreed on that she 'didn't have to choose Balanchine' and personally never thought she should. All the things you mention point to a provincial sensibility (this is not a criticism, I used to have one too) in the constant company of an extremely worldly older man who was pursuing her in more than one way. This very intense history of Balanchine, including all of his women, was not something she could erase no matter how sincere she was; but neither could he, even if his infatuation made it seem possible to give it no value. Peter Martins mentions in 'Far from Denmark' how she was playfully sizing him up, he was 'the provincial', she the 'woman of the world'. But she could play that part because of Balanchine's protetcion, I don't think she was ever that by nature, nor is even now. All the more reason she made the right decision. I just don't think Balanchine was 'wrong' in any of it. He was responding from his own nature, and even if religious, this was a nature that had been around the block. So yes, she accepted the consequences of her decision, and although they were difficult initially, it surely added to her development as an artist to be away from Balanchine for those years. What's interesting about being 'first and foremost' for Mejia, for however long, is was he ever first and foremost for her? Maybe, but in the end Balanchine became first and foremost for her, and in 'Elusive Muse' we hear that he talks about how he shouldn't have done that, he 'was an old man', etc., and she then soujnds confused, saying she didn't really want to hear this even though she might have felt relieved to as well. Some confusion in some areas, just like eveyone else in matters of the heart. Of course, she wouldn't like his ignoring her with his old friends, although the other NYCB dancers felt slighted by his favouritism, which is much more serious--and this is what Tallchief said 'we understood it, but it was bad for the company'. I think Americans in social situations are more easily hurt by this kind of thing, and when I lived in Paris it happened to me frequently when I was in an all-French social situation; I couldn't really understand it at the time, but I did learn not to let it get in the way of other benefits that might eventually accrue if I didn't take it too seriously. It's never polite, but I think it is not nearly always meant to be rude, but rather is an intense bonding in which some social niceties are momentarily neglected in the midst of 'one's own people'. Families do this to outsiders all the time. I think it actually almost miraculous that it turned out as well as it did: He probably could not understand that her brilliant talent and artistic intelligence did not translate into having a physical attraction to her most kindred spirit. This is the kind of brick wall we all run into in life, and a large part of his early infatuation had to have been fantasy--which is one the reasons the resistance was so expedient: It did not hurt him to realize that he could not have his way in this affair. I like the headstrong nature more than the 'morality', because it's that that made the art even greater in the ensuing years. If she'd been physically attracted to him, it wouldn't be controversial, but since she wasn't, her resistance did protect her talent once he was not able to in the ways he had prior to these developments.

I don't think so. Because she was yet another in a long sequence even if she was also "first and foremost" by then, which she clearly was. If 'first and foremost', she'd be that by just being the favourite, which she was anyway without even having to get married as desired elsewhere. Ideas about "the right to be first and foremost in love" seem to me to be outmoded, or at very least they're open to serious question. We haven't "rights to be" something loved, we are either loved or not. It doesn't have anything to do with loving someone else in addition; rights to 'the most special love' are pretty spurious and even they are often temporary matters, as multiple divorces after 'loves-of-one's-life' attest after they've been worn out. As well, the 'right to be first and foremost' could have only been a matter of marriage and its legalities, and this she wouldn't do (nor should she have, I'm convinced). And wasn't Karin Von Aroldingen left important things in his will, including rights to ballets, so that there was an example of the personal gratitude to someone who wasn't also the greatest artistic muse in the same sense. She was appreciated for her unique gifts, but in this endless discussion, to echo Christian in a previous thread (although this one is almost 35 years old), the larger context is Balanchine, not Farrell. She is ahead of the other ballerinas in legend, explicit demonstrations of favoritism by Balanchine, image and number of ballets made for her especially, but she is still not the prime mover that he is within the world of Balanchine: Without her, he would have still been almost as important; without him, she would not have been (or it's much less certain). Sometimes that old episode seems to place her above not only all the other ballerinas and muses, but above the master as well. He seems weaker and less sympathetic than she does in that episode to many people, I think they were both just being themselves. In any case, as Helene notes regarding what Farrell 'had to lose', even if he was 'weaker', he still had the power of ultimate decision, she didn't. I don't remember where she says something like "neither of us were especially interested in sex." Well, that's neither laudable nor ignoble, it's neutral. Understandable, but you can't always, can you, even if you and others personally think the others were equally or even more important in whatever way? Farrell will always be the one most identified with the ultimate Balanchine ideal, the embodiment of the fulfillment of his potential. In that video 6 Balanchine ballerinas, Tallchief even says 'this was his Muse, and I think, for the rest of his life..' or 'until his death', I don't have the video handy. By then, she didn't sound at all resentful, but did seem to be stating what had played out with Farrell as Muse as an indisputable fact. Ashley lamented in her part of the tape about having done 'Diamonds' and how when Farrell returned to NYCB 'she got most of her old roles back.' People do talk about 'Balanchine's muses' and even sometimes refer to Darci Kistler as 'his last Muse' (although I believe I've heard Farrell called that too), but if it's just 'Balanchine's Muse', it always means Farrell. But it's clear why you'd feel that way sometimes, it does seem sometimes as if there's an emphasis that goes too far (and frequently.).

But this one must surely be the case, mustn't it? Balletomanes less fanatical than opera fans? I bet they're not, but slightly less of the crude forms of diva worship probably.

That sounds like it ought to happen in all cases, although probably is fairly rare. I wonder how often it does by now. Also wonder why I have a harder time wanting to see a Snow White ballet than the other fairy tales--could be the Disney aspect sticks more because of the songs. I don't think think of the Disney cartoons of Pinocchoi, Peter Pan and Cinderella in the same way, although if there are ballets about Donald Duck and Bambi--and I've no doubt there will be--I may balk still more. Andre Previn if he was up to it, or maybe Glass could give a perpetual-motion Snow White that will recall the "Whistle While You Work" with renewed relevance for the lunch-at-one's-desk and 14-hour work-day life-styles.

thanks all thus far, and atm answers what I imagined. I thought Virginia Johnson's despair was very moving, but that there was not enough menace to the whole atmosphere of the piece. Also, the music needed somebody like Leonard Bernstein to conduct it, and this reminds me of the excellent post of a few months back Alexandra wrote explaining some of the subtleties of Danish art, Bournonville in particular, when I was having some difficulty entering into these sensibilities. While I don't know if the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra would have a hard time getting a more electric sound, precisely the word for what was needed and was rarely there: You saw it more in the stepmother's face than anywhere else. That was definitely a part of what wasn't there, because the quietness and non-ferocious quality of the Danish music is obviously not the same as what the Morton Gould score needed. Ms. Johnson seemed to be trying very hard, but as if working in a kind of vacuum because things needed to be vertical, shocked and more urgent. I've only seen old PBS broadcasts of DTH, and wasn't too conscious of them at the time; so I don't know what the general style of DTH really is, but can also imagine that the quickened look you see in some Kylian dances would have made this stand up more, as would some aspects of Graham company even when something as grave as murder is not involved. People recently spoke of Nora Kaye, and I just looked at some of the photos of her in the role. That does sound as though it most have been exciting. It's now interesting that DeMille used 'legend' in the title, because not only has she changed the verdict, but you don't really suspect that matters of property dispute in a well-to-do New England family may have been the much more mundane matters causing much of the bitterness, at least to some degree. The ballet doesn't really tell you about the real Bordens that much, who were probably distinctly unromantic. The ballet is very much a fable, and needs to bristle with a sense of urgency throughout, not just once in a while as in this DVD.

But they still might be able to do it without using Alan Mencken. Mightn't Del Tredici compose it within the salable model of plot, divertissment, etc. without making anyone think think they were getting too much High Art or Carob Drink? Couldn't it still be for the whole family without posturing as Important? I'm not sure Snow White is as likely as Alice to lead anyone to fear subtleties. Oh well, Janet Maslin said Mencken's Beauty and the Beast music was 'suave', and that didn't ruin it for anyone (since that wasn't quite accurate anyway.) Time for Alan to go into his 'classical period', so can leave legacy, as when Clint Eastwood left nightmare things like 'The Gauntlet' and the Dirty Harry movies behind and became 'Unforgiven' auteur. People have been talking about how ABT SB has Burger King in it, so the trend may already be to junk food.

I am glad to have finally seen this work, and enjoyed it well enough. I would like to hear from people who have seen live performances of this as to what they think of this one. I thought much of it moving, but somehow always wanted something a little more high-energy in both the dancing and the orchestra (Danish Radio Symphony, I believe). I am sure that I had in mind something that would be more full of tension in the way the Graham classics are as I've seen them performed by the Graham company. I kept wanting more speed, more sharp edges, and less softness. Is that reasonable? or is this the way it is usually performed? It just seemed slightly too slow and gentle. Thanks in advance.

Thanks for mentioning these, I'm going to fetch them. I love the Band Wagon, but have never seen that number.

I quite like 'Spangler Arlington Brough', which sounds not hick, but rather landed-Southern and strong--much better if more unwieldy than the thoroughly ordinary name he evolved into. I'll now look it up and see what it is, but to me there is no redneck sound to that one . The competition for Tula Ellice Finklea is surely Roberta Sue Ficker, and I'm at a loss to choose between them, although I find all of 'Cyd Charisse' to have been the perfect solution, whereas 'Farrell' has never sounded quite as uncannily inevitable as 'Suzanne.' Edited to add: Wiki has it as 'Brugh' and it's Nebraska, so probably pronounced 'brew', whereas 'Brough' is 'bro', I've a friend named Brough.

Oh yes, exactly as Dale and Aurora and the others say, except I'm being unreasonable and haven't accepted that she'd died at all. She stayed younger-looking and kept her dancer's body longer than anybody (at least when last I saw her in photos or new clips). I thought she was wonderful in all the movies, including 'Black Tights' too, with Zizi Jeanmaire and Moira Shearer. Agree with Aurora about the sexiness in green in 'Singin' in the Rain' and Dale about the Dancing in the Dark and Silk Stockings. She was also featured early in the film of Ziegfeld Follies, but 'This Heart of Mine' would have been better still if it had been Fred and Cyd instead of Fred and Lucille. I just thought she was set to live to 100. What a magnificently beautiful lady she was.

Carlitos in "Afternoon..."?...Mmm.. don't know, but i can't place him. For me he is Spartacus, Acteon, Basilio...but not the delicate image of Robbins' boy/character. I hope you can see him in more flamboyant roles, those that he has mastered. Is this the way you feel about his Franz with RB? Because I didn't think that was right for him, but it's the only thing I've seen with him in it.

Most eloquent, Helene. I quote the below portion of your text, which was the only part I couldn't quite understand, viz., your reference to 'an unhealthy singlemindedness...etc.' Did you mean a 'healthy single-mindedness that allowed her to survive to a point'? All I mean is I can't grasp how 'an unhealthy single-mindedness' would have any beneficial effects. Obviously, I get the gist of most of what you're saying so intelligently, so therefore just wanted this little part clarified.