papeetepatrick

I haven't been able to get in on either of them--VNP or TAT--all day--either on IE or Firefox.

I just read Ann Beattie's 'Follies' from 2005, or rather finished them, since I'd read most of them a while back and then reread some and finished the rest. These are wonderful stories. It's taken me a while to get used to her loopy prose style, but I get it now.

All of this reaction to Haworth (known for the most part only to those who remember her as Karen in 'Exodus') was why I was so surprised when I liked her; I was very influenced by the NYTimes critics when I was a kid, adopting their opinions almost as a matter of course, but my companion that night agreed with me. In any case, it effectively ended her career. Of course, it's of interest what the creators of something feel about their actors, but it's well-known how Truman Capote disliked Audrey Hepburn in 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' and, as I mentioned during the week, how Sondheim hated the film version of 'Gypsy.' Either they cannot always be objective, or when it becomes public domain, the public has a right to consume and enjoy even without their seal of approval. I like all sorts of terribly reviewed things, things that are even considered bombs. I don't know what Sondheim thought about the film of 'West Side Story.' Except for 'Company,' I think his best shows were as a lyricist--'West Side Story' and 'Gypsy.' I don't think as a composer he can usually achieve what comes so effortlessly to Bernstein and Jule Styne, but he did pull it off with 'Company,' IMO.

After reading A.O. Scott's review today, I'm definitely going to 'Babel' when the crowds simmer down in a couple of weeks. It sounds extraordinary, and even reminded me of 'Intolerance' in the way it's structured. This isn't one for the TV size.

Another Sondheim piece I fortunately caught as a child was the TV musical 'Evening Primrose,' about subterraneans at Macy's who pose as mannequins during the day. I later rehearsed one of the songs 'I Remember Sky' with someone a few times, but it was a rather beautiful musical on the old Stage 67 series. Very like a Twilight Zone episode that had this human/mannequin thing. It doesn't seem to be available on VHS or DVD, so that only if someone has taped it and puts it up on eBay probably. Some of the songs are on a couple of anthologies. Anthony Perkins was in it. I never heard of it being shown again, but it may have been.

Yes, and that reminds me of how effective and chilling 'Tomorrow Belongs To Me' in 'Cabaret' is. This was a fine film, but was more effective onstage in some ways if only because a play can convey some of the intimacy of real cabaret itself in a way that film is totally unequipped to do. I never did see what the violent objection was to Jill Haworth as Sally Bowles; this was my first B'way show, and I thought she was just right. There should have been some way to keep Minnelli from exposing the Judy Garland baggage so much, though. But Michael York was terrific as always. I like 'Holiday Affair' at Christmas, with Janet Leigh and Robert Mitchum, but also am crazy about 'Holiday Inn'. But the best Christmas number in a show I know of is the office party of 'Turkey Lurkey Time' from 'Promises, Promises,' which was never made into a movie, and I think it still could be very effective.

Now, now, sidwich, we can too. I like a lot of your things, and I see I've got to check my facts twice before letting you see them as you are encyclopedic about these musicals. I don't know how I got confused about Carol Reed and David Lean, nor do I know how I forgot the Sherman Bros., so thanks for the setting-straight on those two matters. People just don't like the same things, e.g., I didn't bring up 'Finian's Rainbow' on this thread previously, because most don't like it judging from the Fred Astaire thread a while back; but I happen to think that, even if imperfect, it's got long brilliant sections, esp. the rapturous 'Look to the Rainbow'/'How Are Things in Glocca Morra' opening, which is like a separate whole musical all its own, and this may be due in large part to Coppola. And, even if I did like the Sondheim score for 'SWEENEY TODD', I wouldn't be going with this cast--no matter what kinds of reviews they get.

The whole enterprise was worth it for the John Coltrane version of this, and he didn't wait too long either, I think it was ready 1959. Then years later they used it in a Lexus, Accura or Audi ad. We probably don't like the music so much because it's R&H, because in 'Mary Poppins' you get a sillier score, but since it's Livingston and Evans, it doesn't seem to matter so much. 'Mary Poppins' is boring, but probably a better film because made for the screen. I don't like the music to 'SWEENEY TODD' either.

My favourite crowd scene was in the production of 'Die Meistersinger' I saw at the Met in 1995. The Nurnbergers are all gathered and singing gloriously, with bright banners right before the competition. It was joyous, as was the whole production, especially Bernd Weikl as Hans Sachs.

As per a previous post, I am a bigger fan of Peter Martins than quite a number here. I don't find him cold, but rather cool. What seems like coldness is a kind of exaggerated masculine attitude (perhaps less popular in today's climate), which is certainly appropriate for partnering one kind of ultimate feminine like Suzanne Farrell, and their coolness was well-matched. Yes, she could be hot, but she herself once spoke of how she was sometimes perceived as a 'cool and detached' dancer. She often was, but this was very arresting. Then she'd let go seemingly quite suddenly. Her partner would need to have an extreme of masculinity that she could never quite touch, just as there would always be something inaccessibly feminine in her that he could long for and never quite reach. It was not a one-sided partnership, and they needed to have a chemistry that often included sexual resistance for the thing to work--which it did, of course. Some faces that are very big (like Peter Martins's) often remind people of coldness even when it's not there. I once heard the great Catherine Deneuve (another kind of 'ultimate feminine') interviewed by Johnny Carson, and he asked her about people's perception of her as 'cold.' She said it had to do probably with the way her face was built and worked, and added 'well, I am cool, but not cold,' which we all found quite hilarious, because she inserted her coolness so slyly.

I hadn't seen this, and I find it very depressing. There would have to be a concerted effort to prevent everything from being reduced to online, and it's unlikely. When shopping is completely reduced to an online activity, there is no reason to think that the things shopped for won't have changed imperceptibly into very different things themselves, i.e., they themselves will have an 'online quality' to them. At this point, shopping for old things on eBay and elsewhere, there is still the illusion that we are getting the old things, but just in a more convenient exchange process, but that will change over time, and probably very rapidly. A few years ago, I already found it difficult to believe that there were 3 Mom's 'n' Pop's drugstores still in the West Village, what with the plethora of Rite-Aid, Duane Reade, and CVS. Well, one of these closed the other day, and the sign even describes it as having always been a Duane Reade store, which in this case actually only means it is being annexed by the next-door pre-existing Duane Reade. So maybe Bigelow's DrugStore and Steinway Piano will last another 10 years as 'prestige establishments' until even those are abandoned in favour of online forms of 'life.' I used Tower for years when it was still full of only VHS in the Video Store. I still use VHS, but nobody else I know does.

Yes, I think that's why the movie still has life to it--she brings to it a slightly alien quality that goes against what was expected, as if she'd just wandered into hallowed ground, and is unwelcome--but goes ahead and has the nerve to inhabit the role anyway. When I see the film 40 years later, I don't see anything except her. At the time, though, she was also well-reviewed by a number of leading critics, as Bosley Crowther at the NYT and also the New Yorker. This fact is usually lost because this was one of those unpopular castings and, of course, many people behaved as if it were an outrage.

Yes, 'Saturday Night Fever' shows up the all the rest. It's truly poetic and is like a 70's version of the 'numbers musical'. Casting is perfection--Karen Lynne Gorney and Travolta make you feel Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, as a real locale, and they could have easily cast someone a lot glossier than Gorney. So that all the gloss and magic is saved for the danced numbers themselves, and the BeeGees' songs are thoroughly inspired--still, IMO. (It's not like 'Rent', which looks like it was photographed to be some sort of New York Noir thing, so that I had to look really hard to recognize a single thing, finally found a Nobody Beats the Wiz. But then I couldn't stand it onstage either. ) Of course, then followed 'Grease,' where Olivia Newton-John adds perfectly to the cartoon horror and loudness. Pictures based in song but not dance, perhaps, might include 'Nashville' and 'Welcome to L.A.', both of which grew quite organically out of their milieux. I agree with the 'not so sure' part, and this was even true back when we could have lived without 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' and 'Goodbye Mr. Chips.' and I personally could have lived without 'Evita.'

I agree. It's always bracing and fresh, and Hermione Gingold is hilarious: 'What Elinor Glyn reads is her mother's business...' And what also should be mentioned, along the lines of both original screen musicals and Rodgers & Hammerstein, is 'State Fair.' The 1945 version is very special and is what American musicals were able to be when things when smoothly enough and there was also a clear focus on the material itself. The early 60's version is horrible except for one dance number with sublime leggy young vixen Ann-Margret, one of my favourite things and should have been cast in 'SWEENEY TODD'...And 'Bye Bye Birdie' is wonderful about 2/3 through, at which point it is ruined and Janet Leigh is no dancer. But I also think the 1978 'Hair' is terrific, with Beverly d'Angelo singing 'Good Morning, Starshine'; and all that stuff in Central Park is beautiful.

Yes, thanks, sidwich, I have never seen it and just put a hold on it at the library. I think it doesn't have as much music as most of Sondheim's, does it? Then there are films which don't leave out just 3 or 4 tunes, but all but 1 or 2, like 'Louisiana Purchase.' But 'Louisiana Purchase' is a charmer anyway. I agree that 'The Sound of Music' is an improvement and I can certainly see why it had such broad appeal, but the piece itself is nowhere near, for me, what the great R & H shows--'Oklahoma', 'Carousel', 'South Pacific,' 'The King and I'-are musically. I was just thinking of those old Baron and Baroness songs yesterday, 'No Way To Stop It' and 'How Can Love Survive.' 'Oliver!' is one which comes to mind that probably is an improvement, esp. since Lean is following up his own b & w masterpiece. I also like big chunks of 'Hello, Dolly!', 'Funny Girl', and 'Gypsy,' although the last is supposed to be loathed by Sondheim, who of course wrote the lyrics. Generally, the great movie musicals are made for the screen to begin with.

The casting reminds me of the way 'Chicago' was cast. It's much more of a whole different ball game when the musical goes onto film(always a lot further away from the original than I'd ever realized), and the result doesn't usually work as well as one would like it to. 'The King and I' translated beautifully, but many of the greatest B'way shows have become sloppy onscreen or barely recognizable as what made them great even if they are technically fairly sound. I never saw 'A Little Night Music,' which I think is Sondheim's only show with both music and lyrics that has made it to the screen, but I've always heard it was bad. Generally, the translations are fairly good but not great. The happy exceptions often seem to be accidents, as when casting Mitzi Gaynor in 'South Pacific,' but the casting of film adaptions of B'way shows is one of the most contentious matters I've encountered among film buffs.

I've found 2 photos that will convince all skeptics that Ms. Bonham Carter and her escort will make the Best Pies in London. http://www.imdb.com/gallery/granitz/3494/T...%20Helena&seq=3 http://www.imdb.com/gallery/granitz/4417/E...arter,%20Helena I had to open the IMDB in order to find exactly what film I couldn't remember her in. It was 'A Room with a View.' At that point she always had that 'Junior Year Abroad' blushing quality, but she has clearly grown. During my stay at IMDB, I found a hilarious bio explaining how Miss Bonham Carter, despite maintaining talent along with sexpot status, has not become a star--we find that Julie Christie also ‘turned her back on stardom’; and how Ms. Fonda ‘came close’, but allowed certain procedures during her tenure as Mrs. Turner that made stardom elude her. And then: 'Brando was a superstar who could act, but hardly a sexpot.' Huh??? Oh well, maybe the writer was distinguishing between 'sexpot' and 'sex symbol', or something like that. Easily the funniest bit of text I've read from the expert opinionators on that site, and with 'Sweeney Todd' Miss Bonham Carter has another chance at the elusive quest. All of our best wishes go with her. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000307/bio

Thanks for that report, miliosr. I always like to hear what the Graham Co. is up to. I saw them twice in NYC in 2005, but I don't think they were here in 2006. I may be wrong, but I did do some searches. Have you got any more of their 2006-7 schedule?

I love it when casting saves me money. I remember what Patsy said in 'ABFAB' about Ms. Bonham Carter, and I agree.

I confess that I find it somewhat startling to describe Peter Martins, Dancer, as bland. I found him an extremely bold and magnificent dancer, not only in 'Apollo', but especially robust and fiery in 'Robert Schumann's Davidsbundlertanze' and also partnering Farrell in 'Tzigane.' Bold, magnificent and statuesque certainly equal 'interesting', at very least, to me. I think he is especially sensitive with Kay Mazzo in the film of 'Stravinsky Violin Concerto.' His son, Nilas, I definitely usually find bland, bland, and bland, although in 'Liebeslieder Walzer' last May I thought I saw more for once. In fact, I've seen lots of bland dancers at NYCB, but I never thought of PM as one of them.

Dirac--thanks for those excellent notes. I just saw that some 70 people want to check out copies of the book from the library, and mine is 'in transit' so it will be interesting now to finally read it. Good point about how ridiculous it was talking about Swank looking like Kirschner, and reminds me that I left another important point out: Kirschner's performance in the sad porn flickers was probably the single true performance in the film, this despite that that is a thoroughly stereotyped sort of character. She has the most humanity, and it is as though DePalma didn't care about the fact that somehow the heart of the story had been protected. When Madeleine kills Blanchard, there's something of 'KillBill' there, as well as the unnecessary sound effects for the fighting--all connected to the Virtual Reality sensation, but not skillful as in Tarantino, which is mostly surface but is content with it, at least. The porn loops were also too reminiscent of the ones with Connelly and Nolte in 'Mulholland Falls', but they were effective and should have informed an infinitely better whole film--if DePalma hadn't wanted to be so tacky and cute the rest of the time. Not satisfied to have come up with 4 examples Ms. Swank seems to have studied in order to produce her thoroughly hollow performance, I also just now thought that she may have studied Laura Elena Haring in 'Mulholland Drive' as well for the visual look--and also for some of the 'atmosphere' she would have needed for the Lesbian club part. But I imagine it was more to recall Ms. Connelly, who really took my breath away as Alison Pond--not a single false note there (Nolte was excellent, though, too; I thought 'Mulholland Falls' was underrated). Will report back to the other thread in a few weeks after I have read the novel.

I mentioned on a literature thread that I saw 'The Black Dahlia', but had not read it as I thought I might have. I may want to see exactly what was there after this. This was worth seeing in a theater, because the only virtues I could see in it--the visual and musical settings--wouldn't be as apparent on television. It's enjoyable even though almost always awful, and I kept wondering why I didn't hate it. I don't know that much of DePalma's work, and have never cared much for it. There seem to be these big crude echoes of classics sometimes. It works as in 'Dressed to Kill' doing something on 'Psycho', and here he is always calling 'Chinatown' to mind, but it doesn't work. There's no love here that I could pick up, and I'd think that 'noir' was all through after 'Mulholland Drive', but then 'Far from Heaven' was masterful, even if set in Connecticut. 'The Black Dahlia' is coarse and campy throughout. If you missed Echo Park from 'chinatown' the first time here, it's there twice. I only read one review and all of the principle actors were faulted except Hilary Swank. Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johanssen and Aaron Eckhart all started out as if doing something in acting class, but I thought they all got some better after awhile, although Eckhart as Blanchard was the only one who had the right style. All of the hard-boiled dialogue falls flat. Swank may embody the 'virtual reality noir' that De Palma seems to have decided on, or ended up with by default. The obligatory Bel Air or Holmby Hills daughter, her 'Madeleine' role is a composite of Faye Dunaway's voice in 'Chinatown' (perfectly imitated, except that it doesn't then seem hers), Jennifer Connelly's sex-bomb attitude in 'Mulholland Falls' (except that it doesn't come natural to her as it did to Connelly), Charlotte Rampling's classy bad girl in 'Farewell, My Lovely' (but less so), and Claire Trevor's vulgarity in 'Murder My Sweet' (and she succeeds in only looking like her). There are two sex scenes so camped up as to be egregious, and these are so bad they ruin the whole film, which is already mediocre enough. Hartnett and Johanssen finally cannot resist each other and this pre-sex scene is so tacky it breaks the low but pleasant spell caused by the music and reminded me of the ending of 'Carrie'. The other one follows maybe 10 minutes later and is the same thing, but less fuss, with Hartnett and Swank. It's almost as if DePalma was saying 'You mean you really took my movie more or less seriously all this long?' Beautiful photography if you're an LA buff. Good footage of the Pantages Theater, and they may have even used the Bradbury Building for the umpteenth time when Blanchard and DeWitt are reunited after jail time for the latter. 'los angeles plays itself' by Thom Andersen was excellent on these LA film-set landmarks. Some other of the old buildings of DT (possibly One Bunker Hill) as well as City Hall are beautiful here. Otherwise, pretty grainy movie.

Yes, it was interesting, but I'm fairly sure that I read 'The Big Nowhere' and got it confused with 'The Black Dahlia,' because I think I would have remembered this story. I do remember most of the stories in 'LA Confidential' and 'White Jazz,' but Ellroy can run together if you read a clump of them at once, as I did in 1998.

Yes, they were indeed so beautiful here, and Frederick Franklin was hilarious talking about 'the Russians.'

DeLillo's 'The Body Artist.' This is a small, fierce thing (124 pp.) Dancers should find it fascinating, as it is written in an extremely stylized way and details very highly charged space and minute movement within it. The body artist character Lauren Hartke suggests somewhat those performance artists like Orlan and Stelarc, although without the extremes of mutilation. Many DeLillo fans did not care for this 2001 pared-down and very abstruse style, which he continued in 'Cosmopolis' from 2003, because of the previous lush books like 'Underworld'. I just read this and tend to still think that DeLillo can do no wrong; I am not alone in thinking that he is the most powerful living American fiction writer.