casablancalover

> {quote:title=helenbaby wrote:}{quote} > While THe Benny Goodman Story didn't have all that much going for it besides the music, I'll have to say I would have loved the wardrobe that Donna Reed wore in the film. It seemed more appropriate for the 1950's instead of the 1930's, but the gowns were beautiful and she looked great in them. Its the same for *The Glenn Miller Story*, produced around the same time. The reason has to do with Hollywood sensibilities at the time, and those slick Publicity/Marketing types. The producers wanted to work the image of this music as current, to appeal to all those Parents of us baby boomers. While we know its the thirties, the Depression is hardly given any recognition at all, and the storylines had little to do with reality of the title characters. It was all about selling the vinyl (records), and I'm sure the Glenn Miller people and the Benny Goodman people were happy with the result on record sales. When *The Glenn Miller Story* was released, there was free tickets given to anyone named Glenn Miller who came to the theater for the opening. In Minneapolis, my dad and mom saw the movie for free! Guess my Dad's name ;-) !

Maybe not so ironically, I've never taken the Universal tour. If you want a good taste of Hollywood history, do Paramount or Warner's instead. Hopefully, you will latch on to a great guide with some great stories. Many will go off script, if you know how to ask, and they feel they can trust you. So I'm not suggesting any names.

Paramount Studios has a number of ghosts, most of them delightfully benign. Music filters through near the Melrose entrance, not far from Rudolph Valentino's offices. People claim to hear it after the studio shutdown, well after midnight. There are other's who notice the nattily-dressed man who walks around the sound stages on the old Desilu side, near the Gower Entrance, sometimes at dusk. Folks around there surmise it is Bugsy Seigel, who is buried across the wall at the Hollywood Forever Cemetary. Some have even claimed they've watched him walk through the wall! If you find the right tour guide, you can get great stories.

I remember that spot too. After the Northridge Quake in '94, the studios were hitting every large auction from the Rockies to the Midwest, looking for glassware, dinnerware, and decor lighting! Warner's and Paramount Prop departments were particularly hard hit, I think.

Have to check with Cinesage or Kyle on this one; I believe the studios will run auctions (or farm the goods out to auctions) from time to time. On one of the first Studio tours I took, Warner's if I remember correctly, mentioned there would never be enough room if they held onto everything.

> {quote:title=CCerini wrote:}{quote} in response to casablancalover:> I have actually considering setting up a Casablanca Conference call on December 2nd. Live discussion during a broadcast or a synchronized play for all participants. Tres amusant, no? > > Count me in! I will keep you posted, Gus!

I'm appreciating Tati's use of coreography more; his "espirt de corps" of briefcase-carrying businessmen waiting for the bus, and the precision used, and the sense of wonder that at once celebrates it - and mocks it!

John Wayne in *The High and the Mighty* with Robert Stack (slap him silly again, John)

James Best in *The Killer Shrews* (Ah, ha! and my friends didn't think I went to _those threads_ ) With Ken Curtis

I kick Ginger Rogers out of the house in *Primrose Path*, and live with Joel McCrea there. OR, I could send Lorraine Day back to the US In *Foreign Correspondant*, and shack up with Joel there. OR, I could take Joel from Claudette Colbert (she's too old for him anyway) in *Palm Beach Story*.

Great circular connection! Tres Bien!! *Danny Glover* in *Places in the Heart* with *Sally Field*

Susan Sarandon in *Bull Durham* with (wait for it...) *Tim Robbins* I know; cut me some slack, I didn't get a lot sleep last night.

*Gerard Depardieu* in *The Man in the Iron Mask* with *Gabriel Byrne* (casablancalover drools-a little bit; I think its the hair...)

This discussion reminded me that I have bought items as gifts that appear as movie props. About 8 years ago, I found a snow globe with just a small winter log house and a pine tree. My oldest son received it, he recognized it as the snow globe from *Citizen Kane* - and asked, "What? No Sled?!" Ha-ha!

> {quote:title=laffite wrote:}{quote} > I would like to be in MON ONCLE. I would be myself. I would walk around the streets of Paris and just look around me and be amused. Who knows, I may run across the familiar and somewhat dowdy looking figure, a man with raincoat, pipe, funny looking hat, and that pair of pants a little too short. Occupying this somewhat rarefied word would be highly amusing indeed. For those familiar with the films of Jacques Tati, you know of what I speak. > Tati? Lafitte, that's an interesting choice. I was just thinking *Sabrina*, just returning to Paris . . .

I do love that scene! I do! I do! Just watching *Playtime* again; found it very funny..... The security guard and his wall of buttons.... all that work for what? LOL Running gag about the sound of shoes, (which is either Tati's irratation or his delight; I can't decide which, except that Hulot's shoes are quiet) The scene where Hulot is brought to the waiting room (itself a metaphor) I will be using asides frequently when discussing Tati's work. That because of his style of storytelling. Modern art period - Hulot moving from chair to chair - the corporate "portraits" and their expressions around him - a visual greek chorus! Has anyone noticed the other applicant brought to the waiting room has a look and a technique identical to - _Jerry Lewis_ ??!! Great scene. Then the concept of blocks of cubicles used as a maze......

> {quote:title=scsu1975 wrote:}{quote} > I won't watch Shenandoah again, which is too bad since I enjoyed most of the film ... but I didn't enjoy seeing Patrick Wayne stabbed to death by a stray soldier, and then his wife, played by Katharine Ross, done in as well (although we don't see it, we know it has happened). Yes, scsu, I avoid *Shenandoah* everytime it's on because of the same scene.

Ha - Ha! ! ! LOL ! Great one, Gus!

> {quote:title=CCerini wrote:}{quote} > The letters of passage with Ilsa's and Victor's names from 'Casablanca' > > You'd have to bid against me and probably "casablancalover" for those! > > --Gus Cerini *I want those letters!* (casablancalover then draws back, and pulls a small derringer from her purse) *Give them to me.* Now, whatwouldcagneydo?

So true! *The Haunting* is scary because it doesn't come right out and Say "Booga, Booga, Booga" -To borrow Groucho's quote from *Night at the Opera*. It let's our imaginations take us that extra step of what frightens us the most: the unknown. That is what I believe made *The Blair Witch Project* such a success. The story fed just enough for us to let our imaginations and our emotion of fear take the story to our darkest parts of our minds. The lack of information provides us the opening to fill with what is scariest for us. I always felt the movies are emotional and responsive storytelling; it requires our engagment. The viewer will get less out of the experience if they are treating it passively. It is not TV. In fact, Friartuck has a thread about the Wild Wild West, which shows you can get more our of TV if you engage the mind.

I was checking with some post- people about creating HD for a film, and his response was, some director's like a challenge. I think in terms of eye candy, *300* does it for me. In terms of creating magical and emotional response, Jean Cocteau's *Beauty and the Beast* is my favorite. The transfiguration scene of the Beast is pure magic to me... and to others as well, for Disney Co. lifted that scene almost whole for their version over 40 years later! As far as then and now argument, I say it's apples and oranges. I can love a 1952 MG, seen in *Two for the Road* and still also love a Mazda Miata. Just for different reasons. Message was edited by: casablancalover

Sorry to get back to the thread so late, but I have had an event-filled week. The backstory that was referred to it not unusual; it is frightening to some actors for a filming/production schedule to go too well! They prefer the tension of a production team that will keep them focused. Also, some actors (not all) will consider the problem-plagued production a good omen! They reason, I think, that if they deal with the problems early on, then the release will be smoother. Its their counter-intuitive thinking kicking in.

I think the sweetest moment on *Mon Oncle* is the playtime fun of the son with his uncle. Having raised two sons to adulthood, this is just the way boys behave sometimes. Hulot interacts with the children perfectly. He lets the boys act their parts, and yet they don't really upstage him. In *Play time*, I was at first confused by the setting. A pleasant confused. You're right, cc, it's best to watch Tati develop his visual style to the viewer. His is a very distinctive progression in storytelling. Most of the great directors develop in technicality, rather than in storytelling. But Tati depends on story/situation rather than narrative storytelling, so I feel he's developed his situation progression. He is a wonderful handle on what is amusing in life, the non-sequitor of it all!

Favell: Prince Regent! ! ! It's one of the reasons I cannot bring myself to watch *House*..

Tatillon: As far as a fountain is concerned, I would vote with the wife on this one. Lobby cards- Oui! Fountains -no! But I would enjoy the stepping stones . .. . Just bought a home in St Paul, so now I know what I need to decorate... CC: I am fascinated by what Tati will overlook to find humor. All the times people spend entering the garden of Hulot's brother (in-law?) nobody ever trips on the gate lower cross post!!! I am wondering why he would do this? I'm surmising it's because it is too easy a laugh. Tati is committed to us being amused and thinking about it first, as if encouraging us to think for and anticipate the punchline-so to speak...