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Palmerin

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Posts posted by Palmerin

  1. The plot of Easter Parade is that Fred Astaire's partner Ann Miller leaves the act because she's tired of being a second banana to Astaire.  She wants to headline her own show-- this leaves Astaire in a bind, because he needs a new partner.  I believe that he has just signed a contract prior to Miller leaving the act.  Fred Astaire and Peter Lawford (Astaire's best friend) end up at a restaurant I believe where they're discussing how they're going to find a dancer for Astaire.  Lawford wants Astaire to try and convince Miller to come back.  Astaire, still hurting from Miller's abandonment brags that he doesn't need her and can make a dancer out of anyone.  In walks Judy Garland who is part of a dance troupe.  He watches her peformance and decides to hire her.  At first she doesn't want to accept; but money talks and she joins the act. 

     

    Astaire tries to teach Garland the fundamentals and they're able to fulfill Astaire's previously contracted engagement-- albeit, Judy's performance is rough.  After a period of trying to improve the act, Astaire and Garland hit upon a new formula for their act-- one that exploits both of their talents to their full potential-- they will add singing to their routines.  Next we're treated to a montage of different performances which depicts their rise to stardom. 

     

    Miller, seeing her former partner Astaire's success with Garland is jealous.  Astaire and Garland go to see her new show and Miller invites Astaire on stage to perform one of their old numbers.  Garland, jealous of Astaire and Miller's routine, leaves.  Astaire then chases her to her apartment apologizing saying that Miller forced him onstage.

     

    The movie ends with Astaire proposing to Garland at the famous "Easter Parade" in New York City.  At the beginning of the film, Garland had told him about her dream to walk down the street in a beautiful dress and hat. 

     

    All through the story, there is a love triangle that is intermingled amongst all the dance numbers.  Lawford is in love with Garland; Garland is in love with Astaire.  Garland thinks Astaire loves Miller; Astaire later realizes he loves Garland. 

     

    In my opinion, the highlight of the film is Astaire's "slow-motion" dance routine.

    Many thanks for taking the trouble of explaining the plot to me.

  2. I love Judy Garland. If there was ever a day to feign illness and stay home from work, today would have been it; but I didn't, mostly because I have a lot of the movies airing today and am recording a couple others I'm interested in.

     

    I really love "The Pirate." It's a weird movie; but is entertaining. I'm a big Gene Kelly fan as well-- I know he's a little hammy; but I love him anyway. His collaborations with Judy were excellent. I really loved "For Me and My Gal" and "Summer Stock" as well.

     

    My favorite Judy movies are "Meet Me in St. Louis," "The Clock," and "The Harvey Girls."

     

    But I love all her films. I haven't seen "A Star is Born" in forever. I should watch it again.

     

    EDIT: ooh I forgot about "Easter Parade!" That ranks above "The Harvey Girls" for me. I'm glad Fred Astaire got that role over Gene Kelly.

    What IS the plot of EASTER PARADE, a movie that I have no intention of ever watching a second time?

    But what really perplexes me is the fact that Garland (and Cher) are regarded as gay icons. Why is that the case?

  3. Many thanks for all your posts.

    Francois Boucher, who was much admired by Renoir because of his command of anatomy and color, fell into disfavor during the French Revolution because he had been a favorite of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour. It took a while for his reputation to recover, but now his paintings are once again admired as objects of beauty, highly prized by collectors and popular with the public, which doesn't care about the fact that Boucher's patron, Louis XV, was hardly the best king in history.

    Boucher certainly is in a better position than Diego Rivera, whose art is ruined by a xenophobia that makes much of his best work utterly ridiculous to people who do not share Rivera's jaundiced view of Mexican history.

  4. Please consider the title changed to OF ALL THE EVILS PERPETRATED BY 20th CENTURY DOGMA (regarding computers I am no more than a child that struggles to learn reading and writing).

    Why this title? Propaganda comes from the CONGREGATIO PROPAGANDA FIDEI=CONGREGATION FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH--thus it referred originally to religious propaganda, a type to which most people do not object. As to cult of personality, it could be said that it applies to someone like Queen Victoria, a lady so admired in Canada that her birthday is a national Canadian holiday.

    The problem with 20th century propaganda is that, beginning with Mussolini in 1922 and followed closely by Stalin in 1924, it became identified with people definitely not as admirable as Queen Victoria. It is very revealing that Stalin identified, not with someone admirable like Peter the Great, but instead with the 16th century version of Idi Amin, Ivan the Terrible (very appropriate nickname). Not surprisingly, when Saddam Hussein looked for a role model, he chose Stalin, whom he followed slavishly both in style of governance and in personality cult.

    Political nature abhors a vacuum. Thus as religion lost much of its importance many self appointed Messiahs and pseudo religions rushed to take its place. That is how you have today the corpses of Lenin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh enshrined as holy relics, and feminism and other politically correct dogmas abusing the reputations of people like Pierre Auguste Renoir, whose art never had a political agenda, but instead was simply designed to make people glad and happy.

  5. While I agree that politics and art make very poor bedfellows, I think the title of your thread is inflammatory, possibly deliberately so. There are many examples of "right-wing" dogma affecting artists as well.

    Good idea would be to stay away from such obvious subjective statements, and, as Thelma Todd reasonably suggested, re-title the thread (her idea for a new thread title was a good one.)

     

    The concept of a discussion around how dictatorships (whatever their wing configuration may be) have long affected for the worse, artists and the work they create, is in itself an interesting one.

     

    However, I say, let's stay away from wings altogether, right, left, or chicken. 

    How can a title be changed? I can't find any EDIT button.

  6. ... among the worst is its politicization of the arts.

    The WIKIPEDIA article CULT OF PERSONALITY says that practically all the art and music of North Korea is dedicated almost exclusively to the glorification of the Kim clan. That, of course, started with the Soviet Union and its subordination of the arts to propaganda; the movies of such as Eisenstein may be technically masterly, but their content is totally repugnant to anybody with a soul and a mind.

    I once read an article about Renoir written by a feminist critic. As you surely have guessed, that lady berated Pierre Auguste for belittling women with his nudes, which supposedly objectified them. I am absolutely sure that it was not Renoir's intention to belittle or objectify women, but try telling that to someone who sees art exclusively in terms of political propaganda.

  7. An invasion by the Ruskies had some probability to it, an invasion by the

    North Koreans not so much.

     

    Yep an invasion by Grand Fenwick is about as likely as an invasion by North

    Vietnam was, but at least we wouldn't have to learn another language in the

    first scenario.

    The basic situation of an English speaking country bordering Switzerland is ludicrous beyond belief. Think of it: a country founded by a knight who spoke medieval English, and which is totally separated from England. It's totally impossible that such a country would speak anything resembling modern English in the 20th century; rather, it would speak a language as different from English as Haitian Creole is different from French--and Haitian Creole only started to develop in the 19th century!

  8. The story of Desiree Clary and Napoleon is very interesting and moving, so why did the movie with Simmons and Brando come out so dull? The only thing I can praise of that bore is that Simmons looks really pretty in the fashions of Napoleon's time.

  9. Good choices!

     

    I'd add "The Bandwagon", which I like more than "Singin' in the Rain". The only problem with "Guys and Dolls" is it was miscast: Sinatra should have played Skye Masterson.

    Another example of Brando being miscast! How come he was cast in so many unsuitable roles?

    DESIREE is one of the worst movies I have ever suffered. Not only was MB all wrong as Napoleon, but that clunker actually achieved the unbelievable feat of making Napoleon's very exciting life seem boring and without any interest.

  10. Watching the tribute to Leslie Caron on 1 July 2014 made me realize how often she, like Audrey Hepburn, was cast as an ingénue perverse: a childlike girl who is sultry and seductive, almost what would be called today a Lolita.

    I find it really amazing that the proverbially straitlaced Fifties was so fond of this type of character.

  11. The reason for the Foreign Language Oscar cateory is simple;  To limit the choices to English speaking films since the Oscar's is paid for and run by Americans and America is an English speaking country (well for the most part anyway). 

    I am sorry to learn that.

    Tell me if it isn't true that many times the non-English language movie was clearly superior to the English language one.

  12. Since this process is mentioned here fairly often, I would like to know its full history, particularly how movie makers finally came to the realization that the entire thing was unsuitable for filming people. The story of the troubled filming of HOW THE WEST WAS WON is quite hilarious.

  13. I am particularly annoyed by historical characters being ,,portrayed'' by actors who do not resemble them at all. Brando did not look like Napoleon, FDR or Rasputin, Martin Sheen does not look like Kennedy, and Anthony Hopkins and Frank Langella do not look anything like Nixon. Miguel Ferrer, on the other hand, would be perfect as Igor Stravinsky.

  14. I must be the only person in the world who has never seen it. Didn't the same director make AVATAR? Haven't seen that one either. Don't feel like I missed a thing.

    I am sorry that you miss so many movies. I try to watch as many as possible in order to have a conversation topic less risky than politics and religion.

    Regarding the A NIGHT TO REMEMBER of 1958, while still an excellent movie it's now dated as a depiction of the Titanic disaster. For one thing it fails to depict the moment when the ship cracks in two; for another it shows everybody behaving very calmly and politely thorough the event, when in fact things became increasingly chaotic and panicky as the event progressed. Cameron's movie depicts both circumstances very well.

  15. When do you suppose it will be shown?

    It would certainly be a VAST IMPROVEMENT over Negulesco's pitiful 1953 potboiler, which actually shows the crew and passengers stopping everything to sing a masterly rendition of NEARER, MY GOD, TO THEE, exactly as if they were in a church service and not in the middle of a disaster that most of them would not survive.

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