msladysoul Posted October 12, 2003 Share Posted October 12, 2003 First I have to give credit to a few good actresses, who I think will go far- like Catherine Zeta-Jones who's an good actress, she's a classic beauty type. Reese Witherspoon, and that spanish or mexican beauty Salma- I forget her last name. Now, Julia Roberts isn't much too me, she doesn't do it for me. But she's going down as the greatest actress of her time. My biggest complaint is Halle Berry just don't do it for me. She doesn't move me. I don't see her as an good actress. Not even a presence. Nina Mae McKinney, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, and Fredi Washington did more acting then her, and Halle Berry has more chances then them. She's considered a serious actress, but she's always posing nude and doing sex scences. She likes that, more then acting. I don't know how she won an Oscar, but I know why she was in the right movie and with the right people to pull her through. I think other Black actresses in Hollywood has done more then her in acting, but hasn't won anything. I don't find her a beauty. Just a lot of make-up with plastic surgery. I've seen her without makeup. I guess like Linda Darnell, when old age kicks in and people get tried of looking at her body, she'll be gone, which isn't long, she's 35 now. She feels she's doing the Black commnuity a favor, but all she's doing is hindering young people with the fact that if they want to be and actress in order to win an Oscar you have to pose nude or do sex scenes. Women in general has lossed respect for her, as well as the Black community. Movies are so corrupted today. I can't find many I like. There's been 3 movies out in the 1990s that I've liked. Most I turned them off, cause I couldn't sit through them. Hollywood will never have Selznicks and Hitchcock's again who's willing to have guts to tell a story and bring out the best in their actresses if it kills them. Directors today put all this violence, cursing, and sex in movies for lack of talent. But I guess young people don't know what good acting is. For, their use to all that stuff. Actressess today think they know what sexiness is. They think taking it off and showing it is. Sexiness too me is and art, its attitude, gestures, by the way you speak, talk, and look. Rita Hayworth in Gilda for example is what sexiness is. She was alluring, she was just oozing with sexuality but she left something to the imagination. That little striptease she took off her glove is considered the sexiest in movies. Actresses today can't do that. Joan Blondell was another sexy example, Jean Harlow, Alice White, Clara Bow, Ava Gardner, Gloria Grahame, Lana Turner, Ann Sheridan, and others were very sexy ladies without showing anything, half of them was covered. Now they got the men in nude in movies now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venerados Posted October 12, 2003 Share Posted October 12, 2003 It seems your complaint is more with modern times than the ladies themselves. I don't think Halle Berry, Zeta-Jones, or Julia Roberts are particularly talented. And I don't think Lana Turner, Jean Harlow, or Rita Hayworth were either. They are all just presented in a manner that appeals to the people of their time. And Gloria Grahame was one of the greatest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjrogan2003 Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 Ha ha ha, Venerados is a **** who loves foreign films and will regard them as beautiful! VENERADOS THE ****! HA HA HA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjrogan2003 Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 Venerados, I didn't mean what I said. I don't know what I was thinking when I said that. It's just that I don't like foreign films as much as others do and they are just damn boring! Again, I am very sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venerados Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 Thanks for the apology. I know my opinions are opposite to most of this board. Just disagree with me and let it go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feaito Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 - SORRY THE LONG POST - Sometimes it amazes me the childish remarks I've seen written around this board, thank god most of the people who participate here aren't like that...but there are few... I've always said it's no use comparing books to movies...nor 1980's movies with 1920's movies, and so on....things must be regarded, focusing on the period/times/era to which they belong... How can I compare objectively the 1945 The Postman always rings twice with the 1982 version... when there's a whole difference of attitude, censorship, environment, etc... or the 1955 version of the end of the affair, with Deborah Kerr and Van Johnson...with then recent version with Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes....One can has his own opinions, i.e: in spite of censorship I like better the 1945 version of "The Postman..", because it's a much better-made film, although I cannot compare both films on equivalent terms... Another thing that bothers me very much is when critics compare movies based on books, with the books themselves!!! that's impossible, they've got different "Languages"...they cannot be compared!!! period... So one must learn to enjoy his passion, the old & classic movies...without dismissing the actual and current excellent american, spanish, german, english...or whatever...films & actors... because there are..there always have been good & bad films...it's true, nowadays evrything is more "permissive" and has an much more "in your face" attitude, but there are excellent films like "Gattaca", "Dangerous Liaisons", "Goodfellas", "Far way from heaven", "Almost Famous"....that cannot be compared to classic films, because it'e like comparing peaches with apples...Thus, comparing Gwyneth Paltrow to Grace Kelly or J. Lo to Rita Hayworth, is useless, because their movie personas obbey to different needs, of different eras...and the star system of the classic golden era has a sociological meaning or explanation, that has todo do with its era, the preeminence of cinema over other media expressions, etc, etc... So, maybe Rita, Lana and now Catherine Z-Jones, aren't very good actresses...but sometimes (with the right director, part, producer, etc..) they've hit the Jackpot, with Gilda, The Bad and the beautiful, Cover Girl or Chicago... and they've been good...although classic film female stars, have that "aura" of a long-gone era, that catches us under its spell... Besides...if the censorship hadn't existed in 1946, maybe Rita's dance in Gilda, would have ended sort of "topless"...who knows??? I want to end this long post, by stating that in my opinion, Halle Berry is a beautiful lady, very beautiful indeed...I do believe that her beauty is natural, not thanks to plastic surgery...One has to look at her mother, she's got similar features... her mother is white and her father is black... so there's a beautiful mixture of races in her being..she's as beautiful as Tyra Banks, or Naomi Campbell, beautiful ladies with mixed-races...as beautiful as 100% black ladies like Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton or Sade also are...beauty is everywhere....Freidi Washington, Mildred Washington, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge were also ravishing beauties... Let's not misjudge and treat bad a beautiful girl as Halle, she's proved to be more than just a beautiful face..she's an actress..and show me an actress who nowadays don't make nude or sex scenes!!, there aren't too many!!....It's just the sign of times We must try to be constructive with our opinions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classicsfan1119 Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 In my opinion, there are only two mature and intelligent posts in this thread. They belong to Venerados and Feaito, and I thank both of these people for posting them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slappy3500 Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 For those folks interested in seeing an excellent performance by Halle Berry I recomend her made-for-HBO film"Introducing Dorothy Dandridge". For those interested in ranting gibberish I recommend prozak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classicsfan1119 Posted October 14, 2003 Share Posted October 14, 2003 I absolutely agree with you Slappy. Halle Berry gave an excellent performance in "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge". And, no way did she get an Oscar for being a "pretty face". It pleases me to see that at least some of us are still interested in an actor's performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 14, 2003 Share Posted October 14, 2003 My vision may not be the greatest, yet I see perfectly clear. I'm speaking of my heightened understanding of things. Halle Berry is not all that beautiful. I'm not wild about her acting, either. Catherine Zeta-Jones, oh Catherine Zeta-Jones! I hate Catherine Zeta-Jones, but she commands my absolute attention when she's on screen. She gorgeous but an insignificant actress. Julia Roberts is insignificant, period! Worthless! Annoying. Disgusting [that horse mouth and teeth]! Gross! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msladysoul Posted October 14, 2003 Author Share Posted October 14, 2003 None of these actresses today move me that's all. Sure, Halle Berry won, I'm sure not for a pretty face, but she really worked it standing up and laying down and on top. She just had to win. I don't think she's all beautiful. She's just one of those all-american type beauties- nothing really different about their looks- just pretty, there's nothing exotic or different of her looks. I can find many bi-racials or Blacks who resemble her. Someone like Nina Mae McKinney, Fredi Washington were very beautiful ladies- who get no credit. I feel Berry is still playing sterotype roles, I don't think she will ever get roles like Julia Roberts and Zeta-Jones, she will always play a black girl this, or a black girl that, it'll always have too do with her ethnic group. Hollywood knows she'll do the roles, other Black women like Angela Bassett turn down those roles they feel its too degrading. But there are new Black actresses coming up like Sanaa Lathan who seems to have what it takes to make it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iburnttheboys Posted October 15, 2003 Share Posted October 15, 2003 I think thier all great.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerobsessed Posted October 30, 2003 Share Posted October 30, 2003 I am sick to death of hearing that black actresses always have to play dignified, upstanding citizens. Why can't these women have the chance to do something different? Being black and female, I am so tired of the standards that we are all expected to live up to. So Halle Berry took off her clothes for a film? Big deal. Actresses of all races and colors have been doing it for years. She is being targetted simply because she's the most famous and she is the most famous because she didn't play it safe. In the book Complicated Women, Mick LaSalle talks about Norma Shearer's driven attempt to break out of that sweet ingenue role that she was stuck with. She knew that playing sweet, docile, sexless women would kill her career. When she took chances and made racier films, she was one of the biggest stars in the business and her first racy film, The Divorcee, won her an Oscar. While I've never been big on Julia Roberts, I do like Catherine Zeta-Jones. She pretty much stole Chicago and not many people mention it but she was very good in Traffic. We'll never have new versions of the old stars, no matter how hard we try. Let's just let each star have their era and let them all be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinemetal Posted November 29, 2003 Share Posted November 29, 2003 I just have to mention Sanaa Lathan again. Beautiful, tough, smart. I hope she becomes a megastar. In my world, she already is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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