| Author |
Message |
|
| billyweeds |
 Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 11:21 pm |
 |
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
whiskeypriest wrote: I thik I prefer the Thomson/ Branagh version was.well. Love the sunniness. Too much expressng nner longing by playing on a.swing.set. I thought Denzell.was just OK. But Keanu Reeves.was at his.flat affect worst.
Forgot how bad Reeves was. |
|
|
| Back to top |
  
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 11:39 pm |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
|
Probably because Garbo has such a silly terribly written role, while Crawford is much more realistic as a sassy flapper working gal. But it is interesting to see Crawford young and flirty, instead of in her more familiar maternal roles. One thing interesting is I like middle aged Joan's voice, but her young self doesn't have that rich resonant assured voice.
______________________________________________
If you liked 12 Monkeys, be sure to check out the amazing short film La Jetee by Chris Marker, which was the inspiration/basis for 12 Monkeys. It's a rather unique film, clocking in at under half an hour, with hardly a moving picture in it. Rather brilliant.
I thought 12 Monkeys was interesting and involving until it got to the Brad Pitt silliness (in the last 1/3rd?) where it really went off the rails. That section seemed so sloppy and shrill and poorly handled that it really ruined the film for me. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 11:37 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Syd wrote: Grand Hotel is the best Joan Crawford performance I've seen. She's better than Garbo.
I really liked Crawford in that role. When I saw it, I wondered why she didn't do that kind of acting later when she was more famous. Aside from Grand Hotel, I can't think of a movie she was in that I liked her. (Maybe I saw her in some real old movies that I didn't dislike her in.) |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Befade |
| Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 3:15 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
|
thanks, Yambu..........I did think of that quotation about the wrong train.
I guess you have a different slant even tho we are both old people: I don't see why she would be disappointed. He really appreciated the food she cooked and if he enjoyed family life as it appeared he did looked over at his neighbors......why wouldn't her enjoy raising her daughter? My quote: Old People need second chances, too. |
_________________
Lost in my own private I dunno. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| mitty |
| Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 9:10 pm |
|
|
Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 1359
Location: Way Down Yonder.......
|
gromit wrote:
If you liked 12 Monkeys, be sure to check out the amazing short film La Jetee by Chris Marker, which was the inspiration/basis for 12 Monkeys. It's a rather unique film, clocking in at under half an hour, with hardly a moving picture in it. Rather brilliant.
Thanks, I'll try to find it.  |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 6:16 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
|
It should be easy to find.
Criterion even put it out. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 2:47 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
|
I find it a bit hard to separate the performances in Grand Hotel from the roles. I think Wallace Beery does a good job of creating a character who is conflicted, with his vision of himself as a moral man undercut by temptations and even his position as industrial boss. I think his performance goes a little under-appreciated because he is the heavy/bad guy in the film.
Apparently, Keaton was originally intended for the Kringelein role which went to Lionel Barrymore.
And a Grand Hotel trivia Q:
In GH, Garbo's character utters what became a famous/iconic line: "I want to be alone"
Q: Who was the first to satirize this line in public, relating it to Garbo herself (as everyone subsequently does)?
Bonus points if you can tell where and when (and why) this occurred. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 3:08 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
|
I think Grand Hotel has some obvious flaws, especially in its characterizations. Kringelein is almost a vaudeville character of sorts. The Garbo dancer is just a poorly written character. The porter expecting the baby isn't integrated well at all. Etc.
But there are good points. Joan Crawford is vivacious. It seemed like a Bette Davis role to me, but it's really too early for that, and maybe davis learned a little something from Crawford's effort. I think Beery is pretty convincing as a moralist who can't live up to his own code, and doesn't realize what a pompous jerk he is, until too late.
I like how they try to use the phones and hotel switchboard to illustrate that many lives and stories are occurring simultaneously. The end is nice with the doctor repeating his line that people come and go but nothing ever happens, when of course we know different.
I thought the Baron/Dancer (Barrymore/Garbo) scenes were trying to capture those Lubitsch films with Jeanette McDonald (Love Parade (1929); Monte Carlo (1930), etc) |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 6:44 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Q: Who was the first to satirize this line in public, relating it to Garbo herself (as everyone subsequently does)?
I'm guessing John Barrymore and the line, "She vants to be alone."
It's a wild guess. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 12:06 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
|
Close. Good guess, but JB was probably too much of a gentleman, and he really liked Garbo.
Maybe I didn't phrase it well.
Yes, someone repeated Garbo's line from the film in the Garbo accent.
I'm assuming this was the first time anyway did this, at least in public, which became kind of a stock imitation. Not sure if this started it off, but seems likely.
So the question is who did the take-ff on Garbo?
Bonus: When, where and why? |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:31 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Groucho Marx?
Sounds like something he would do, and I think I heard about him saying that a long long time ago. I heard about him being in an elevator with Garbo. He really disliked her, but I forget what he said to her. Something like, "You've got big feet."
When, where and why? Was it on the elevator? Were they both riding it in the movie company building they were in? Did he tell her, "I vant to be alone"? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| yambu |
| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 3:38 pm |
|
|
Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
|
We saw a local production of The Comedy of Errors last week. Amateur troupes feel the need to work some corny zaniness into their comedies. Someone asks Antipholous where he's going:
"I vant to be alone."
It took everyone out of the play for a second, but it was worth it. And it was fun to see high schoolers laugh at it. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 4:05 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
|
| Marantz's guess sounds good. I'm sure I remember Groucho saying it, but don' t recall where. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| mitty |
| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 4:51 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 1359
Location: Way Down Yonder.......
|
gromit wrote:
If you liked 12 Monkeys, be sure to check out the amazing short film La Jetee by Chris Marker, which was the inspiration/basis for 12 Monkeys. It's a rather unique film, clocking in at under half an hour, with hardly a moving picture in it. Rather brilliant.
I thought 12 Monkeys was interesting and involving until it got to the Brad Pitt silliness (in the last 1/3rd?) where it really went off the rails. That section seemed so sloppy and shrill and poorly handled that it really ruined the film for me.
Just wanted to thank you for the info.....we watched La Jetee last night.....fascinating. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 9:55 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
|
A: Garbo didn't attend the premiere of Grand Hotel at Graumann's Chinese Theater. So Wallace Beery did a Garbo imitation saying "I vant to be alone" to explain her absence. Apparently this joke wasn't well received.
Since this was just after the first showing of the film to the public, I presume Beery was the first to imitate the now much-imitated Garbo line. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
