Oscar predictions?

Sarah Miles, there it is. I think it was a beautiful love story. David Lean, the names are there only when someone jogs my memory. I remember thinking Sarah beautiful. It seemed a nice little movie, how could one compare anything to Dr. Zhivago? Julie Christy and Omar Sharif were unforgettable. Such a wonderful film. Believe it or not, I have not seen Lawrence of Arabia. I have missed much.

I am thinking of going to see The Moscow Festival Ballet as so little ballet comes here now. "Cinderella" doesn't thrill me though,as it is clearly geared to children, and the music I am assuming will be canned as tix prices don't reflect a live orchestra. The music will be by Prokofiev, but it does not say what piece.

Olympia, what piece do you think would be used? I know a lot of ballet music, but my classical music education is lacking. I missed out on so much performing art due to my condition, and now this area is depressed. We don't get what we used to performing arts wise like 20 years ago, plus. We have two or three decent venues but the bookings just don't happen. I envy those in big cities, though the tix prices to everything are through the roof. I always wanted to live in NY or go back to live in London as there is just everything to see, just money is needed, LOL. I wish there were more quality film makers willing to risk it, find backing for great dance movies. I was glad they did Black Swan, but not happy with their casting of Portman. I think the last great dance movie was Centre Stage with then baby Ilia Kulik in minor role.

Today, Dirty Dancing was on and I watched again. Loved Patrick Swayze back in the day!

I'm not a fan of Katie Holmes (or for that matter Jackie Kennedy) but she made the character much more enjoyable than I normally find Jackie O to be in interviews and what not.

Ah, it seems I have found Prokofiev wrote the ballet music for "Cinderella." I have been trying to listen to more than 30 seconds without much success. I found a classical radio station with tracks, but my speakers on this new Asus are very poor. I would like to find a site where I can listen to the ballet music uninterrupted. Do such places exist Olympia, or do they expect one to click buy after 30 seconds. I will decide to go if I like the music, which sadly will not be live orchestra. The company has great reviews and though I have never heard of this ballet-it doesn't seem a popular warhorse by American companies, anyway. I'll keep looking.

Sorry I was so slow to answer, Skateluvr. Yes, Prokofiev wrote a beautiful Cinderella, and the waltz is wonderfully haunting. Let me hunt up that part for you on YouTube....please stand by...

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOV7yWEv54o&feature=relmfu

It's amazing because it's in a minor key, not jolly and fluffy at all.

Sorry to double-post, but I wanted to get the YouTube extract out to you while I worked on this part of the post. Cinderella has been a popular ballet here and there. I believe the great British choreographer, Frederick Ashton, created a version that's still used over there (and sometimes here). If I recall correctly, in Ashton's version at least, the two stepsisters are played by male "character dancers."

Drat that recording! It ends just before the midnight section. Here's that part, and I think you'll find it very powerful. You can imagine all sorts of amazing choreography to it.


Come to that, why hasn't a skater used this music anytime recently?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLImlLFwRk8&feature=relmfu

TREASURE ALERT:

Here seems to be the ENTIRE ballet, a Nureyev version from Paris.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqJIzUse-Us

Olympia said:

Sorry to double-post, but I wanted to get the YouTube extract out to you while I worked on this part of the post. Cinderella has been a popular ballet here and there. I believe the great British choreographer, Frederick Ashton, created a version that's still used over there (and sometimes here). If I recall correctly, in Ashton's version at least, the two stepsisters are played by male "character dancers."

Drat that recording! It ends just before the midnight section. Here's that part, and I think you'll find it very powerful. You can imagine all sorts of amazing choreography to it.


Come to that, why hasn't a skater used this music anytime recently?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLImlLFwRk8&feature=relmfu

TREASURE ALERT:

Here seems to be the ENTIRE ballet, a Nureyev version from Paris.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqJIzUse-Us

Click to expand...

Wow, that snippet is a dark cinderella. Who could skate to that? I will be watching the ballet when I feel I can do the whole thing. I am looking forward to Rudolph doing his thing. I was in love with him, then along came Baryshnikov who has no peer, kinds like Daisuke or Stephane when they are in the zone artistically.

Thanks so much O (not Oprah, but the "real thing" Olympia!!!!)

Streep is amazing. Iron Lady a great tour de force. So good.

Oh, that's right, the DVD has just come out. I'll have to see about renting it. She's amazing, a force of nature. One thing that's fascinating about her is that she seems so down to Earth and healthy, not a headcase. Did you see Julie and Julia? I just love that movie. And then The Devil Wears Prada. Thank goodness I never had a boss like the woman she portrayed.

I loved the Devil Wears Prada-great acting all around. I mentioned in another thread I am disappointed in "The Descendants." It came across a very fake to me-hated the writing, whoever was responsible. I will rent Footloose someday, and there are a couple more movies I should watch, "Hugo." and "Warhorse" but I can't watch people or animals suffering. That is very limiting at this point. I wanted to see "The Passion" but I read of fatal heart attacks, it was so graphically real. "Phantom" the 25th anniversary is out on DVD as well, and I really loved it. Of course my heart breaks for the Phantom every time.

Right now I am with migraine again, so so much for GS . Night to all.

I don't know where to put this post, but since a lot of Oscars were involved with this movie, I'm extending this thread. They're showing In the Heat of the Night on Turner Classics today. Whenever it comes on, there's one section I always watch: the part starting when Sidney Poitier is brought in to Rod Steiger's office and questioned, and he's revealed as a police officer. I'm always transfixed at Poitier's quiet intensity and then at the moment when Steiger, who comes across as a blowhard but knows expertise when he sees it (and knows that his people don't have it), manages to get Poitier to take a look at the body. Steiger deserved his Oscar for this: he plays a man who has been limited by his experience but who is not a limited thinker. In fact, I don't think it's a coincidence that Steiger so closely resembles Bull Connor, the awful Southern sheriff who kept a tyrannical clamp on the city of Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1960s. We viewers were meant to make that connection and to misjudge Steiger's character. It's a masterful portrayal.

Then another incredible performer, Lee Grant (who later won an Oscar and I think an Emmy for other grand portrayals) shows up as the wife. Her reaction to the news of her husband's death is riveting. Poitier reaches out to comfort her, and she recoils, not because she's prejudiced but because she can't stand at this moment to be touched. Events have touched her more than too much already.

This is one of those movies that are new every time you see them. The performances have a lot to do with it, of course, but the best part of this movie to me is the script. Just enough dialogue, wonderful "syncopation" between fast-talking characters (such as Steiger) and laconic ones (Poitier), just enough flavor of a dusty Southern town without ladling on the details, tackles the issue of prejudice without preaching about it. Great music, too.