While I wanted to celebrate the birthday of the oldest living Academy Award winner, I could not let today pass without noting the death yesterday of two individuals -- one of whom gave us some of the most marvelous films in world cinema and the other who, despite her protests, was the true embodiment of that overused word "hero".
Monday marked the passing of French filmmaker Eric Rohmer -- one of the last surviving members of La Nouvelle Vague (The New Wave) and also a genius writer-director. In a career that spanned some six decades, Rohmer was a novelist, a critic (for Cahiers du Cinema), an author (he and Claude Chabrol co-authored one of the best studies of Alfred Hitchcock) and filmmaker. His movies were eclectic, challenging, talky but never dull. Others have written more eloquently than I about the man and his work and I won't even pretend to try. I have enjoyed many of his films (which admittedly can be an acquired taste) and I'm sorry that there won't be one more. But we can savor the legacy he has left us.
I also want to note the passing at the age of 100 of Miep Gies, the woman who helped to shelter Otto Frank and his family in Holland for several years during World War II before their whereabouts was betrayed by person or persons unknown. Mrs. Gies in an interview claimed that she was not a hero, but I know I'm not alone in saying on that point she was wrong. What she did took enormous courage and strength and determination and a sense of morality that is lacking in many. Mrs. Gies was the one who collected the papers on which young Anne Frank composed the now famous diary and if it weren't for her we would have been deprived of that voice. Not only do we have that work of literature but we have a biography of Mrs. Gies, Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family. It may seem trivial to do so, but I'd like to also point out the above average TV movie "The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank" in which Mrs. Gies was portrayed by Mary Steenburgen. There's also Pat Carroll's beautifully rendered cameo in Freedom Writers. And we have the lady herself in appearances in the documentary Anne Frank Remembered and in video clips on the Miep Gies Web Site.
Two very distinct individuals, both filled with humanity, who passed away on the same day.
Requiescant in pace.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
January 12: Happy Birthday Luise Rainer!
Does anyone nowadays know who Luise Rainer is? Well today happens to be her birthday -- her 100th birthday.
For those who don't know or don't remember, Luise Rainer was the first actress to win back to back Best Actress Academy Awards -- for her performance as Anna Held in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and as O-Lan (which she played in yellowface) in The Good Earth, an adaptation of the Pearl S. Buck novel.
Rainer began her career with Max Reinhardt in Germany as a teenager and she rose through the ranks to become a leading lady with his company. She also made a few appearances in German films and was scouted by American companies -- notably MGM which was always on the lookout for the next European who might be able to replace or, at least help keep in line, their temperamental star Greta Garbo. Rainer had to campaign to land her first leading role in American films in 1935's Escapade, a romantic comedy remake of the German Maskerade (1934). The film paired the actress with William Powell and she was to co-star opposite him in her next feature, the extravagantly produced biographical drama The Great Ziegfeld. While her role as the impresario's wife, whom he seduces, marries and abandons, isn't particularly large, Rainer made quite an impression on Depression-era audiences with a particular scene in which she telephones him to congratulate him on his marriage to Billie Burke. From the perspective of contemporary audiences, Rainer's performance might be considered a bit emotive but at the time it was enough to earn her the Oscar.
MGM set out to capitalize on her appeal but with her light German accent (even though the studio encouraged the notion that she was from Vienna) and her decidedly non-Hollywood approach, Rainer was difficult to cast. The studio teamed her Paul Muni to portray Chinese peasants in The Good Earth. Her character had little dialogue so Rainer had to rely on movement and her expressions to convey the character. Again, to contemporary audiences having Caucasian performers enact Asian characters borders on the racist, but it was the studio system which did not really allow for the grooming of leading men or leading ladies of ethnicity. Rainer once again impressed critics, audience and the Academy and picked up a second Oscar -- the first woman to win back-to-back awards, a feat not duplicated for thirty years.
Now that she had achieved that honor, the studio was at even more of a loss as to what to do with the actress. Offscreen, she had married playwright Clifford Odets and their relationship was tempetuous at best. Her feistiness spilled over into her work life at MGM as she often refused the roles the studio wanted her to play. After her double win, Rainer made a handful of films, of which only The Great Waltz (1938), about composer Johann Strauss was the best. By 1940, her Hollywood career was over, she divorced Odets -- the couple often worked on opposite coasts and his infidelities were fairly well-known -- and attempted to launch a stage career, appearing in Paris, London and New York, but to no avail.
Rainer made a one-shot return to movies during World War II with 1943's Hostages, before retiring from the big screen, In 1945, she married publisher Robert Knittel and divided her time between England and Switzerland while raising their daughter.
Over the years, there were rumors of returns: she had befriended playwright Bertolt Brecht who reportedly conceived a stage role for her -- but the story goes that the part was virtually a cameo and Rainer balked at playing it. Fellini had offered her a role in La dolce vita (1960) but Rainer and he clashed over the part and he dropped the idea. The actress continued to make occasional television appearances ("Combat" in 1965; "The Love Boat" in 1984), and a one-shot return to films (The Gambler, 1997) but Rainer found a new outlet for her talents after studying painting in London in the 1950s. After her husband's death in 1989, she settled in London.
Happy Birthday, Miss Rainer!
Rainer began her career with Max Reinhardt in Germany as a teenager and she rose through the ranks to become a leading lady with his company. She also made a few appearances in German films and was scouted by American companies -- notably MGM which was always on the lookout for the next European who might be able to replace or, at least help keep in line, their temperamental star Greta Garbo. Rainer had to campaign to land her first leading role in American films in 1935's Escapade, a romantic comedy remake of the German Maskerade (1934). The film paired the actress with William Powell and she was to co-star opposite him in her next feature, the extravagantly produced biographical drama The Great Ziegfeld. While her role as the impresario's wife, whom he seduces, marries and abandons, isn't particularly large, Rainer made quite an impression on Depression-era audiences with a particular scene in which she telephones him to congratulate him on his marriage to Billie Burke. From the perspective of contemporary audiences, Rainer's performance might be considered a bit emotive but at the time it was enough to earn her the Oscar.
MGM set out to capitalize on her appeal but with her light German accent (even though the studio encouraged the notion that she was from Vienna) and her decidedly non-Hollywood approach, Rainer was difficult to cast. The studio teamed her Paul Muni to portray Chinese peasants in The Good Earth. Her character had little dialogue so Rainer had to rely on movement and her expressions to convey the character. Again, to contemporary audiences having Caucasian performers enact Asian characters borders on the racist, but it was the studio system which did not really allow for the grooming of leading men or leading ladies of ethnicity. Rainer once again impressed critics, audience and the Academy and picked up a second Oscar -- the first woman to win back-to-back awards, a feat not duplicated for thirty years.
Now that she had achieved that honor, the studio was at even more of a loss as to what to do with the actress. Offscreen, she had married playwright Clifford Odets and their relationship was tempetuous at best. Her feistiness spilled over into her work life at MGM as she often refused the roles the studio wanted her to play. After her double win, Rainer made a handful of films, of which only The Great Waltz (1938), about composer Johann Strauss was the best. By 1940, her Hollywood career was over, she divorced Odets -- the couple often worked on opposite coasts and his infidelities were fairly well-known -- and attempted to launch a stage career, appearing in Paris, London and New York, but to no avail.
Rainer made a one-shot return to movies during World War II with 1943's Hostages, before retiring from the big screen, In 1945, she married publisher Robert Knittel and divided her time between England and Switzerland while raising their daughter.
Over the years, there were rumors of returns: she had befriended playwright Bertolt Brecht who reportedly conceived a stage role for her -- but the story goes that the part was virtually a cameo and Rainer balked at playing it. Fellini had offered her a role in La dolce vita (1960) but Rainer and he clashed over the part and he dropped the idea. The actress continued to make occasional television appearances ("Combat" in 1965; "The Love Boat" in 1984), and a one-shot return to films (The Gambler, 1997) but Rainer found a new outlet for her talents after studying painting in London in the 1950s. After her husband's death in 1989, she settled in London.
Happy Birthday, Miss Rainer!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
January 7: Centenaries in January
Happy New Year!
Now that the holiday season is officially over (yesterday was Twelfth Night or the feast of the Epiphany -- I get really annoyed when people don't realize that the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" actually starts on the 25th of December NOT the 13th) ... but I digress.
On an earlier blog, I got a lot of positive feedback when I posted pieces on the year's centenaries. So I figured I'd try to do something each month. I'm a day late for novelist nad photographer Wright Morris, who would have turned 100 yesterday.
Today marks the 100th birthday of a notorious politician (isn't that an oxymoron? aren't all politicians notorious?). Maybe it's because I've spent the last two years working on a project dealing with the history of the civil rights movement but Orval Faubus' name is not one that I would rank as one of the good guys.
He was the governor of Arkansas in 1957 when Central High School in Little Rock was set to allow African American students to attend, three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the doctrine of "separate but equal" and paved the way for integration. It was certainly slow in coming, especially in southern states. Governor Faubus called out the state National Guard to prevent nine African American students from attending high school. The situation reached such a critical level that President Eisenhower was forced to send in federal troops to escort the students into the building. In hindsight, Faubus appeared foolish, but his actions won him the support of the people of Arkansas who kept him in office until 1967. He even made the cover of Time. Married three times, divorced twice, Faubus died of prostate cancer on December 14, 1994.
On a far lighter note, next week marks the centenary of funny woman Patsy Kelly who won a Tony Award in 1971 for the revival of "No, No Nannette". Born in Brooklyn as Bridget Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly, she was one of six children of a Irish immigrants. Her father became a New York City policeman and her mother encouraged her to sing and dance. One of her contemporaries in dance class was Ruby Keeler, with whom she would strike up a life-long friendship and with whom she would appear on Broadway in 1971. Kelly's brother Willy was working with comedian Frank Fay but once Fay met Patsy, he chose to work with her. Their working relationship was tempetuous at best -- Fay tended to ad-lib; Kelly preferred to work from a script. The pair was hired to perform their act as part of "Harry Delmar's Revels" in 1927 which marked her Broadway debut. While on tour, Fay made a romantic pass at the tomboyish Kelly who turned him down. Eventually they parted ways -- there are stories that Fay fired her after she refused his advances and then had the temerity to address him as "Frank" rather than "Mr. Fay".
Whatever the case, Kelly bounced back working alongside Will Rogers in "Three Cheers"; William Frawley (who later appeared on "I Love Lucy") in "Earl Caroll's Sketch Book" and later Jack Benny in "Earl Carroll's Vanities" and Al Jolson in "Wonder Bar". During the run of the latter, she was "discovered" by a film scout and began making comedy shorts. She returned to Broadway for the first time as a star in the revue "Flying Colors" in which she appeared with Buddy and Vilma Ebsen, Tamara Geva and Clifton Webb.
When she left Broadway in 1933, it was with a contract with producer Hal Roach. Moving west, Kelly was certain her film career would be a bust. But Roach saw something special in her and teamed her in a series of short films with Thelma Todd. The pair worked magic together and they might have gone on to greater things had Todd not died under mysterious circumstances in 1935.
In the meantime, Kelly was allowed to work in feature films and she earned critical praise for her comedic work in "Going Hollywood". But as with many of today's actresses, the studio was not happy with her weight and the actress struggled with the issue throughout her career. Even more detrimental was that she lived as an open lesbian. By the mid-1940s, her Hollywood career was over.
Kelly returned to the stage, touring in stock production and found work in the nascent television industry. For much of the 1950s, she lived with actress Tallulah Bankhead, sometimes pretending to be her maid as a cover for their romantic relationship. She returned to work in feature films as a housekeeper in "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" (1960) and worked extensively as a guest actor in television. In 1968, she had a supporting role in "Rosemary's Baby" and then came her triumphant return to Broadway with childhood pal Ruby Keeler in "No, No, Nannette". After appearing as Debbie Reynolds' mother in "Irene", Kelly returned to California and appeared in "Freaky Friday" (1976) and was featured in the comedy "The North Avenue Irregulars" (1979).
In 1980, Kelly suffered a stroke and was forced into retirement. In September 1981, she died of pneumonia at the Motion Picture and TV Country Home and was buried in a plot near her parents in New York.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Other notable figures who would have celebrated 100 this January are:
Baseball Hall of Famer James Hanna "Dizzy" Dean (January 16)
Born Free author Joy Adamson (January 20)
(Photo: © Yevonde Portrait Archive)
jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt (January 23)
five time Academy Award winning costume designer Irene Sharaff
and Hogan's Heroes co-star John Banner
Now that the holiday season is officially over (yesterday was Twelfth Night or the feast of the Epiphany -- I get really annoyed when people don't realize that the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" actually starts on the 25th of December NOT the 13th) ... but I digress.
On an earlier blog, I got a lot of positive feedback when I posted pieces on the year's centenaries. So I figured I'd try to do something each month. I'm a day late for novelist nad photographer Wright Morris, who would have turned 100 yesterday.
Today marks the 100th birthday of a notorious politician (isn't that an oxymoron? aren't all politicians notorious?). Maybe it's because I've spent the last two years working on a project dealing with the history of the civil rights movement but Orval Faubus' name is not one that I would rank as one of the good guys.
On a far lighter note, next week marks the centenary of funny woman Patsy Kelly who won a Tony Award in 1971 for the revival of "No, No Nannette". Born in Brooklyn as Bridget Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly, she was one of six children of a Irish immigrants. Her father became a New York City policeman and her mother encouraged her to sing and dance. One of her contemporaries in dance class was Ruby Keeler, with whom she would strike up a life-long friendship and with whom she would appear on Broadway in 1971. Kelly's brother Willy was working with comedian Frank Fay but once Fay met Patsy, he chose to work with her. Their working relationship was tempetuous at best -- Fay tended to ad-lib; Kelly preferred to work from a script. The pair was hired to perform their act as part of "Harry Delmar's Revels" in 1927 which marked her Broadway debut. While on tour, Fay made a romantic pass at the tomboyish Kelly who turned him down. Eventually they parted ways -- there are stories that Fay fired her after she refused his advances and then had the temerity to address him as "Frank" rather than "Mr. Fay".
Whatever the case, Kelly bounced back working alongside Will Rogers in "Three Cheers"; William Frawley (who later appeared on "I Love Lucy") in "Earl Caroll's Sketch Book" and later Jack Benny in "Earl Carroll's Vanities" and Al Jolson in "Wonder Bar". During the run of the latter, she was "discovered" by a film scout and began making comedy shorts. She returned to Broadway for the first time as a star in the revue "Flying Colors" in which she appeared with Buddy and Vilma Ebsen, Tamara Geva and Clifton Webb.
When she left Broadway in 1933, it was with a contract with producer Hal Roach. Moving west, Kelly was certain her film career would be a bust. But Roach saw something special in her and teamed her in a series of short films with Thelma Todd. The pair worked magic together and they might have gone on to greater things had Todd not died under mysterious circumstances in 1935.
In the meantime, Kelly was allowed to work in feature films and she earned critical praise for her comedic work in "Going Hollywood". But as with many of today's actresses, the studio was not happy with her weight and the actress struggled with the issue throughout her career. Even more detrimental was that she lived as an open lesbian. By the mid-1940s, her Hollywood career was over.
Kelly returned to the stage, touring in stock production and found work in the nascent television industry. For much of the 1950s, she lived with actress Tallulah Bankhead, sometimes pretending to be her maid as a cover for their romantic relationship. She returned to work in feature films as a housekeeper in "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" (1960) and worked extensively as a guest actor in television. In 1968, she had a supporting role in "Rosemary's Baby" and then came her triumphant return to Broadway with childhood pal Ruby Keeler in "No, No, Nannette". After appearing as Debbie Reynolds' mother in "Irene", Kelly returned to California and appeared in "Freaky Friday" (1976) and was featured in the comedy "The North Avenue Irregulars" (1979).
In 1980, Kelly suffered a stroke and was forced into retirement. In September 1981, she died of pneumonia at the Motion Picture and TV Country Home and was buried in a plot near her parents in New York.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Other notable figures who would have celebrated 100 this January are:
Baseball Hall of Famer James Hanna "Dizzy" Dean (January 16)
Born Free author Joy Adamson (January 20)
(Photo: © Yevonde Portrait Archive)
jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt (January 23)
five time Academy Award winning costume designer Irene Sharaff
and Hogan's Heroes co-star John Banner
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