1980, 1982 - not so very gay ...

NIJINSKY, 1980. The May 1980 "Films in Review" review begins: "In a decade or so NIJINSKY may be seen as the Eighties' first and most perfect example of opulent camp, though it clearly wasn't intended that way...." Now, a couple of decades further on, it is a fascinating look at how cinema depicted gays at the start of the 80s, which was before that AIDS crisis ...

The success of THE TURNING POINT in 1977 probably made it easier for this film to be made but it’s a shame it was not made later when gay relationships could be depicted more openly. Perhaps NIJINSKY needed a touch of the Ken Russells (see below), as it is the good taste of Herbert Ross and his producer wife Nora Kaye swamp the project, but it has some electric moments, mainly when George De La Pena dances the faun in “L’Apres Midi D’un Faune” or that first night premiere of Stravinsky’s “The Rites of Spring”. Ross’s film, scripted by Hugh Wheeler and lensed by Douglas Slocombe, tries to capture that exciting time, circa 1912, when the Russian Ballet Rousses, managed by flamboyant impresario Sergei Diagheliv, a self-confessed "monster", caused a sensation with their dances and costumes as they toured Europe, with their famous main dancer Vaslav Nijinsky also Diagheliv's lover. The hothouse atmosphere of the ballet group and all that artistic temperament keeps one engrossed. 

The casting is the thing here: Alan Bates is perfect as the autocratic impresario, with that silver streak in his hair, and nobody wears an astrakhan coat and top hat better. La Pena and Leslie Browne fare less well in the dramatic stakes, he as Nijinsky descending into madness as he cracks from the pressure of trying to be brilliant all the time, while she essays the cunning woman who was determined to get him away from Diaghilev when the lovers have a misunderstanding and part and the dancer impulsively marries her, He spent his last years in an asylum, not really covered here apart from a closing title.. 

Sterling support from Alan Badel as the effete Baron who finances ballet, Jeremy Irons (in his debut, below right) as petulant choreographer Fokine, Janet Suzman, Sian Phillips (barely seen), Colin Blakely, Ronald Pickup as Stravinsky. It all looks great too with great costumes and sets, an obviously expensive production, but this was made in 1980, when CRUISING was typical of how gays were represented in the cinema. Here our lovers kiss just once and through a handkerchief, as they are afraid of catching germs! Nijinksy also appears in VALENTINO, as played by English ballet star Anthony Dowell whom we see in a rather good scene dancing with Nureyev's Valentino! 

One line will make you laugh, as Diagheliv stops Nijinsky from eating chocolate: "Nobody loves a fat faun"! 

More period Alan Bates in 102 BOULEVARD HAUSSMANN, a 1991 BBC production, written by Alan Bennett where Alan is writer Marcel Proust, who in 1916 is leading a reclusive life in Paris. He hires a quartet of musicians and befriends one of them, a wounded serviceman, with Paul Rhys and Janet McTeer as his housekeeper. I missed this at the time, but the BBC has kindly repeated it this summer so I have the recording waiting for when I am in the mood! (Now if they would only repeat those Lee Remick and Dirk Bogarde productions I have been banging on about .... as per labels)!

Jeremy Irons in NIJINSKY

I won't ever see CRUISING, that other depiction of gay life in 1980, which caused such a furore at the time - 1982 was not much better - 20th Century Fox came up with MAKING LOVE, maybe a brave at the time look at a husband realising he is gay. But there was also PARTNERS - which I imagine not many saw at the time, I have a copy on the way to me though, so there will be a report on it before too long. John Hurt, riding high after THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT, ALIEN and THE ELEPHANT MAN plays the gay cop having to team up with very hetero Ryan ONeal as they pose as a gay couple to trap a gay killer, cue lots of "faggot" words - just like back in the 1970s with items like THE LOVE MACHINE .... it may be so bad its good or perhaps, more likely, just plain bad peurile Trash? 

Christmas treats: a new Moonfleet plus ...

MOONFLEET. Growing up in the quiet coastal town of Moonfleet in eighteenth century Dorset, fifteen year-old orphan, John Trenchard, dreams of the infamous Blackbeard's treasure - little does he know what is in store for him.

I was pleased to see a new version of MOONFLEET on television here after Christmas, another enterprising Sky production in two parts, which should do justice to the book, that marvellous tale of 18th century smugglers, a childhood classic, by J. Meade Faulkner, originally published in 1898, its a great tale of shipwrecks, a hidden diamond, crypts and churchyards hiding their secrets ...

Elements of it were used for the 1955 Fritz Lang film, MOONFLEET, for me a childhood matinee delight, and I like seeing it whenever it is on (I have the dvd too of course), though made in California it conjures up those secret coves and seaside adventurers, with some great Cinemascope images.The hero here is Jeremy Fox - Stewart Granger - and its a whole different story to the book, with Jon Whiteley (HUNTED, THE SPANISH GARDENER) as the boy coming in search of him. George Sanders and Joan Greenwood are the villains here, Joan in particular with only two scenes, stealing the film.

Last Christmas, Ray Winstone was a good Magwich in that new BBC version of GREAT EXPECTATIONS (the one where Pip was prettier than Estella), and also Quintus Arrius in that unnecessary new BEN HUR, this year he is Elzevir Block, leader of the smugglers down Dorset way, (a minor character in the 1955 version) leading our young hero into all kinds of escapes as they avoid the magistrates and the soldiers, and hunt down that elusive diamond.  Thrills and spills all round then ...

More television gold in THE THIRTEENTH TALE, also on before New Year, a creepy horror tale adapted by Christopher Hampton, the casting is the thing here as we follow aging novelist Vida Winter, who enlists a young writer to finally tell the story of her life including her mysterious childhood spent in Angelfield House, which burned to the ground when she was a teenager. It features Vanessa Redgrave as Vida in a long red wig, and our actress of the year Olivia Colman (below) (BROADCHURCH, REV etc) as the writer to comes to hear her story ..... 

 

DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY should be good too, a three-parter from the successful novel by P.D. James imagining a murder mystery at Pemberley six years after the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth in PRIDE & PREJUDICE. More watchable costume drama then .... it may be super or send us back to the classic BBC 1995 version ...then of course there is the Christmas DOWNTON ABBEY special, with new guests including James Fox. Ok, Christmas television is quite good then with lots of plums among the glitter and tinsel. 

Treat 1: Joanna Lumley as the dancing Queen in GANGSTA GRANNY, David Walliam's new christmas film (even better than last year's MR STINK) with dear Julia McKenzie as the granny who is an international jewel thief. and Treat 2: that hilarious moment from MRS BROWN'S BOYS when Agnes tells bitchy Hilary (Susie Blake) what happened to the chocolate that was on the peanuts she has been eating ...

STRICTLY COME DANCING also finished on a high, with a great win by Abbey Clancy, who with partner Aljaz, dazzled on the dance floor. She is not only a model but a super, lovely girl with a natural charm, almost a new Brigitte Bardot!, as Bruno noted. We adore her. Here's that sizzling samba:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcuKwfbTOFY

 Award season should be interesting too, maybe the best in years. Several titles like 12 YEARS A SLAVE have not opened here yet (thats due 10th January!), nor has ALL IS LOST .... but I am already visualising a tie between Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench as best actress, with Cuaron as best director and maybe GRAVITY as best film ...

My Christmas treat: My Sister Eileen

Thats the 1955 Columbia version, not the 1942 original with Roz Russell, who also played it on Broadway as the show WONDERFUL TOWN, with a score by Leonard Bernstein and book by Comden and Green. This 1955 film though has a different score by Jule Style (GYPSY, FUNNY GIRL) and Leo Robin, and has choreography by young Bob Fosse who also plays the guy working in the diner smitten with Janet Leigh (Eileen). That other great dancer Tommy Rall plays the other brasher guy, also with the hots for Eileen, while Betty Garrett is the older sister, Betty of course was Brunhilde Esterhazy in ON THE TOWN. The material is based on Ruth McKenney's "New Yorker" stories about her pretty sister Eileen.

This MY SISTER EILEEN is another great 'New York in the Fifties' movie, with that Cinemascope screen unfolding a vibrant city as the Sherwood sisters - Ruth and Eileen - arrive from Ohio and rent that basement from Kurt Kasznar, with Dick York as the other tenant who keeps an eye on them. Ruth is a writer and tries to sell her stories to publisher Jack Lemmon - good here in one of his early roles - while Janet has to fight off the guys as she looks for work.

Director Richard Quine is a dab hand at using the widescreen (as was Anthony Mann, Nicholas Ray) even in that tiny basement apartment. Quine was a rising star at Columbia, and had just done that studio-bound SO THIS IS PARIS that year, where Janet's husband Tony Curtis learns to sing and dance, and wasn't too bad - review at Curtis label). Quine went on to those Kim Novak films and various comedies like PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES and SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL before his suicide in 1989, aged 68, by gunshot).

Back to EILEEN - it is a treat from start to finish, Janet is adorable as usual, and Betty knows how to wring a laugh out of a line. Bob and Tommy (one of the SEVEN BROTHERS and ideal in KISS ME KATE, as was Fosse and Bobby Van, with Ann Miller) dance up a storm, Fosse was 28 at the time. The delirious climax includes a line of conga-dancing Portuguese sailors dressed in white. MY SISTER EILEEN often got overlooked among all those great '50s musicals, but thankfully is now restored on dvd to delight us all over again. 

Let's dance ...

... as David Bowie put it. Here are some STRICTLY COME DANCING  favourites ... its the original English annual dance series (America has DANCING WITH THE STARS), camp over-the-top glitz and glamour doesn't get any better. We are now half-way through our season, brightening up these winter Saturday and Sunday evenings. Apart from the costumes and the routines there is also the satisfaction of seeing the weaker dancers being weeded out, leaving the best for the final shows.

Sportsman Ben Cohen dazzled last night in that sparkly sailor suit with a very energetic jive - Kristina is certainly training him up! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXunuhci1eE

Popstrel Sophie Ellis-Bextor did a nifty charleston too, with Brendan. I expect to see her in the final. Abbey Clancey is also terrific (and looks marvellous) and should be another finalist. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRsan_COiD0

We loved last year's winners Olympian Louis Smith and the beyond fabulous Flavia Cacace .... it is of course bliss seeing Flavia and her partner Vincent doing the Argentine Tango ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1H3bH7LxSE

The previous year I liked this dazzling charleston by Artem and Holly Valance.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oeVH4ioOlc

and of course that year's winner Harry Judd and Aliona, see Dance label.

Now where are my dancing shoes ...
Ben and Kristina's final dance - another nifty charleston. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVff6205Ceg

That dance, that song, that show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1H3bH7LxSE

Britain's dance contest STRICTLY COME DANCING has finished for another year, with a terrific win by Louis Smith and professional dancer Flavia Cacace.  He is the Olympic silver medal winner but did not look particuarly happy or bothered dancing, but finally got into it as the competition progressed.  Flavia is a goddess and a terrific professional dancer, her argentine tango is amazing, as she is currently showing in MIDNIGHT TANGO on show in London, as per previous posts, here (Dance label). All their dances are great but this one is delightful. After being lumbered with the amusing Russell Grant last year, she finally got a young guy she was able to mold into a great dancer. Kimberley Walsh of Girls Aloud and her partner Pasha were also sensational. YouTube has all the clips. Last year's winner Harry Judd was also terrific.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiWC8MS7JF0

Its that time when seasonal shows abound, probably all shot in the summer. We recently saw not one but 2 Michael Buble ones: Home for Christmas, and Home For the Holidays. We also got Rod Stewart's christmas show, recorded at a castle in Scotland, Buble was in that one too - and there is a Chris Isaak one one later today, which should be interesting, and yes, Buble turns up there too ...

Thanks to modern technology Buble was able to join Bing in a rendition of THAT song that always gets one a wee bit emotional. Perhaps its because my father liked Bing so much .... but it certainly conjures up that mythical christmas of "sleighbells in the snow" as much as ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE ... Buble and Crosby look a better team though than Bing and Bowie back in 1972 ...

Those seasonal saccharine christmas shows were all of a muchness with Michael Buble making almost as many appearances as actress Sheridan Smith who was everywhere - in PANTO, in MR STINK, on the Jonathan Ross Show, she is even in the new QUARTET with Dame Maggie ..... nobody though could top Sir Stephen of Fry, whom the papers gleefully pointed out would be on television 181 times between Christmas and new year - in endless re-runs of his quiz shows, and various other programmes and movies he had been in. Thankfully I avoided them all apart from the trailer for a new crime thriller he somehow fitted in.

Best of the music shows for me was Chris Isaak's, maybe from 2008? - he still looks (and sounds) terrific - particularly in that green flashy suit. Michael Buble and Stevie Nicks helped out and "Rudolph The Red Nose Raindeer" never sounded better!

TV highlights

Some satisfying moments from this week's tv viewing: the return of REV - we loved the first series of this new BBC comedy with Tom Hollander as the inner-city priest, now we have the second series just starting and it promises to be just as good - particularly with Ralph Fiennes guesting in the first episode as the Bishop of London. Hilarious sauna scene! The series to be seen in then - and next week should be amusing when our put-upon vicar mistakenly takes ecstasy during church service!

And speaking of interesting guest stars: Jane Asher, elegant as ever [left, right] turns up in the otherwise routine school drama WATERLOO ROAD [while Liam Neeson was fun in the new Ricky Gervais series].

Below: Dan Stevens as Matthew Crawley has something to announce in DOWNTON ABBEY, which finished last week, as he has been getting a tingling in his legs and is no longer crippled or indeed impotent ! Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Countess Violet (Maggie Smith) will be pleased, just as the great 'flu epidemic of 1919 strikes ... two things about DOWNTON: the amount of commercial breaks was annoying, so I ended up recording it and then starting watching half an hour later, thus zapping out the adverts - the final episode was 90 minutes of which 67 was the actual programme! Roll on the dvd. Also the timeframe: the first series begins in 1912 with the sinking of the Titanic and ends with the outbreak of World War I in 1914, then series 2 takes us through to the end of the war and to 1919 - nobody looks any older but Matthew and Lady Mary have been mooning over each other for 7 years! Let's see what the two-hour Christmas special brings ...

Over at STICTLY COME DANCING (the UK's DANCING WITH THE STARS, but so much better) the best male celebrity dancer is Harry Judd from pop group McFly, who is sensational paired with Aliona Vilani - Watch out Jason and Kristina, Harry and Aliona's Argentine Tango is the one to beat. Their samba is sensational too! Holly and Artem's take on SWAN LAKE was also a favourite, let's hope he is back soon after his back injury, and one never tires of watching the professional dancers like Flavia and Vincent; looking forward to their Tango show in January! Flavia is a stunning woman - like Sophia she hails from Naples....

Then of course there is the latest from Sir David Attenborough, still going strong in his 80s: FROZEN PLANET is as superlative and jaw-dropping as one would expect. This is what one pays one's license fee for ... more amazing footage of animals in the Artic and Antartic wastes - that footage of the polar bears, and killer whales working in teams, and all those penguins .... nature in the raw indeed - fantastic stuff !

I don't bother much with cop shows, but its interesting catching up with LAW AND ORDER SPECIAL VICTIM UNIT from America, both the latest series and repeats of earlier - this is not mainstream viewing here so Meloni and Mariska [sometimes she looks so like her mother Jayne Mansfield] are not well known here; we have our own version, LAW AND ORDER: UK - the U.S. SVU also has some fascinating guest stars: Franco Nero recently as the diplomat accused of rape, a hilariously over the top Ann-Margret etc.

Bottom: a reminder of Tom Hollander in that hilarious scene from BEDROOMS AND HALLWAYS (1998) where he is blindfolded and tied to the bed as the owners of the house return ....

"The Throb of Manhattan"

ITS ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, 1955, may well be my very favourite musical (after A STAR IS BORN and THE BANDWAGON of course) - it and those sophisticated musicals from 1957 [LES GIRLS, FUNNY FACE, SILK STOCKINGS, THE PYJAMA GAME, bits of PAL JOEY] are my perennial favourites, ever since I saw them as a child at Sunday afternoon matinees - BRIGADOON was another but it it not quite in that league, but I prefer them to the over-hyped SINGING IN THE RAIN or AN AMERICAN IN PARIS both of which show Kelly at his most grating (of course, as per Musicals label, I also love ON THE TOWN, MY SISTER EILEEN, KISS ME KATE, SWINGTIME, GYPSY, LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT among others...)

Good to see that ITS ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER is being revived by the London National Film Theatre in their season on MGM musicals - it cries out to be seen on widescreen, using as it does, multiple images when our 3 wartime buddies reflect on their lives now. It seems to have been a troubled shoot, co-directors Kelly and Stanley Donen fell out, Kelly and Charisse don't have any number together, she has one marvellous dance number "Baby You Knock Me Out" at the gym (where, as Pauline Kael put it, "Cyd Charisse is benumbed until she unhinges those legs") wearing that terrific Helen Rose ensemble, and Gene has the very inventive roller-skate number and of course when the 3 guys dance with the dustbin lids, so it is all very innovative, just as original musicals were dying, it was mainly films of Broadway shows after this.

It is the perfect mid-century story of 3 wartime buddies meeting up 10 years later in 1955 and realising that they don't like each other much now, and indeed Kelly and Dailey don't much like themselves either. Gene is mixing with hoods and managing a dumb boxer, while Dan Dailey has risen to "Executive Vice-President" level in advertising and is sick of the advertising game as he lets rip in his terrific solo number "Advertising-wise". Cyd Charisse is the television researcher who stumbles across the 3 wartime buddies and realises their reunion is ideal for her television show "Midnight with Madeline" for "The Throb of Manhattan" spot where saccharine stories are featured. This is the early days of live television and the movie is a splendid satire on those artificial tv hostesses like Madeline and her diva tantrums. Dolores Gray is stupendous here, and has one of the best numbers ever "Thanks a lot but no thanks" which is a delirious treat with that ritzy gown and that killer line:"I've got a man who's Clifton Webb and Marlon Brando combined"!. Then hood Jay C Flippen and his goons invade the studio where the live broadcast is being made, as they are after Gene who has thrown the fight once he realised his boxer has been bribed to lose it. Cyd gets the hoods to confess on live air, Madeline has a hit show, the 3 buddies realise they are still friends after all. It's a perfect conclusion as Cyd joins Gene and the the guys back at the bar where they vowed to meet up 10 years previously.



Choreographer Michael Kidd is ideal as the family man, Dailey has one of his best roles (apart from his father in THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS), Cyd and Gene sparkle as they spar with each other, and Dolores steals the show. What's not to love? It is a dark, sometimes bitter take on ON THE TOWN a decade later as the 3 buddies meet again - by 1955 though Sinatra had gone on to solo projects and was "difficult" and Jules Munchin was not a name enough. Produced of course by Arthur Freed, with songs by Andre Previn, script by Comden and Green; perfect entertainment then, but see the widescreen version, not panned and scanned! The DVD includes a fascinating 'Making-Of' chronicling the fallout between Kelly and Donen, and several out-takes including a terrific inventive (that word again) deleted number between Kelly and Charisse "Love is Nothing But a Racket" which has been unseen for far too long, and Michael Kidd's solo spot with some kids, but Gene did not want that included, after his number with kids in AN AMERICAN IN PARIS! Essential stuff then.

I met Gene at a recording of an interview of his for the BBC in 1975 - Donen of course went on to direct several of my enduing favourites: those Audrey Hepburn films like TWO FOR THE ROAD and CHARADE, Kendall in ONCE MORE WITH FEELING, Peck and Sophia ideal in ARABESQUE, and the marvellous BEDAZZLED with Pete and Dud and Eleanor Bron in 1967. We won't mention STAIRCASE or LUCKY LADY!