Berlinale 2012 - a new mini-series

Today started the Berlinale - the international film festival of Berlin, Germany. 

 It’s the 62th Berlinale – and I will try to post a bit about it.. So please expect some posts to learn a bit about this film festival..

~ Berlinale 2012 ~

About 400 films - 395 films to be specific - will be shown in several cinemas in Berlin – and just in eleven days! 

I'll try to post about eleven of these films – just some of those which interest me. And I will also post at least one picture per post of bygone days of Berlinale or films which were shown then – because of course also well-known faces of Hollywood showed up in my favourite German city..

~  Berlinale audience waiting for some stars to appear - though I think the nationality really doesn't count here..~

The film to open the festival a few hours ago is one that sparks also in my interest: 

LES ADIEUX À LA REINE. 

The international title is FAREWELL, MY QUEEN. 

~ No happy faces at Versailles in 1789 ~

It’s a French film starring Diane Kruger (who actually hails from the same area of Germany as I do – by that we are of course practically twins.. *ho-hum..*), 

~ Diane Kruger as Marie Antoinette ~

Léa Seydoux (who some of you might know from films like MISSION IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL (2011), ROBIN HOOD (2010) or MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011) – like Diane Kruger she also was in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009)..) -

~ Léa Seydoux as Sidonie Laborde ~

 and the wonderful Virginie Ledoyen (who you might have seen in THE BEACH (2000) or one of my favourites: 8 WOMEN (2002) …)

~ Virginie Ledoyen  as Gabrille de Polignac making quite an entrance.. ~

Versailles, 1789.  French Revolution just has begun. Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger) asks her reader Sidonie Laborde (Léa Seydoux) to wear some of Marie Antoinette's clothes and try to leave Versaille. What Sidonie first thinks is a sign of friendship and caring - is actually an attempt to sidetrack revolutionists..

~ Virginie Ledoyen & Diane Kruger ~

As far as I know this film shows the events in Versailles from the servants’ point of view – which I think might be quite interesting. The film is based on a novel by Chantal Thomas. I might have to wait till May to finally watch this film - it will be released here on May 24th.. 

~ Léa Seydoux and director Benoît Jacquot at work ~

Enough for today – have a look at the film which opened the first Berlinale 1951:

~ yes - indeed: the fantastic REBECCA (1940) ~

Here is the film which was the darling of the public - the audience’s favourite that year:

~ don't you love Disney's CINDERELLA (1950), too ?

Thank you very much for listening!

Yours (very well and) truly

Irene

“They may not admire my person but I assure you, they dote on my purse.”

Sometimes I struggle with my looks.. I am used to that.. Sometimes I struggle with the looks of Hollywoodstars - especially when they are supposed to be ugly - and still look gorgeous.. - or when the make-up-department changes some familiar and usually very distinctive faces - e.g. look at this nose:

This, dear friends, is your hint for the film I am going to talk about.. Any ideas yet?

Hm.. ok...

Then I'll go on:

Once upon a time.. ..Charlotte Brontë wrote a book which became a beloved classic and which was adapted for the big screen several times – one time it was rewritten by the great Aldous Huxley, John Houseman and Robert Stevenson, who was a member of the Brontë-society - and who also directed the film, which was brought to you by 20th Century Fox. You might know it:

JANE EYRE (1943)

hm.. this film poster seems to give the wrong oomph!pression..

not much better.. Still floating hair and a naked shoulder?? Please! This isn't Brontë-porn, folks!

aah - yes, that's the kind of image that fits it at least a bit better...

In a nutshell:

Jane Eyre (Peggy Ann Garner) is an orphan. Because her aunt by marriage Sarah Reed (Agnes Moorehead) wants to get rid of the rebellious child she sends it to Lowood – a school headed by rigid Mr. Brocklehurst (Henry Daniell) whose very strict rules lead to the death of Jane’s only friend Helen (Elizabeth Taylor).

Years later the grown up – but still a bit stubborn - Jane (Joan Fontaine) starts to work as a governess for Adèle (Margaret O’Brien - speaking with a very cute French accent) at Thornfield Manor. Little Adèle is the ward of Mr. Edward Rochester (someone who resembles and sounds like Orson Welles .. ;"p .. ) – owner of Thornfield Manor and a bit uneasy to be with.

Nevertheless he and Jane go very well with each other and finally fall in love – but there are some obstacles: like the very pretty heiress Blanche (Hillary Brooke) who is after Mr. Rochester and there is also a dark secret in Mr. Rochester’s past, which might be related to the strange screams at night and the accident which almost burned Mr. Rochester during his sleep…

~ you think this is the final scene? Ha! You have no idea... ~

Watch out for:

• Elizabeth Taylor as Helen - her appearance is rather short and she is just sweet and not very much Martha of WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?-ish. (->1966)
  
  
• Star of silent movies Mae Marsh as Leah.
  
  
• Hillary Brooks performance as Blanche Ingram - nasty lady that blonde.. Just btw - though she spoke through her whole career with an English accent - Miss Brooks actually hailed from Astoria, New York - she just wanted to have kind of a trade mark.. - isn't that simply marvellous?
  
  



• Agnes Moorehead – as always excellent – and I adore her saying “wicked”.. ;”)
  
  
• Henry Daniell as Mr. Brocklehurst – I love to hate that man! Honest: I think he is always great when he is mean!!

Schmooze:

• Though you might get the impression while watching this film: the beginning which is read from the pages of a book called JANE EYRE (I wonder why..) – it is not the original beginning of the novel - so please don't try to impress someone by memorizing this as the novel's beginning.. ;")

• There are some relations with Daphne Du Maurier’s REBECCA (which is apparently loosely based on JANE EYRE): a plain looking and kind of mousy heroine, a hero who is a bit uneasy, dark secrets in his past, the very similar end.. – well, and Joan Fontaine played the heroine in JANE EYRE (1943) as well as in REBECCA (1940).
  
  
• This was Elizabeth Taylor’s third appearance in a movie - the 7th flick for Peggy Ann Garner and the 8th film Margaret O'Brien did.
  
  

~ Look: other females have hairstyles
-

Peggy Ann Garner and yours Irene just have hair.. ~

• Joan Fontaine’s sister Olivia de Havilland played Charlotte Brontë in DEVOTION (1946).

• The German title is DIE WAISE VON LOWOOD (= The orphan of Lowood) and it was released in Germany in 1947 - which is comparatively early: e.g. THE THIN MAN SERIES weren't released here till 1969..

• Edith Barret who personated Mrs. Fairfax – a lady of “a certain” age – was actually 36 – just ten years older than Miss Fontaine..

~ this, dear friends, is the Hollywood idea of a plain looking female.. *sigh* anyone carpooling with me to a plastic surgeon?? - maybe we'll get a group discount.. ~

Let’s face the music:

Bernard Herrmann who wrote the score for this film also used parts of this for the opera he started to write – WUTHERING HEIGHTS after the novel of Charlotte Brontë’s younger sister Emily…

You should watch this film if you..

• .. wish to know the story (well the main part..) of a classic novel – without fighting your way through a bit dull passages (yeah – I said it: There are passages in JANE EYRE that I found actually dull to read.. the whole passage about several chapters what Jane lives through after she left Thornfield Manor.. that really gave me a hard time.. I was very fine with the Rochester and gothic atmosphere parts though.. but after all I am more of a WUTHERING HEIGHTS girl.. )
  
  
• .. like your main characters not too lovely.
  
  
• .. want to see each and every movie in which little girls talk with phony French accents and try to make grownups watch them dancing.. (Yes, I am talking to you Miss O'Brien! Go to your room!! )
  

~ awww... look at all these fluffy frills.. Somewhere in there is a child - I am pretty sure of that..~

• .. have a soft spot for mad women.
  
  
• .. like mystery gothic romances.

Quotes corner:

Maybe one of the best-known-literary-children-quotes ever - when asked how to avoid to end in hell little Jane Eyre answers:

“I must keep in good health and not die.”

No more questions, your honor...

Never ending story:

There are soo many adaptations of this novel - I just learned that I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943) is losely based on it, too.. Great idea for a double feature show, isn't it?

Let's have a look:

~Don’t you just adore that girl in the beginning of the clip – and all those novels?? I love that! ~

Uhm.. ok. I got to confess that – not caring about what you will be thinking of me..: I am mesmerized by Orson Welles' fake nose in this film! I am frequently staring at him..

Anyway: I love this story. I love that the heroine shouldn’t be overwhelming beautiful.

Yeah – it’s Joan Fontaine – not quite an unattractive woman.. that’s true.. but they at least tried to make her look a bit more boring.. Problem is: Joan Fontaine has a beautiful face! That lady looks like an angel!!

~ oh my gosh! This woman is incredibly ugly! Quick - lets give her an paper back to hide that grotesque face..

?!?!?

Yeah, sure... ~

The hero is supposed to be unattractive – which actually means: very attractive to yours Irene.. Yeah, ok.. Orson Welles isn’t really my cup of anything.. I am struggling with myself whether I do like him or not.. – but he doesn't look like Orson Welles and it's Rochester and it's mighty dark in the halls of Thornfield Manor.. – anyway: it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it?

I love the scene in which Jane is thinking that she hears Mr. Rochester calling for her in the thunderstorm – actually it makes me always a bit chuckling.. which can be related to the pathos in it.. And I simply adore Mr. Rochester’s Great Dane Pilot.

And though this film has with Joan Fontaine, Elizabeth Taylor and Agnes Moorehead three of my favourite actresses and I love it – I still must confess, that this isn’t my favourite version of JANE EYRE – that would be the 1996 version with Ciarán Hinds as Mr. Rochester..

..well, till now that is.. – because the 2011 version will released in Germany not before December – it was aired in the USA in March.. (!!! – IN FRIGGIN MARCH!!! .. ~ curse you, German cinemas!!! ~) anyway - this could change everything:

Because Mr. Rochester is personated by one of my modern favourites: Michael Fassbender – plus one of my favourite modern actresses Sally Hawkins is in it, too – yeah.. a great cast beside them with Judi Dench, Jamie Bell and Mia Wasikowska – but: aren’t you listening?? Michael Fassbender!! Blimey.. Hm.. I think I know one film I will write about in December – in case it will be actually in German cinemas then.. Oh! Woe is me..

Well, till then I still can watch this very cute version of JANE EYRE with such a beautiful cast - and so many great talents. Maybe woe isn't that much me..

~ Don't you just love this picture? Looks like Orson Welles told Joan Fontaine a dirty joke - and she is not amused.. ~

The End? - Wait and watch..

Thank you very much for listening!

Yours (very well and ) truly

Irene

- not even plain looking in a Joan Fontaine way..

Don't want to bark on the wrong tree..

Poor pun...

I know..

And I am sorry..

..but because lately there are so many cat pics at AND THEN THEY START TO SPARKLE I have a feeling I should also post some dog pictures - though I am a tiny bit more of a "cat character" - I adore dogs, too..

Here for all of you who prefer canine before feline - or like them alike.. or just like to watch pictures:

Clark Gable knows that the sophisticated man rather drives to the dogs..

Alfred Hitchock having a dog and warm thoughts - but no actual fire..

Very cute Truus van Aalten and an even cuter friend..

Little companion seems to be ok with sharing the couch with Rosalind Russell - but maybe not too fond of the thought to share Roz.. (well - who would??) - or is Roz holding him back so she can have him for her own? (well.. who wouldn't?)

Finally: Joan Fontaine and awwwwwwwww..... (can't say who is lovlier..)

Hope you enjoyed this..

Yours truly

Irene

"Most of my friends exit horizontally"

Clare Booth Luce is reported to have heard some gossip-loaded talk at a powderroom in a nightclub and got the inspiration to write a play, which became a Broadway-hit: The Women.

In 1939 it was adapted to screen. George Cukor was director and Anita Loos wrote together with Jane Murfin the screenplay.

In a nutshell:

Mary Haines (Norma Shearer) considers her life as perfect. She is happily married and has a daughter, who she loves a lot. Then - with a little help from her friends, esp. her cousin Sylvia (Rosalind Russell) - she finds out, that her husband Stephen has an affair with Chrystal Allen (Joan Crawford) - a femme fatale selling perfume. Eventually Mary goes to Reno, gets a divorce and new friends.

Two years go by and Chrystal Allen is now good friends with Sylvia and married to Stephen Haines, whom she betrays with a singin' cowboy. Mary figures that out and finally gets her man back.

Watch out for:

Butterfly McQueen (her film debut!), Virginia Grey, Ruth Hussey, Hedda Hopper, Hattie McDaniel and Dorothy Sebastian in bit parts.

Schmooze:

Margaret Dumont played a Mrs. Wagstaff (probably the wife of Prof. Quincy Adams Wagstaff of "Horsefeathers" - a Dumont-free Marx Bros. movie?? Wouldn't that be great?!) but her scene were deleted.

In the fightscene Rosalind Russell bites Paulette Goddard (Mrs. Charles Chaplin at that time). Miss Goddard maintained a scar from that bite. Anyway they remained friends.

Allegedly there are (in addition to an all female cast) only female animals in this movie. Even art, books etc. are penned by women.

Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer and Rosalind Russell are rumoured to have a quarrel till George Cukor stepped in.

Joan Fontaine is the only cast member who is still alive.

My favourite feature:

"Sydneys" - the beauty parlour! It is just marvellous! I love the opening scene when these women are chatting and running through that awesome setting. "Sydneys" was named after Sydney Guilaroff - MGMs chief hairstylist.

Wishlist:

I'd like to get that perfume flakon for "Summer Rain"!! Or some of the dresses from the Adrian fashion show (the only part in this film in Technicolor.)

This film is one of my alltime favourite - it would be among my top ten. I love the opening credits when all the bigger parts are presented with a picture of an animal and a portrait of the actrice. Although the end scene is way to corny. (Norma Shearer, what's that supposed to mean? Do you never ever went out of a picture that way! That's so Norma Desmond!), this picture contains all I love about comedies: Pretty ladies, opulent settings and decor, marvellous costumes (Rosalind Russells' hats!!) and hairstyles and most important of all: a witty script. I really love these tartly ladies of "The Women" (1939)!

If you don't want to see the whole film watch Rosalind Russell doing her excersises or.. or.. *er*. No, you've got to watch that movie!

There were two remakes: one of 1956 ("The Opposite Sex"), which I will review some day and a 2008 version (also called "The Women") which I avoid to see - so somebody out there has to do that review.

And here the most famous quote out of "The Women" (1939):

"I've had two years to grow claws, mother! Jungle red!"

Good bye! I got to go and watch another movie! So:

"Get me a bromide - and put some gin in it!"