Reviews

Marilyn, never more beautiful, outstages a stiff Olivier in this fairytalish comedy. The lessons at the Actor´s Studio (NY) really did pay off! An absolute delight and probably my favorite Monroe movie after ´The Misfits´. Don´t watch this one for the complex storylines or the explosive action, watch this one for the genius of Marilyn Monroe.

Judging from the footage in this documentary ´Something´s got to give´ would certainly not have been a step forward for Marilyn: a silly comedy which would have taken her right back to her early days. During the late fifties Marilyn had proven to be a very fine actress, able of playing high standard comedy (Some like it hot, The prince and the showgirl) as well as dramatic parts (Bus stop). Then her personal life got in the way of her film career. While 20th Century Fox gave Elizabeth Taylor the star treatment and the budget that goes with it (for portraying Cleopatra), Marilyn got stuck with this stinker. She got fired during the shoot and died just before the studio rehired her to finish the job. Though this documentary shows a couple of touching scenes (f.i. Marilyn´s character meeting her children for the first time in years - this was to be the first time Marilyn played a mother), I think ´The Misfits´ is a much more suitable swansong for this beautiful child (as Truman Capote once called her).

SF-kidsmovie with cartoonish quality, lots of action and some painfully dated special effects. Pretty entertaining, but not quite the material for a screen legend. To see Bette Davis in other post-Baby Jane roles, more worthy of her talent, watch ´Death on the Nile´ (1978) and ´Whales of August´ (1988).

´The Delinquents´ was made just after Kylie´s rise to fame in the music business (thanks to producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman), and is a star vehicle in the tradition of the classic Hollywood movies starring (f.i.) Joan Crawford. Not the plot, but the actress comes in first place in these kind of movies. Every storyline, every camera angle, everything spins around miss Minogue. She gets all the time and space to show off her acting skills, good looks and various hairstyles. This movie would have been a disaster without the star quality Kylie brings to it. Even though she never made it to the level of Madonna or Janet Jackson, she has the attitude that goes with top stardom, and that is what makes her film debut really enjoyable.

Dolly Parton is a world class singer/songwriter and a hell of a live performer (as proven on the album ´Heartsongs´). So why did she choose to lip sync on this ´Treasures´ special? The songs are great, the costumes are hilarious! But live vocals would have made all the difference. This could have been a classic Dolly Parton performance, instead it´s a commercial for a very nice Dolly Parton album. Shame.

This movie wasn´t meant to change the world. It´s entertainment, and very entertaining entertainment, if I may add. The songs alone are reason enough to watch this movie. ´Fine and dandy´ (When Miss Mona´s girls have to leave the farm), the classic ´I will always love you´ and ´Texas has a whore house in it (Lord have mercy on our soul!)´ are my personal favorites. One of the best musicals made in the eighties (next to ´Fame´ and ´Annie´).

After touring the world in 1987, Madonna decided to surprise her audience once again with a total departure from her previous work. Her part in ´Bloodhounds of Broadway´ is an absolute delight. She is funny and touching (something she hadn´t showed in her movies since ´Desperate seeking Susan´) as Hortance Hattaway, a twenties show girl who´s been around the block a few times and has footprints all over her back. Two of the most entertaining highlights are her performances in the nightclub where most of the action takes place (it´s New Years Eve). Especially the duet with Jeniffer Grey (who´s not dubbed, but took singing lessons to do the job herself!) is a real treat. Shame there´s no soundtrack available.

This disgusting combination of violence and cheap jokes has to be avoided, unless you are a devoted Liza Minnelli fan... like me. Liza has this very personal acting style (a nervous kind of energy) you either love or hate. I think it´s great, and it almost turns trash like Rent-a-cop into something watchable. For the real Liza experience, watch ´Sterile Cuckoo´ or ´Cabaret´.

There are giants on this stage, and Bernadette Peters is the greatest of them all! What a performance, especially ´The last midnight´ (second act) blew me away. The most enjoyable musical by mister Sondheim, be prepared to hum the title tune for the next few months after seeing this video! Into the woods you go again, you have to every now and then...

This must have been hell for Marilyn, but what a beautiful picture! Marilyn really plays herself, as the script was written for and about her by husband Arthur Miller. There are hints of the Marilyn we saw in ´Bus stop´ and ´The prince and the show girl´, but there´s also the Marilyn we know from the countless books published on her troubled existence. We see a girl (Rosalyn), full of life, but lost and looking for a home. In one very symbolic scene she is horrified by a couple of men who tie down a wild horse. ´Killers!´ she shouts, ´You´re only happy when something dies! Why don´t you kill yourself and be happy´. This is Marilyn, shouting at the industry that made her and destroyed her, or so I believe. Quite a departure from ´Diamonds are a girl´s best friend´...

Top acting by Spencer Tracy, Maximilian Schell, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland and Montgomery Clift. And what a great way of dealing with such a delicate subject. Much, much better in painting the picture of this horrifying war than f.i. ´Schindler´s List´.

On very few occasions did Marlene Dietrich drop the well-constructed mask of her eternal beauty. She was the daughter of a soldier, and very rarely showed (real) emotions. Max Shell was able to give us a glimpse of the woman behind the facade in this breathtaking documentary (even though Marlene did not allow their conversations to be filmed, a sound-recording is all we get from the 83 year old legend). It is certainly not a flattering portrait. Marlene is rude and impatient, and she tells all kinds of lies. But at the end of the documentary there are a few extremely touching moments: Her sudden joy when she sings songs from her ´Berliner Platte´ (the Berlin album), a film-clip from her last movie ´Just a gigolo´ (1978), and her emotional reaction to the favorite poem of her mother, read by the director. When Shell finally breaks her defence mechanism, we hear an old and tired woman, tired of being perfect for more than six decades. And every time it breaks my heart to think how hard it must have been to keep up the facade that was Marlene Dietrich.

Come on, you guys! We all know Madonna´s acting is no Oscar material since ´Shanghai Surprise´ (although a nomination for Evita would have been fair). But the woman is one of the last real Hollywood diva´s. It´s fun to watch her, never mind the acting, like it was (and is) fun to watch Joan Crawford (f.i.). I saw ´The next best thing´ at a gay movie festival in Holland, with an all gay audience, and the first half of the movie was received very well. You could feel the disappointment when the drama took over, but the majority of the audience left the cinema smiling and humming ´American pie´. That should say something.