tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667410643073985006.post6030987053747950577..comments2024-02-05T03:04:14.407+01:00Comments on A Film A Day: A Star Is Born (1954)Sonia Cercahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07313734872038610058noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667410643073985006.post-35870481366138725702018-08-22T21:07:51.344+02:002018-08-22T21:07:51.344+02:00I'll keep that in mind for the next time I wat...I'll keep that in mind for the next time I watch one of these movies. Sonia Cercahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07313734872038610058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667410643073985006.post-51269863969993457602018-08-22T21:07:04.059+02:002018-08-22T21:07:04.059+02:00Del film di Cooper più di tutto mi intriga l'i...Del film di Cooper più di tutto mi intriga l'interpretazione di Lady Gaga. Sembra sarà da Oscar. Sonia Cercahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07313734872038610058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667410643073985006.post-72264854875733709942018-08-22T21:06:01.247+02:002018-08-22T21:06:01.247+02:00I'm glad you love this but it just didn't ...I'm glad you love this but it just didn't work for me. I might give the original a chance. Sonia Cercahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07313734872038610058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667410643073985006.post-66687024028491705202018-08-18T21:27:16.738+02:002018-08-18T21:27:16.738+02:00I've been thinking about watching all the vers...I've been thinking about watching all the versions of that film in anticipation for the new version with Lady Gaga. Usually with most of these kinds of films, I always watch with low expectations.thevoid99https://www.blogger.com/profile/03055459287396592446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667410643073985006.post-83215780842219944952018-08-18T18:29:15.108+02:002018-08-18T18:29:15.108+02:00Un film "culto" degli anni '50, che ...Un film "culto" degli anni '50, che è figlio del suo tempo: a vederlo oggi, in effetti, risulta un po' datato... ma la curiosità, inutile dirlo, è per il remake che vedremo a Venezia diretto da Bradley Cooper, con Lady Gaga protagonista. Sarà il trionfo del trash oppure del romanticismo? ;)Kris Kelvinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526718142537678826noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667410643073985006.post-53178886552399430332018-08-18T16:02:07.135+02:002018-08-18T16:02:07.135+02:00Having seen both versions, the truncated one and t...Having seen both versions, the truncated one and the restored with the additional dialog musical numbers etc., I can definitely say the restored version is the better. So much texture is added back into the film. In the shorter version almost all of Esther & Norman's courtship is gone as well as her struggle. He hears her sing and BOOM she's a star. The musical numbers provide respite later in what is a heavy, heavy tale.<br /><br />I can't agree about the musical numbers either. The Someone at Last number was always there and it provides a look into their home life when times are good. But Lose That Long Face I think shows the fiction that we want to believe that what we see the actors performing on the screen is all true after Esther goes back to film her pickup following that devastating dressing room scene and ends with that huge smile on her face. The proposal scene in the recording studio again adds to their relationship and a bit of whimsy to the film. All that had been cut save the dressing room scene. I could forego the Born in a Trunk sequence, though both Melancholy Baby (where I think Judy looks the best in the entire film) and Swanee are great pieces, ironically that entire sequence was added as an afterthought and Judy fought against it feeling it out of place. <br /><br />How is she not resilient? She stands by him through every single humiliation, the man backhands her on national television at what should be a highlight of her life and she coddles and protects him back to his seat then ultimately is prepared to give up everything so that he can recover. <br /><br />Judy is just phenomenal. She goes so much deeper than her previous films had allowed and meets the challenge, she was robbed of the Oscar. James Mason was such a brilliant actor and amazing though not the first choice. Cary Grant had signed and bowed out, love him but I can't see him in the role he was always guarded on screen and this required a level of emotional nakedness he apparently was uncomfortable with. But they don't perform in a vacuum. Charles Bickford is a warm comforting presence as the kindly Oliver Niles and I love Tommy Noonan as Esther's seemingly imperturbable friend Danny. Such a difference from his role in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as the gullible Gus! <br /><br />But I think the great and underappreciated Jack Carson makes perhaps the biggest impact as the venomous Matt Libby. The man is a pit viper and while you never like him Carson manages to add some shading to his feelings of contempt for Norman Maine rather than render him a stock villain. The scene between the two at the racetrack is vicious and full of bile and designed to engender sympathy for the fragile Norman but it didn't from me. Norman is down on his luck and struggling to say the course but he put himself there and when he was on top he treated Libby abominably never hiding the fact that he hated him so why shouldn't Libby want to give some of that back.<br /><br />However if this one didn't work fully for you check out the original (non-musical) with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March it’s very fine. Just avoid the bitter hash that Barbra Streisand made of it in the 70's which unfortunately seems to be the one Bradley Cooper used as his template for the new redo. joel65913https://www.blogger.com/profile/14526657073681774683noreply@blogger.com