२० फेब्रुवारी, २०१९

Camille Paglia has a new column.

But it's all about "A Star Is Born," and I really don't care. I haven't seen even one of the 4 "Star Is Born" movies that have come out over the years, and I've read enough descriptions to know the differences, but I just don't care. Excerpts:
Unsparingly presenting [the male lead] as arrogant with male privilege, the script [of the 1954 version] prepares the way for the tragic intensity of the love story. In contrast, [the 2018 version] upgrades [the male lead] to lovable stumbling klutz, merely drawing a few hard glances from fellow musicians. He thus defeats the entire redemptive pattern of the three earlier films....

A harrowing highlight of the series is the ritual humiliation of the leading man. The [1937 version] and [the 1954 version] are gut-wrenching in showing the cold contempt of other men for a wounded alpha male as he tumbles down to become a mere adjunct to a more successful woman.....

[I]n [the new] film, the tipsy [male lead]... ends in infantile passivity: [he] pisses his pants in full view of the audience. This ugly scene, which reduces a triumphant career woman to a gal pal awkwardly hiding a urine spill with a flap of her gown, is a misogynous disgrace.
So there's something there of general interest — how to do male humiliation the right way? Maybe that's separable from the focus on that particular movie plot. A woman rises as a man falls — How that is shown tells us something about our time?

ADDED: Paglia objects to the importance of the male character in relation to the female character and seems to think the movie is misogynist because it makes him more important than her. But why isn't that a fresh idea? I'm not going to watch all these movies to try to find the answer, but it seems to me that Paglia adores the various females, especially Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand and seems to think it's wrong for Lady Gaga to be given smaller role — a supporting role to the man. But I don't see that as misogynist, and Lady Gaga isn't an experienced movie star. It may have been appropriate not to give her many big scenes, and why shouldn't the big movie star Bradley Cooper have more for himself? He's an established star and the director.

६४ टिप्पण्या:

Skeptical Voter म्हणाले...

Ah I missed the urine scene. OTOH having been dragged to the showing by my wife who likes Lady Gaga, I was perhaps not the most attentive viewer. And since a late arriving and rather large young woman had managed to sill about half of her 32 ounce soft drink on me (she was stumbling along the row behind me in the dark, handling the soft drink and a two quart box of popcorn) I was not inclined to enjoy the movie. The shower of sticky soft drink did not come with an apology.

gilbar म्हणाले...

who cares about A Star is Born? If we're going to talk film's about film stars we need to go to All About Eve. If it weren't for All About Eve, they never could have made The Budding of Brie

gilbar म्हणाले...

a late arriving and rather large young woman had managed to sill about half of her 32 ounce soft drink on me
This NEVER would have happened at The Budding of Brie!

Kay म्हणाले...

My SO went to see the latest “Star is” expecting to completely hate it, but fell in love with the film. This makes me want to check it out. But me being the type of person that I am, I kind of want to see all bersions to compare and contrast as in this review.

Kay म्हणाले...

*versions

Lucid-Ideas म्हणाले...

"Misogynistic piece of crap"

...maybe that's why people liked it so much:)

Just once I'd like to see someone do a deep-dive analysis on when/how/why the "doofus dude/dad" entered the American zeitgeist. You could kind of see it forming right after WWII with Desi Arnez and Ralph Kramden through Archie Bunker all the way to full-blown fool in Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin and Paul Blart. I can't recall seeing this in modern media prior to WWII. You had your goofy guys/comedians but not a consistent "doofus/dumb" trope the way they keep pushing the "failed-fat-beta-dad" the way they do today.

Is it true? Did victory 'defeat us'? What the hell happened?

tcrosse म्हणाले...

If we're going to talk film's about film stars we need to go to All About Eve

Or The Bad and The Beautiful, or Sunset Blvd,

buwaya म्हणाले...

Even in the movies people don't join the French Foreign legion, or some exotic foreign army, or become gentleman rankers, or just go west, anymore. Sad. Those were honorable ways out of public disgrace.

mccullough म्हणाले...

I suppose if they are going to remake the movie again it had to be a little different.

The way to remake it more contemporary would be to flip the roles. Have the woman be the aging star on the decline who helps a young man rise. Then have the young guy leave her for a younger woman

buwaya म्हणाले...

The "dad" thing is part of the cultural-Marxist imperative.
It was at its core deliberate, then fashionable, and then the cultural default.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

In real life, women lose in any urine contest.

Jersey Fled म्हणाले...

I have to admit, Lady Gaga is starting to grow on me. Her Superbowl performance a few years ago was one of the best. And they say she should have won an Oscar for "Star".

My daughter was appalled when a survey on her favorite morning drive radio show named Gaga as the best female Italian American pop singer of all time.

I would have picked Connie Francis.

bleh म्हणाले...

Apparently you really do care or you wouldn't have posted this.

Andrew म्हणाले...

The moment I see the word "privilege" alongside "white" or "male," I stop reading. That will be true until the day I die.

Limited blogger म्हणाले...

Go watch Gaga and Bradley perform 'Shallow' live at Gaga's Las Vegas residency.

Fantastic. Cooper was not a trained singer, but pulls it off.

The chemistry between the stars seems authentic.

traditionalguy म्हणाले...

When a man loves a woman... she can do no wrong. But success is powerful Mistress for women too..

My vote is for the Judy Garland version. Judy can do no wrong.

J. Farmer म्हणाले...

@Jersey Fled:

I would have picked Connie Francis.

Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero. Good pick!

mccullough म्हणाले...

No love for Madonna as best Italian American singer. I prefer her to Lada Gaga who seems to derivative of Madonna. She has a better voice but that’s about it.

Bay Area Guy म्हणाले...

I thought Bradley Cooper should have won an Oscar for his performance in The Hangover.

Now, that was an important flick.

Grant म्हणाले...

Watched the first two versions a while back. Fortunately the best part of the Garland one comes early ("The Man that Got Away"--and it's really great, worth watching in its own right) because it's pretty bad otherwise.

Nobody could make me watch Babs in anything. Gaga, maybe, but the descriptions here don't make me want to bother.

Carol म्हणाले...

Then have the young guy leave her for a younger woman

Haha, that'll never fly. I wonder why. Most these tired plots are just flips of more likely scenarios, so as not to hurt our feelz.

J. Farmer म्हणाले...

@mccullough:

No love for Madonna as best Italian American singer. I prefer her to Lada Gaga who seems to derivative of Madonna. She has a better voice but that’s about it.

Pretty much every female pop star from the late 80s on has been derivative, to one degree or another, of Madonna. The first one to ape her style was Janet Jackson on the 1986 album Control. So I agree that Madonna is a massive talent and a huge influence as an entertainer. But her voice has always been very mediocre at best.

Ken B म्हणाले...

There are in fact 5 previous versions! I liked the 1937 version, but it was in fact already a remake, of What Price Hollywood. I have not seen the others and don’t want to.

Earnest Prole म्हणाले...

Art is so much more enjoyable and moving when you don’t insist on viewing it through à la mode Left and Right political filters.

Fernandinande म्हणाले...

"A Star Is Born" is a series of stories rewritten, re-edited and reassembled over dozens of years. They are investigations into the structure of peeing itself and calls to action within that peeing.

Ken B म्हणाले...

This is an Althouse vindication thread! Hardin is hilariously wrong. Read his own link on public figures. Sandman doesn’t come close.

Rosalyn C. म्हणाले...

Same. Picked up the story at Drudge and realized I had no idea what she was talking about and am not interested. Bradley Cooper who?

bagoh20 म्हणाले...

I hope four versions is enough already. For an industry that believes itself to be a creative field, they sure do stay in the lane once they find one. I've seen a bunch of RomCom movies in my life, but I don't remember any of them, except Star is Born with Streisand and Kristoferson, which I didn't even like. Neither character was believable as a rock star of that time even though the actors playing them actually were.

PM म्हणाले...

Saw Gaynor version, Garland version, can't watch Streisand in anything and think Gaga can blow the notes off sheet music, but won't see it. Have an aversion to alcholic movies (Milland excepted) and especially gambling addiction films. Never found A Star to have a feministic bent - and I love Paglia. It's about the ruination of an alcoholic. I guess if viewed as zero-sum, the woman rises as the man falls.

Joe म्हणाले...

"My daughter was appalled when a survey on her favorite morning drive radio show named Gaga as the best female Italian American pop singer of all time.

I would have picked Connie Francis. "

That's because "the best of all time" is usually whoever the writer idolized as a teenager or young adult. (See Bob Dylan and Althouse.)

YoungHegelian म्हणाले...

I remember reading the "A Star is Porn" parody in National Lampoon many years ago.

PM म्हणाले...

alcOholic

tcrosse म्हणाले...

It's ironic that in the 1954 version the up-and-comer was played by Judy Garland, whose career was in decline, and who was done in by booze and pills. James Mason played the broken down old drunk, but his career continued for a while longer.

stlcdr म्हणाले...

Making women better by destroying one man at a time (?).

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil म्हणाले...

I generally like Paglia, but I don't care about "A Star is Born" either. I remember seeing the 1970's version and I mildly enjoyed it then, but I didn't think it was a great film and I wasn't interested in seeing the Lady Gaga one. I am sick to death of both remakes and endless superhero movies.

In comparison to, say, Christina Hoff Sommers, Paglia seems to be steering clear of battles that are much more pressing than "A Star is Born." Perhaps she is simply worn out.

madAsHell म्हणाले...

After a while, all the re-makes look like Japanese fireworks!!

Char Char Binks, Esq. म्हणाले...

Bradley Cooper can make pissing his pants look endearing. He has star power.

Carter Wood म्हणाले...

James Mason was brilliant in Mandingo.

gahrie म्हणाले...

So there's something there of general interest — how to do male humiliation the right way?

Is there a right way to do male humiliation? How about female humiliation...is there a right way to do that?

Char Char Binks, Esq. म्हणाले...

Mason did a great job in The Blue Max as Herr Doktor General-Oberst Graf von Klugermann.

Lucid-Ideas म्हणाले...

@Buwaya

It did start out as that, a make fun of dad thing but then it morphed into something really quite sinister. Default for sure but there's real antagonism hidden underneath. Perhaps a lot of this is simply due to generational angst all cultures experience but I've always detected real hatred there in the Western Civ. case.

I recall an interview where Norman Mailer said something to the effect that the generation that came of age or were born right after the war (and still new their 'mostly veteran' fathers as still relatively young men) were exposed to the post-war compendium of horror the war revealed when viewed as a whole that the men fighting it had no perspective of. The children of that generation was split, either viewing their fathers with admiration for having 'slain the dragon' or horror either in the fathers' active participation (Germany, Japan, Italy, etc.) or that men were capable of such atrocities in general (i.e. they deserved no praise for solving a problem men themselves created).

In America, these 2 groups of sons went in 2 directions. The first group followed their fathers' footsteps and went to Korea, Vietnam and joined Strategic Air Command. The 2nd group went to Haight-Ashbury and Woodstock. The 2nd group was far far more successful. The 1st group came away by-and-large disillusioned with the 'dragon they didn't slay' and the 2nd group created the social connections and mindset allowing them to spit on the 1st for their misplaced trust and 'stupidity'.

My father was one in the 1st group. He was always funny but he was never a doofus and he was one of the most inventive intelligent men I will ever know. He turned out to be quite successful though he always felt hated by the group that came to be known to most of us as 'elites'.

अनामित म्हणाले...

Blogger Char Char Binks said...
Bradley Cooper can make pissing his pants look endearing. He has star power.

2/20/19, 12:39 PM

-------------------------

Better at peeing his pants than Steve Martin in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels"?
https://youtu.be/SKDX-qJaJ08

TerriW म्हणाले...

PM: Have you seen Owning Mahowney with Philip Seymour Hoffman? I had read the book first, but the movie was pretty good.

Gojuplyr831@gmail.com म्हणाले...

The next version of A Star Is Born will be a picture of Harvey Weinstein and a couch.

Kevin म्हणाले...

A woman rises as a man falls — How that is shown tells us something about our time?

That the man must fall so the woman can rise tells us something about our time.

tcrosse म्हणाले...

That the man must fall so the woman can rise tells us something about our time.

Ever since Adam.

Ralph L म्हणाले...

film's about film stars we need to go to All About Eve

That was a film about the Thee ah tah.

Ralph L म्हणाले...

I consider a column to be a regular feature in a publication. I believe this should be called an article by Paglia.

bagoh20 म्हणाले...

"The 2nd group was far far more successful."

Not so sure about that. There were a lot of losers and wasted lives among the second group, and for me they deserve much less respect as they ruined much of what was great about this country with the help of their boomer chicks and an unexamined sense of self-righteousness and morality reminiscent of the dragon slayed by their fathers.

stevew म्हणाले...

"And since a late arriving and rather large young woman had managed to sill about half of her 32 ounce soft drink on me "

They wonder why movie theater attendance is down.

I didn't realize there are four versions of the movie. I saw the one with Babs in the 70's. It was a date thing and all I really remember is the music - totally missed the plot, particularly the humiliation of the man.

It sure is ok to bash men these days - but the humiliation described in the earliest versions of the movie sound quite cruel. Women are the best at everything, right? Especially in the movies.

rcocean म्हणाले...

1954 version is the best because Garland and Mason are much better actors.

There were a lot of losers and wasted lives among the second group, and for me they deserve much less respect as they ruined much of what was great about this country with the help of their boomer chicks and an unexamined sense of self-righteousness and morality reminiscent of the dragon slayed by their fathers.

Well said. Although the idea of Norman Mailer, who stabbed one wife, and divorced Five, and who considered himself a "White Negro" - as an expert on American children and their WW 2 fathers is somewhat dubious.

rcocean म्हणाले...

I've seen two versions and will stop there. Its really a chick movie. Hollywood always had trouble finding *good* female-centric stories, so they tend to get repeated.

rcocean म्हणाले...

Just being the movie boyfriend of Striesand is humiliating. Its like, hey that's the best you could do, someone who looks and acts like Barbara Striesand?

MountainMan म्हणाले...

I took my wife to see the Streisand version years ago and the new version recently. I have seen the 1954 version on TV. Didn't really care for any of the three, especially the Streisand version since I am not a big fan of hers. I won't bother to read the article. Best entertainment today is being streamed online at sites like Netflix and Amazon. I haven't seen anything at the theaters in the last year to two that I thought was worth the time and expense. Better to just sit at home, pop some corn, and binge watch what I want, when I want.

Bilwick म्हणाले...

Didn't the Streisand version at least feature a glimpse of Babs' bare boobs, back when she had a good body? I used to work with a young woman who said she wished her boobs were half as good as Streisand's, and I've always been curious about them, but haven't wanted to sit through a movie to see them.

Bilwick म्हणाले...

"In America, these 2 groups of sons went in 2 directions. The first group followed their fathers' footsteps and went to Korea, Vietnam and joined Strategic Air Command. The 2nd group went to Haight-Ashbury and Woodstock. The 2nd group was far far more successful. The 1st group came away by-and-large disillusioned with the 'dragon they didn't slay' and the 2nd group created the social connections and mindset allowing them to spit on the 1st for their misplaced trust and 'stupidity'."

This hypothesis is interesting to me because I noticed among my fellow Baby Boomers that the ones who gravitated to the counter culture, particularly rock music, eventually became much more successful--materially speaking--than the more aristocratic, classical music-loving Baby Boomers. I have often wondered why that should be so. My suspicion is that the plastic Hippies of the Sixties and Seventies became the plastic Yuppies of the Eighties and Nineties.

Ralph L म्हणाले...

Was the movie Dagwood Bumstead an early doofus dad/husband?

rcocean म्हणाले...

"I used to work with a young woman who said she wished her boobs were half as good as Streisand's"

Her body wasn't bad. But she needed a bag over her head to be sexy.

rcocean म्हणाले...

There are only so many comic variations in TV family sitcom. Someone has to be the wacky funny one. With Lucy or Gracie Allen it was the wife. With Leave it to Beaver or Dobie Gillis it was the kids. With the Honeymooners or The Simpsons - its Daddy is a dummy.

One reason you get "Daddy is a dummy" is because Male Comedians are much easier to find then female ones. And its easier for Hollywood writers -which are still mostly men - to write comic material for the Dad, and have the wife as the straight women.

PM म्हणाले...

Young Hegelian: "I remember reading the "A Star is Porn" parody in National Lampoon many years ago."

If that's where your taste runs, and that's a fine place, hope you've seen "Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead"

loudogblog म्हणाले...

Interesting fact: There is no complete copy of Judy Garland's, 1954, A Star is Born in existence. After the film opened, the studio recalled all the prints, cut them way down - without any input from the director, George Cukor - and then destroyed all the copies of the removed footage. The rumor was that one of the Warner brothers ordered this to get back at Judy Garland. There is a restored version, but it's not a complete restoration and relies heavily on photos to take the place of many lost scenes that they still had audio recordings of..

tcrosse म्हणाले...

Another fun fact: Tommy Noonan played a musician in the 1954 version. He had been part of a comedy act with Peter Marshall when they were both availabl. His second wife was named...wait for it...Pocahontas Crowfoot.

AZ Bob म्हणाले...

And since a late arriving and rather large young woman had managed to sill about half of her 32 ounce soft drink on me (she was stumbling along the row behind me in the dark, handling the soft drink and a two quart box of popcorn) I was not inclined to enjoy the movie. The shower of sticky soft drink did not come with an apology.

The story of Skeptical Voter is prophetic. Ann offers: "A woman rises as a man falls — How that is shown tells us something about our time?"

PM म्हणाले...

To TerriW:

Read the storyline on imdb. Sounds good but in my no-fly zone. Loved PSH, tho.