July 7, 2022
"When he was 12, Mr. Brook had fallen in love with the heroine of 'War and Peace' and decided to marry someone named Natasha."
"'And so it came about,' he wrote in his memoir, 'Threads of Time' (1998). He married the actress Natasha Parry in 1951."
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18 comments:
I can't help but LAUGH at that! Deciding that the person he marries MUST me named Natasha!
haha!
That would mean being with someone Not named Jen
(or Jenny, or Jenifer, or Gwen)
His 1971 film of King Lear is magnificent.
I suppose people have used poorer criteria to select a mate. I wonder how she sounded when saying "moose and squirrel".
As good a reason as any to marry someone, I suppose.
In Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest," there's a character who insists on marrying someone named Ernest, so I suspect Brook was in some way riffing on that.
Notice that he didn't say he maintained his idea into adulthood, only that he had it when he was 12.
Later "it came about." That is, it's something that fate caused, somehow.
Marry Natasha and keep Moose and Squirrel as pets.
I'll never forget when I saw the play "Scale and Humanity" what direction and acting!
And yet I've never heard of him.
I must get out more...
His adaptation of The Mahabharata is fascinating. Watch the 5+ hour version if you can find it. For now, it seems to be available on YouTube.
My son (at 13) decided he was going to marry an Italian supermodel.
We can all dream...
I was engaged when I got my first job in Finance. The first day on the job I was introduced to a co-worker named America. Pretty, smart, all of that, it took all of my intestinal fortitude to knot screw up my upcoming marriage by hitting on her. If it wasn't for her name I would have never considered it. Fortunately, she was promoted a few weeks later and I rarely saw her again.
In the full arc of time, I wonder who will be remembered longer: Mel Brooks or Peter Brook. Apparently Peter Brook directed the definitive screen version of The Mahabharata so he's got that working for him. So long as people are eager to see a five hour version of The Mahabharata he will be remembered....Peter Hall used to be the hot shot director of Shakespeare. He has a version of A Midsummer Night's Dream that features Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren. It's even got Judi Dench as Titania in a body suit and pasties. Who remembers Peter Hall.
Who remembers Peter Hall.
Probably the actress Rebecca Hall, his daughter. I always got Peter Brook and Peter Hall confused. Film director Peter Watkins, too. He shot a film about the Paris Commune. Almost six hours, cast of scores or hundreds, shot in 13 days in an abandoned French factory. Until I looked it up just now I didn't remember if it was by Peter Brook or Peter Hall.
I don't think Brook's work translated very well to film. You had to be there to see it live. I did see a documentary about him. I just remember he was a little bald hobbity or pixyish man, a lot like one of my professors.
If I had to guess, I suspect Peter Brook will most likely be remembered in the long run, if at all, for Marat/Sade, and then only as a footnote in commentaries on Infinite Jest.
Peter Hall (1932-2014), who wrote "Cities in Civilization." Can't vouch for those other coves.
A six-hour film about the Paris Commune or five hours of Mahabharata? It's a viewer's market.
Althouse beat me to The Importance of Being Earnest, which was the first thing that came to my mind. A great piece.
The 50s version with Michael Redgrave, Edith Evans, Joan Greenwood, Margaret Rutherford, etc., is magnificent.
The 2002 remake is just bizarre. The first problem was the casting: Rupert Everett as Algy and Colin Firth as Jack. Since Rupert Everett was clearly older, they had to reverse the roles, which completely spoiled the ending. Even weirder was the way they set up the jokes, then left out the punch lines! The "Lady Come Down" song was, however, a nice addition.
--gpm
The woman who voiced Natasha and Rocky is on TikTok. She's very entertaining.
Sorry, it looks like June Foray passed away in 2017. It must have been a recording I saw. In any case, check out her IMDB. It's amazing.
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