Morning "Stage Beauty" with Billy Crudup and Claire Danes. Not half bad really, at least as "superficially amusing" as ST made it out to be. Who cares for plumbing moony substrata of meaning when surfaces are so gloriously flecked anyway. And an exuberance of witchin hour DVDs, "Howards End", "The Apartment", "Dangerous Liaisons", "A Fish Called Wanda", "Nicholas Nickleby", and some old favouritess. Wish for face like young Shirley Maclaine's and easy physicality like Jack Lemmon's, Emma Thompson's accent, Glenn Close's chill, Marilyn's sauce, Christopher Plummer's vertebrae, and Audrey Hepburn's everything. And I can't tear myself away from those old studio pics. Snappy dialogue, face lit just so, misty street with circles of gas, and an orchestra somewhere always. What wouldn't I give to be old now and young then. Cold, hungover, chainsmoking. Star-struck a half-century late. Misplaced nostalgia is such a funny thing. |