James Spada's Blog
November 2, 2014
BOOK SIGNING/HELLO, DOLLY! SCREENING A BIG SUCCESS.
I appeared at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood last night (11/1) to sign copies of "Streisand: In the Camera Eye" and introduce a screening of "Hello, Dolly!" It was great to meet other Barbra fans, and the movie was, as always, a delight!
October 14, 2014
October 2, 2014
INTERVIEW WITH JAMES SPADA IN BROADWAY WORLD
BWW interviews: Author JAMES SPADA's New Streisand In The Camera Eye Is FetchingOctober 1 2:23 2014 Print ArticleEmail Link
September 21, 2014
Review of Barbra Streisand's New Album
http://www.amazon.com/Partners-Barbra...
Let's stop and think about this woman, Barbra Streisand. She has been working at the top of her game for over half a century, consistently releasing top-notch recordings and appearing in first-rate movies. So many female movie stars aged poorly and worked in Grade-B (or lower) movies (think Davis and Crawford). Many female recording stars lost their labels and had to work for inferior ones. Many saw their sales diminish until even inferior labels dropped them.
This never happened to Barbra Streisand. She's still playing starring roles, and she's still producing albums that reach #1 (as this one surely will). When it does, she will have had a #1 album in six consecutive decades--a feat only she will be able to top (it's only six years till the 2020's!).
She has done all this while maintaining a miraculously youthful voice. Her voice has changed a bit; she sometimes fails to reach the high notes as she used to; and she has occasionally sounded hoarse. But on this record she sounds great! On "It Had to Be You," her duet with Michael Buble, she sounds like she did when she first recorded it in 1964!
Some have complained about Barbra doing new versions of several of her standards--"People" with Stevie Wonder, "Evergreen" with Babyface, "The Way We Were" with Lionel Ritchie, "What Kind of Fool" with John Legend. I'm not someone who listens to Barbra's old albums much, so when I heard these songs it was like getting a visit from an old friend--one who had had a makeover!
If I have a complaint, it's that the older singers Barbra duets with--mainly Billy Joel and Stevie Wonder--don't have the voices they used to. (Lionel Richie, on the other hand, sounds fine.)
There is plenty here to please lifelong Barbra fans, and to entice younger listeners to go back into her catalog and discover all the wonders that lie in store for them.
Let's stop and think about this woman, Barbra Streisand. She has been working at the top of her game for over half a century, consistently releasing top-notch recordings and appearing in first-rate movies. So many female movie stars aged poorly and worked in Grade-B (or lower) movies (think Davis and Crawford). Many female recording stars lost their labels and had to work for inferior ones. Many saw their sales diminish until even inferior labels dropped them.
This never happened to Barbra Streisand. She's still playing starring roles, and she's still producing albums that reach #1 (as this one surely will). When it does, she will have had a #1 album in six consecutive decades--a feat only she will be able to top (it's only six years till the 2020's!).
She has done all this while maintaining a miraculously youthful voice. Her voice has changed a bit; she sometimes fails to reach the high notes as she used to; and she has occasionally sounded hoarse. But on this record she sounds great! On "It Had to Be You," her duet with Michael Buble, she sounds like she did when she first recorded it in 1964!
Some have complained about Barbra doing new versions of several of her standards--"People" with Stevie Wonder, "Evergreen" with Babyface, "The Way We Were" with Lionel Ritchie, "What Kind of Fool" with John Legend. I'm not someone who listens to Barbra's old albums much, so when I heard these songs it was like getting a visit from an old friend--one who had had a makeover!
If I have a complaint, it's that the older singers Barbra duets with--mainly Billy Joel and Stevie Wonder--don't have the voices they used to. (Lionel Richie, on the other hand, sounds fine.)
There is plenty here to please lifelong Barbra fans, and to entice younger listeners to go back into her catalog and discover all the wonders that lie in store for them.
August 22, 2014
NEW DVD GRACE KELLY BOX SET DUE THIS WEEK!!
GRACE KELLY COLLECTION This star’s two most significant movies, “High Noon” (1952) and the Hitchcock masterpiece “Rear Window” (1954), are missing from this six-DVD box. But Kelly’s uncanny poise is on display in two other Hitchcock features, “Dial M for Murder” (1954) and “To Catch a Thief” (1955), which, featuring the future princess romping around the Côte d’Azur, feels weirdly prophetic. Also included: John Ford’s “Red Dust” remake, “Mogambo” (1953); “The Country Girl” (1954); “The Bridge at Toko-Ri” (1954); “High Society” (1956); and a new documentary portrait, “Princess Grace de Monaco: A Moment in Time.” (Warner Bros.) The New York Times
August 11, 2014
NEW BARBRA STREISAND ALBUM SET FOR SEPTEMBER 16 RELEASE!
Barbra Streisand's first studio album of original material in three years, "Partners" features duets with
Andrea Bocelli, Michael Buble, Babyface, Jason Gould, Josh Groban, Billy Joel, John Legend, John Mayer, Lionel Richie, Blake Shelton, Stevie Wonder, and....Elvis Presley! No song list yet. This could be the sixth decade a Streisand album hits #1 on the Billboard charts.
Here's Barbra's Twitter Announcement:
https://twitter.com/BarbraStreisand?o...
Andrea Bocelli, Michael Buble, Babyface, Jason Gould, Josh Groban, Billy Joel, John Legend, John Mayer, Lionel Richie, Blake Shelton, Stevie Wonder, and....Elvis Presley! No song list yet. This could be the sixth decade a Streisand album hits #1 on the Billboard charts.
Here's Barbra's Twitter Announcement:
https://twitter.com/BarbraStreisand?o...
August 10, 2014
INTERESTING CAST IN "GRACE OF MONACO"
There still isn't a U.S. release date for "Grace of Monaco," but we'll all be able to see it, at least on DVD. The casting is intriguing. Beyond Nicole Kidman as Grace and Tim Roth as Prince Rainier, we have Milo Ventimiglia ("Heroes") as Rupert Allan, a writer turned publicist who was close to both Grace and Marilyn Monroe, Parker Posey as Grace's closest friend Madge Tivey-Faucon, Paz Vega as Maria Callas, Frank Langella as Father Francis Tucker, the Prince's adviser who accompanied him to America, where he proposed to Grace. Alfred Hitchcock and Aristotle Onassis are also portrayed in this film. C'mon, Weinstein Co., release it already!
Check out the film's IMDB listing:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2095649/
Check out the film's IMDB listing:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2095649/
August 1, 2014
U.S Release for 'Grace of Monaco' Near?
From Variety
After weeks of contract renegotiations, the Weinstein Co. is about to sign a new deal to retain the U.S. distribution rights of “Grace of Monaco,” Variety has learned.
Under the pact, reached with the film’s producers on Wednesday, the same day “Grace” is scheduled to premiere as the opening night film at Cannes, Harvey Weinstein has agreed to acquire the rights for $3 million — which is $2 million less than he had originally intended to fork out under a previous contract. But there will be incentives built in based on box-office performance.
The version of the film screened in the United States will be Dahan’s cut. If any changes are made, they will be mutually approved by Weinstein and Dahan working together, according to the new contract. Even though “Grace of Monaco” doesn’t have a U.S. release date yet, it will likely open at the end of the summer or early fall.
The Nicole Kidman biopic about Grace Kelly has been long delayed and has been the subject of continuous off-screen drama. Weinstein and the filmmakers had initially discussed a November 2013 window, but subsequently set a mid-March launch for the sophisticated adult drama.
When Weinstein saw a rough cut of director Olivier Dahan’s version last year, he thought the story was too dark. He wanted the film to emphasize the romantic backstory of how the beautiful actress became a princess — essentially capturing her life and relationship as more of a fairy tale.
“I like to collaborate,” Dahan said in an interview with Variety earlier this month. “From my point of view, the room was always wide open for (Weinstein), but I never really met him. I sent him different versions of the work in progress, but I never received any feedback.” The director spent nearly a year in editing, trying to find the right balance for the film’s many layers: glamour, romance, political intrigue and female empowerment.
Still, Weinstein pushed for the version of the movie that he envisioned, believing it would be far friendlier to U.S. audiences — not to mention Oscar voters.
“When Harvey created the idea of going for the Oscars, suddenly we were in a hurry and had a double rhythm,” said French producer Pierre-Ange Le Pogam in an interview with Variety. “I guess that’s where the problems started.”
Tensions mounted when Dahan disagreed with Weinstein’s changes, and publicly aired his concerns, creating a standstill between the two sides.
Weinstein was then blindsided by an announcement in the spring that the film had landed a deal for the director’s version of the film to debut at Cannes. “Grace of Monaco” opens Wednesday, May 14 in France, and has summer release dates in more than 20 countries, including England, Greece, Spain and Australia.
In the spring, Kidman met with Harvey and TWC chief David Glasser and strongly expressed her desire for their company to support her movie in America, according to a knowledgeable source. Consequently, in recent weeks, Weinstein and the producers resumed discussions in hopes of resolving their differences and striking a new distribution deal. YRF Entertainment CEO Uday Chopra, who financed the film, played a key role last week in easing tensions between Weinstein and Dahan.
Weinstein will not be attending the Cannes premiere of “Grace” due to a prior commitment.
“My wife, Georgina, and I have been in Jordan visiting two Syrian refugee camps, Al Zaatari yesterday and Azraq today,” Weinstein said in an exclusive statement to Variety. “This was a long planned trip with the UNHCR and our friend Neil Gaiman to bring attention plight of refugees who have been forced to flee Syria and the incredible work of UNHCR.
“I’m wishing Olivier, Nicole, Pierre Ange and Uday and the ‘Grace of Monaco’ team all the best for the screening in Cannes tonight.”
After weeks of contract renegotiations, the Weinstein Co. is about to sign a new deal to retain the U.S. distribution rights of “Grace of Monaco,” Variety has learned.
Under the pact, reached with the film’s producers on Wednesday, the same day “Grace” is scheduled to premiere as the opening night film at Cannes, Harvey Weinstein has agreed to acquire the rights for $3 million — which is $2 million less than he had originally intended to fork out under a previous contract. But there will be incentives built in based on box-office performance.
The version of the film screened in the United States will be Dahan’s cut. If any changes are made, they will be mutually approved by Weinstein and Dahan working together, according to the new contract. Even though “Grace of Monaco” doesn’t have a U.S. release date yet, it will likely open at the end of the summer or early fall.
The Nicole Kidman biopic about Grace Kelly has been long delayed and has been the subject of continuous off-screen drama. Weinstein and the filmmakers had initially discussed a November 2013 window, but subsequently set a mid-March launch for the sophisticated adult drama.
When Weinstein saw a rough cut of director Olivier Dahan’s version last year, he thought the story was too dark. He wanted the film to emphasize the romantic backstory of how the beautiful actress became a princess — essentially capturing her life and relationship as more of a fairy tale.
“I like to collaborate,” Dahan said in an interview with Variety earlier this month. “From my point of view, the room was always wide open for (Weinstein), but I never really met him. I sent him different versions of the work in progress, but I never received any feedback.” The director spent nearly a year in editing, trying to find the right balance for the film’s many layers: glamour, romance, political intrigue and female empowerment.
Still, Weinstein pushed for the version of the movie that he envisioned, believing it would be far friendlier to U.S. audiences — not to mention Oscar voters.
“When Harvey created the idea of going for the Oscars, suddenly we were in a hurry and had a double rhythm,” said French producer Pierre-Ange Le Pogam in an interview with Variety. “I guess that’s where the problems started.”
Tensions mounted when Dahan disagreed with Weinstein’s changes, and publicly aired his concerns, creating a standstill between the two sides.
Weinstein was then blindsided by an announcement in the spring that the film had landed a deal for the director’s version of the film to debut at Cannes. “Grace of Monaco” opens Wednesday, May 14 in France, and has summer release dates in more than 20 countries, including England, Greece, Spain and Australia.
In the spring, Kidman met with Harvey and TWC chief David Glasser and strongly expressed her desire for their company to support her movie in America, according to a knowledgeable source. Consequently, in recent weeks, Weinstein and the producers resumed discussions in hopes of resolving their differences and striking a new distribution deal. YRF Entertainment CEO Uday Chopra, who financed the film, played a key role last week in easing tensions between Weinstein and Dahan.
Weinstein will not be attending the Cannes premiere of “Grace” due to a prior commitment.
“My wife, Georgina, and I have been in Jordan visiting two Syrian refugee camps, Al Zaatari yesterday and Azraq today,” Weinstein said in an exclusive statement to Variety. “This was a long planned trip with the UNHCR and our friend Neil Gaiman to bring attention plight of refugees who have been forced to flee Syria and the incredible work of UNHCR.
“I’m wishing Olivier, Nicole, Pierre Ange and Uday and the ‘Grace of Monaco’ team all the best for the screening in Cannes tonight.”
July 17, 2014
A Nice Appreciation of Marilyn Monroe in "Niagara."
Village Voice
Poisoned Roses: Marilyn (and Others) Dazzle Us Deadly at Femmes Noir
By Stephanie Zacharek
published: July 16, 2014
Details: Femmes Noir
Through August 7 at Film Forum
There are at least 26 good reasons to straighten your stocking seams, touch up your lip rouge, and queue up for Film Forum's Femmes Noir series, running from July 18 through August 7.
But of all the femmes vying for our attention here, perhaps the most willful and terrifying is played by an actress whom we associate with innocence and vulnerability: In Henry Hathaway's 1953 Niagara(July 22), Marilyn Monroe plays Rose Loomis, the bored wife of Joseph Cotten's emotionally damaged war vet, George. Her beauty is resplendent, but you wouldn't call it fragile. Rose is a hip-swaying bombshell with murder in her heart; her lips, gleaming red, are an invitation to a poison kiss.
This isn't a Marilyn you want to embrace and protect. As Rose, she's alert and defiant, a woman who has defined exactly what she wants and has forged a plan to help her get it. This performance, among the star's finest, gives the lie to the idea that she couldn't really act. What it suggests, instead, is that Marilyn was a natural: Her desire to be taken seriously as an actor, and her subsequent serious study of the craft, may have made her more self-conscious, constraining her gifts rather than opening a conduit for them. In Niagara, Marilyn's Rose is self-determined, boldly sexual, almost impossibly cruel. And still, you feel for her: Mincing along in high-heeled sandals and a suit the color of a brazen afternoon sky, on the way to meet her lover, a wily operator who's as slick as Cotten's George is rumpled, Rose is everything that good girls have been taught not to be. But there's also a gorgeous futility radiating from her soul: Sometimes there's just no cure for the nagging malady of wanting something more.
Niagara is set, and was filmed, in the area around the rushing natural phenomenon that was once the stereotypical go-to spot for honeymooners. It's also the perfect setting for a honeymoon nightmare: George and Rose have been holed up in the cabin with the best view of the falls, but it turns out to be no place for lovebirds. Long past the honeymoon stage, they've been married for years, and now they're just drifting, quite literally. Somehow they've landed in a place that celebrates romance, but for them, it's the setting for disintegration. The mood inside their cabin is oppressive, airless. When George isn't crouched over a small table, building balsa-wood model cars, he's wandering around the falls late into the night, returning to find Rose only pretending to be asleep. Seconds earlier, we've seen her awake, smoking a cigarette, staring into the blank space of the damned when she hears the click of the door as George approaches, she rolls over. It's a moment of fake innocence that represents the ultimate contempt.
Rose has had it with George and has taken a lover. The great tragedy is that you can understand why: Formerly a successful sheep farmer, George has had a run of bad luck, including emerging from the war with "battle fatigue." Rose likes parties and fun, and George represents neither of those things: He has a face like a slept-in bed.
When carefree honeymoon couple Ray and Polly Cutler show up at the cabin complex--they're played by Jean Peters and Max Showalter (who at that point went by the name Casey Adams)-- they immediately know something is wrong. Polly, in particular, tries to help. When Rose defiantly requests a specific song at a party with the Cutlers--a song that has romantic significance to her, relating to her extracurricular activities--George seizes the record as it spins and breaks it to pieces, cutting his hand. He retreats to his cabin. Polly follows, intending to bandage him up, and she finds him standing in the dark, holding his wounded hand in front of him. "I suppose she sent you in here to find out if I cut it off," he snaps, and we don't have to wonder what itis.
But Rose only thinks she holds all the cards here. In a later scene, she lies in a hospital bed, restless with a purely emotional fever, a shivery foreshadowing of the direction Marilyn's own life would eventually take. You can imagine that any filmmaker who had the chance to work with her would fall under the spell of her beauty. Hathaway, with his exquisite framing skills, pays tribute in the most respectful way. When she walks away from the camera, and from us, her womanly wriggle is exaggerated. Yet the sight of it isn't prurient; it's simply the semaphore of a desperate woman on the move. (It's also, of course, sexy as hell.) In the movie's most stunning sequence--one that points the way forward five years to Vertigo--Rose is pursued on the stairway leading up to a bell tower, terror in her heart and in her eyes. She can't possibly get away with all she's done, and yet, of course, you want her to.
Poor George, her biggest victim, feels the same rankled tenderness for her that we do, and the most deeply moving moment in Niagara is a tribute to her that doesn't even show her face. George picks up a jeweled lipstick case she's dropped, opening it to reveal the tube of crimson inside, maybe the last thing to touch her lips. Does he think, at that moment, the same thing Romeo was thinking when he implored Juliet, "Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again." The Marilyn of Niagara is his sin, and ours, too. No wonder we want her again and again.
Poisoned Roses: Marilyn (and Others) Dazzle Us Deadly at Femmes Noir
By Stephanie Zacharek
published: July 16, 2014
Details: Femmes Noir
Through August 7 at Film Forum
There are at least 26 good reasons to straighten your stocking seams, touch up your lip rouge, and queue up for Film Forum's Femmes Noir series, running from July 18 through August 7.
But of all the femmes vying for our attention here, perhaps the most willful and terrifying is played by an actress whom we associate with innocence and vulnerability: In Henry Hathaway's 1953 Niagara(July 22), Marilyn Monroe plays Rose Loomis, the bored wife of Joseph Cotten's emotionally damaged war vet, George. Her beauty is resplendent, but you wouldn't call it fragile. Rose is a hip-swaying bombshell with murder in her heart; her lips, gleaming red, are an invitation to a poison kiss.
This isn't a Marilyn you want to embrace and protect. As Rose, she's alert and defiant, a woman who has defined exactly what she wants and has forged a plan to help her get it. This performance, among the star's finest, gives the lie to the idea that she couldn't really act. What it suggests, instead, is that Marilyn was a natural: Her desire to be taken seriously as an actor, and her subsequent serious study of the craft, may have made her more self-conscious, constraining her gifts rather than opening a conduit for them. In Niagara, Marilyn's Rose is self-determined, boldly sexual, almost impossibly cruel. And still, you feel for her: Mincing along in high-heeled sandals and a suit the color of a brazen afternoon sky, on the way to meet her lover, a wily operator who's as slick as Cotten's George is rumpled, Rose is everything that good girls have been taught not to be. But there's also a gorgeous futility radiating from her soul: Sometimes there's just no cure for the nagging malady of wanting something more.
Niagara is set, and was filmed, in the area around the rushing natural phenomenon that was once the stereotypical go-to spot for honeymooners. It's also the perfect setting for a honeymoon nightmare: George and Rose have been holed up in the cabin with the best view of the falls, but it turns out to be no place for lovebirds. Long past the honeymoon stage, they've been married for years, and now they're just drifting, quite literally. Somehow they've landed in a place that celebrates romance, but for them, it's the setting for disintegration. The mood inside their cabin is oppressive, airless. When George isn't crouched over a small table, building balsa-wood model cars, he's wandering around the falls late into the night, returning to find Rose only pretending to be asleep. Seconds earlier, we've seen her awake, smoking a cigarette, staring into the blank space of the damned when she hears the click of the door as George approaches, she rolls over. It's a moment of fake innocence that represents the ultimate contempt.
Rose has had it with George and has taken a lover. The great tragedy is that you can understand why: Formerly a successful sheep farmer, George has had a run of bad luck, including emerging from the war with "battle fatigue." Rose likes parties and fun, and George represents neither of those things: He has a face like a slept-in bed.
When carefree honeymoon couple Ray and Polly Cutler show up at the cabin complex--they're played by Jean Peters and Max Showalter (who at that point went by the name Casey Adams)-- they immediately know something is wrong. Polly, in particular, tries to help. When Rose defiantly requests a specific song at a party with the Cutlers--a song that has romantic significance to her, relating to her extracurricular activities--George seizes the record as it spins and breaks it to pieces, cutting his hand. He retreats to his cabin. Polly follows, intending to bandage him up, and she finds him standing in the dark, holding his wounded hand in front of him. "I suppose she sent you in here to find out if I cut it off," he snaps, and we don't have to wonder what itis.
But Rose only thinks she holds all the cards here. In a later scene, she lies in a hospital bed, restless with a purely emotional fever, a shivery foreshadowing of the direction Marilyn's own life would eventually take. You can imagine that any filmmaker who had the chance to work with her would fall under the spell of her beauty. Hathaway, with his exquisite framing skills, pays tribute in the most respectful way. When she walks away from the camera, and from us, her womanly wriggle is exaggerated. Yet the sight of it isn't prurient; it's simply the semaphore of a desperate woman on the move. (It's also, of course, sexy as hell.) In the movie's most stunning sequence--one that points the way forward five years to Vertigo--Rose is pursued on the stairway leading up to a bell tower, terror in her heart and in her eyes. She can't possibly get away with all she's done, and yet, of course, you want her to.
Poor George, her biggest victim, feels the same rankled tenderness for her that we do, and the most deeply moving moment in Niagara is a tribute to her that doesn't even show her face. George picks up a jeweled lipstick case she's dropped, opening it to reveal the tube of crimson inside, maybe the last thing to touch her lips. Does he think, at that moment, the same thing Romeo was thinking when he implored Juliet, "Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again." The Marilyn of Niagara is his sin, and ours, too. No wonder we want her again and again.
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