A smart study of star quality as an industrial process, written by an academic who still understands Hollywood’s cheap,...
A cinema archivist digs into the vaults of Golden Era Hollywood and comes up with a treasure trove of goodies.
In this epochal study on how the Hollywood studio system manufactures stars (sometimes out of little but a cute smile, and other times molding and channeling that indefinable stardust quality), Basinger (Film Studies/Wesleyan Univ.; Silent Stars, 1999, etc.) demonstrates a delightful ability to mix a formidable knowledge of film history, both as business and art form, with a fan’s appreciation of what film is all about. Despite the book’s title, only the first 100-odd pages really cover the factory process—both its winners, like tap sensation Eleanor Powell, and forgotten misfires like Anna Sten, whom Samuel Goldwyn tried to turn into the next Greta Garbo, only to find out that audiences didn’t want another Garbo (“If they had to accept some other exotic European, they’d take Marlene Dietrich”). In sections like “Problems for the System: The Human Factor” (subsections are titled “Disillusionment,” “Disobedience,” “Defection” and so on), Basinger does what she does best in turning out portrait after portrait of the great and not-so-great stars and workaday B-listers who churned out the product for the old bosses. Basinger understands that it’s not the star-machine process itself that is so fascinating, but rather the stars who are swallowed and spit out by the process. The author goes right to the heart of the matter in her examination of movie stars, those immortals walking the earth who define movie magic in all its baffling glory, like the ineffable, oft-ignored genius of somebody like Bing Crosby—“he’s got that meanness, plus a touch of larceny and the ability to con anyone out of anything.” Along the way, Basinger dissects the post–World War II collapse of the star system, which was replaced by the free-for-all age in which we currently live—no less interesting in its own regard, only more difficult to codify in all its slippery chaos. Basinger gives ample space to the qualities and typecasting of the likes of Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, never indulging in sepia-tinged nostalgia for its own sake.
A smart study of star quality as an industrial process, written by an academic who still understands Hollywood’s cheap, sensuous appeal.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4000-4130-5
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2007
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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