I really like Lauren Bacall but why does she always complain about contemporary Hollywood. Truly, we are living in a ver
-
bwalright — 18 years ago(June 19, 2007 11:05 AM)
I feel that styles took a bad trashy turn when Madonna 1st came on the scene. She was gutsy to dress the way she did to make people stand up & notice ( and make her $$ for it too! ) But, it's been a downward spiral ever since, I'm ready for a new trend towards classy fashions. Sick of seeing women's butt cracks when they bend over & men in baggy hobo, slob clothes pu!
Who are these so-called designers we are making rich? -
anthropo — 18 years ago(July 05, 2007 05:33 PM)
Good question. She made some now often quoted remark about stars not being what they used to. Personally, I never thought her to be a great actress mediocre at best I think most of her peers felt the same way. For all her films her performances were never really acclaimed. IMO, it's ironic for that remark to come from her when she was basically an appendage of Bogart.
-
-
gomi2 — 18 years ago(September 29, 2007 04:11 PM)
"but even the 1940s and 1950s were all about conformity."
"Also, agents and producers had more control over actors in Lauren's time where they often controlled every part of their physical appearance, maybe that is why they all looked 'so good and different'."
And today we're "rebels?"
OK, there's a giant dump truck load of things wrong with those statements.
1 - Evidently you have never heard of Beatniks, Lenny Bruce, Rebel Without a Cause, Jazz, Bettie Page, and the list goes on for as long as I am tall. Conformity!? Popular culture has always been about conformity. It still is today. I would certainly agree that (American) life was more about Conservative-Christian lifestyles, but "conformity" has always been the majority. Just like how today millions of kids all "rebel" by dressing like Marilyn Manson. Yeah that's real rebellious.
2 - Considering how completely over-produced, formulaic, systematic, brainless, and easily digested movies are today (and music, and TV), I'd say that we have not made any progress. Instead, we have stagnated, or even taken a step back.
3 - You say the movies of the 40's and 50's are basically the same as movies today, but then you have to consider that they were the first ones to do it. It was original and ingenious back then. Repeating it is tired and pathetic.
4 - Given the exposure of stars in tabloids, and how they are shamed almost into oblivion for every single infraction of our concepts of physical beauty - a little cellulite here, a wrinkle there, gaining a few pounds as they grow old, and GASP aging HOW DARE MOVIE STARS AGE LIKE NORMAL HUMAN BEINGS - I think our society has more "control"5b4 over movies stars now than ever before.
Think about how people's careers are basically destroyed (or made) when they are caught doing drugs, sleeping with prostitutes, drinking while driving, cheating on their spouses, or any of the other things that billions of people do every single day.
We treat these people like Gods when they never asked to be. We worship them and name our fokking kids after them. We pay our hard-earned money to watch the sh!+ they star in. We buy their albums when they delude themselves into thinking they can become a rap star.
AND STILL as soon as they show a glimpse of humanity, as soon as they present themselves in any realistic fashion, as soon as they display themselves to be just like any other person with a job, we turn on them. We destroy their careers. We insult them. We make them the butt of our jokes.
Yeah I'd say we have more control over celebrities today, in the numbers of the millions of people who devour their garbage, than a handful of people who did their makeup and fed them their motivation in the 50's.
We suck. -
xcOxCoXco — 18 years ago(September 29, 2007 05:38 PM)
"Considering how completely over-produced, formulaic, systematic, brainless, and easily digested movies are today (and music, and TV), I'd say that we have not made any progress. Instead, we have stagnated, or even taken a step back. "
You are so bloody right! bless ya