Topic The Last Best Year from the General Chit-Chat forum.
Post a reply or begin a new topic.
View other threads or jump to a different forum.
Go to page: 1, 2
|
| Author | Topic: The Last Best Year |
|---|
 Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 4/16/2006 at 11:56:19 AM ET
Thanks--here's the complete interview that moljul remembered:
"As flamboyant Tammy Faye Bakker in May's NBC movie Fall From Grace, she [Bernadette Peters] got to explore what she calls her ''fun and bubbly side,'' albeit laced with pain.
Sunday night, on ABC's 12-hanky tear-jerker The Last Best Year, ''I play the dog,'' she says, stifling a giggle.
In Year, co-starring Mary Tyler Moore, Peters plays a drab, repressed woman who comes to life after learning she's dying. That's a far cry from the effervescent pixie who tosses her meticulously curled hair and purses her berry-red lips, brightening a recent blustery fall afternoon.
Her career path these days typically means ''taking control so I'm out of
control. I don't know what's going to happen when I go out there, except hopefully I'll surprise myself.''
Next week, she tapes a musical segment of NBC's Carol & Company that reunites her with Carol Burnett, on whose CBS show Peters first became widely known. And next spring, she's a wicked witch in the PBS version of Stephen Sondheim's Broadway hit Into the Woods.
For her role in ABC's shamelessly sentimental movie, she had her hair straightened and yellow drops put in her eyes. She also stopped working out.
''This woman's body wasn't a friend, it was something she dragged around and ignored.'' Adding to the realism, during filming Peters imagined she felt chest pains.
Not that it was all seriousness. She and Moore broke tension with girl talk, ''discussing things like after 40 (she's 42), not as much hair grows on your legs,'' she laughs. And she cackles when she recalls her furry cat loudly
purring throughout her climactic deathbed scene.
Peters has turned down sitcom offers. ''I'd want to do something odd, singing one week but not the next.''
--
source: USA Today, November 1, 1990, by-line: Matt Roush
[Karen, just take it back]
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 4/16/2006 at 12:06:41 PM ET
Jean, you're working overtime in the archives this morning. Thank you!!
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 4/16/2006 at 12:13:47 PM ET
But wasn't the employment of the red color symbolism similar to Bergman's use of it in Cries and Whispers?
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 4/16/2006 at 12:25:56 PM ET
Thank you for all the background interviews about the film - so fascinating to read after watching Bernadette's performance and interesting to see how she worked so hard to get it so right.
The mention of the Bergman film intrigues me. Please do share. I am thinking of Harriet Andersson in a cancer related scene from a Bergman film(which is certainly not one of his lesser works) but would be totally fascinated to know what film you have in mind.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 4/16/2006 at 12:26:27 PM ET
Whew--it was quite a ride to my new archives, but I'm finally home and off to see "Anything Goes".
Later--
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bwypix/album?.dir=/732e
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 4/16/2006 at 1:04:24 PM ET
Scottie, I didn't have a specific Bergman film in mind, the "lesser" comment was just me making fun of myself.
The film you're talking about is, in fact, Cries and Whispers, one of his later masterpieces.
I guess what prompted my comment in particular was the therapy scenes with their tight close-ups of the human face. Also the camera movements making arcs around the room during those scenes. And the use of visions and dreams to explore extreme psychological states; the themes of birth, death, spirituality, presented very explicitly and starkly. It's just one of those far-fetched comparisons that sometimes occur to me.
Obviously, Bergman is a genius and this is just a well-done TV movie so the comparison is silly and spurious, but I couldn't resist being a little frivolous.
| jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 4/16/2006 at 1:16:22 PM ET
Hey, I'm impressed. I'm not good with movie references and criticism, so I'm in awe at those who are.
(Jean-did the camel spit? She looks very pleased with herself, what with her decorations and all.)
Jenn
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 4/16/2006 at 1:23:04 PM ET
Jenn, all you need to do is study a good guide on one-upmanship.
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 4/16/2006 at 1:26:37 PM ET
"Obviously, Bergman is a genius and this is just a well-done TV movie so the comparison is silly and spurious, but I couldn't resist being a little frivolous."
Karen, Sorry, I took it seriously... but the truth is I think Bernadette is a bit of a "genius" too... and, unlike Bergman, she never bores!
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 4/16/2006 at 1:41:41 PM ET
No, no, I wasn't completely kidding, so you weren't wrong to take it seriously. I really meant what I said about the aspects of Last Best Year that reminded me of Bergman. It's just that I wanted to make sure that everyone understood that I wasn't claiming an exagerated greatness for it.
Bergman is a filmmaker who loves women and brings out more from his actresses than almost any other director. I think the relationship between Jane and Wendy would have fascinated him. I also agree with you that Bernadette is a genius as well.
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 4/16/2006 at 1:52:40 PM ET
Hey Karen, the relationship between Jane and Wendy, seen from Bergman's eyes, would probably have resulted in PERSONA, THE SEQUEL! What an awful thought!
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 4/16/2006 at 5:06:01 PM ET
HaHa! Just got back and saw your message. Perfect.
| Go to page: 1, 2
Other threads: « Next | Previous » |
Do you think this topic is inappropriate? Vote it down. After a thread receives a certain amount of negative votes it will be automatically locked.
Please contact us with any concerns you might have.
|
