01/04/2010 6:00 am
Culture
Liz Smith: From Russia With … Love? Helen Mirren Soars in 'The Last Station'
Also from Our Gossip Girl: The sweet smell of success – Liz Taylor's White Diamonds spritzes the competition flat … Remembering Jennifer Jones.
Helen Mirren © PR Photos
That, perhaps, was the platitude behind Tolstoy’s decision to will the rights of his great writings not to his wife of 48 years and mother of his 13 children, Countess Sofya, but rather to the Russian people. The Countess was all for the Russian people, but there are limits to a utopian society. She was pissed.
This true story has been dramatized and put on screen, directed by Michael Hoffman, who also wrote the screenplay. The film is titled "The Last Station" and it contains two of the most dynamic performances of the year – of the decade, in fact. Christopher Plummer plays old Tolstoy, determined to gift his country with his work. Helen Mirren is the Countess, just as determined to keep it all in the family by whatever means possible – sex, threats, suicide attempts. Russian drama queens don’t kid around.
James McAvoy, who reveals new facets of his ability with every film, is also on hand as Tolstoy’s devoted, conflicted secretary, who has no use for the Countesses’s dramatics. Paul Giamatti is splendid and hiss-worthy as the man who pressures Tolstoy to not abandon his ideals. He is not moved by Sofya’s lifelong efforts on her husband’s behalf – so what that the Countess copied War and Peace in longhand – six times! That was her duty, after all.
But it is to Plummer and Mirren that the ultimate accolades go. They verbally pounce upon each other like a deluxe Russian touring company of "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe" Plummer is a long, long way from the saccharine of his most famous role in "The Sound of Music" – he is marvelously unrecognizable here. (And do pick up Plummer’s autobiography, In Spite of Myself, one of the best of the genre – dishy and deep.)
As for Miss Mirren, she is a miracle. Is there nothing this actress can’t do? No emotion she cannot convey? I’ll use the tired old cliché here – a tour de force – because nothing else adequately describes her performance in "The Last Station." She is a force of nature, like a hurricane, but one that never loses its power – quite the opposite! She is a perfect, eternal storm of genius.
Mirren has been nominated for a Golden Globe and a SAG award. The dazzling pyrotechnics of her Countess Sofya will surely not be ignored come Oscar time.
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We rarely see her anymore. And when we do, we hold our breath, but Elizabeth’s Taylor’s name has not lost its power.
Think on this – after almost 20 years since its debut, Taylor’s White Diamonds fragrance is the still the best-selling perfume of all time. And every year it out-sells its competitors. Sean Combs, Celine Dion, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears have to take a backseat to La Liz.
Even more amazing, TV still runs those super-glamorous commercials of the star, romping through her little black-and-white mini-movie, tossing her diamonds on the poker table, murmuring, "These have always brought me luck!"
Well, maybe not always luck, but usually something around $50 million a year.
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"I’m not sure I want to live in a world without Jennifer Jones breathing in it, but I am not keen on the alternatives."
That’s my good friend and ultimate movie maven, Robert Osborne, the name and face and driving enthusiasm of Turner Classic Movies.
Jennifer Jones. In the rush of pre-Christmas packing and gifting and stressing, I actually missed the initial report on Miss Jones’s death on December 17. (Also poor Britanny Murphy was the stellar passing on the front pages.) Miss Jones was 90 and had outlived her legend – at least in terms of news coverage.
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Miss Jones was 90 and had outlived her legend – at least in terms of news coverage.
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I think it was more a matter of leaving the legend behind when she became Mrs. Norton Simon.
Think on this – after almost 20 years since its debut, Taylor’s White Diamonds fragrance is the still the best-selling perfume of all time.
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It may be the best-selling celebrity perfume but quite a few would probably question it beyond that distinction. I think there are literal wars over "number one fragrance" but according to one of the major research firms, NPD, White Diamonds is not even in the top ten. Chanel No. 5 seems to always be on the list no matter whose list it is. And I believe Chanel claims No. 5 is the best-selling fragrance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/business/20lists.html?ref=business
At the time Chanel didn’t wear perfume and didn’t believe in perfume and simply chose "vial number 5" of the samples because 5 was her lucky number. It was indeed. It certainly is the most famous perfume in the world. And most likely it is still the best-selling.
I noted Jennifer Jones’s passing with a sigh that yet another sparkler had dimmed in the crown of "Old Hollywood". Two of my favorite films feature Miss Jones in stellar performances: Portrait of Jenny and Beat the Devil. She was perhaps not the deepest of actresses, nor the most exquisite of her generation, but she was charming, a word we don’t hear much any more. Charm seems to have faded away in American film, although Audrey Tautou and Mlle. Cotillard have it in abundance. I haven’t seen Madame Bovary in many years, so that will be something to add to my list. Some years back, there was a Bovary television drama on PBS that was absolutely miraculous. I do not know who the actress was who played the doomed Emma, but it was a shattering performance. At any rate, Jennifer Jones was a star in the classic sense of that word.
Nice to read about La Liz (Taylor AND Smith!) I vividly remember that TV commercial for the fragrance White Diamonds - very much in the "dolce vita" lifestyle Miss Taylor has always embodied, particularly during the tumultuous years of her marriage(s) to Burton. Now that every single celebutante and singer and starlet has a fragrance line, the market literally reeks of cheap ingredients and fast production. (With the exception of Lovely by SJP - that was quite a creation, and is a real standout in the field.) White Diamonds can hold its own among fragrances, and has truly become a modern classic. Interesting comments concerning Chanel No. 5, Baby Snooks! You are correct in saying Chanel was not a real perfume lover, and interestingly enough, No. 5 was never her preferred scent. She loved gardenia, and her perfumiers created a wonderful blend featuring that scent for her. Usually, she wore a live gardenia or two, and backed them up with the perfume. But when she was working? No perfume except cigarette smoke!
Belinda, when I want to amp it up a bit, I turn to a wonderful fragrance from The Different Company called Osmanthus. It was created by Jean Claude Elena, who also developed Lovely and Un Jardin sur le Nil for Hermes. Osmanthus is absolutely delicious: a blend of white flowers, a hint of peachiness, a base of green, leafy scent, and a bit of musk. It’s a WOW! And I can tell you, I’ve had more than one gentleman lean a little closer to enjoy that fragrance … and on occasion, I lean back!
She loved gardenia, and her perfumiers created a wonderful blend featuring that scent for her.
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As did Elizabeth Taylor who wore Jungle Gardenia for years. And still may. Chanel reportedly never wore any of the Chanel perfumes and preferred her own perfume that if I recall correctly was one of the original 20 or so formulas her parfumier created in 1921 when Parfums Chanel was launched. Chanel No. 22 was launched the year after Chanel No. 5. If she had a private perfume she apparently held all the rights to it and didn’t want anyone to have it. The story about Chanel No. 19 being her personal perfume may, however, have some basis in fact. It was merely created using the base formula of her personal perfume and they substituted another floral base note for the gardenia. It has vetiver which is a wonderful mask for tobacco smoke by the way.
Boy, did La Liz ever wear Jungle Gardenia! And Natalie Wood, too. The scent preceded these ladies and lingered long after they’d left the building.
Although JG was not as heavy a scent as Miz Liz’s first perfume, Passion. Mr. Wow’s nightmare was to be trapped in a stalled elevator with a woman reeking of Passion. It was a big hit, but eye-watering to say the least.
Some perfumes do tend to leave a "lasting impression" of the wearer if the wearer wears too much. The problem as I recall is some oils "heat" up and release more scent as they heat up and the wearer may not notice but everyone else does. Jungle Gardenia. Shalimar. Opium. And Passion. Those are the ones I’ve always noticed. The dilutions are worse because the alcohol masks the intensity of the scent and the wearer may not realize how much they’ve used and then the alcohol evaporates leaving just the scent. About the time the wearer has lost their sense of scent so to speak. What they believe is just a light scent causes allergic reaction in everyone within 50 feet.
Dear Miss Smith: TCM will air "Madame Bovary" on Thursday evening (well, technically Friday morning) as part of their Jennifer Jones tribute. I believe it airs at 12.15am. I haven’t seen this film and am looking forward to it. For some reason I keep missing it every time it’s aired but I am making it a priority to finally see it this time around…
I’m thrilled for Dame Elizabeth that her "White Diamonds" is the top celebrity fragrance! It’s a true testament to her unparalleled celebrity, and hey, it smells good, too! Over at my website I am gathering as many birthday greetings for Elizabeth as possible. In early February they will be compiled into a birthday book and mailed to Elizabeth in time for her 78th birthday on February 27th. I hope you don’t mind my including the link for you readers to sign: http://dameelizabethtaylor.com/birthday_card.html
Andy
Ms. Smith: As noted above TCM is airing Minnelli’s Madame Bovary at 12:15 a.m. this Thursday night/Friday morning however there’s also an upcoming opportunity to once again see it on the big screen.
On March 3 MoMA will be screening Madame Bovary in conjunction with the release of the to-date definitive Vincente Minnelli biography A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli by Mark Griffin. Griffin draws upon interviews of Minnelli childhood family friends, MGM and Broadway alumni from both in front of and behind the camera (including, among others, Angela Lansbury, Lauren Bacall, Kirk Douglas, Nina Foch, June Lockhart, and Betty Comden), film academics including Janine Basinger and Joe McElhany (the latter edited an excellent comprehensive anthology of Minnelli film criticism published in 2008 - Vincente Minnelli: The Art of Entertainment) and letters and archival material untouched by other biographers.
So if you’ll be in New York on March 3 keep an eye open for more information about the MoMA screening of Jennifer Jones, as directed by Vincente Minnelli, in Madame Bovary.
A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli by Mark Griffin is scheduled for release March 2, 2010.
typo correction (sorry): it should be Jeanine Basinger.
Anything film historian Jeanine Basinger writes or contributes to is worth a look-see (her books "Silent Stars," "A Woman’s View" and "The Star Machine" are MUSTS for any film buff’s library.)
Once, driving to St. Louis with my father, our car did a merry-go-round turn on the icy roads outside a small town where there was one movie theater. As we waited for a rebuilt engine to be delivered from St. Louis, my father drank brandy and watched "You Bet Your Life" reruns while I saw Jennifer Jones and Jason Robards in "Tender is the Night" for five nights straight. She was not convincing as the young Nicole Diver, but exquisite as she aged in her beaded 1920s Balmain dresses and had the same current of nervous energy running underneath her performance as Marilyn Monroe did in hers. (Years later, I learned they had the same on-set acting coach, Paula Strasberg.) Jones is sooooo funny as the blonde liar ("In point of fact …" she’s always saying) in "Beat the Devil, a very subtle and slyly wicked performance.
Selznick should have let her play a wider variety of roles, but what she did get onscreen was very special.