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Post by dreamer on Nov 26, 2006 9:46:52 GMT -5
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Post by lionessinwinter on Nov 26, 2006 15:08:36 GMT -5
Little Women is a fabulous movie and it reminds me it is much more important to hold things that are dear to you close to your heart and live by your own light rather than necessarily what is acceptable in the world as a whole. In any case it is one of my highest favorites of Kate's and I can clearly see why she was so proud of it !
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Post by dreamer on Nov 28, 2006 15:17:29 GMT -5
found this on my journey
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Post by dreamer on Dec 6, 2006 8:37:37 GMT -5
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Post by dreamer on Dec 6, 2006 8:39:26 GMT -5
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Post by dreamer on Dec 6, 2006 8:40:55 GMT -5
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Post by dreamer on Dec 6, 2006 8:46:53 GMT -5
No good in describing - so I let Kate speak:
"Little Women had that extraordinary quality of lost innocence and also of character. It was a child's book, it was always considered a child's book, but it was like my childhood, you see. We were in New England, we had a big family, and everything was always rather exaggerated and I was a very dramatic sort, you know 'Christopher Columbus! What richness' type. And all that sort. It rather suited my exaggerated sense of things. And they [the Little Women family] were a good sort. All of them. They had character and they were funny."
"Oh, I remember there was a sound strike in the studios at the time we were shooting, it was during the scene where Beth was dying for the nth time, and although I admired the book enormously, I was getting a little bit unable to play it because I had wept day after day after day, and I had sixteen and twenty takes on these weeping scenes, and they wouldn't get them correctly. We had all of these amateur sound men. Finally, she did die, and I threw up. I cried so many times, I just threw up."
And Cukor:
"I remembered Little Women as being rather better than it was. But I think that we did capture just what has made that book live - the real vigour of it, and that love of family. And of course Katharine Hepburn cast somthing over the film: a sort of innocence and strength that was quite remarkable and very touching. They did the book again years later and it came out as just a sentimental shambles."
"When Selznick wanted me to do Little Women I hadn't read the book. (Kate Hepburn once accused me of never having finished it, which is a lie.) Of course I'd heard of it all my life, but it was a story that little girls read, like Elsie Dinsmore. When I came to read it, I was startled. It's not sentimental or saccharine, but very strong-minded, full of character, and a wonderful picture of New England family life. It's full of that admirable New England sternness, about sacrifice and austerity. And then Kate Hepburn cast something over it. Like Garbo in Camille, she was born to play this part. She's tender and funny, fiercely loyal, and plays the fool when she feels like it. There's a purity about her....You could go with whatever she did. She really felt it all very deeply. She's a New England girl who understands all that and has her own family feeling."
And Frances Dee:
"I'll never forget Katharine. She used to sit between scenes in a window seat in her severe, austere dresses with a straight back, reading a slim volume. She could have been Jo herself. She had such a grave, sweet expression on her face, with her hands folded in her lap, and looking so austere and yet so beautiful. She was always the first on the set every day, lines perfect, glowing with health, and never the slightest sign of temperament. Sometimes while she was reading or just contemplating alone, we girls, Joan Bennett, Jean Parner, and myself, would creep up and peek at her, absolutely awestruck by her concentration. I'm sure she knew we were watching, but she never looked up or around."
From: Kate the Great, her work, Little Woman.
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Post by Shaun on Dec 6, 2006 13:45:39 GMT -5
I think it's about time I gave Little Women another chance. The first time (and only time) I saw it I remember not liking it too well.
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Post by dreamer on Dec 6, 2006 14:27:37 GMT -5
I think it's about time I gave Little Women another chance. The first time (and only time) I saw it I remember not liking it too well. Please do and please tell about it ! I'm really fond of this movie - don't think it is girlstuff
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Post by isis on Dec 6, 2006 15:09:46 GMT -5
I thought too it was a girl stuff before, I didn't like little women when I saw it younger, it was version with susan Sarandon. and then with Liz Taylor : I thought it was too affected to me, the lala land But fortunately my great Kate arrived and I saw Little women diferently : Jo appears to me and I liked this character, her strongness, her perseverance etc and I think every woman delight in finding some relations with Jo. But I still don't like the other sisters.
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Post by dreamer on Dec 24, 2006 9:10:21 GMT -5
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Post by nerweniel on Mar 15, 2007 3:04:24 GMT -5
I just got this movie for my birthday and I simply loved it. I wasn't sure I would, as I grew up with the book and the 1949 version (my grandmother is obsessive about Liz Taylor )... but I can just say wow, Kate was just BORN to play Jo, wasn't she? I just sat here smiling madly and saying "aaaw" through half of the movie (which probably makes me borderline psycho but hey ;D). I think I like it best of all three movie versions now. God, I'll have to watch it again today.
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Post by Judy on Mar 15, 2007 12:29:18 GMT -5
I just got this movie for my birthday and I simply loved it. I wasn't sure I would, as I grew up with the book and the 1949 version (my grandmother is obsessive about Liz Taylor )... but I can just say wow, Kate was just BORN to play Jo, wasn't she? I just sat here smiling madly and saying "aaaw" through half of the movie (which probably makes me borderline psycho but hey ;D). I think I like it best of all three movie versions now. God, I'll have to watch it again today. Happy Birthday, oh great filmmaker.....Little Women is the movie I would choose as my favorite Kate performance - IF, that is, I was being tortured and made to choose only one. I have loved it since the day I first saw it - and not just for Kate (although principally for her and for the spirit with which she infuses this film). I love Douglass Montgomery and Paul Lukas and all the little women...Joan Bennett, Frances Dee and Jean Parker. And I love the way Cukor handles it. It is perhaps not as sober as the book, but it has such heart and sentiment - NOT sentimentality, but real sentiment. And KH is, as you say, born for this role. Letter perfect from the moment she slides down that bannister in Aunt March's house to when she shows Amy how to faint to when she kneels and prays for Bethie to when she utters "not empty now" at the close. Glad it won you over. Judy
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Post by dreamer on Mar 15, 2007 16:45:57 GMT -5
Hi, hope you enjoyed it - very special to see - especially the first time. Do envey you a bit - that first sight - WAUH Just adore this film
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Post by dreamer on Apr 3, 2007 11:17:06 GMT -5
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