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Thanks Suzanne.
Donna <pdxdonna@aol.comfoo>
Gresham, OR - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 22:25:27 (PDT)
Hello there, about that IN DEMAND video. is there a way we can get it from a local store. I am a little nervous getting anything over the net. if anyone knows can you please let me know I really want that video. I saw it a while ago on the CPP but it wasn't that great very distorted , now when I try to download it I can't :( I really really really want that video....
lynn <Pyewacket001@aol.comfoo>
Ottawa, Canada - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 14:56:06 (PDT)
Hi again everyone! I check this site just about everyday and I am TERRIBLY jealous of those seeing the play, but happy for them. Thank you for telling the rest of us about it. We can at least "experience it" through you!! This may be old news,and I apologize if it is, but did you know you can buy a copy of the In Demand video? It is on the import Greatest Hits CD of Texas. I just ordered one from Amazon and can't wait to get it! Once again, I apologize if you all know about this already. I am a little slow!! Thanks again to all for the great Alan info all the time and the wonderful web pages. I couldn't do without them!
Leanne
Franklin, WI - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 14:18:23 (PDT)
Hi Claire those are again great pictures of Alan Rickman. Thanks for putting them up.
I was just wondering , and I don't know if anyone has asked this before in here but I was just wondering if our man AR smokes. I sure hope he doesn't . but if he does I'm sure we can all pitch in and help him stop a very nasty habit. I jsut thought I'd ask. It's probably a silly question, but I only asked because when I went into Claires pictures on of them said smokes or smoking. and it made me think of that question.
Anyway have a good day everyone,
OFF TOPIC and IMPORTANT be very careful opening anything today because I just got something emailed me a few minutes ago from supposedly from someone I knew and lucky I couldn't open it and when I asked this person I knew they told me they never sent me anything . So all be careful...
lynn
Ottawa, Canada - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 13:20:26 (PDT)
Sue, you have mail!
Christine
Montreal, - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 12:38:05 (PDT)
Yikes! This is getting more exciting by the minute! Thank you Sue, Claire and Georgiana.
Lyn
Maine USA - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 12:18:11 (PDT)
Sue's "Cocktails" article from "Independent on Sunday" has now come up on my subscription news service, so am pasting it below for those of you who are interested. It is largely background, and very long, but should be a nice launch for the official "Private Lives" launching later this year.
Copyright 2001 Newspaper Publishing PLC
Independent on Sunday (London)
September 30, 2001, Sunday
SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 7
HEADLINE: ARTS ETC: COCKTAILS AT DAWN; NOEL COWARD'S 'PRIVATE LIVES' MAY EXUDE SEX AND GLAMOUR, SAYS HIS BIOGRAPHER PHILIP HOARE, BUT BENEATH THE SHIMMERING SURFACE OF THE PLAY - REVIVED IN THE WEST END THIS WEEK - LIES THE TRUE STORY OF ITS AUTHOR'S OWN TORTURED PASSIONS
BYLINE: Philip Hoare
Can a 70-year old play, written by a cocktail hedonist born in the 19th century (just), really have anything to say to an audience in the 21st century? A good test will be the return to the West End this week of Private Lives, Noel Coward's famous drama about Amanda and Elyot, the sparring ex-husband and wife who meet again over an hotel balcony on the honeymoons of their respective second marriages. So successful was the play when it opened in 1931 that it made its writer the highest- earning author in the world.
The mere fact of the play's regular appearance in the repertoire indicates a certain immortality - although it is one which Coward himself almost superstitiously rejected. Indeed, he outraged his critics by declaring, after a three-month London run, that he was closing it, reasoning, "It is, of course, more than possible that I might write and appear in a play that wouldn't run three weeks. In that bleak moment, age permitting, I shall turn gratefully to a revival of Private Lives". Which is what theatre companies have been doing ever since. The play came at a crucial point in Coward's career. The mid-Twenties scandals of The Vortex and Easy Virtue had alerted the public to his talent as an acidic chronicler of the Bright Young People generation; he had then confounded expectation with the frankly nostalgic - and massively lucrative - Bitter Sweet; while at the same time pleasing Bloomsbury intellectuals with his social acuity. Rebecca West announced that Coward "had a better grasp of what was going wrong in our society than Shaw".
With the turning of the flapper Twenties (with their infantilist pursuits, elsewhere satirised by Evelyn Waugh) into the more sophisticated - and ultimately more serious - Thirties, the expectation for a new Coward work was at fever-pitch. Typically, Coward reacted by leaving the country. Touring the Far East, with 27 pieces of luggage, a gramophone, and the aristocrat, Jeffrey (Earl) Amherst, Coward went on a voyage of escape, unsure of his fame, and his friends. He was, however, sure of his love for Amherst, a dashing officer, war hero, and future BOAC pilot (later Amherst would fly to Germany, just to get a good look at Hitler).
But the affection was unrequited - Amherst was more interested in a New York boxer called Gerry MacCarthy whom he'd left behind in Jersey City - and it is obvious that that tension surfaced in the play which Coward began to write in the Cathy Hotel, Shanghai.
Theatrical legend has it that Private Lives was written to give Coward and his co-star Gertrude Lawrence "whacking good parts"; but since my biography of the playwright was published in 1995, I have become convinced that the theme of the play - a couple who can live neither together, nor apart - reflects the complicated private life of its author. Frustrated in his affections for Amherst, Coward had subsequently become caught up in an ultimately disastrous relationship with his manager, Jack Wilson - a Yale-educated stockbroker with the looks of a blurred Brando - whom Coward had met and fallen in love with in 1925.
Photographs from private albums show Coward and Wilson together, playing happy couples at Coward's Kentish farmhouse, Goldenhurst. And initially Wilson's business acumen worked in Coward's favour - not least in the fact that five years later, Noel Coward Ltd was earning pounds 50,000 per annum. But Wilson was unfaithful, alcoholic, and bisexual, and in 1936 would marry Natasha Paley, a White Russian princess. The tension between this reality and the idealised love Coward sought with Amherst, underlies the emotional tug-of-war of the play's main characters. And as Amanda declares in Act I, "I think very few people are completely normal really, deep down in their private lives".
I met Earl Amherst (to whom Coward dedicated Private Lives) while working on my book. He was then in his late eighties, still active in the Lords, especially interested in the arts (revealingly, a volume on Bruce Weber lay on the top of the coffee-table pile in his Sloane Square house). Diminutive, still handsome with extraordinary blue eyes, he gave little away in our interview beyond his evident and still residual affection for Coward; his own private life was not about to be breached. Later, in New York, I was summoned to an Upper Eastside brownstone for an audience with Katharine Hepburn; in her characteristic vibrato, she spoke of Jack Wilson, and in veiled terms of his betrayal of her friend, "dear Noel". These stories still lie under the surface of the play; even now, six years after having published my book, they seem unsettled, and elusive, to me.
When Private Lives first hit the West End in the autumn of 1931, it was wreathed in the glamour of its creator (who played Elyot) and Lawrence (Amanda). The play opened the brand-new, state-of-the-art Phoenix Theatre on Charing Cross Road. In this glittering art deco interior, with its special noiseless fans and 1,200 coatpegs (one for every seat), people flocked to see the two greatest theatre celebrities of their time. Habituees (as they would be now) of The Ivy, omnipresent in tabloid newspapers, always arriving and leaving from some transatlantic liner, this luminous pair slugged out the astonishing Act II fight which epitomises the intense sexual passion of Private Lives.
It is salutary to recall now how outrageous the play was for its time. It was an age in which, as the abdication later showed, divorce was a scandal and adultery beyond the pale. The overtly extra-martial sex of the play, and the apparent amorality of the cosmopolitan Amanda and Elyot (sun-tanned in the style which Coward and Lawrence had made fashionable), provided a delicious frisson of "what if" for their suburban audiences (and it is telling to note that the canny Coward toured the provinces with Private Lives, playing Edinburgh, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and Southsea before bringing it into the West End, its track record proven).
Coward also cast a handsome and upcoming young actor, Laurence Olivier, and the glamorous Adrienne Allen, in the other two roles, giving them a weight their parts might not necessarily have suggested; and he cleverly inserted, Lloyd -Webber style, a hit song, "Someday I'll Find You", to maximise the benefits. The package was complete. And then, just as it hit its peak, as his fame could glow no brighter, he decamped to Broadway with the show, leaving everyone wanting more. No one in the inter-war period was more adept at the propagation of his own image and work than Coward.
Since then, the play has become the epitome of that sterling image, an avatar of cosmopolitan sophistication, even when played in a church hall in the Home Counties. As Wilde brought decadence to lowly clerks from Croydon, so Coward could impart a sense of exquisite hedonism to semi- detached homes in Britain's sprawling new suburbs. Indeed, that was the key to his success; a success which time and the vagaries of less demanding directors eroded. Only with the revival of interest in Coward's work in the early 1960s was the play reassessed, with a crucial London production by James Roose-Evans in 1963 which used a young cast and a contemporary setting, and, in New York that year, a less successful attempt by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton to read their own highly public relationship into Coward's plot.
Meanwhile, directors such as Alan Strachan noted that previous critics had "missed the underlying sadness of these glib and over-articulate people who twist their lives into distorted shapes because they cannot help themselves" - an intellectualisation Coward himself typically fought shy of, calling his most famous play "psychologically unstable" and "as a complete play it leaves a lot to be desired". As he told a reporter in 1969, "No, I have no social causes. I can't think of any offhand. If I could, they'd be very offhand".
The play, voted one of the best British works of the last century in a National Theatre poll, continues to attract directors and actors who feel drawn to its classic qualities in the way they are to Shakespeare or Chekhov (the last major revival was Philip Franks' at the National Theatre in 1999). Such productions indicate that it is not just an historically interesting piece, or a crowd-pleaser brought out to swell slow box-offices (although it is both of these, too). As a product of a modern, mediated age, Coward still speaks to us. The play is a frame for glamour and talent; its thin, almost non-existent plot - described by John Lahr as "minimal as an art deco curve" - is a mere maquette for the leading players to build upon. Its immediacy draws on a sense of improvisation, as though the actors were making it up as they go along. Of course, this is in itself the product of immaculate timing. And timing is what Coward is all about.
Above all, the power of Private Lives lies in its sense of sexual transgression (and at least one 1930s critic saw Amanda as a man in drag). Suspended in their deluxe limbo, Amanda and Elyot play with each other's emotions, toying with their inconstancy. In this, the casting of Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman in the new production by Howard Davies (who directed the pair in Les Liaisons Dangereuses) is both adventurous and appropriate. Their talents - Duncan's simmering and deceptive calm, Rickman's veiled threat of wickedness - are perfectly pitched to source the faint air of dangerous decadence that troubles the play; a sense of antediluvian hedonism with a paradoxical innocence that now, even more in the light of current world events, seems both nostalgic and contemporary. That lost emotion, the evanescence of their attachment, would seem to be all too apposite in our current state of flux.
The last West End Coward revival, earlier this year, was the deeply decadent and pre-apocalyptic Semi Monde, which worked as a reflection of a London which, as William Gaunt wrote, was "awash with a sea of sovereigns". In the same way, just as Private Lives was a serious reaction and a coda to the decadence of the flippant 1920s, so it now seems to stand in our own unsteady era as a monument to a lost time - our own recent hedonism.
'Private Lives', Albery Theatre, London WC2 (020 7369 1730), Thurs to 6 January 2002. 'Noel Coward: A Biography' by Philip Hoare, is published by University of Chicago Press
Georgiana <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 11:57:54 (PDT)
Susan and Co and all who have seen PL already we can relieve withdrwal symptoms by chatting over on OFF TOPIC. Those who don't wish to see spoilers can then easily ignore the totally deplorable effect this play is having on certain viewers !!
Within a month most who are going to will likely have seen the play the first time so we could revert back here.
Claire
- Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 10:53:38 (PDT)
Claire - Despite the fact that I managed to keep my critic's mind working I won't say I was immune to the floppy hair!!!!!!! they certainly had to be sure-footed in the 3rd Act didn't they! I'VE GOT TERRIBLE WITHDRAWAL SYMPTONS!!!!!
Susan
Yorkshire - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 10:32:55 (PDT)
Private Lives was excellent - funny and sexy. AR was amazing and the Rickmaniac rating is off the scale. This is one production that everyone with the opportunity will want to see again and again. I was sorry I couldn't take a video of it home with me to relive time and time again.
But at least I had the pleasure of AR telling me he had my picture of George in his dressingroom!
I'll report more fully when I get back to new Zealand. Do you want spoilers, or would you rather I sent you a detailed e-mail?
Let me know, and I'll write again by the end of the week. It truely was a magnificant way to finish my holiday in England. Sigh.
Claudia <claudia-riley@xtra.co.nzfoo>
- Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 10:30:42 (PDT)
The Independent on-line has not yet (and may not) posted the "Cocktails" article, but you can check at the Independent.co.uk website.
Georgiana (Thank you for the reminder, Sue.) <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
...smiling in Seattle - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 08:17:08 (PDT)
BTW Georgiana - exactly four weeks from now we should have just settled down in the Albery (keeping all fingers crossed!)
Sue
England - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 08:09:50 (PDT)
Georgiana - No, just Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence in the play and Coward and Earl Amherst.
Sue
england - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 08:05:46 (PDT)
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
September 30, 2001, Sunday
Pg. 24
HEADLINE: Opening this week Private Lives
BYLINE: By John Gross
Though large claims have been made for some of his other plays, Private Lives remains Noel Coward's undisputed masterpiece. That only makes it more of a challenge for actors and directors - just how daunting a challenge can be gauged by the big production at the National two years ago, which was a flop. Hopes have to be high for the latest production, however, which opens at the Albery on Thursday. It features an outstanding actor, Alan Rickman, as Elyot, an outstanding actress, Lindsay Duncan, as Amanda, and an outstanding director, Howard Davies. More than that, it reunites them, and inevitably stirs thoughts of the last time they worked together, in Davies' memorable production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 1985. It is true that Coward's emotional chemistry is very different from Laclos'; still, the precedent can hardly fail to be encouraging. There's promising casting, too, in the subordinate parts, with Emma Fielding, probably best known for her performances at the National in Arcadia and Look Back in Anger, as Sibyl. And there is a further National connection: the designer, Tim Flatley, has won high praise for the Cottesloe production of Humble Boy.
Georgiana (Thanks, Sue. Was there a picture?)
Seattle - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 08:00:08 (PDT)
There is an article titled "Cocktails at Dawn" in todays Independent on Sunday" - Noel Coward's "Private Lives" may exude sex and glamour,says his biographer Philip Hoare, but beneath the shimmering surface of the play-revived in the West end this week-lies the true story of it's author's own tortured passions.
There follows a full page piece that I am afraid my typing cannot cope with. However, near the end of the piece.."Above all, the power of "Private Lives" lies in its sense of sexual transgession (and at least one 1930's critic saw Amanda as a man in drag). Suspended in their deluxe limbo,Amanda and Elyot play with each other's emotions,toying with their inconstancy. In this, the casting of Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman in the new production by Howard Davies (who directed the pair in LLD) is both adventurous and appropiate. Their talents-Duncan's simmering and deceptive calm, Rickman's veiled threat of wickedness-are perfectly pitched to source the faint air of dangerous decadence that troubles the play; a sense of antediluvian hedonism with a paradoxical innocence that now, even more in the light of current world events seems both nostalgic and contemporary. That lost emotion, the evanescence of their attachment,would seem to be all too apposite in our current state of flux."
Sue
England - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 07:48:41 (PDT)
Have tracked the familiar PL programme Elyot photo to the Judas Kiss video box !!
An evening at PL was simply Divine but I will let Claudia post all about it when she arrives back in NZ in the next few days. Certainly suggest those going for extra tickets do it before the word gets out after Press Night on Thursday.
SPOILERS - Susan yes plenty to discuss particularly on how the domestic violence issue was handled, my first reaction was .. how out of character. Second on the depressed moment, I was shallow enough not to have got past the floppy hair moment!
Claire
- Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 06:23:20 (PDT)
GML-re Victoria Wood-yes she says she will not tour again. My husband and I caught her first show at the Albert Hall the week before last. She was hilarious. Her take on her recent operations had all the women in the audience curled up.
Sue
England - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 03:26:21 (PDT)
Hi people!
Suzanne-the-site-mum, thanks so much for the Victoria Wood videogram, I managed to miss the show every time it was on TV here. Good fun. I understand the lady has just appeared or will soon be appearing(?)on stage for the last time? :(
Susan-from-Yorkshire, thanks for the spoiler warning. I took your advice and did not read your review of Private Lives, and won't read any others before I see the play - but I certainly will catch up with them (and inflict a review of my own on you all ;) as soon as I've seen it. Uh... I'll *never* make it till November, I think I'll try to get a decent seat for a coming weekend ;)
GML
UK - Sunday, September 30, 2001 at 03:05:17 (PDT)
Thank you Susan...hey, I'm getting more and more impatient every day. Welcome Alex! German Rickmaniacs are a huge group indeed.
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Saturday, September 29, 2001 at 16:29:10 (PDT)
Steve, did Mr. Rickman answer your inquiry personally?If so, you should frame it, as he always has his assistant answer letters-never a personal reply. Susan, was one of the ladies accompanying AR his lady? Bravo for helping out with the purse snatcher.
A Rickman Admirer
- Saturday, September 29, 2001 at 15:42:09 (PDT)
Hi, I am new here, and I am sooo jealous of you! 2 weeks ago, I visited a friend in London and whyever told him about my favourite actor ALAN RICKMAN, not even knowing about that play there, and then we passed Albery by chance and I screamed, noticing HE plays there!! But only started one week after I had left... :-((( You´re soooo lucky over there!!! Maybe one day I can make it again, just bought a dvd-player today AND "Die hard" and "Robin Hood", just because of him, of course, and have "Rasputin" (had... :-((( ) and still have "The January Man" and will buy "Dogma" and whatever I can get!!! He´s such a great actor AND man!!! ;-))) Greetings from Germany, ALEX
Alex(andra) <aschoeps@rz-online.defoo>
Germany - Saturday, September 29, 2001 at 14:49:41 (PDT)
Thank you, Susan! I can't wait...
Lyn
Maine - Saturday, September 29, 2001 at 12:29:53 (PDT)
Hi, me back again ...so soon? forgot a little titbit I found out when in London. One of my brother's friends was working for Tiger Aspects - Amnesty Concert - Four Yorkshiremen. Anyway the Four were rehearsing in the next room to his office and he knows Eddie Izzard quite well. I asked him (friend NOT Eddie Izzard)why AR was reading script - I have noticed that nobody tactfully has mentioned that - it turns out a)Yes it was rehearsed. b) Yes they had learned the scripts but c) Vic Reeves and ? temporarily forgotten his name - were adlibbing and not stickinging to the script - only Eddie and AR were and they needed the script to cope with the other two! Fair enough he is an actor not a commedian. It was still great!
Susan
Yorkshire - Saturday, September 29, 2001 at 11:57:55 (PDT)
Susan, Thanks so much for such a thoughtful review. Roll on Oct 11.
Sue
England - Saturday, September 29, 2001 at 09:52:14 (PDT)
Depends, Georgiana. Will post the page if it happens though.
Steve
London, England - Saturday, September 29, 2001 at 08:51:48 (PDT)
Lovely, Susan! Thank you so very much. So, Steve, can we expect that article up at a web site?
Georgiana
Seattle - Saturday, September 29, 2001 at 08:13:07 (PDT)
SORRY - HIT THE WRONG BUTTON AND SUBMITTED BEFORE I WAS FINISHED! Anyway here's goes again - SPOILER SPOILER if like me you didn't want to know anything. I know the play backwards and I took my young brother who knew nothing about the play so we could get different viewpoints. First of all the sets are stunning! Act 1 is in white and Acts 2 & 3 in rich, opulent jewel colours - thereby adding to the atmosphere and action of each act. Again the clothes reflect the sophistication and experience of E & A and the naievety and inexperience of S & V. My only concern with Act one set was that when the actors tried to pace in agitation etc they were a little restricted but on the whole it worked - perhaps the restriction indeed added to throw them together. AR's entrance was just right - I haven't heard anyone get a laugh on that first line before but it was well deserved and so it moved on. Unfortunately we had a couple of cacklers on each side of us who laughed immoderately at everything!!!!! Despite this we were able to guage that the audience were indeed finding humour in the play in fact all through it. Anyone who was worried about this reputation AR has of being a languid actor can just forget it. Bags of energy right from the start. I don't mean he rushed around indisctiminately but used the energy to good purpose. Lindsay Duncan looks so at home on stage - I was conscious of watching for the "chemistry" so asked Hugh if he felt it was working and he said absolutely - so an unbiased opinion there. All four actors worked well together and the play had a polished, finished feel which bodes well as this was still a preview evening. There is a danger of going over the top with this play and with just a few exceptions it stayed on the right side. The duet came naturally and was in fact very beautiful and moving. You could see why they needed a fight arranger and in the main they were splendid - I had one frisson of apprehension just at the beginning of the fight - I don't want to describe it for fear of spoiling it for those of you still to see it. - but it is Elyiot's first move - will come back to this later. There was a slight feeling of choreography but only slightly and more with Sybil & Victor's fight - one of Sybil's moves didn't ring true and was perhaps too modern. I wasn't too sure re Elyot's move on the line "I suddenly feel slightly depressed" - however those who love the hair will be pleased to know that that is def a hair moment. Good movement. Speaking of which his hair is shorter - a very good cut, by the way, and I think really suits him. I agree about the servant - in her defense I think it was directorial faults and after all poor girl waited nearly 1 and a half hours to appear: but they were cheap laughts both the entrance and the setting down of the tray on the little table. (Our cacklers loved them!) I have to say despite these few carps I did think they made a very good fist of it and I really enjoyed it - in fact I am seriously thinking of taking my husband to see it in Oct when we go to see Judi Dench. My brother, who is a "city boy" has been telling all his friends how good it is. The audience certainly were mixed - not just "middle England" as one might have supposed and very appreciative. At the curtain call it was gratifying to see it wasn't just 2 stars and minions - they were a team and all credit to them. It was interesting to realize that a 70 year old play is stilll relevant today - as to age difference if anything that mattered less now than then. No he didn't look like an old man lusting after a young girl - they got round the "I'm much older than you" "Not so very much" in an imaginative and inspired way and I won't tell you how - you'll love it when you see it. The audience laughed and it was as much in affection for AR as in amusement at Elyot. The fight between S & V really showed them as the embryonic Elyot and Amanda and made sense of the attraction of Sybil for Elyot and Victor for Amanda - therefore the age difference in each couple didn't come into it. Going back to my frisson - as I said the relevance of the play today was marked but that first move of E's in the fight made me feel uncomfortable and when I checked with my brother he said the same. - some things have changed and we look at domestic violence differently - I know why it was there and the script makes lots of references to it but it was an interesting reaction academically. The programme is certainly worth buying lots of rehearsal photographs and information re play, playwright, actors, director, backstage etc. One word of warning the downstairs loos are a nightmare possibly better upstairs! Brown's next door do a splendid pre threatre meal with good choice - bread is a rip-off! but great atmosphere. There is a very nice french wine bar where you can sit if warm enough - it was on Tuesday - and watch the stage door. I was really impressed with AR - as he came out he saw someone he knew - a young mand with his girlfriend and he was genuinely touched that they had waited to see him. He was lovely to the few people there and my brother kindly got his autograph for me. He had teased me saying he was going to say it's for my sister - she fancies you - you know what brothers are!!!!! - but he didn't and said she has a soft spot for and got a lovely smile in return. My brother can be charming when he wants and thank goodness didn't frighten AR off. If you are wonderering why I didn't ask him myself U was embroiled in another matter - a young man who was waiting for autographs had his bag pinched and was quited distressed. There were two ladies with AR and one of them came to help this chap - I had seen someone - in fact he had tried to pinch my brother's beer and I showed him the direction he had gone. AR's friend also followed -the chap found his bag. AR seemed genuinely concerned when his other companion explained what was happening. He gets nicer and nicer and so do his friends! Moral:- don't leave your bags unattended! To all of you who are going to see Private Lives - ENJOY - YOU'LL HAVE A GREAT TIME and to those of you who can't I hope we have given a taste of it and not made you too unhappy. I'l be happy to answer any questions and look forward to a more detailed discussion when it's all over and we have all seen it. by the way - he's now on stage!!!!!
Susan
Yorkshire - Saturday, September 29, 2001 at 07:43:17 (PDT)
And?.......?
In Suspense
??? - Saturday, September 29, 2001 at 07:40:10 (PDT)
Sorry I didn't sign in on Thursday as planned but my stay in London was extended to visit sick relations and I only arrived back at around midnight last night. It is now a quarter to 3 on saturday afternoon so we all know exactly where AR is right now - preparing for the matinee at 3 p.m. It's really weird that we can actually pinpoint his exact movements each day. Before I report on PL can I just say that I was really glad that I went early without knowing any details of the production SO A GREAT BIG WARNING - SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER
Susan
Yorkshire - Saturday, September 29, 2001 at 06:46:18 (PDT)
OT? Rickmaniacs might like to hear that while researching an article, I wrote to AR c/o the stage door at the Albery. Within 48 hours I had a personal reply and signed photo. (using the Self addressed, post paid envelope I enclosed) That man is a S T A R in my book. Andrea, to avoid viruses use a constant screening program. I use AVG, go to www.grisoft.com and download the free edition. This screens email as it downloads, killing nasties as it goes. The mailing list also keeps you posted when new viruses and antidotes are available.
Steve
London, England - Saturday, September 29, 2001 at 05:59:36 (PDT)
Press night for PL is October 4th. BTW, has anyone managed to understand what's happening to the Chamber of Secrets casting? Almost at the same time various websites gave us opposite news: according to Empire on line, Hugh Grant won't play Gilderoy Lockhart...on the contrary, IMDB news (of the same day!) say he agreed to do the film.
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Saturday, September 29, 2001 at 01:47:30 (PDT)
OT - Andrea: people can get a hold of your email address to send you virus in a number of ways. I think one of THE most common ways for people to collect email addresses for spam and virus is when people forward jokes, petitions etc to everyone in their email address book and DON'T use BCC (blind carbon copy) but use CC (Carbon Copy) instead. So when these get forwarded using CC all the time, your email address is there for everyone who receives it to see. I have received jokes where it has just been forwarded using CC again and again, and there are 100s of email addresses on it. It would be nice if people even tidied up the message before forwarding it on (preferably, using BCC). If people used BCC instead, NO ONE would see any email addresses when forwarded on. It's one of my greatest pet peeves that people use CC all the time, and I now don't give out my email address to ANYONE anymore who CCs me jokes - and they get a pretty shirty email from me pointing out the etiquette of what they are not doing.
Of course, the other way virus get spread is if its forwarded to someone, usually with Outlook, the virus just copies and sends itself to everyone in their address book - without the person who received the email even knowing they have forwarded it onto all their friends...
Sally
Sydney, Country - Friday, September 28, 2001 at 20:09:34 (PDT)
If anyone of you goes again to see Alan in his play, please tell him that Donna from New York sends her love! He'll remember me-the scarecrow who met him outside his home who could only utter-"Can I shake your hand?"
donna <donnajkf@frontiernet.netfoo>
NY USA - Friday, September 28, 2001 at 16:30:29 (PDT)
Question re PL: When is Press Night??
Joanne
Melbourne, Australia - Friday, September 28, 2001 at 14:22:58 (PDT)
Thanks BtW and Fausta for the new wall paper. Just done a bit of re-decorating. Keep those reviews coming.
Sue
england - Friday, September 28, 2001 at 14:15:48 (PDT)
A BIG ThankYou to all who posted PL reviews (here) and photos at Raffaella's page (special thanks, btw :) just...digilaender tries to send loads of cookies..) I can't see it myself, and seeing all this helps a lot *sniff* Also checked out Barbara's latest wallpaper - love it! and - by the way - OT - : did anyone of you get this "sexy snow white"-virus?(thats the e-mail title) I got it, and so did a friend, who told me it was a virus (he tried out...) before I could open it. But we don't know how someone could possibly could get hold of our BOTH addresses, as we did't sign the same lists or something (and we also didn't have each other's addresses saved to our computers , as his address AND computer are absolutely new) Now we are searching for other "victims" to get to the origin (he's really pissed off...) Oh you lucky London-travellers....
Andrea <weitsch@t-online.defoo>
- Friday, September 28, 2001 at 13:50:18 (PDT)
Stage door - I think he came out about half an hour after the end of the performance. Not all that long to wait!
Anne
London, - Friday, September 28, 2001 at 10:16:14 (PDT)
Barbara - your wallpaper is great!
Thanks to all those who have sent reviews. To those of you who met him at the stage door, how long did you have to wait before he came out?
Christine
Montreal, Canada - Friday, September 28, 2001 at 10:02:14 (PDT)
Thank you, Anon (and Barbara!). I am sure Mr. Davies noted the same things you did.
Georgiana (impatient in ... )
Seattle - Friday, September 28, 2001 at 09:04:07 (PDT)
After a particularly stress-full day of bonding with my co-workers on a departmental away-day I thought I deserved a treat so got myself a ticket for PL last night. Thirty minutes before curtain there were plenty of seats at all prices but I guarantee that once the reviews are out this will not be the case. It IS as good as everybody says it is. I have very fond memories of the National production a few years ago but this even surpasses that. There is a palpable chemistry between AL and LD and they both know how to speak Coward. I'm not at all biased by the fact that I was sitting two seats away from the director who was obviously checking for last minute changes before Press Night. He won the Olivier award last year for All My Sons -his PL doesn't break as much new ground as that production but he has done a fantastic job here.(The only critism I had was a back-stage crew throwing his shadow over the rear of the set at least three times during the second act). Being the cynic that I am I had predicted the usual West End fodder of star turns doing their numbers and walking through, but I'll eat my words -all the cast are on top form. Minor irritation is the overplaying of the maid - she can be forgiven for trying too hard in a small part but apart from that .....bliss from beginning to end. I have my pre-booked tickets for November but may just need a pick-me-up before then. I agree with Ann that Alan looks much younger than he is, and Emma looks much older than she is, so there should be no charges of cradle snatching.
Anon
London, - Friday, September 28, 2001 at 07:54:55 (PDT)
Thank you Georgiana! I would add Blow Dry to the list -- Rickman in charming mode, yum!
Please visit Barbara's latest wallpaper, a real treat. The Men of Flights Of Fancy. (If the link doesn't work, please copy and paste the following on your browser's address section: http://www.geocities.com/faustaw/FoF-paper.jpg). Thank you Barbara!
Fausta <faustaw@yahoo.comfoo>
- Friday, September 28, 2001 at 07:42:16 (PDT)
Well I am about to go on an entire week end of torture, not at all able to see AR's face for a whole four days!!!!!!!!! To go on a biology field trip! Anyway to resolve the problem I brought all of my twelve TROTN tapes with me to listen to on the bus, what makes it worse is we are going to Overstrand, the most boring place in Norfolk!!!!!!!!!!
Elizabeth
UK - Friday, September 28, 2001 at 05:38:40 (PDT)
...let's see if I can avoid screwing this up a second time...
...found a link to Fausta's favorite Alan Rickman stuff. Way to go, Fausta!
Georgiana (and a lovely list it is!)
Seattle - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 21:20:49 (PDT)
While browsing at amazon.com, I was offered a link to their page containing
Georgiana (and a lovely list it is! although two of my top favorites are not commercially available...) <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 21:18:28 (PDT)
so green with envy of all of you going to see PL..... I can live vicariously....so thanks to all who are keeping us posted!
S ;-)
- Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 15:53:13 (PDT)
Emma Fielding - no, she doesn't particularly look like a child bride; the wig she wears, plus makeup, make her look rather as though she's in her late twenties or so. AR looks as though he's in his 40s or so (talk about aging well ...).
It certainly didn't look particularly like cradle-snatching; he's clearly older but not inappropriately so.
Anne
Anne <anne@chantico.comfoo>
London, - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 14:47:18 (PDT)
Contain yourselves ladies !! My hubby has obtained front seat tickets for PL for my birthday in October. Absolute heaven. . . I can't wait to hear that voice again. The last time was when he played Antony at the National. Ahhhh
Daryl Rodger <darylg@ntlworld.comfoo>
Glasgow, - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 12:22:13 (PDT)
@Jutta: I don´t have an eMail yet, I´m at a friends home but I´ll get an internet account next week, and than I´ll post my eMail, of course! Love to get mails! ONC Coco
Coco
Germany. Pitty! - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 11:14:58 (PDT)
Thanks for all the reviews so far. Yorkshire Susan should be back soon, shouldn't she? I've got 2 weeks to go yet so I need all the info you can give;)
Sue
England - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 10:48:11 (PDT)
Well, obviously everone already knows by now that Private Lives is absolutely fantastic! I couldn't have been more impressed by Alan and Lindsay. Both were just wonderful and they brought the play to life so beautifully I was totally in awe ... Act 2 is definitely the most fun to watch! The curtain goes up with Alan and Lindsay seated on pillows on the floor, him snacking and sipping a drink ... and yes there is lots and lots of 'smooching' and the like. The sets are lovely and the leading perormances incredible!! There are so many great lines in this play it's amazing already on paper, but to hear them spoken by these two actors is beyond description. I can't imagine anyone doing a better job. I was also lucky enough to meet Alan at the stage door more than once and I'm happy to say that he is every bit as sweet as I had heard he was - and very patient. He was even kind enough to sign a pic from Robin Hood for my little girl (which she absolutely adores) although he had friends wating on him at the time ... Rima was there the first night, as were the significant other of the rest of the cast. I've never asked for an autograph in my life before, but I couldn't resist with him. He really is a dream at the stage door ... Hope everyone else who goes has the chance to experience that too.
Heather <heatherc1453@cs.comfoo>
tx - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 09:07:27 (PDT)
A little while ago on the Guestbook there was some discussion about whether Emma Fielding would look like a child bride and Alan Rickman a cradle snatcher in PL and I wondered if Anne or Jutta as they have already seen the play could give their opinion.
Jill <jbox58@yahoo.co.ukfoo>
Kent UK - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 09:05:47 (PDT)
shefl?
Sue
England - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 09:03:01 (PDT)
I checked out that magazine that Heather mentioned on Tuesday. The photo of AR & LD appears to be the same as the programme so I just read the article and put it back on the shelf1(stingy, moi?)
Sue
England - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 09:01:49 (PDT)
While in drooling mode, please visit Barbara's new wallpaper, The Men of Flights of Fancy, in the wallpaper page!
Fausta
- Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 08:49:15 (PDT)
From today's "Daily Star":
BITCHES WITH JULIA ETHERINGTON, NIKI WALDERGRAVE AND AMY WATTS; ALAN'S BIG GIG
BITCHES are delighted to reveal that Steve Coogan is at long last to rescue our favourite broadcaster, Alan Partridge, from local radio.
A turn from Alan will be one of the highlights of Coogan's Drugathon, being held to raise funds for the Chemical Dependency Centre.
The comedy extravaganza will take place at the Old Vic in London this Sunday and features a host of stars, including Paul Whitehouse, Ruby Wax, Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman and Alistair McGowan.
Georgiana (Oh, I wish he had left his hair au naturelle for this play...) <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 08:32:55 (PDT)
Dear Coco, if you post something like that don´t forget to include your email address.
Jutta <Nero3768@gmx.netfoo>
Germany as well..., - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 08:14:14 (PDT)
Mmmmmm, Rickman in black silk pj's, and in black tie . . .
This reminds me of that A&C rehearsal photo. No need to ask why the woman's smiling!
Fausta <faustaw@yahoo.comfoo>
- Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 07:31:00 (PDT)
I've created a space where you can post your photos and reviews of Private Lives.Just go to my main page and hit the small PL poster on the right.The first photos were sent by Anke (thanks!!!). If you want to send pics or reviews, you're welcome. PS: Coco, a good idea to spare money is getting a DVD for your computer...here they're kinda cheap, and it's easier to run zone 1 DVDs.
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 07:10:01 (PDT)
I don´t have enough money for a DVD player. I´m only a stupid little school girl. *heck* He had many bad voices, Robin Hood was terrible, but I saw the trailer of the Harry Potter movie last friday, and that will be his WORST dubbing voice ever. Really. But its good to know, I´m not the only one to handle bad voices.
Coco
- Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 05:10:42 (PDT)
Coco, I'm not German (yet I know there are lots of German Rickmaniacs), but you should hear Italian dubbing voices! Alan always gets different voices, and some are really *ugly*. The Italian version of Rasputin was a totally different movie. That's why I bought a DVD player.
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 03:46:34 (PDT)
Any German here? Please rise your hand! I want to now if I´m the only German fan in the world, because I feel like it! *sniff* And in Germany we have only those stupid dubbing voices. And everybody says he has got such a wonderful voice. Never heard it! *sniffsagain* Please, let me know I´m not alone!
Coco
Germany (the land of dubbing voices) - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 02:04:28 (PDT)
URGENT NOTICE
I shall be leaving for Europe Oct 6. This means that if anyone wants to let others know that they will be attending Private Lives on a certain date via the Private Lives web page (http://www.cybamuse.com/privateLives), they will have to let me know BEFORE 5th October (4th October if you are in the US because you are about 16 hours behind Australia...) so that I can make final updates to the page. After that, the page will remain static until I get back in November.
Best to email me at rickmanfans@cybamuse.com
Sally
Sydney, Australia - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 01:59:53 (PDT)
Oops, I just spent so long gawping at those pictures that I let the bath overflow! It is now pouring thourgh the ceiling of the room downstairs! But I no longer have to suffer this appaling house as we have finally exchanged on a new house!!! Gosh I have never been this hyperactive in my life, it almost makes it worth while going to school today, mmmmm maybe not!
Elizabeth
UK - Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 00:55:27 (PDT)
Hello everyone! Thanks to everyone who has posted reviews on PL, you're precious. As for meeting in London, I'm having those famous badges cut (the link to the scan is down here). Anyone who wants one send me an e-mail. I can have them made one by one, so don't worry if you want one later, just give me 2 weeks to be sure it's arriving in time (Gee, does that sound clear? I've just woken up). Also, I'd like to create a "Private Lives" shrine on my page, with pictures and reviews. If anyone wants to share thoughts and photos, please e-mail me.
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 23:43:51 (PDT)
Obviously no one is the least bit excited about Alan Rickman in "Private Lives" and would not want to bother about meeting him at the stage door. Just remember to breath deeply and relaxxxxxxxxx. He is a gorgeous man, but just a man after all. Rather a shy one too, so try not to frighten him with your enthusiasm. If you run at him, he will run.....the other way...
A Rickman Admirer
- Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 22:27:02 (PDT)
Link fixed.
Suz (D.o.C.)
Oops! Suzanne! Can you please close my link! I must have put the stroke on the wrong side of the a - sorry!
Sally
Sydney, Aust. - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 22:06:13 (PDT)
To. Die. FOR!!!
Cor! Those pictures of AR from the PL program are MAGNIFICENT! Da man is looking good... I think crumbling $Aus and all, I may have to try and get into another performance of Private Lives... This just sounds too good to not see twice! Thanks Suzanne and co. for putting those piccies on the web!
Gaby, have you checked out the "Who's going to Private Lives" webpage? That'll give you an idea of people going on the day you are going, and if there is noone, cry out your dates in the guestbook or on Rafaella's email list, because quite a few people haven't volunteered their dates...
Lyn, happy to meet - currently mulling over my travel wardrobe to determine something bright to wear that'll make it easy to find me. Shame the aussie bush hats don't travel well, because that would have made me stand out... I think afterwards is better for me as I have to get my ticket beforehand.
Sally
Sydney, Aust. - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 22:03:03 (PDT)
html added.
Suz (D.o.C.)
"Rickman revealed that Fred Astaire is one of his heores because when watching him, the audience "never see any sense of the fact that at the end of most of his rehearsals, at the end of the huge dance routines he did, his feet were bleeding... What you see is utter effortlessness." This effortlessness can only be achieved by constant striving. [rather too dogmatic a turn of phrase for AR. never said that.]
The actor recommended Uta Hagen's Respect for Acting for its practicality and its non-judgemental philosophy. It is this sense of respect for humanity that many picked up on from his Masterclass. Talking about his role in S&S, Rickman spoke about "reverencing", the action where one would enter a room and by bowing in a certain way, be making a gift of oneself to the person to whom it was directed. [man, there's a gift I'd like to get...] Rickman gave of himself and in doing so, bestowed a gift upon his audience members,
Look out for AR in the much-awaited HP film." End of article. Suzanne, could you perhaps make the necessary html changes to this? I know its hard to read, notwithstanding my poor typing skills and endless interjections, but I hope you all enjoy it.
Julia, ctnd
- Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 19:37:23 (PDT)
Well, this is very OT, but I recieved a newsletter from teh Theatre Royal Haymarket, which had this to say about AR's Masterclass last year :
"Alan Rickman: Reverencing. " ...many, who arrived simply as groupies [second time I've been called that!!!!!] left after two hours in his company thinking seriously and analytically about the business of acting."-- Sue Gedge, Wanstead School.
"The great thing about this profession, when it is used properly, is that there is a real interchange between very different spirits and people of very different backgrounds." Evading all questions of favourite films, playwrights and influences, AR revealed that to give any trite answers would be misleading as the myriad influences that life provides makes it impossible to isolate but a few. [words in his mouth...]
Like Henry Goodman, Rickman claimed that disciplines, such as posture and breathing, are integral to artistic success. [also integral for me to keep consciousness...] The fusion of discipline and "information" or knowledge, brings about freedom. "If we are storytellers, we have got to be aware of and care about... what society we are telling these stroies to." Know what the world is that you are in. Rickman percieves that for an actor the real work begins on stage every night when what becomes crucial is being alive to the other actors. [he said that, not words in his mouth.] Only if one constantly rediscovers the physical, emotional and vocal centre [funny story involving a giraffe told here.] by continually posing questions can one engage the audience. "It is terribly important to me that the audience are not sitting back in their seats but are sitting forward. [how about lying in a puddle of drool?] It is about a conversation." [oh, no drooling, then...] (next paragragh in next post.)
Julia
Calgary, Canada - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 19:30:14 (PDT)
WOW!!!! I almost died of a heart attack tonight when i visited this page! The Voice!!! Yikes!Thanks! That is awesome!And the PL pics are to die for! I am happy to see how GOOD he looks at 55.... Sometimes I think I am in -love with the Alan of 10 years ago but tonight I realized that... I am in deep TROUBLE! Thank God I live so far away and am too poor to visit London! My husband is beginning to worry.... Sorry for the ramblings... One of these days I too will have something truelly worthy to contribute to your lovely guestbook, I hope. Till then... just my undying enthusiasm...... Good Night from my beleagerd(sp?) Nation of Heroes.
Star
nc USA - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 19:17:38 (PDT)
Thank you ever so much, Anne! Great grist for the imagination.
Georgiana (who saw Billy Elliot more than once in the theater and couldn't wait to buy the DVD...)
Seattle - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 17:47:50 (PDT)
Thanks Suzanne, Lynn and Anne(who emailed me)! I know it was OT for our Alan site, but just had to get it off my chest. I also live near 2 local airports and I now look at flying planes much differently than I did before, believe me. Back to Alan- I'd read awhile back that he like the film "Billy Elliot", but I guess that's one way I'm different than Alan. I finally just rented it and after all the hype I saw on TV about it, I really was disappointed. It was OK, but I didn't think it was anything spectacular. I also finally saw Blow Dry and that was quite different than I've seen Alan before. I liked it though. I liked it much better than Dogma. I've been photo-copying Alan info for a new co-worker of mine and she's been just drooling over it. I told her I have lots more- all from this site and its branches, plus my own photos. Hope all my fellow Alan fans are safe and happy!
donna <donnajkf@frontiernet.netfoo>
NY USA - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 17:40:40 (PDT)
Private Lives was delicious; I love Noel Coward anyway, but this was something else. Lindsay Duncan is good, the other two characters are adequate (played rather as though they were reading from the script, but it's early in the run ...). AR was indescribably good - he owns the words, resisting the rather strong pull towards Cawardisms. It's about the first time I've actually seen anyone do a Noel Coward play as though it meant something, and as though the words were natural. There is a tendency to camp it up a little which AR avoids neatly. The staging is beautifully done; whoever designed the set needs major applause. Ok, AR-type details ... he spends Act 2 in a pair of black silk pyjamas. This is *not* a bad thing, believe me ;) He wears 1930's suit cuts perfectly, and looks spectacular in black tie (uh, I think that style of dress is a 'tux' in the US, if that helps). A reasonable amount of chemistry with Lindsay Duncan. Actually, a fair amount of chemistry with the audience ;) Generally delicious enough to send me straight into the gutter - there's a line in Act 2, where AR's character has been describing his travels around the world, and Duncan's character says "Take me, take me ..." Well, it turns out that she means take me to go and see these places - I assumed she meant something else entirely at that point, but then she did have AR lying onto top of her. Literally. I met AR afterwards, doing the stage door groupie thing. Well, actually, having a coffee in the café behind the theatre. He came out and I decided that it was an opportunity not to be missed - so I have a signed programme, and had a surprisingly coherent conversation with him (about the play - told him I enjoyed it, he said he'd had fun doing it this evening, I said it showed ... he grinned at the Snape pen that I handed to him for him to sign the programme ... all that sort of thing to the accompaniment of the police clearing Leicester Square because of a bomb threat. Got to love London). Anne
Anne <anne@chantico.comfoo>
London, - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 17:37:39 (PDT)
Can any kind fellow Guestbook contributor, who has the 'Ultimate Diehard' DVD set and who has found the 'gag reel' supposed to be on disc 2 of the original 'Diehard', please E-mail me on how to get to it. I have both a DVD player and a DVD-ROM, but, I humbly hang my head in shame and admit that I can't find the 'gag reel' at all.
Any help in finding would be most greatly appreciated.
Anne <ahard73977@aol.comfoo>
Alexandria, VA USA - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 16:52:36 (PDT)
Oh, my! Oh, myohmyohmy! Oh, Suzanne! Oh, I love you, I kiss you repeatedly! (well, only in a sisterly fashion). And Sarah H, Gail and Georgianna; I kiss you too in the same sisterly fashion! Oh, isn't it a lovely day! Oh, I wish I too could wear an empire dress and be wooed by a somewhat worse-for-wear dragoon hanging out of a tree, with owies to make better! Oh, my! Oh, my!
oh, Mary
oh, McHenry, - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 15:28:21 (PDT)
I REALLY like your page. I LOVE Alan Rickman. He's all I ever talk about. And I dream of someday meeting him. If you'd ever like to become pen-pals to just talk about Alan, pleaase e-mail me. (I don't get to check it very often though)
Keleigh Williams <trumpetstar88@yahoo.comfoo>
Heltonville, IN USA - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 14:13:00 (PDT)
The T-shirt looks like usual Rickman wardrobe and I would guess is rehearsal garb--also not the usual for Coward costumery--but I'm sure Jutta can clarify this!
Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 14:11:27 (PDT)
Definately that wasn't Elyot. No decent Noel Coward character would have his tie askew :-) Can't wait for more reports from the field. I need something to take my mind off world news.
Joan
USA - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 13:57:53 (PDT)
Hey folks! Just have seen Truly Madly Deeply finally! Terrible German dubbing voice but I managed to see it in English and record in German. My first thought was "This VOICE!" second was "why can´t he be German?" Guess I´m in love... *hach* And as it looks I´ll be in London an SEE him at Private Lives. Jesus, am I lucky! I read in an aricle that he his a man with charisma, like one you pass by on the street and you must turn to look after him. Well, if I passed him by on the street I would not just turn, I would run! Anyway, just wanted to say hello to you! keep smiling Shakoni
Shakoni <shakoni@hotmailcomfoo>
- Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 12:52:22 (PDT)
Yes, I thought the same about the Elyot1 pic...actually I think it is really from Judas Kiss. Great pic anyway. BTW, I immediately used the one with Lindsay Duncan as wallpaper, you girls seem to read into my twisted mind!
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 12:33:45 (PDT)
Hmmm, me too. I was thinking the Elyot1 photo looks remarkably similar to this photo from Judas Kiss. "Rapturous," what a perfect description, Cindie! :-)
Hi, Annie! The Die Hard five star spatial Edition can be found at many online stores including Amazon.com and BestPrice.com.
And while we're waiting for more PL reviews, how about a little Christmas in September? I finally managed to upload the Videogram of the sketch AR did on the "Victoria Wood & All the Trimmings Christmas Special." (Spatial thanks to Sarah H., Gail and Georgiana for acquiring & converting!)
The file is kind of large, but it's nearly nine minutes long (and apologies, again, to Mac uses):
Plots & Proposals (VWp&p122500.exe: 13.5MB)
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
Hallettsville, TX USA - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 12:20:29 (PDT)
I thought the same thing about the pic Georgiana - Judas Kiss for sure. Stunning photograph! Thanks so much Suzanne and Jutta.
Christine <Just had a lovely lunch with Gailfoo>
Montreal, Canada - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 12:19:12 (PDT)
Had thought the same thing about photo No. 1 -- looks like David Friedman to me as well. The AR/LD photo is rapturous! Hopefully we'll get some more reviews soon.
Cindie
- Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 10:37:46 (PDT)
HI all! I have just learned that Die Hard my most favorite movie of all time has been re-released with added interviews. I have been trying to obtain a this movie for over 2 years now and would love one with interviews. does anyone know where I can get one ? I have tried E- Bay before , the packaging got crushed and no movie inside. I've almost given up any hope!! HELP !!
Annie <ssmith@qcnet.netfoo>
mi usa - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 09:06:06 (PDT)
To me, "Elyot1" looks like a photo from "Judas Kiss." Anyone? Lovely! That AR/LD photo perfect for new wallpaper. Thank you immensely, Jutta and Suzanne!
Georgiana <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 09:05:39 (PDT)
Sigh! Those photos will definitely get me through the rest of this week! Doesn't he look so handsome! Those hands in the 2nd photo ....he just keeps getting better and better. Can't wait to hear some great reviews of PL.
Katie, a lurker no more!
AL, USA - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 07:30:38 (PDT)
Those photos are definitely appetising. A nice taster for my own PL visit next week.
Not long to wait. Not long. I can do it....
Red <scharlachred@hotmail.comfoo>
London, UK - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 06:51:28 (PDT)
Thanks Jutta and Suzanne! Now I'm counting the days. I'll be there October 25 & 26 and I'd love to meet up with Gail, Sally and Patti K for lunch/dinner/tea/wine, whichever, and a nice long chat. Also Georgiana, Rafaella, Sue, Marian or Anne H, if you're in London on the 27th. Please e-mail me at lyn.maine.rr.com. Thanks.
Lyn <lyn@maine.rr.comfoo>
- Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 04:54:42 (PDT)
OT - Nancy R - I have sent you an e-mail re the BBC which I hope you get not sure whether I have mastered sending e-mails yet! Pictures from PL absolutely fantastic!!!
Jill
Kent UK - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 04:38:37 (PDT)
Hy, i will visit London at November the 15th. I travel to London to see Mr.Rickman on stage in Private Lifes.. I´m looking for ather Alan Rickman Fans in London for a meeting. If somebody want to meet me in London, to talk or to go to the theatre together.. mail me at Gaby_L@gmx.at
Gaby Leistner <Gaby_L@gmx.atfoo>
FÜrth, Germany - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 03:50:09 (PDT)
Thanks for the Private Lives photos. It makes it almost feel as though I'm there. God bless modern technology without which I probably wouldn't even know what was showing in the West End at present.
Joanne
Melbourne, Australia - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 03:08:55 (PDT)
Thanks for the photos Jutta and Suzanne. What can one say! Actually one can say why don't they use some photos to advertise PL. The promotion has been very low key so far- only the "legs" poster in a few papers. The Evening Standard has run a "mini-legs" ad a few times within its play listings with just the "legs" and Albery Theatre on it but if that is supposed to be a teaser it fails rather as the listings are in play alphabetical order not theatre so you'd have to plough through all the listings to find what was on at the Albery!(Sorry long sentence alert.)
Elizabeth stop skiving and get to school!
Sue
England - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 02:21:30 (PDT)
Well I got up this morning, feeling ill, decided not to go to school, opened up this site, and, my heart stopped beating, only momentaraly admittedly, I definatley can't go to school now! Not with a dodggy heart beat! Thankyou Jutta, and Suzanne.
Elizabeth
UK - Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 00:13:40 (PDT)
Thanks Jutta & Suzanne for the errr...(clearing throat) great photos. Now I can survive through this difficult day!
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 23:39:58 (PDT)
Here we go! Photos from the Private Lives program, courtesy of Jutta (thank you!): Elyot1 Elyot2 Elyot3 Alan Rickman & Lindsay Duncan
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
*sigh*, TX USA - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 20:51:01 (PDT)
Maybe the Hamms' cub (the bear refreshing) matured into the ursine thespian in the award-winning John West Red Salmon commercial. Just back from Judas Kiss on Cinemax and still lightheaded, obviously.
FastFilm
L.A., - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 16:34:03 (PDT)
I can't find a .midi file, but CDNOW has a RealAudio and WindowsMedia snippet of Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence singing Someday I'll Find You [words and music by Coward], for those of you wishing to imagine...
Georgiana
Seattle - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 16:32:47 (PDT)
And Katie and Red, too...lurkers no more.
Mary
McHenry, - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 15:03:30 (PDT)
Welcome Gina. And thank God it wasn't only me that clued on that song, FastFilm! The first thought I had - "why are they singing the "Hamms" commercial?"
Oh for those golden non-PC days, when every Indian wore a feather, and every University harboured pinko commies. However did we survive?
Mary <Somehow the Hamms commercials always made me think of Marlin Perkins...foo>
McHenry, - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 15:02:10 (PDT)
A third "Harry Potter" advance poster is out, the German version of which can be found at this link.
Georgiana
Seattle - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 14:57:18 (PDT)
I'm usually just a lurker, but found a Harry Potter snippet I thought you'd all enjoy at http://www.hpgalleries.com It's from an interview with the three starring kids in Nickelodeon magazine. Rupert Grint, who plays Ron, is asked about favourite school subjects and responds: "I like to draw. I drew a picture of Alan Rickman [who plays Professor Severus Snape]. It was kind of amazing, but really ugly. Then I found out that he was right behind me, watching me draw his picture. He took it really well." Ah, magnanimous as well as his other virtues. :-) Cheers for the highly entertaining site, people!
Red <scharlachred@hotmail.comfoo>
London, UK - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 13:10:09 (PDT)
Hi everyone!
I usually just lurk here for AR news, but today I actually have some to share. I subscribe to Harpers & Queen (British magazine)and today as I sat in the dentist office I found a smallish picture of our man Alan at a party in London. I believe it was a book signing or something like that. He is at a table with Judi Dench, and Rupert Everett. He looks lovely!!!
If you want to check out the picture, it's in the Party Queen section of the October 2001 Harpers & Queen. It's a regular section of the magazine, in the very back.
Those of you who get to see Private Lives - Lucky You! Have fun. Talk to ya'll soon!
Katie
AL USA - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 12:53:19 (PDT)
The UK magazine called Your Life dated October 1 2001 has a large picture of Lindsay Duncan on the front cover. Inside, there is a 3 page article called 'The Sexiest Ice Maiden In Town'. There is a photo of AR and LD rehearsing Private Lives! I found it in the newsagents of my small Oxfordshire village so I guess it must be widely available in the UK.
Heather
Oxford, UK - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 11:38:35 (PDT)
Thank you, Claire.
Georgiana (And have you seen "Private Lives" yet???)
Seattle - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 10:27:10 (PDT)
Georgiana - HAMLET was a Thelma Holt Ltd production directed by Robert Sturua, presumably she was the main producer as the programme mentions her assistants.
Claire
- Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 10:12:37 (PDT)
Theatre Now also tells us Coward Comes to the Rescue, with hopeful things said about "Private Lives," now in previews.
Georgiana
Seattle - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 09:55:08 (PDT)
Theatre Now announces the fall series for Masterclass at Theatre Royal Haymarket, to include Sharman MacDonald (author of "The Winter Guest") on October 8, Michael Frayn (author of "Benefactors") on November 8, and Thelma Holt (producer of "Tango at the End of Winter") on November 15.
Georgiana (Did Thelma also produce his "Hamlet"--can't quite recall...)
Seattle - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 09:51:52 (PDT)
Hi all, I sent the PL programme pictures to Suzanne, so she can post them here.
Jutta
and he is sulking as well...sigh!, - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 09:05:04 (PDT)
(background Native American tom tom beat): Thumpah thumpthump thump/ thumpah thumpthump thump... ad infinitum (Action: a cartoon bear cub dressed as a Mohican paddles a canoe on a lake) soloist: From The Land of Sky-Blue Water (chorus): wa-a-ter soloist: comes the beer refreshing Hamms the beer refreshing Hamms! (BG):Thumpah thump thump! That's the version we in the States heard on telly in the late '50s. I needed the levity, sorry!
FastFilm
Los Angeles, CA USA - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 08:28:29 (PDT)
Mmmmmmm, Rickman playing the piano!
Does anyone know of a midi file for Someday I'll Find You? That's the music they play in PL.
BTW, the copyright to PL states that "No one shall make any changes in this play for the purpose of production", which includes not only detailed stage directions and the script but also a "furniture and property plot" for each act, and a music plot, which specifically includes Land of the Sky-Blue Water and Someday I'll Find You. So yes, the productions would be traditional. The script can be purchased on line, or at the Samuel Frenc Theater Bookshops in New York, Toronto and London. ISBN 0-573-61925-5
Fausta <faustaw@yahoo.comfoo>
- Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 08:13:48 (PDT)
Sally, I hope that you have a really great time in London. This is a really wonderful city and the West End is the best part! I was lucky enough to visit this city, twice and the people there were realy helpful and also kind to me and my family. This is a rare thing at this time.I hope that you and everyone who are going to see Private Lives, have a wonderful time, and really enjoy London. So much to see, and so much to immerse yourself in! That is what, I hope, London is all about- It's people. Take care Sally, and all of you, and, when you can, send back some great stories about this wonderful play that I am sure AR and LD will do justice to! It really doesn't matter that I cannot, at this time, see AR in Private Lives. I feel, that he will love being on the Stage again.
Barbara the Australian <hermione(underscore )3@hotmail.comfoo>
Gold Coast, Qld Australia - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 07:04:34 (PDT)
Gina - this has to be one of the most enthusiastic sites on the whole internet - nobody seems to tire of the subject matter - also if you don't log on everyday you will always have a mountain of reading matter to catch up on!!!!! The anticipation of waiting for my trip to Private Lives is beginning to be unbearable!
Jill
kent UK - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 05:28:22 (PDT)
Jutta, thanks for the review! I've just received my ticket via mail and I'm soo excited. Still one month to go.
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 03:21:47 (PDT)
AHHHH!! What a way to start the morning!! I am a big fan of Alan Rickmans and came across this site by accident. I am glad that i did too. OOOH..he is sooo sexy and i love that accent. I hope that you keep adding to this site cause i will be here daily. Gina
Gina Ryan <reginakayryan@hotmail.comfoo>
Des Moines, Ia USA - Tuesday, September 25, 2001 at 01:51:29 (PDT)
Well, actually, Sally, the July 30 Variety article was confirmatory, giving producer, director and all four main cast members.
Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 22:26:35 (PDT)
Georgiana, in a little bit of self-promotion, according the news section of my website, rumours of AR in Private Lives began around June 9 (report by Ananova.com), and it was confirmed by August 15 or something.
Jutta - I join the green brigade! Private Lives sounds wonderful! I can't wait until i get to see it. I'm wondering now if I should go for broke (really) and buy a second ticket...
Sally
Sydney, Aust - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 18:03:59 (PDT)
It sounds to be a very traditional "Private Lives," well executed! Can hardly wait.
Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 17:28:39 (PDT)
Thanks for the capsule review of PL, Jutta. It sounds just wonderful. Can you tell me whether there is a new photo of AR in the theatre programme, or has he recycled one of his old ones?
Gail
Toronto, Canada - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 15:59:13 (PDT)
I'm green, Jutta! Absolutely green, and it's not an attractive color, believe me. But thanks for the first *sigh* update.
Mary <Very grumpy and homebound.foo>
McHenry, - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 15:59:07 (PDT)
Thanks so much Jutta for the first news. I was beginning to think that we'd never hear anything.(Frustated, moi?)Sounds like you had a great time. Can't wait for Oct 11.
Sue
A pyjama??......., England - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 15:07:54 (PDT)
Again OT, and again I apologize. Jill in Kent, if you're willing to correspond with me about working for the BBC, please email me. I want to work in England for a few years (will be inquiring about work permits when I'm in London to see PL and visit friends in a few weeks), and the BBC is one place I'd like to work. And Gail, the Railtrack website is incredibly useful; thanks again.
Nancy R. <nroberts@sonic.netfoo>
CA USA - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 14:32:58 (PDT)
Hi everyone, I was in London at the previews of PL and it was wonderful. AR is superb (all of the actors/actresses in the play are, but I will concentrate on HIM).
The play is very funny and it suits him. He´s laughing, fighting, annoyed, singing, dancing, embarrassed, screaming, flirting, frustrated, seductive, sarcastic, lovely, winking, angry, playing the piano(or faking it expertly), funny, wearing a tuxedo and a pyjama…. I could go on forever.
At the stage door he was very nice and friendly, signing programmes and pictures and allowed everyone to take pictures.
To everyone who will be going: you will enjoy this. To everyone not going: find a way to go!!
Jutta
still fanning myself, - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 14:13:34 (PDT)
Sort of annoying as I've already got my tickets for that date, but What's on Stage is offering 35 pound tickets for twenty pounds, plus a drink and a free programme, for the Oct. 25th performance of PL. I'm glad to see from the same source what the Antony Sher play is that I've been told I'm also seeing - the Mahler, as Georgiana mentioned. I have such blind faith in my ticket booker in London!
Gail
Toronto, Canada - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 11:32:39 (PDT)
I can be rude about the BBC as I worked for them for a long time - they obviously got the news about the Drugathon from Ananova like I did - they need to speed up on their reporting. I doubt whether they will show it - its the sort of thing that Channel 4 do more but BBC2 may decide to be radical!!!
Jill
Kent UK - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 09:37:29 (PDT)
And, speaking of Mahler, from "What's on Stage":
In Mahler's Conversion, a new drama by Ronald (The Dresser) Harwood, directed by Gregory Doran, Sher plays Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), a Jew who must decide whether to convert to Catholicism in order to secure his dream job - conductor of the Vienna Court Opera.
Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 09:32:23 (PDT)
Does anyone remember when we first heard about "Private Lives"? I find now that an article appeared in Variety on 30 July indicating a venue was being sought. It included naming the entire cast. It continues: "Also on [Duncan] Weldon's wish list, this time for spring: Richard Harris as King Lear."
Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 09:28:19 (PDT)
In a June 18 review of Lara Croft, Tomb Raider "Variety" has this to say:
[Iain] Glen's villain wanly aspires to Alan Rickman/Jeremy Irons status, while other thesps come and go to little effect.
Georgiana (Thanks, Cindie, all better; Jill posted the Drugathon benefit from Ananova on Friday; I'm having no trouble accessing the FAQ) <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 09:21:10 (PDT)
ARA, the FAQ is on Claudia's server and is (and has been) working fine for me. Is anyone else having trouble seeing it?
And is anyone planning to attend the Sept. 30th benefit at the Old Vic?
Have fun, Susan (we'll be anxiously waiting for your return)!
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
Hallettsville, TX USA - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 07:10:55 (PDT)
Apologies - should read David "Dimbleby" obviously excitement has affected my typing!
Susan
Yorkshire - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 05:00:48 (PDT)
I was wondering the same things, Elizabeth. They didn't announce the screening of the Amnesty concert until nearer the event so perhaps there's hope for these two yet. Totally OT and this is aimed at UK INHABITANTS. Last week my husband and I had tickets for BBC'S QUESTION TIME and even got to ask questions. If you can, do apply for them when it comes to your area - ring the number given at the end of the previous programme or use the website. Well worth the effort. We really enjoyed it and it's very much audience led with great chairing from David Dimbley. NOW FOR THE MOST IMPORTANT BIT:- have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow (Tuesday) to catch the train to London - to see (what else!) Private Lives tomorrow. I am intrigued to see what the director has decided to do with it. Have seen it a few times and it has always been stylised and of the period. Will report back on my return on Thursday. Interestingly there is another professional production doing the rounds! So excited!!!!!
Susan
Yorkhsire - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 04:56:46 (PDT)
Sally, did they say if they would be screening it, or any other channel fro that fact. Also I was wondering does anyone know if that concert at the Royal Festival Hall on November 19th would be screened by any TV channels.
Elizabeth
UK - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 02:49:14 (PDT)
According to BBC news, Alan Rickman will be on stage for charity again on September 30 (he's a busy man on stage right now - lucky all of you in London!):
Now Alan Partridge is being brought back from three years of retirement by creator Steve Coogan for a one-off charity fundraiser.
The bumbling spoof personality will be compère at an evening called Drugathon with other comedy stars at London's Old Vic Theatre on Sunday 30 September.
Partridge was last seen on a regional tour of Coogan's act and his creator has suggested a TV return in the future.
Other stars set to take the stage with him and raise cash for London-based charity, the Drug Dependency Centre, include Ruby Wax, Channel 4's Armstrong and Miller, star of The Fast Show Paul Whitehouse and actors ALAN RICKMAN and Gary Oldman.
Sally
Sydney, Australia - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 02:26:35 (PDT)
Suzanne, I haven't been able to access the FAQ for quite a while-is it a "work in progress" or is it something to do with my computer?
A Rickman Admirer
- Sunday, September 23, 2001 at 23:18:12 (PDT)
I got the following from a feature in the Harry Potter Galleries where they have the spotlight on one of the kid actors in the movie, Devon Murray (Seamus Finnigan). His mom was asked about their reaction to meeting the adult actors from the set:
So how has it felt for such a down-to-earth family to meet the big stars? "At first we were intimidated," admits Fidelma. "But they were so nice that I soon relaxed. They got on great with the children and treated them like colleagues. "I was most frightened about meeting Richard Harris and Alan Rickman - I thought they'd be really austere and just couldn't believe how nice they were. Richard Harris was talking about his home in Limerick and Alan Rickman is a real gentleman - he'll always hold the door open for you."
How true! (^-^)
Zel-Anne <zelanne@yahoo.comfoo>
Philippines - Sunday, September 23, 2001 at 17:37:09 (PDT)
OT-Donna- So glad you are ok. Please pass on my (and most UK residents) condolences and thanks to the N.Y. Fire and Rescue departments. I don't even want to imagine what they have been through.
Sue
England - Sunday, September 23, 2001 at 13:02:07 (PDT)
What a close call, Donna! So glad to hear you're okay!
Sally, Re: sound file. No, I haven't changed anything... yet. As I mentioned a little over a month ago, Xoom/NBCi said they'd no longer host web-pages, so it looks like they finally took the Sound and Video Gallery down. Although I'm still looking for another server large enough to host the Video Gallery, I had just moved the Sound Gallery over to my other server, Spree, when they also informed me they were no longer hosting web-pages (what's going on?!)! *sigh* However, I will switch the sound file over to them for the time being (as soon as I post this). Spree is also where I have the Photo Gallery, Articles and FOF & Guestbook Archives. So if they happen to disappear before I get them moved to another server, don't worry, I have a backup of everything. And if anyone happens to know of a server that offers LOTS of space and allows large 10+ MB file uploads (i.e.: video clips), that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, please write me!
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
Calling on U-haul..., TX USA - Sunday, September 23, 2001 at 12:34:43 (PDT)
Well I am having a terrible problem with my internet thingy today. I tried to be clever and send an attachment on an email and it appears to have sent everything up the creak. The computer keeps disconnecting itself, I know this is way off topic, but any suggestions on how I fix it?
Elizabeth
UK - Sunday, September 23, 2001 at 12:27:47 (PDT)
Hello Donna, I am glad that you and your friend are fine. that is a very scarry thing to have to go through.
sorry that your husband lost a cousin, friends, and coworkers to it.
Lets just hope this never happens again. It's a very hard to continue with daily routines but in time we all will. It has affected us in Canada as well and i find myself looking up at a passing plane and wondering. I live near an airport so we get planes passing over all the time I never really thought about them as you get so use to them but now I am always wondering about them. Hugs to all of you in the US and Canada.....
lynn
Ottawa, Canada - Sunday, September 23, 2001 at 07:39:56 (PDT)
After being busy for awhile I had to come back to this site for a taste of Alan. I finally rented Blow Dry and watched it today. That certainly was a change for Alan! I enjoyed it though. I needed a laugh after last week. Off topic: My friend and I were in the WTC last week when the first plane struck. Luckily, we escaped. Everyone has been phoning us, even my friend in England, asking about my husband (who is a Lt. in the NYC Fire Dept), but were surprised to find out that it was me instead who was there. My friend and I had a short span of time when we first got outside to pick up some items that were blown out(things were still falling from the sky when we got outside). One was a credit card that belonged to one of the flight attendents. I've turned it all in to the FBI. It was the scariest day of my life and the closest I've come to dying. As it is, my husband lost his cousin(also in the Fire Dept.) and co-workers/friends in it. My friend & I felt like we were watching a bad movie, almost like we were outside our bodies, it's so hard to believe! The devastation there is terrrible and very hard to describe in words, except to say it was like being in a war zone. We had so many good people, all strangers, help us that day, it was amazing how everyone came together to help. I know my guardian angel was with me that day. My friend and I had just gone down for the day and always took the train directly to the WTC. I'd been up on the roof back in '93 when my friend visited us from the U.K. Thank God we weren't up there this time! Here's a reminder to everyone- always make sure you tell your family you love them because you never know from one day to the next what will happen. I certainly found that out! Thanks for listening, it helps me to get it all out. One more Alan story- I just started a new job this week and happily discovered that one of my co-workers is also an Alan fan! I had some doubles of photos I'd gotten off the internet, so I gave them to her and showed her my glossies of him. She was so excited! She's also a big fan of all things British, as I am, including TV shows. By the way, thanks to all our good British friends for standing with us against these evil terrorists. There really are no words to describe evil individuals (I refuse to call them people) who have no regard or respect for human life. Well, they don't even care about their own life, so how can we expect these brainwashed things to care about anyone elses? Those poor people on the planes who were stabbed and had their throats slashed! How can anyone do this? What a sad world we live in today.
donna <donnajkf@frontiernet.netfoo>
Montgomery, NY USA - Saturday, September 22, 2001 at 22:53:25 (PDT)
Oh dear, I shall miss another Rickman opportunity. Back at school (and the old thesis!) and short on funds. Ah well, I shall have to check back for Rickmanista reviews! :) Better than 10lbs of chocolate, he is! Thanks to all who have contributed to the GB this month. AW
Ann W
Phoenix, AZ USA - Saturday, September 22, 2001 at 20:19:46 (PDT)
Suzanne, have you recently added a new sound or something to this page because it is hanging for a long time before it appears for me (and then after the whole page has loaded, I get an error message). Just curious.
Sally
Sydney, Australia - Saturday, September 22, 2001 at 19:27:53 (PDT)
I assumed politics, Renie, but your guess is as good as mine. The quote, however, is from Oscar Wilde.
Georgiana (as dedicated as I am to these pages, the article was pasted from a subscription news service...) <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Saturday, September 22, 2001 at 18:34:46 (PDT)
Thanks, G, for that finger exercise! Two questions: 1) When he calls AR and LD "radical", what doe he mean (not just "sexy", I assume. Are they widely-regarded as risk-takers?); and 2) who is the person referred to here: "Of course, as another playwright not above swishing about in dressing gowns remarked, the truth is never pure and seldom simple." I don't think it was Shax! (Though I believe he would agree with that statement.) ;-)
Renie <reniept@hotmail.com foo>
CA, - Saturday, September 22, 2001 at 18:14:12 (PDT)
Georgiana -- Thank you! Fascinating article. (Now massage those hands after all that typing.) Hope your cold is better.
Cindie
- Saturday, September 22, 2001 at 17:41:30 (PDT)
Thanks for the great news, Rafaella! Last time I was in London, it was about 10 pounds to have an hour at an Intenet cafe - and that translates as $30Aus right now, so to know its down to as low as $3 makes me feel better! You are right Joanne, as poor as I shall feel, it will be worth it to see Alan Rickman on stage! Thank you for thinking of me!
Sally
Sydney, Aust - Saturday, September 22, 2001 at 16:45:08 (PDT)
19 September Independent:
FEATURES; Pg. 9
ARTS: WHO IS THE REAL COWARD?; TWO NEW PRODUCTIONS OF NOEL COWARD'S PLAYS ARE COMING TO LONDON. ONE IS A CROWD-PLEASER, THE OTHER A 'DIFFICULT' UNFINISHED WORK. RADICAL OR REACTIONARY? PHILIP HOARE INVESTIGATES
Philip Hoare
A scene from the recent West End production of Coward's decadent play 'Semi-Monde'
Geraint Lewis
Intermittently on display in the National Portrait Gallery is a bronze life mask of Noel Coward. Cast by Paul Hamann during the London run of Private Lives in 1930, it gives the most accurate sense of the man's physical presence at the height of his powers. The features are set magisterially: hair scraped back off a high forehead, a blunt nose, the tapering eyes which gave an increasingly oriental look, and an almost non-existent, resolutely stiff upper lip. Yet deep lines already course the playwright's face (prompting St John Ervine to note in 1937 that "neurosis and incipient TB have helped give him that curious old look he has"). When I was writing Coward's biography in the early Nineties, I used to troop along to the NPG and stand in front of the sculpture, as if to commune with my subject. What amazed me then - and still does - was that strange sense of aged youth. To me, those etched lines were evidence of a deep and determined survival. Coward, like the Queen Mother, his coeval, marched in tandem with the last century, witness to its changing fashionse playwright's face (prompting St John Ervine to note in 1937 that "neurosis and incipient TB have helped give him that curious old look he has"). When I was writing Coward's biography in the early Nineties, I used to troop along to the NPG and stand in front of the sculpture, as if to commune with my subject. What amazed me then - and still does - was that strange sense of aged youth. To me, those etched lines were evidence of a deep and determined survival. Coward, like the Queen Mother, his coeval, marched in tandem with the last century, witness to its changing fashions and society. And just as that game old dear has managed to make it to the 21st, so two new productions on the West End stage seem to prove that her gin-drinking chum has survived, too. Howard Davies is directing a new Private Lives, adventurously cast with Lindsay Duncan as Amanda and Alan Rickman as Elyot: two brooding, sexually-charged stage presences set to spark up Coward's proven crowd- pleaser. And Chris Luscombe has "reconstructed" Star Quality, Coward's last attempt (the play was begun, but not finished, in 1967) to prove his talent to amuse, with Penelope Keith as Lorraine Barrie - a sort of amalgam of Tallulah Bankhead and Gertrude Lawrence. Quite by chance, these two productions bookend Coward's career: one from the very peak of the fame that Harmann's life mask celebrates; the other, a ghostly reminder, in his dying days of creativity, of what he had achieved.
The plays seem to confirm a pattern to Coward's posthumous career. Earlier this year Shaftesbury Avenue housed a similar brace of Cowards: Prowse's equally decadent staging of the Master's overtly gay Semi-Monde (proscribed from performance in his lifetime); and Michael Rudman's Fallen Angels, in which Felicity Kendal and Frances de la Tour delighted less demanding audiences with their drunken comedy of frustrated would-be adulterers. With the casting of "radical" actors in the classic Private Lives, and the perennial charm of Keith in the "undiscovered" Star Quality, Davies and Luscombe are both neatly reversing the roles, and at the same time underlining our need for two Noel Cowards.
One is the Saturday matinee coach-party pleaser, guaranteed to massage the weak-beating heart of the West End with sure-fire audiences. This tendency to banality led me to write about Coward, spurred on by the final travesty of Joan Collins's Private Lives in which the Dynasty starlet did the splits onstage. Then there's the radicalised, sexualised Coward, sourced back to Philip Prowse's icy, Eighties revival of The Vortex with Rupert Everett and Maria Aitken in Coward's toy-boy and coke addict succes de scandale. In 1994, Sean Mathias's Design for Living at the Donmar introduced Rachel Weisz to the London stage in a memorable opening scene, rubbing herself up and down with an ice cube; and in 1999, Philip Franks's intelligent working of Private Lives at the National set Juliet Stevenson stomping across the stage to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.
In this ongoing battle for the Master's reputation, the Coward camps take their opposing sides. The traditionalists fervently support the cosy, "little eggy-something-on-a-tray" Coward circa Brief Encounter; the stalwart reactionary who declared, in 1965, "I am England, and England is me". The revisionists, conversely, champion the once Bright Young Thing as a pre-Angry Young Man; for them Coward's sexual subtext is to be sought out and ruthlessly brought to the surface. Like the earnest young Roland Maule, the playwright from Uckfield who comes to plague Garry Essendine - Coward's dramatic alter ego in Present Laughter - they want him to rise above the superficiality, as Maule exhorts his hero: "All you do with your talent is to wear dressing gowns and make witty remarks when you might be really helping people, making them think! Making them feel!"
Of course, as another playwright not above swishing about in dressing gowns remarked, the truth is never pure and seldom simple; and Coward, as the achingly self-referential Present Laughter indicated, employed his own iconography in a way which no one had done since Wilde. He mediated and commodified "Noel Coward" for his global audience. Adeptly propagating his image, Coward refused to be pigeon-holed as the darling of either camp.
As sleek and slippery as his brilliantined coiffure, that elusiveness infuriated his critics. Having outraged the reactionary Establishment and pleased left-wing commentators with his critiques of high society such as The Vortex and Easy Virtue, he then delighted the right-wingers and confounded the radicals with his apparently jingoistic Cavalcade, which the likes of Sean O'Casey and Beverley Nichols misread as a mere flag-waving exercise.
Now, perhaps, we are seeing the pendulum swing back. Directors such as Prowse, Mathias, Franks, and now Howard Davies and Chris Luscombe seek the seriousness behind Coward's seemingly light-as-a-feather plays. They see Private Lives as a tragi-comedy, pivoting on a pair of egos made dysfunctional by a dysfunctional era; the love -triangle of Design for Living as an acute delineation of the Thirties equivalent of modern yuppies; and the prima donna of Star Quality - a cypher of her times, and of her own creator: "It all depends on what performance she is putting on for herself at the moment," says Coward in his original short story. "What really goes on, what is really happening deep down inside, no one will ever know - least of all herself."
Coward's rather surprising contemporary success is precisely due to his elusiveness, and his ability to be all things to all people. He was a gay playwright who wrote with deep intuition of heterosexual emotion; a suburban boy who started life in London's less salubrious boroughs yet claimed royalty and aristocrats as friends; an apparent dyed-in- the-wool patriot who railed against nascent apartheid when he experienced it in South Africa in 1944; a cocktail-swilling hedonist who actually liked nothing better than an early night reading E Nesbit. His greatest talent was not only to amuse, but to annoy, confound and provoke - as it still is. Like the ectoplasmic Elvira in Blithe Spirit, it seems the West End stage is destined to be haunted by its most accomplished practitioner of the last century.
Philip Hoare's biography of Noel Coward is about to be republished; 'Private Lives' previews from Fri at the Albery Theatre, London, 020-7369 1740; 'Star Quality' is currently on tour and is coming to London at the end of October
Georgiana (not up at their on-line site, so sorry for posting this in its entirety...)
Seattle - Saturday, September 22, 2001 at 15:18:38 (PDT)
Sally, thought of you when I saw the latest Aussie dollar dive. Definately not the best time to go O/S at present. Take heart though. The opportunity to go and see PL is worth doing without the other essentials of life, like food. Have a great trip.
Joanne
Melbourne, Aust - Saturday, September 22, 2001 at 14:54:39 (PDT)
Hi! Since people who are going to see PL need an identification sign, I had an idea and I made a badge (it's a metal/plastic pin) with "GB" on it. You can see it on my page, the link is here below, on my name. The badge is quite cheap, I can have it done and I can send it anywhere by priority mail for $4. Please let me know what do you think. As for internet cafès, Sally you'd be happy to know that prices have dramatically dropped: my best pal was in London a month ago and she said it costs about 1 GBP per hour. Last, but not least, I got my ticket for Nov 1st! Love from Raffaella
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Saturday, September 22, 2001 at 10:42:32 (PDT)
Saw the telethon last night and it was a rare treat with some of the greatest names in music and stage and film there to support the cause of raising money for the police and firemen of New York; but, my mind was split between that worthy cause and AR on stage. I have the strongest feeling the preview went off without too many hitches, and he was reasonably pleased with his performance, but since he is a perfectionist--who knows? Yours in peace, Venida
Venida <kiddiecar@hotmail.comfoo>
- Saturday, September 22, 2001 at 08:22:53 (PDT)
Groan... I'd have (maybe) ripped off to an Internet cafe anyway... (But its a bit maybe that I'd dash to a cafe now that the little Aussie dollar just shrunk drastically against the British pound and I can see me not doing much for the 5 days I'm in London at present because I won't be able to afford anything - let alone half an hour in an internet cafe! Thank goodness I bought the ticket before the latest assault in our currency!)
Sally
Sydney, Aust - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 23:42:15 (PDT)
Sally, Heather indicated in these pages she'd get back to us next Thursday on her return from London. Not likely to see anything in the London papers until after the play actually opens (now in previews) on October 4.
Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 23:34:07 (PDT)
Thanks very much, Gail.
Nancy R.
CA USA - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 22:00:53 (PDT)
Ok... According to the Who's going to Private Lives page Heather (TX) should have now seen a show - any news??? I hope she makes it to an Internet cafe so that she can report in!
Doesn't seem to be any reviews posted on the web yet - so first reviews might come from the London newspapers...???!!!
Sally
Sydney, Australia - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 21:52:32 (PDT)
Apologies for not replying privately on this, but my ISP has been down for almost two days - perhaps it's been Nimda'd. Anyway, Nancy, here is the website for the Railtrack timetables .
Gail <gail.rayment@sympatico.cafoo>
Toronto, Canada - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 20:04:15 (PDT)
I know this is off topic but for anyone out there interested in the telethon AMERICA: A Tribute To Heroes its on now . in the ontario area at least Check your tv's to see if its on in your areas Hope everyone takes a look at it....
lynn
Ottawa, Canada - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 18:24:55 (PDT)
Might I say, the best line in "Private Lives" is something about not eating your bridges before you've burned them, and it's Amanda's in the first act. I'm dying to hear how it goes--can just imagine Ms. Duncan's icy delivery!
Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 17:39:23 (PDT)
to Christine, thanks for the info about BD thats a bit costly and even though it's Alan Rickman it's still out of my budget, I guess I will have to wait 3 months, I sure hope that's all it's going to be I don't think I could wait any longer. lol. It's hard enough waiting for our man to come to theatres in HP in November. I sure can't wait. It will be wonderful to see him on the BIG screne.....
lynn
Ottawa, Canada - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 17:26:02 (PDT)
From today's (22 Sept) Independent:
THE 50 BEST ARTS EVENTS THIS AUTUMN; YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW ABOUT ART TO KNOW THAT AUTUMN BRINGS FORTH CULTURAL RICHES ALL ROUND. WHETHER IT'S FILM, THEATRE, PAINTING, POP OR DANCE THAT LIFTS YOUR SPIRITS, THE INDEPENDENT'S ARTS CRITICS' SEASONAL SELECTION IS JUST THE TICKET
BYLINE: David Benedict Stage Plays And Musicals
PRIVATE LIVES
Sixteen years ago, Lindsay Duncan, Alan Rickman and director Howard Davies took both London and Broadway by storm with Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Now they're reunited for this Noel Coward (above) play, a shimmering, scintillating comedy of spouse-swapping, written decades before the phrase "sexual politics" came into being. Emma Fielding and Adam Godley complete the quarrelsome quartet, transforming squabbling into a deliriously funny art form. Where: Albery Theatre, London WC2 (020-7369 1740).
Georgiana (Wonder if he saw it???)
Seattle - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 16:55:20 (PDT)
Wow, looks like several online stores are selling pre-orders of Therese Raquin! So far, I found the lowest price at BestPrices.com. $24.77 for DVD and $30.80 for VHS.
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
Well, his first night is over. Wonder how it went..., TX USA - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 16:14:59 (PDT)
Off-topic; apologies. Can anyone recommend a good website for planning train travel in the UK?
Nancy R. <nroberts@sonic.netfoo>
CA USA - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 15:25:02 (PDT)
Kevin Smith (from Instyle.com):
"As a nation, we're sad. We're horrified and scared. We're outraged. We're hungry for vengeance. That was all to be expected. What wasn't expected-but should have been, really-has been watching us band together as Americans."
Mary <aka "The Quote Queen"foo>
McHenry, - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 15:07:13 (PDT)
O/T, Patrick Stewart has occasionally appeared in this book, so I thought I'd share this exerpt from "People."
Patrick Stewart, whose son and daughter-in-law live in an apartment just 200 yards from the World Trade Center but were in England at the time, delivered a reading at a memorial service in his home county of Yorkshire, England. One of the works he read was an essay called "Dream," by J.B. Priestley, who wrote in 1956 that he had imagined standing on a high tower watching birds who suddenly burst into white flame. "I knew that this white flame was life itself," Priestley concluded. "What I had thought was tragedy was mere emptiness or a shadow show; for now all real feeling was caught and purified and danced on ecstatically with the white flame of life."
BTW, CBS news reports that not only was it the largest mass murder in American history, it's the largest mass murder in English history - well over 800 English nationals lost their lives.
Mary
McHenry, - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 14:26:46 (PDT)
I do think that Kevin Smith is outgrowing his own material. Being a Dad does help one grow up, and grow old, I might add as the parent of a teenager! KS has "boxed himself in" to a genre, and will terribly diaappoint his core groupies if he departs from his signature style. The rest of us don't mind a "taste" of nostalgia {although my youth was not quite so potty mouthed} but we don't want to live there. Some of us pray to God that our children are not "living there" either, but suspect that they do, as least partly. It is nice that AR is interested in helping out the "younguns" isn't it? What a lovely thing to do....
A Rickman Admirer
- Friday, September 21, 2001 at 13:54:23 (PDT)
And here's the link to "Therese Raquin" at amazon.com, where it's a tad bit cheaper.
Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 12:57:50 (PDT)
Thanks, Cat and Mindy, for the info on the release of Therese Raquin! Here's a quick link to the Signals TR online order page.
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
Wow, PL on stage as we speak!, USA - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 12:49:43 (PDT)
Love your website! Great layout, Very informative! Alessandra Mor Room500 Concierge, Personal and Virtual Assistants http://www.room500.com
Alessandra Mor <mor@hotmail.comfoo>
chicago, il usa - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 12:46:20 (PDT)
In the English theatre, that's "break a leg," isn't it, Raffaella? First act must be about over; hope it's grand.
Georgiana (No, not like in "An Awfully Big Adventure"!) <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 12:46:14 (PDT)
In this very moment the curtains are opening at the Albery! In Italy we use to say: "In bocca al lupo" to bring good luck.
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 11:59:47 (PDT)
GRACIOUS this is a busy guestbook! Thank you for the help on which address to write to! The letter is off in the mail. I wonder if he'll read it? LOL probably not. :) ~Shellie
Shellie <princessgrasshopper@yahoo.comfoo>
Hattiesburg, MS USA - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 11:18:59 (PDT)
Suzanne, thanks so much for the confirmation about Therese Raquin. I rushed right over to the Signals online catalog (www.Signals.com -I don't know what I did with the catalog - it's probably at home and I'm at work!) and ordered it! Price is $49.95 for video, $39.95 (I think) for DVD. Shipping is a bit pricey (almost ten bucks!) but they list this as an "exclusive" item, so not much choice. Sorry to be so long in responding - I forgot I had even asked the question until this morning! Your news was certainly a welcome bright spot in what has been a couple of weeks filled with bad news. L'shanah tovah to all fellow Jewish readers of the guestbook. And happy Friday to all of us.
Cat <crubins@asu.edufoo>
Tempe, AZ USA - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 09:34:16 (PDT)
To Lynn, Blockbuster will sell you BD now if you're willing to pay $100 for it. It will be officially for sale at a reasonable price in about 3 months.
I'll be thinking of AR tonight when the curtain goes up.
Christine
Montreal, Canada - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 08:22:01 (PDT)
Managed to clip a sentence. Should read "While KS's chapter about how he mad Clerks is very funny, . . ."
Fausta
oh well, - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 06:40:20 (PDT)
I agree with Mary and ARA on Kevin Smith. Dogma would have been a much better movie if he'd let Rickman direct it, since AR has much beautiful visual sense (as we have seen in The Winter Guest), which KS totally lacks.
Using the f word only for dramatic impact would have help, too. Once one's over the age of 13 one realizes saying it is really not funny at all. But then, KS obviously has yet to arrive at that conclusion.
There's a book called My First Film: Twenty Celebrated Film Directors Talk About Their First Film, edited by Stephen Lowenstein, Pantheon Books, 2000. ISBN 0375420819, with articles about KS, A Minghella, Neil Jordan, Ang Lee, anong others. While KS's chapter about how he made Clerks, one sees that he's still doing Clerks over & over. However, the chapters by Ang Lee and by Anthony Minghella really shine. Two truly gifted filmmakers, and two interesting and intelligent men. I highly recommend the book.
And would love to have some sugar-free ice cream at the Minghella's, too, but I digress!
Fausta <faustaw@yahoo.comfoo>
- Friday, September 21, 2001 at 06:36:03 (PDT)
Ananova is reporting that Alan Rickman is to take part in "Alan Partridge presents Drugathon" at the Old Vic on 30th September at 7.30pm. Other celebrities taking part include Ruby Wax, Gary Oldman and Paul Whitehouse etc. The proceeds are for a Chemical dependancy centre. Apart from this I hope he does'nt have too many nerves today and that all goes well tonight!!!
Jill
Kent UK - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 04:26:36 (PDT)
AND I NOT ONLY WITH AR A "SMASHIMG" SUCCESS BUT A SMASHING SUCCESS AS WELL! (i should know better but to try to spell at 7:15am with only 1 cup of coffee down)......
STAR
USA - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 04:14:07 (PDT)
YES! Today is the day!!! How I wish I was in London tonight!! I will send a little prayer for Alan and the cast this afternoon, Wishing them a smashimg success! I do agree with ARA, Dogma is just not my kind of movie, nor is Blow Dry! What is the matter with me? Have I lived in the suburbs too long? Oh well, we'll always have S&S.... My kid's entered a contest at Sears to win a trip to London for the premiere of HP!!!!! I'll keep my fingers crossed! Have a great day friends! And all my best to you who are fortunate enough to be THERE tonight!!! CHEERS!
STAR
NC USA - Friday, September 21, 2001 at 04:10:56 (PDT)
hello everyone, well I rented BLOW DRY again, I had to see it. I love that movie, and I asked the guy who works at the video store if he knew when it was going to go on sale and I was even willing to buy a pv video, but he said that it was still new so I have to wait.
I told him that I will just have to keep renting it until it does come out . Maybe he will get sick of seeing me in the store and just give me a copy. Now that would be nice :) He told me that he watched it and he thought it was a cute movie too.
it's funny but I was watching the Ricki Lake show today and they had all these hairdressers on and they had a little compitition on it, and as I was watching it I thought of the movie BD and thought that if AR was on the show he would win hands (gorgeous I might say) down.
Anyway I am rambling on now hope everyone has a fairly good night inspite of all that is going on in the world....
It's difficult knowing what is the right thing to say right now.....
lynn
Ottawa, Canada - Thursday, September 20, 2001 at 18:36:26 (PDT)
Now, now ARA, I've been repeatedly assured that "Dogma" is, in fact, utterly hysterical. I've been assured of that so many times that I am forced to conclude that I am simply not "hanging loose," that I am no longer "hep" and can not any longer "get jiggy with it." Alas. Fate's cruel blow.
BtW, that's hysterical! I'd have loved to be a fly on that set. Or any of his sets, for that matter.
I'm going home.
Mary <Actually, the water-walking scene was utterly luminous...foo>
McHenry, - Thursday, September 20, 2001 at 16:28:36 (PDT)
BtW I "like" that quote!!!!!!!!! You just made my rubbish day end far better than it started. Thankyou. Oh my, I can't believe the previews start tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!! They only told us it was happening the other day!
Elizabeth
UK - Thursday, September 20, 2001 at 15:04:55 (PDT)
perdoname, all Dogma fans, but it has always seemed to me that Mr. Rickman should file the Dogma job under "charitable contributions" for the Inland Revenue, as his performance was a gift to an otherwise uninspired movie. Not even in the same universe as "Jay and Silent Bob". Kevin Smith can write and direct as well as I can and I do not consider either of those occupations as particular talents of mine.
a Rickman Admirer
- Thursday, September 20, 2001 at 14:37:43 (PDT)
Hello everyone! Heather, have a good journey and please keep us posted when you come back! As for the HP/Lord of Rings discussion: I don't care, I'm going to watch both films with extreme pleasure!
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Thursday, September 20, 2001 at 11:06:53 (PDT)
A Dogma comment, that I got from a ... lessee... the friend of a coworker's spouse (this friend was apparently one of the extras on set for Dogma).
Kevin Smith went into a rant at some of the slacker actors who were adlibbing their lines rather than knowing them and said (and I quote):
"We've got Alan f*cking Shakespeare Rickman on set here -- you guys had better know your sh*t!"
I laughed and laughed
Barbara the Wallpaperer (whose coworkers are helping her feed the addiction)
- Thursday, September 20, 2001 at 09:44:42 (PDT)
A silly article from "The Onion" on HP:
'Sci-Fi Fans Argue The Better Of Two As-Yet-Unreleased Films:
'TULSA, OK- Science-fiction fans Pete Carver and Matthew Wynne disagreed sharply Monday on the relative merits of Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone and The Fellowship Of The Ring, neither of which hits theaters for months. "The storyboards for the Quidditch tournament I saw on this one web site look terrible," said the pro-Tolkien Carver. "There's no way that scene can be better than I've heard the Balrog one is." Wynne countered that the set design for the Great Hall of Hogwarts set "will completely blow away" that of the Mines of Moria.'
Mary
McHenry, - Thursday, September 20, 2001 at 09:41:54 (PDT)
Good-bye all! I'll be on my way to London in a few hours to see PL. Wanted to say thanks to everyone at the chat last week for being so kind when i was worried about the flight and let you know that all is well. Expect a full review next thursday when i get back!
heather <heatherc14532cs.comfoo>
tx - Thursday, September 20, 2001 at 08:53:14 (PDT)
Thank you very much, Sue. Wonder what exactly 'the sharp side' of Noel Coward will turn out to be!
Georgiana (Can hardly wait...)
Seattle - Thursday, September 20, 2001 at 08:25:35 (PDT)
London Evening Standard "Hot Tickets" Magazine Thursday 20th Sept.
Lindsay Duncan on ...Private Lives
"It never occurred to me before to do Noel Coward's Private Lives,or to play Amanda,the role originated by Gertrude Lawrence in 1930. I'd seen the play with Joanna Lumley starring a long time ago in Birmingham-I vaguely knew Joanna and wanted to see her in it. ButI didn't see the National's production a couple of summers ago,with Juliet Stevenson and Anton Lesser. I have no agenda about the work I do-it's always about collaboration-so I might never have done Private Lives. But Howard Davies,our director,called and said,'Maybe we should do this,we'd better meet and talk about it.' We had a cup of tea and, a minute later,it was just a question of where and when. Elyot(Amanda's ex-husband,who comes turbulently back into her life) is played by Alan Rickman, whom I acted opposite back in the Eighties in 'Les Liaisons Dangereuse', which was also directed by Howard. We spent at least two years on that play,which is a hell of a long time. You couldn't survive together without an acting relationship that boils down to having a similar taste,a similar commitment and a feeling that you're comfortable with each other so that you can develop trust. But the combination of all this isn't a sentimental journey. It's a relationship that,in working terms,makes up a triangle-consisting of me and Alan and Howard. We're not doing a sort of camp,cigarette-smoking production. I knew we'd be staying on the sharp side of Noel Coward-that's the interest in doing it. And with good writing you're always surprised once you start working that it just goes on delivering. We're not deconstructing the play. You don't have to."
Sue
all typed out, especially as I had to use my son's lap top,difficult with banana hands!! o, England - Thursday, September 20, 2001 at 07:30:06 (PDT)
Wouldn't you know it - the moment I posted the last message I got my answer from Ambrose Video about how to purchase the Romeo and Juliet DVD. Here is their reply:
"We are in the process of purchasing the Home Video Rights as we speak. We will be putting the Plays on the www.documentary-video.com sight shortly. Please put that in your favorite places and check back."
No mention of the price of the DVD, though...
Carol
Okazaki, Japan - Thursday, September 20, 2001 at 06:12:48 (PDT)
Sorry to break the solemn atmosphere once again (that was a lovely tribute page you made, by the way, Marion), but I just happened to come across Fausta's revised Romeo and Julietpage, and I realized I really want to see that performance of Alan as Tybolt! I found out that the same company that put out the expensive video, Ambrose, also has a DVD version for the same price: Romeo and Juliet on DVD
Has anyone seen the DVD version of this film? I wonder if the quality is better than the video version. Actually, I haven't seen the video version either, but if I'm going to shell out $100 for this DVD, the more excuses I have the better!
Carol <cebbyq@hotmail.comfoo>
Okazaki, Japan - Thursday, September 20, 2001 at 05:54:12 (PDT)
Hi to all, for the actual incidents I´ve changed one of my hompages into a memorial to the WTC and the many people who had to die there without any cause. I also included an audio sequence of the end dialog of `Mesmer´. These last words of AR seem to say what people might feel in these days. Click down below to get to my page : www.geocities.com/himmelsschiff May God be with us! You´re doing a wonderful work to all AR admires!!!! Marion
Marion <marion.nimz@talknet.defoo>
Krefeld, Germany - Wednesday, September 19, 2001 at 18:00:28 (PDT)
You might not have made it up, Fausta, but apparently someone did. According to the Urban Legends site:
"1995 saw the release of the film The Madness of King George, a movie whose plot focused on the bizarre behavior of George III, the English monarch who was commonly said to have "gone mad" after losing England's North American colonies to the American Revolution. Modern medical experts now believe King George suffered from a metabolic disorder known as porphyria, and The Madness of King George deals with the political machinations that took place as the king's illness incapacitated him -- both physically and mentally -- for extended periods of time.
Coincident with the film's release came the rumor that its distributors had altered its title for the American market, changing The Madness of George III to The Madness of King George lest puzzled Americans think they had missed the first two entries of the series.
Let's clear up a couple of matters right off the bat: First of all, the film's distributors had nothing whatsoever to do with its title. Secondly, the title of the film was not changed, nor was it titled differently in America than it was in other parts of the world. The film was always called The Madness of King George, and it bore that title everywhere it was exhibited. The confusion came about because the film was based upon a play entitled The Madness of George III, but the film's producers opted to call their movie The Madness of King George instead.
Okay, but why the title switch between stage and screen versions? Did it have anything to do with a fear that Americans might think they'd missed two previous horror flicks about the madness of a character named George? Americans might be a bit gullible and naive at times, but Hollywood has had no compunctions about releasing non-sequel films bearing titles such as Leonard Part 6, creating sequels with names like Naked Gun 2 ½, or re-releasing the original Star Wars film with an addition to the opening screen crawl that identified it as "Episode IV." (No, Star Wars didn't bear this designation in its original release, so don't write to us to tell us it did.)
Although Nicholas Hytner, the film's director, admitted that the claim is "not totally untrue," he also divulged that the most important factor was that "it was felt necessary to get the word King into the title." The change was not primarily motivated by a perceived need to cater to Americans' alleged gullibility or ignorance, but by a prudent recognition of cultural differences between America and England. America has always been a nation without royalty, and thus using "King George" in the title established much more clearly to American audiences that this was a film about a monarch than "George III" would have. (Similarly, the 1997 UK film Mrs. Brown, about the relationship between Queen Victoria and John Brown, was advertised under the name Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown in America, where the name "Mrs. Brown" would not readily have been recognized as a reference to Queen Victoria.)
Magda
Canada - Wednesday, September 19, 2001 at 15:43:05 (PDT)
Link fixed.
Nobody is perfect.
Suz (D.o.C.)
Aargh! Suzanne! Help! I'm linking, and I can't seem to stop!
Mary (And here I was so proud at how good I'd gotten at posting links...)
McHenry, - Wednesday, September 19, 2001 at 13:12:55 (PDT)
O/T again, and I beg your indulgence, but this link came across my desk - I found it to be a moving, healing visit.
The International Community (not the real name, but so it seems)
Maybe not always, maybe not forever, but for now...
Mary
McHenry, - Wednesday, September 19, 2001 at 13:11:33 (PDT)
Future developments that might bear watching:
"Steven Spielberg turned down the chance to make the first Harry Potter movie because it didn't touch him creatively - but the third book in the series is a different matter altogether. The director legend has no regrets about passing up the opportunity to adapt the first two books in the series into movies, yet admits he might take on one of the later texts. He says, "I'm a Rowling fan, but that first story didn't touch me creatively. Now the third Harry Potter book... it's pure genius! Much darker, more esoteric and interesting to me personally. If they'd offered me that, I'd have said yes." (Source: WENN Entertainment)
Of course, readers know that the third book has lots of Snape action in it.
Magda
Canada - Wednesday, September 19, 2001 at 13:05:08 (PDT)
In spite of my attempt at bravado in hoping we will all come to especially treasure our diversions in these challenging, tragic and portentious times, I see that a number of Broadway shows are closing as a consequence of the World Trade Center and related events. It seems tourists are afraid to fly, airlines are cutting flights, etc. I hope these events will not greatly impact the West End but, alas, I'm sure they will.
Georgiana <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Wednesday, September 19, 2001 at 10:37:21 (PDT)
Thanks, Renie. Glad to hear it.
What a great drawing story, MA!
Georgiana (used to take my new baby to see their new babies--look forward to visiting them with the grandbabies some day)
- Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 21:18:01 (PDT)
And the buffalo are still there, Georgiana! In San Francisco, I mean.
R
CA, - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 20:21:08 (PDT)
Double deleted.
Perhaps your mouse had the hiccups.
Suz (D.o.C.)
D.o.C., please . . . *sigh* How did that double post? I only clicked the button once!
MA
- Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 18:00:02 (PDT)
At a time when we could all use a little cheering up, I thought I'd offer this, as it certainly made me smile. This is in the October edition of Nickelodeon magazine; there was a spread about the Harry Potter film and one of the features was a short interview with Rupert Grint, who will be playing Ron Weasley. They asked him, "What school subject are you good at?" and here's his reply:
"I like to draw. I drew a picture of Alan Rickman [who plays Professor Severus Snape]. It was kind of amazing, but really ugly. Then I found out he was right behind me, watching me draw this picture. He took it really well."
Now there's a picture I'd like to see! 8-)
Mary Anne
- Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 17:58:47 (PDT)
I'm no fan of censorship, but I'm so tired of Hollywood's "gosh, a little violence in film is GOOD for us! It's the 'Murican way" attitude. So a blase' yay for the nixed pics. I only wish it were permanent.
Leaves more room for Himself, anyway.
Mary <I have no life - I'm still at workfoo>
McHenry, - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 17:23:20 (PDT)
Yikes, thanks for letting me know, Christine!
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
- Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 13:24:22 (PDT)
Hollywood, long known for glamorizing violence, has pulled the plug on a number of 'blockbuster' films scheduled for imminent release.
Georgiana
Seattle - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 12:37:51 (PDT)
Thanks Sue, yes I will be there, arriving the early morning of October 27th. Hope to see you too.
And thank you for your condolences.
Anne <ahard73977@aol.comfoo>
Alexandria, VA USA - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 12:08:34 (PDT)
Must say, I like Snape's little edge of white at collar and cuffs.
Georgiana (miss those golden eyes, though!)
Seattle - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 10:50:06 (PDT)
OFF TOPIC: Theatre Now confirms name change for "Moon over Buffalo."
Georgiana
Seattle - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 09:18:46 (PDT)
On my Mac, 'help' didn't, but 'reload' brought the photo up. Thanks, Carol (and Claire).
Georgiana <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 09:17:28 (PDT)
Suzanne, my email to you came back - your mail box is full!
Christine
Montreal, Canada - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 08:46:20 (PDT)
Carol - the link does work. I had the no entry screen first, clicked on the HELP page then went back on my browser and the teachers.jpg opened.
Claire
- Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 07:10:58 (PDT)
Oh, I'm really sorry. Could you remove those two previous entries plus this one? I didn't know that Geocities wouldn't allow me to link my pic to this page. I'll have to find another webhost... Thanks
Carol
Okazaki, Japan - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 06:58:57 (PDT)
Whoops! May I try that link again to the Snape photo again?
http://www.geocities.com/cebby3/index.html
Carol
Okazaki, Japan - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 06:52:20 (PDT)
That Harry Potter pamphlet mentioned recently actually came from Japan, not Taiwan, and I got one myself! I decided to make a larger scan of it to let everyone get a better look at Snape's precious expression:
http://www.geocities.com/cebby3/teachers.jpg
The Japanese caption reads "Severus Snape, Teacher of Potions. He is very strict on the Gryffindor students, especially Harry."
Carol <cebbyq@hotmail.comfoo>
Okazaki, Japan - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 06:41:48 (PDT)
Re:'Moon Over Buffalo'- this production is previewing at our local theatre in Guildford,Surrey. Out here in "the sticks" we have managed to cope with the correct name so it must be those simple Londoners!(if it is in fact true)
Anne-Please accept my sincere sympathy at the loss of your friends. That you can go on to make the statements you did shows that there is some hope for this world if we can all hold on to the desire for peace. I really hope that you will still be able to make your trip here in October and look forward to meeting you then.
Sue
England - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 05:03:08 (PDT)
The papers seem to be full of this stupid change in name for this play (dropping the Buffalo) but I have seen virtually no reference to Private Lives starting. With regard to the expense of going to the theatre in London I agree - I adore the theatre but with 4 children to organize - the cost of tickets nearer to £100 for 2 with travel on top I have to be very choosy in what I want to see! Private Lives had better be wonderful!!! (I am not doubting that it will be !)
Jill
Kent UK - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 03:43:49 (PDT)
Georgianna, re Londoner's being insular I think you'll find that they simply don't go to the theatre (can't afford to live AND go out in the same town). The change of title is presumably for the tourists who make up the vast majority of theatre-goers in the West End.
Anon
- Tuesday, September 18, 2001 at 01:25:54 (PDT)
To Susan in Yorkshire, Thank you for your thoughts, I understand the shock and horror you must be feeling. Take comfort from the innocence of little Rachel.
Thousands of people of all nationalities lost their lives in the World Trade Centre, and we mourn for all of them.
I have forever lost 4 friends from the Pentagon and I weep for them and their families.
But,this horror will only get worse if we turn it into a war. Thousands more, mostly innocent men, women and children will also die, if the military might of this country is turned against the Afghan people.
The Taliban are a small but powerful group of fundamental extremists, and Bin Laden, hides among them. They rule Afghan with an iron fist, killing at will anyone who does not meet their twisted concept of Islam.
I have heard and read the remarks of some who believe America "should bomb Afghanistan to the Stone age". It's already been done, there is no infrastructure, there is starvation because the farmers cannot use their land for fear of the thousands of land mines in their fields, there are no hospitals, no schools, no doctors.
We forget the once Soviet Union, already bombed this country back to the stone age. The Taliban did the rest. Most of the doctors and teachers in Afghanistan during the war with the Soviet Union were women,their husbands fighting the Soviets made it necessary for the women to take on such roles. Now they are forbidden under pain of death to practice their training because the Taliban would put all women into purdah or have them executed. So, please before we get into that "kill them all and let God sort them out" mode, which I am beginning to hear voiced more loudly with each passing day, please remember who did these terrible things. And by all means try to bring them to justice. But war is not justice in this case.
I am sorry to use this forum, which is for the pleasure of discussing the acting abilities of an actor we all admire, but it's the most public one I have at the moment, it's read in many countries and we need to say the things we believe now, before we begin down a path, from which we may never find our way back.
Suzanne, I apologize for using your wonderful, usually fun site for this. I just had to say these words.
Anne <ahard73977@aol.comfoo>
Alexandria, VA USA - Monday, September 17, 2001 at 20:09:42 (PDT)
I felt I had to share an email I received from my brother who works in London. Rachael is his wife and Flossy is his 2 year old daughter who is fascinated by planes. Our youngest brother works for Cantor Fitzgerald so they have a personal grief for those they knew. We are all stunned by the happenings and grieve for all the relations and friends who are leftwithout their loved ones. "There are so many mixed emotions at the moment after the appalling terrorist attacks last Tuesday. The last thing the world needs now is an all out War, eye for an eye etc. Once they attack Afghanistan they will increase Bin Laden's support throughout the Muslim community. We are talking about 3k terrorists and not army. You can't fight these people the same way as you would fight against a country. The only way I believe we can get these terrorists is by getting the support of the Millions of Muslims who are repelled and horrified by the deaths of so many innocent people in New York and Washington. We have to successfully portray him as an enemy of authentic Islam. My understanding of Islam is it is meant to promote peace, so these terrorists are hiding behind innocent people. burnt. I choke back tears every day and I hope this will be the worst terrorist attack to happen in my lifetime. Rachael was at her parents when it happened. They were watching the second plane hit the WTC and Flossy was pointing at the TV saying "Airplane". The innocence is ironic."
Susan
Yorkshire - Monday, September 17, 2001 at 18:04:55 (PDT)
I'm not surprised about the US distribution of "The Madness of King George." Thank you, Fausta.
But London? Just another big small town, I guess.
Georgiana (meeting my first flesh and bone 'buffalo' required moving to San Francisco, where they inhabited Golden Gate Park)
Seattle - Monday, September 17, 2001 at 16:02:15 (PDT)
my apologies, Georgiana! I had in mind fur-meat-bones live buffalo!
Fausta
- Monday, September 17, 2001 at 09:43:34 (PDT)
. . . and there's also The Madness of King George III, which was simply The Madness of King George when released in the USA since some distributor thought people would think it was a sequel to, say, the Madness of King George I, and II.
Fausta
I'm not making this up, - Monday, September 17, 2001 at 09:40:47 (PDT)
Who'd have thought that Londoners could be so insular?! Fausta, I saw my first 'buffalo' in Buffalo--was statue of same in bronze at the train station when I was 7.
Born in Buffalo, I am ...Georgiana (of course, the 'buffalo' in Buffalo is really a bison, but we won't get into that...) <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Monday, September 17, 2001 at 09:07:56 (PDT)
ROFLMAO re: Moon Over Buffalo!
Buffalo: City in upstate New York State that gets A LOT of snow in winter due to "lake effect".
To the best of my knowledge, no buffalo in Buffalo, though.
Fausta <faustaw@yahoo.comfoo>
- Monday, September 17, 2001 at 08:57:20 (PDT)
Georgiana et al: "Moon Over Buffalo" at the Old Vic during your London trip has been re-named "Over The Moon" because some thought a real buffalo would be used on stage! Who knows what they think "Private Lives" will contain?!
Steve
London, - Monday, September 17, 2001 at 04:49:30 (PDT)
Hello everyone ! Wouaw ! All that love for Snape… isn't there something… Sado-Masochist in it ? ;-) I remember very well how you feel when you enter in a classroom, absolutly scared by your professor (At fourteen, I have had an english teacher who was a real terror !) and how it was delicious, sometimes to guess some humanity behind his frozen smile. OK, Ok… I'm just joking… Let me prefere Jamie for example. (Claire's pictures are absolutly fabulous). And I've seen yesterday for the second time " Quigley " and I think that AR is certainly the only man on earth that I love with a moustach ! I don't know why I find it so sexy on his face ? (" Quigley " isn't a bad movie… I find it very entertaining. And AR is so funny. And so sexy dressed in black and white ! I love his last scene.) Anyway, if nobody here wants my Prince Charming, I'll keep it for myself in a corner of my imagination…
Marialis
France - Monday, September 17, 2001 at 03:23:50 (PDT)
Re: which address is the best to write a letter. As far as I know, the London address is good.
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Monday, September 17, 2001 at 00:04:03 (PDT)
Hello Alan Rickman, My name is Thao Nguyen. I'm a big fan of Harry Potter and all of the Slytherins and Gryffindors including Professor Snape. You look cool in the Vanity Fair magazine. My friend said you looked freakie. You look really mean. Well, the only thing I wanted to say was hi and that I really want to be in the Harry Potter movie as Cho Chang. I think that Cho Chang is Asian and I'm Asian too. Actually I'. Vietnamese but I was born in the U.S. I know your not going to be in the rest of the Harry Potter movies but can you let Christopher Columbus about me. I'm really good actress, I've been in my class play for the Oregon Trail and my teacher said I was the best. Please it was my dream to be in a movie! And since that Harry Potter is going to have auditions for the movie, can you make my dream come true for me. Thanks!! Your fan, Thao Nguyen P.S. Can you e-mail me back as ASAP. Thanks again.
Thao Nguyen <SleepingSnorlax@yahoo.comfoo>
Laguna Hills, Ca U.S.A - Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 20:51:40 (PDT)
like he is ever going to have the time to read it, but i would like to mail mr. rickman a letter. which address of the three mentioned on the faq page is best? anybody know? thanks! ^_^
shellie <princessgrasshopper@yahoo.comfoo>
hattiesburg, ms usa - Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 20:46:26 (PDT)
A&E's The Incurable Collector calls HP memorabilia and toys the Hot Collectibles of the Future.
Julia
Calgary, Canada - Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 16:42:44 (PDT)
Regarding the video release of "Therese Raquin"-the actual release date is Oct. 2 and it will be available on both DVD and VHS. The company putting it out is BFS Entertainment and Media and the UPC codes are-066805301254 for the DVD and 066805201257 for the VHS. This information is from a national database I have available to me at the store where I work. Take care, everyone!
Mindy <mbp2@hotmail.comfoo>
CT U.S.A. - Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 16:30:17 (PDT)
Yes, Andrea, the eyes do appear black in the "Vanity Fair" photo spread. And, Fausta, I thought exactly the same thing looking at Jeremy Irons in those ads!
Georgiana (still reeling from images of "progressive collapse"...) <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 16:19:32 (PDT)
Hmm...just saw that Snape-pic from Suzanne's page, the VanityFair (sp? i'm foreign, anyway...) close-up. Is HE wearing contacts? Snape is supposed to have black eyes, anyway..
Andrea
- Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 15:49:46 (PDT)
Was looking at a magazine with ads for Donna Karan clothes. They used to feature Gary Oldman, now they have Jeremy Irons. I wish the Donna Karan people decided they'd rather feature AR instead!
Fausta <faustaw@yahoo.comfoo>
- Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 15:19:13 (PDT)
Today's NY Times lists a number of good prospects on the London stage this fall for those making a trip to the UK. On the select list is PL:
"There'll be plenty of interest, too, in the revival of Noël Coward's "Private Lives" that Howard Davies is staging at the Albery on Oct. 4, since it brings together Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan for the first time since they shared a triumph in the Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" in 1985."
Magda
Canada - Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 14:39:27 (PDT)
TIS TRUE! TIS TRUE! TEXANS HAVE THE BIGGEST HEARTS!
STAR
nc USA - Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 14:23:14 (PDT)
DEAR SUZANNE! WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE MY GRATITUDE!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! YOU HAVE INDEED MADE THIS ONE, SOLE AMERICAN A LITTLE BIT HAPPIER TODAY! I HAVE SAVED IT IN MY DOCUMENTS FILE IN MY PC. I TRUST THAT IT IS SAFE THERE? ALL MY BEST TO YOU AND YOURS! FORVER GRATEFULL,
Star
NC USA - Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 14:02:26 (PDT)
Cat, this is new news to me! I didn't know Therese Raquin was available on video, so thank you for letting us know. The actors you named *are* in the same production as Rickman. And was, indeed, shown on Masterpiece Theatre in three parts, so it must be the same video. Could you please tell us the name of the catalog you found this in? And the address and/or phone number where the catalog and/or video can be ordered and how much it cost, etc.?
AR's part is rather small (the painter, Vadal), but I'm sure this will be very useful for Rickman fans wishing to see it. So thank you for any information!
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
TX USA - Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 13:15:55 (PDT)
Hi, all. Instead of looking all over, I thought I'd come to the best source of reference information for all things Rickman. I just got a catalogue in the mail and my eye was caught by an "exclusive" item featured: a 3-tape video of Therese Raquin. It's described as "Seen on Masterpiece Theatre in 1981, new to video... Starring Kate Nelligan... Mona Washbourne ... and Brian Cox." Is this the same as the Rickman production? The only info I could find (I think somewhere on this site) was a date of '79 attached to the Rickman version. But with the vagaries of production vs. release dates, I didn't know if they still might be the same and didn't want to miss an opportunity! Does anyone out there know? Thanks!
Cat <crubins@asu.edufoo>
Tempe, AZ USA - Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 11:58:08 (PDT)
No need to beg, Star. We're all here to share. :-)
Vogue
Thanks for the links, Zel-anne. And, wow, another sequel from Rebecca? I can scarcely wait to read it!
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
TX USA - Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 08:20:49 (PDT)
Good morning all! Claire! Suzanne! I know I have been a nuisance about this in the past but now that I have finally improoved my cyber-skills and properly saved my AR pics on my pc.....I am still desperate for the Vogue b/w profile of AR!!! Is there any way that I could beg or grovel enough to have one of you post it here on the guestpage so that I may permanently save it and be at peace!!!?PLEASSSSSSSSEEEE? You can reach me at Godhelp27513@yahoo.com if need be..... Back here in North Carolina, the shock subsides and the mourning begins.....as our Nation struggles back to it's feet.
Star
NC USA - Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 05:50:16 (PDT)
I almost forgot! About Snape's appearance--it could also just be that the producers might have consulted with the author about the appearances of all the characters (e.g., the position of Harry's scar issue).
Zel-anne <zelanne@yahoo.comfoo>
Philippines - Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 00:56:03 (PDT)
Turning Snape into Prince Charming? I dunno--Rowling might be forced to give his students a bad case of shock, they're so used to him being nasty (it's a lot more fun---;p). Anyway, there's an update in photos from the Vanity Fair special at the Harry Potter Galleries, which includes everyone's favorite Potions Master.
Speaking of Snape, I'm a bit surprised when I saw what Mary Grandpre's version of Snape looked like in the third HP book (Scholastic version). The guy's got a beard, but apparently the producers of the movie decided to overlook that (shame---he'd also look good n' nasty with a beard). Anyway, to give you all an idea, I'd recommend this excellent Harry Potter fan art site (with spoilers for those who haven't read the books yet)...I dunno where I can find a site that scanned the said chapter from the 3rd book. Oh, well...
Zel-anne <zelanne@yahoo.comfoo>
Philippines - Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 00:50:53 (PDT)
Apologies if this has been posted already, I haven't had a chance to read all the messages lately. This is from 'The Information' 'Going Out & Staying In' guide in today's Independent newspaper (UK). Plea-aase read it, I had to go through pages of 'The 50 Best Bras You Can Buy' before finding the theatre section. 'Schock Absorber Impact Level 4 High Exertion Sport Bra (B109)' and such. Uh, and I thought it was difficult to choose a pair of trainers ;)...
Ahem, here's the *interesting* bit:
CURTAIN CALLS
Casting directors tend to be a dreadfully shortsighted bunch. They see someone in a certain role and their imaginations shut down. "Lindsay Duncan," they might say, "she's good at being chilly but smouldering underneath." And lo, that's all she gets offered.
If you missed her in Kevin Elyot's Mouth to Mouth, and have only seen her being glacial in the original Traffik (Catherine Zeta-Jones, eat your heart out), or steely in Pinter and Poliakoff, you won't know what a terrific comedienne she is capable of being. A former Chief Ferret and washerwoman in Toad of Toad Hall, she was a pricelessly funny Fifties housewife sitting under the hairdryer in the RSC's mock-Tudor production of The Merry Wives of Winsdor.
Thankfuly she's back with comedy in Private Lives, reunited with the redoubtable Alan Rickman (see above) and director Howard Davies after their threeway 1985 triumph in Les Liaisons Dangereuses. With the superb Emma Fielding and Adam Godley as prim and poper Amanda and Victor, this looks set to be the Coward revival of our dreams. Private Lives, Albery Theatre, London WC2 (020-7369 1740) from Fri
David Benedict
GML
UK - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 14:43:23 (PDT)
Suzanne & Christine-got to admit to being a bit Snapey myself. In fact he's been up as wallpaper for more than a week now (replacing the Vogue pic. that ALWAYS somehow returns!) However this is from a woman who quite fancied Rasputin, which says more about me than cash ever can! See you in detention!!
Sue
england - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 13:39:18 (PDT)
Had to add my two cents on a number of topics: Detention with Snape? Oooooopssssss, sorry Professor, it seems I ruined another potion -- I have to stay after class? *sigh*
I just finished Rebecca's third story, it was so fabulous I could hardly stand it. I also couldn't stop; so thank goodness I had made a craft store run last week and this kept the kids occupied this afternoon.
Also, I've been able to get into FOF but the link to GB hasn't worked for me. I finally came through the front door with the link on the main page.
Cindie
- Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 13:23:23 (PDT)
Hey, now I can't get into FOF!
Magda have you posted recently?
Christine
Montreal, Canada - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 12:49:45 (PDT)
I could have sworn my post of last night, saying cheers to Sue with a glass of red wine and S & S playing loudly in my living room appeared here and then when I looked again it was gone!? (Maybe too much wine?) Did anyone see it? I'll try again......
Thanks Sue for scanning the photo of Snape and Suzanne for posting it. I'm with you on that one Suz - detention in Snape's class brings some very intersting ideas to mind! (We definately have the same taste and imagination!;) Sounds like another story there to be written. Off to the link to read Rebecca's. Are all the back issues of her stories there? I started reading them months ago and then lost track.
Thanks Claire. Your page with the poem and pics of TMD are so perfect at this time and very moving. A few I'd never seen before.
Can't wait for potions class!!!!
Christine <Hope they drive those mail trucks quicklyfoo>
Montreal, Canada - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 12:47:24 (PDT)
Rebecca also now has a third story, "If We Both Survive," posted at schnoogle.com, and I've been reading it--hard to leave and do anything else!
As for the Richard III comparison . . . well, Renie dearest, always glad to contribute a laugh or two when I can! 8-D But seriously, one of the lessons I've taken from Shakespeare's Richard is that looks don't always figure directly into a person's power to attract. The Shakespearean Richard is an ugly brute, but within minutes he wins over Lady Anne through his power to charm with words. And she has every reason to hate him; he's murdered her husband and her father-in-law! But once he makes her his target . . . well, as Charlie Brown once observed, "thus endeth the ball game."
Is the character of Snape attractive? No, not in the conventional sense, either in looks or in personality. But the whole time I've been reading the HP books, I've found him the most interesting character, simply because he's a good man, but not a kind one. Neither villain nor what we would usually call a hero, but so far he's come out firmly on the right side in any crisis that matters. I don't want to say more, because I don't want to spoil the books for anyone who hasn't read them.
Anyway, I think that sort of ambiguity make the role a very good one for Rickman, because of all the subtleties he's capable of bringing to a performance. I can understand the appeal, Suzanne. *wink* I think that, regardless of his physical appearance in the role, I'll be fascinated.
And if I ever saw him perform Richard III, I'd just die.
Mary Anne (and yes, the McKellan performance of Richard is *brilliant*)
"I played Richard the Third . . . five curtain calls", USA - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 12:22:01 (PDT)
Testing.
Several people have reported having difficulty login into the guestbooks and/or posting for the past couple of days. It seems HyperMart was moving my pages to a server that allows for greater bandwidth, so this may have caused the problems. I think everything is working okay now, but if anyone continued to have problems, please write me.
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
Hallettsville, TX USA - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 12:17:33 (PDT)
Right on, Mary Anne and Andrea! "The Potions Master's Apprentice" and her sequel, "Personal Risks," are indeed, fantastic (and I'm really looking forward to reading the third installment). Bravo, Rebecca, wherever you are!
Now, I may be revealing more about myself than I'd like, but I like Severus's severity! :-) For me, it's that combination of danger and excitement (not to mention the hair falling in front of his face in that particular photo), and knowing without a doubt; he's in charge, that makes him so sexy. Detention never sounded so appealing! :-)
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
Snapey? LOL, TX USA - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 09:53:52 (PDT)
Thanks, Magda, for the plug for Sir Ian McKellen's brilliant (and mainstream entertaining) "Richard III" film. Sir Ian is a decent, humane man (and probably our greatest living Shakespearean)(sorry, Alan) who funds many charities including a foundation at my husband's school for gifted, impoverished, immigrant elementary school students to produce unabridged Shakespeare plays themselves, amongst other programs. By the by, my husband and I enjoyed the gory, recent "Titus" film (Shakespeare's own slasher work "Titus Andronicus")on cable the other evening, watching a fictional violence to escape from the real one of late. I wasn't aware of Anthony Hopkins' brilliance at same: he can deliver iambic pentameter so conversationally as to have verse invisible and meaning forefront. And Julie Taymor made a three hour movie move as swiftly as if it were a one-reeler.
FastFilm
L.A., USA - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 09:03:21 (PDT)
Just re-read my last post... "Acte manqué" again : "I'd like " to kiss him of course. I don't have the chance to do it every day !
Marialis
France - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 07:29:47 (PDT)
Thank's Claire for the awesome pictures!I am happy to see us being honest as to our "babe" status in all this. I must admit, even when I am mad at Alan for his choice in roles, etc. I always keep coming back! Why? I am attracted and scared by him all at once.... his voice... that nose...those amazing lips... the way he just looks at a woman and..... Oh dear, must stop! This is a "clean" site! I think I have made my point.
Star
NC USA - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 07:23:23 (PDT)
Sorry for my third "s" : it was just a typing error... if innocent error could exist ! Hello doctor Freud : might be a "failed act". I don't know how to say it in english. In french "acte manqué" : when your subconcious express itself through your act. And I like to kisssssssssssssss him so much !
Marialis
France - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 07:14:25 (PDT)
Hi everybody, hi new posters, hi Marialis, nice to read you again... Only the French can kiss with three 's'! ;) (Uh, what's the plural of 's' by the way?) - Anyway I enjoyed the Snape picture, thanks for that. Mr R has managed yet another facial expression we have not seen yet, and it is spot-on, isn't it? Bitter and sulky, with a touch of smouldering fire. I somehow expect the part to be close-ish to that of the Sheriff of Nottingham though, simply because there are similitudes between the two characters: at times sinister, at times funny. As a matter of fact, I find ol' Severus a rather sexy character, and I swear I did long before the part was cast! As for a princess kiss-sing ;) him into Prince Charming... some think it might well happen in the future. Not literally of course, but some sort of redemption might be brought about by some of the best human feelings directed his way. (Not all human feelings are good, we know.) That would tally rather well with Rowling's way of deciphering 'magic' and myths and transposing them into real life. In the light of recent events, I only wish all the people in the world had the ability to *read*, or listen, and comprehend how their own myths relate to real life...
GML
UK - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 05:39:23 (PDT)
If you like Richard III, you must get the Ian McKellan version from 1994/1995 with Richard as a crypto-fascist leader taking over Britain in the 1930's. It's quite a good film and McKellan occasionally leans into the camera for soliloquys directly to the viewer.
Magda
Canada - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 04:19:08 (PDT)
Who brought up Richard III? I had a "thing" about that film in my youth.LOL
Too ashamed to say
couldbeanywhere - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 02:34:08 (PDT)
Do you think we could send a petition to JK Rowling to ask her to do something for the poor Severus Snape in a future episode of HP. A princess could kiss him and turn him into a charming Prince... Or even teach him how to do his hair and send him on Miami Beach to give him colours... (I'm ready for the cast even if I have to kisss Snape's greasy hair !)
Marialis
France - Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 01:32:25 (PDT)
Ach--MA, leave it to you to make me crack a smile on a day as heavy as this one! Richard III! LOL! Thanks, everyone. And Claire, the perfect photos for a time like this. Thanks to you, too, for all your work.
Renie/The Daily Telegiraffe
- Friday, September 14, 2001 at 21:18:25 (PDT)
Welcome, Andrea!
Re: "The Potion Master's Apprentice"--why, that's our own dear Rebecca, there! 8-) She was once very active "next door" at FOF, and her work is wonderful; anyone who hasn't read her stories should proceed to schnoogle.com and give themselves a treat.
As for the sexiness (or lack thereof) of AR as Snape--well, the first time I saw his getup for this role, I thought that the look was reminiscent of Richard III, in the style of Larry Olivier. And we all know the effect of Richard on Lady Anne . . .
Mary Anne
"Was ever wizard in this humour woo'd?", USA - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 20:18:04 (PDT)
ok, here it comes - my very first post to this site... It's your fault, anyway (whose else? :) ), but I read at least two posts about the "rather-un-sexiness" of Severus Snape. Why not trying some Snapefic? (I am, I admit, a HP addict; this is a HarryPotter-fanfic centering around Snape, in case you were wondering) My personal recommendation: The Potion Master's Apprentice, to be found e.g. on schnoogle.com (I think) *switch* I'd like to add that the horrible events in NY and Washington are felt here too (not only because of these guys who lived in Hamburg) ; people are with you, and I feel deeply sorry for all those who lost loved ones somewhere under these smoking ruins. ~Andrea
Andrea <weitsch@t-online.defoo>
Germany - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 19:22:13 (PDT)
Re: Evening Standard photo. AR (by himself) is super-imposed over the photo of Erin O'Connor and Matthew Williamson. Caption says:
MODEL BEHAVIOR
Alan -- 'the babe magnet' -- Rickman must have been keeping a very low profile at the Westbourne Hotel, otherwise Erin O'Connor would surely have insisted on being photographed with him. It's not as though she has trouble seeing over heads in a crowd.
We have been watching the television intermittantly, but cannot watch all of the time, as it is too overwhelming. It is nice to have a place like this where we can be just a bit silly to vent some of the feelings that we are having. Thanks for all who contribute, whether in levity or seriousness.
a Rickman Admirer
- Friday, September 14, 2001 at 18:51:47 (PDT)
First I would like to say that today at my work we were given ribbons to wear and that we handed out ribbons to the costomers to wear in rememberance of the victims in the U.S. and that we also had a 3 minute of silence. I was so touched to see this happen. I started to tear up during it and I didn't care if anyone saw this. I am a very emotional person and I have been so upset by all of this. Again I send my condollences out to the victims families and if I could I want to put my arms around the whole United States.
We here have been hearing that Canadians have lost there lives in this horrific event as well. and I also send my deepest sympothy to our fellow Canadians.
I have also seen that our Firefighters have gone down to New York to help out. I say BRAVO to all of them who are putting there lives on the line. I have deepest restect for all the firefighters and policemen/women who are helping out in this. I am thinking of all of you and hold you in a special place in my heart.
Thankyou to all of you for hearing me out. but I think we are all feeling the same way.
Now to CLAIRE thanks for the pictures of AR they are fantastic...
lynn
Ottawa, Canada - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 18:26:17 (PDT)
Still on Babe mode, I took it as the highest compliment one time I wore a new dress & my son smiled and said, "Mom, you almost look like a babe". Oh well.
Love those *deep philosophical parts" too, Mary!
ARA, of course there's appreciating his talent, and appreciating his talent . . . and that Snape hair reminds me of a bad perm I got in the mid-1980's. Why didn't they do a JKRowling-described slicked back dark hair & RH,POT facial hair combo instead?
As for the photo, I'm as confused as Georgiana. Is AR standing next to a poster?
Fausta
- Friday, September 14, 2001 at 16:46:16 (PDT)
I'm confused: Were those three folk in the "Evening Standard" photo actually in the same picture or not? Well, clearly two were; was Rickman?
Georgiana (magnetized by a wet firecracker?)
- Friday, September 14, 2001 at 16:26:47 (PDT)
A bit like "buck fizz" heh Claire?
Judy <judy15@bigpond.comfoo>
Sydney, NSw Australia - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 16:12:02 (PDT)
Had to tell everyone that I think the people that post here must be some of the most wonderful people in the world. Also, I just got back from an extended visit to CPP. *Sigh* Well done.
Cindie -- Partial to the love soliloquy myself.
- Friday, September 14, 2001 at 15:58:28 (PDT)
Except for Snapey, who does not look like a fun guy, although certainly it will be a brilliant interpretation and a fun movie...not much for the fantasy life though.....
a Rickman Admirer
- Friday, September 14, 2001 at 15:38:57 (PDT)
Oh right--the fact that he is gorgeous, has all of his hair, has a manly nose, a fantastic voice and a killer personality have absolutely nothing to do with our interest in him? I suppose you watch the "In Demand" video to learn to dance? And that boat scene in "Dark Harbor" to learn to swim? And, pray tell, what are you trying to learn to do when you watch the love scenes in CME and AABA? Appreciating his talent? Which is considerable, but at least I admit to liking the packaging too.........
a Rickman admirer
- Friday, September 14, 2001 at 15:35:22 (PDT)
Here's todays Evening Standard photo (thanks, Sue!).
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
I'll agree with the "babe" theory. :-) TX USA - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 14:27:27 (PDT)
Fausta-I had the self same thought while walking down the fields- if we are "magnetically" attracted(a la Mesmer!) then we must be "babes" also.(Something at 48 I have never previously alluded to!)
Sue <spoutingFridaynightpostwinedrivel.comfoo>
England - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 14:10:14 (PDT)
I meant parts of the movie. Sorry.
Mary
- Friday, September 14, 2001 at 14:05:22 (PDT)
A damp squib is a failure to fulfil promise or live up to high expectation. For example fireworks that don't perform are said to be damp squibs.
Claire
- Friday, September 14, 2001 at 13:52:16 (PDT)
Yeah Fausta - them deep, philosophical parts there - 'specially that post solilillo thing. And Matt Wolf is a waterlogged squib - that's the beginning and the end of HIS hash.
Mary <Last one - promisefoo>
McHenry, - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 13:24:57 (PDT)
The London Evening Standard Magazine shows great taste, and recognizes us fans as "babes", too!
Never too old to be a babe, I say!
Fausta
Just turned 29 (ehem) again, yesterday, - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 13:12:28 (PDT)
Mary, re: Dark Harbor
perhaps that "love" soliloquy?
Or maybe that removal of garments preceding the diving?
Fausta
Can't type but can spell so-lil-o-quy, - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 13:06:39 (PDT)
"Babe Magnet?????" Good God! Well, certainly all of you who claim to so love Dark Harbor so much for purely carnal reasons might fit that "babe" appellation, but the rest of us admired the movie for his - er, - its...uh...wait, I'll think of it...
Mary <Pardon the silliness - it helps to heal.foo>
McHenry, - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 13:00:43 (PDT)
Mary,
I didn't know what "damp squib" meant, that's why I said, that, if going by my examples that was was it was, I'm all for it.
Around here there's Bristol-Myers Squibb, a pahrmaceutical company, which that has 2 "b"s, but I digress.
However, in the interest of better Scrabble scores, I looked it up in the dictionary:
squib: 1. a. a small firecracker. b. a broken firecracker in which the powder burns with a fizz.All of which shows Matt Wolf doesn't know a thing about pyrotechnics, monumental or otherwise.
2. a small electric or pyrotechnic device used to ignite a charge, also a similar device used to fire an igniter in a rocker
3. a. a short, humorous or satiric writing or speech. b. a short news item: esp: filler.
Sue, you mean they DON'T???
My faith is crushed.
Mary
McHenry, - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 12:44:04 (PDT)
New, hopefully tasteful in the circumstances, CPP.
Claire
- Friday, September 14, 2001 at 11:46:19 (PDT)
Mary-isn't that what men say when they buy Playboyetc?.....
Sue
England - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 11:10:08 (PDT)
And anyway, I only bought the Vanity Fair for the articles.........
Mary
McHenry, - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 10:58:31 (PDT)
Okay Fausta, what is (she asks with a nervous shudder) a "damp Squib?"
Mary <Sex Appeal? Really? I never noticed!:)foo>
McHenry, - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 10:31:57 (PDT)
Right folks-There is a great pic of AR in tonights London Evening Standard Magazine. He is described, wait for it, as Alan-'the babe magnet'-Rickman. I have just scanned it to Suzanne and Claire so don't worry I'm sure you'll see it soon......
Sue
England - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 10:11:38 (PDT)
Dark Harbor does have its moments, doesn't it!
Then there's those photos from Tango At The End Of Winter, and the In Demand video, and that voice, any time!
Yup, if that's damp squib, give me more!
Fausta <faustaw@yahoo.comfoo>
- Friday, September 14, 2001 at 08:41:03 (PDT)
The London Times' Matt Wolf remains cautious about "Private Lives." In an article today on 'stage chemistry,' he has this to say:
The forthcoming West End revival of Private Lives hopes to repeat the successful stage partnership of Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman, who appeared to cooly erotic effect 16 years ago in Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Duncan's singular allure and wit should charge up her languorous co-star, whose most recent stage pairing - opposite Helen Mirren in the National's Antony and Cleopatra - was seen by most as a monumentally damp squib.
Georgiana (Oh, it is really insulting, isn't it? He wants to deny credit to Rickman ahead of time--and shift it to Duncan--even if the play is a success!) <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 07:33:37 (PDT)
Thanks so much to the British People for playing and singing the US National Anthem at Buckingham Palace and St. Paul's Cathedral....we needed to see and hear our friends' support.
L. A. Betts <jlabetts@burgoyne.comfoo>
UT USA - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 07:31:55 (PDT)
Anne,MI, "Dark Harbor" is one of my favorites, for obvious reasons.
Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 07:23:45 (PDT)
Anne, thanks for your message on my guestbook, I got it. You couldn't read it because it was marked as "private". As for "Dark Harbor", I actually liked it very much, but I know many Rickmaniacs didn't.
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 05:46:41 (PDT)
Raffaella, I checked out your site, your pics are awesome ! I left a message in your guest book but when I checked on it I could not find the message I hope you get it ok ! Thanks, talk at you later Anne Michigan
Anne
Mi USA - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 05:41:07 (PDT)
Raffaella, Tanxs for the AR movie info, I have already seen these movies though, I have a list of movies starting from Die Hard, my fav, to some more recent ones I thought maybe I had missed out on one ! Have you seen Dark Harbor ? Its different !!! To everyone out there ! What are some of your fav AR movies ??? Anne-Michigan
Anne
Mi USA - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 05:14:49 (PDT)
OFF TOPIC WARNING: To those who own websites. Theatremonkey was "hacked" overnight and inflamatory political statements placed on it. My sever company is taking action, but this problem is widespread. Please check and block your sites if needed. Theatremonkey apologises to anyone who may have read or tried to reach the site, and normal service will be resumed within two days. P.S. Just confirmed all my personal East Coast friends are fine. One escaped because she decided to stop and vote in elections before work in the WTC. Democracy saved her I guess.
Steve <website@theatremonkey.comfoo>
London, England - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 03:54:39 (PDT)
And there was I thinking that we came to this place to discuss Mr.Rickman's great acting abilities,not his sex appeal.
Sue
England - Friday, September 14, 2001 at 02:52:10 (PDT)
About those Snapey pictures--not much of the "sex symbol" is there? More like puritanical Inquisitor-even the Interrogator was sexier than that~although not my kind of guy-Jamie, Ed, Brandon, or Phil would be a bit closer to my type....
a Rickman admirer <of course, some might think he looks sexy like that, I suppose....foo>
- Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 23:43:24 (PDT)
Thanks for the Easter Egg suggestion, Fast Film. And for passing on the info. re the candle vigil, Fausta.
Gail
Toronto, Canada - Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 21:15:31 (PDT)
I've received several requests for a close up of Snape from the Vanity Fair magazine. Here is our Master of Potions. *shiver* And a cool photo of his potions class, too (thank you, Magda!!!).
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
Under his spell..., - Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 21:06:37 (PDT)
Gail, try www.dvdeastereggs.com to unlock the secrets. Everyone else, I've appreciated all here waxing eloquent in response. Sorta apropos of this chat.
FastFilm
L.A., USA - Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 20:26:27 (PDT)
Here is an email that I actually will pass on:
On Friday Night at 7:00 p.m. US Eastern Standard Time, step out of your door, stop your car, or step out of your establishment and light a candle. We will show the world that Americans and people all over the world are strong and united together against terrorism. Please pass this to everyone on your e-mail list. We need to reach everyone across the United States and across the globe quickly.
The message: WE STAND UNITED - WE WILL NOT TOLERATE TERRORISM!
Thank you.
Renie <reniept@hotmail.com foo>
CA, - Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 18:03:46 (PDT)
Returning, with great difficulty, to the main subject of this guest book, and realising that the world has taken a blow it will take a long time to recover from....
On Tuesday our newspaper had an article on Easter eggs on DVDs (these, for those to whom the term is new, are 'secret' snippets of film that are not listed on the contents of the DVD. You have to discover them by clicking around on the DVD until they pop up - and I have to confess I am not an expert.) The article says that Kevin Smith has placed 'a whole bunch' of Easter egss on the the special edition of Dogma. Anybody got one of them and managed to find any interesting AR Easter eggs?
Gail
Toronto, Canada - Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 17:35:50 (PDT)
Anne, among Alan's more recent movies I'd suggest Galaxy Quest and Dogma, they're both very funny. Besides, there are new pictures on my page (and I fixed the postcard feature), plus two beautiful portraits made by a fellow Italian Rickmaniac called Anna. Enjoy!
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 14:59:05 (PDT)
Remember the Edmund Spenser poem he reads in Sense and Sensibility.
" Of things unseen how canst thou deem aright, Then answered the righteous Artegall, Sith thou misdeem'st so much of things in sight? What though the sea with waves continual Do eat the earth, it is no more at all: Nor is the earth the less or loseth ought, For whatsoever from one place doth fall, is with the tide unto another brought: For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought."
Elizabeth
UK - Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 11:07:59 (PDT)
Hey all I just saw Blow Dry for the first time today , and I must say that despite all the bad reviews that I heard about I liked the movie very much I thought it was cute and quite touching. Anyone know of any more recent AR movies I can rent? I think all of you here at this site are great !!!
Anne
Mi USA - Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 09:56:08 (PDT)
This address came across my desk, and I thought I'd pass it on. Not only does it list ways to help, but it lists ways to get help, to get through this horror.
Mary
McHenry, - Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 09:23:04 (PDT)
Everything has been said here yesterday. I have nothing to add but my simpathy, my sadness , all my compassion for all those who have lost someone . And my revolt too ! My angriness ! I feel something so violent. I can't understand that certain people attack innocents ! This vermin, full of hate, eating our world, saying they're in war… but witch war ? Against witch ennemy ? They don't have even the courage to say who they are and why they act this way ! I have to say how much I despise them ! I don't really think that you could be schocked by this, but you surely find me very negative, after all those positive words, full of love and friendship I've read here, in the GB. Sorry, if you judge me so. I can't help it : I'm sad and revolt, and my feelings are mixed up . I'm frighten by the idea of a possible war and I'm demoralized because I see once again that there is so much hate in the world… In my so peacefull village, in my so peacefull country, in my so peacefull life, I recognize that I forget it sometimes ! Marialis.
Marialis
france - Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 07:35:08 (PDT)
Some comforting passages in this time of grief:
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. IT GOES ON. (Robert Frost)
In the darkest hour the soul is replenished and given strength to endure. (Heart Warrior Chosa)
I don't think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that still remains. (Anne Frank)
zel-anne <zelanne@yahoo.comfoo>
Philippines - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 23:00:25 (PDT)
My sincere condolences and prayers to all that are effected by this tragedy. And I give thanks for all who are safe. It's really difficult to express my feeling about this senseless devastation. I think I'm still in shock....
I'd like to thank everyone around the world for all your support. Just reading the posts in this GB and the outpouring of kindness and compassion, it's plain to see; terrorists may have destroyed part of our world, but they have not destroyed our humanity.
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
Hallettsville, TX USA - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 22:40:45 (PDT)
Hello everyone! My name is Traci, and I've just recently become a fan of Alan's within the past 9 months. In light of everything that's happened recently, I'd like to take this opportunity to pass along well wishes to my fellow Rickman fans in NY and the Washington D.C./Virginia area. Words cannot express how saddened I am by this tragic event. Needless to say, I hope the perpetrators are caught soon and that justice prevails. My thoughts are with you. I'd also like to take this moment and say Hello to everyone in the UK. I hope things are well for everyone over there also. Everyone take care! Traci
Traci <cubsfan65@aol.comfoo>
Tulsa, OK USA - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 21:54:17 (PDT)
Hi--some of you will remember Andrea, who used to post a good bit "next door" at FOF. I have received an e-mail from her confirming that she is safe.
Mary Anne
- Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 21:13:26 (PDT)
well, it's gotten to the point where I'm finding out that "friends of friends" have lost their lives. So far, all of my family and friends are safe. That says alot since I have 3 immediate family members who work for the government-one in DC-1 mile from the Pentagon, one in NYC/Manhattan area and one who travels to DC very often. It has been a numbing day--hardly anyone in the stores and almost no kids playing in the streets. People are having a hard time smiling. We must stay resilient. Try hard to find your smiles again. We must not be broken by these selfish, cowards.********ooops, somewhat of a soapbox, but I think our GB friends will be understanding considering the circumstances.....
S ;-)
usa - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 21:02:42 (PDT)
it's just a comfort to hear from all the countries around the world. my prayers to those who had friends and family in the disaster. while i had cousins in NY, they are all alright, and i can't begin to image what you in Washington D.C. and NY are feeling right now. love from the midwest -Endril Lei
Endril Lei <BloomieKay@hotmail.comfoo>
Mo United States of America - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 19:34:08 (PDT)
Mary, from McHenry, what you wrote really helped a lot,especially when we live so far away. Thankyou so much for your thoughts. Linda from Los Angeles, your Sonnet was perfect. It helped one Australian come to terms with seeing your pain and the wonder of the human spirit as I saw in NY and Washington DC, yesterday. We will help each other like we do here on the GB. The U.S.A is not alone and our prayers are with you all. I'm finding this so difficult to write. Take care, all of you over there.
Barbara the Australian <hermione(underscore )3@hotmail.comfoo>
Gold Coast, Qld Australia - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 19:32:08 (PDT)
I too want to send prayers out to the U.S. You are our neighbours and we here in Canada feel the loss too. My heart goes out to all the families in New York. I found it difficult to go to work after seeing what had happened.
I cried yesterday and still feel like crying. I can't believe what has happened,I am in total shock, and I will remember this forever. I send a big hug to all of you in the U.S.A.especially you in New York
Sorry if I sound like I am not making a lot of sense. I just find it difficult to get my feelings out. but I think you will all know what I am trying to say...
lynn
Ottawa, Canada - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 18:16:00 (PDT)
Sorry. Hope it's not inappropriate - if it is, ignore this in here and write me flaming emails. GML's entry made me think that perhaps this notice from the New York Red Cross would not be unwelcome.
"The unthinkable has happened. Two planes have crashed into the World Trade Center. Another has crashed into Pentagon. The Red Cross is on the scene, providing emergency services to those affected by this disaster. Make sure that the Red Cross is always there to respond at a moment's notice. Make a contribution today to help victims of this and other disasters."
The Greater New York Red Cross Online Donation Page
Mary <mkeith@mccdistrict.orgfoo>
McHenry, - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 15:18:42 (PDT)
I just read this sonnet, and couldn't believe how poignantly appropriate it is for our horrendous tragedy. I've e-mailed it around to some friends who also found it enormously comforting. One had not yet even been able to cry until she read it, and then was finally able to let the tears come. Such is the power of poetry even in the midst of horror. It seems important to remember that right now as we all cling to whatever we can.
I hope it may bring comfort to you too.
Love
Linda P.
-------------------------------------------
I saw her like a shadow on the sky
In the last light, a blur upon the sea,
Then the gale's darkness put the shadow by,
But from one grave that island talked to me;
And, in the midnight, in the breaking storm,
I saw its blackness and a blinking light,
And thought, "So death obscures your gentle form,
So memory strives to make the darkness bright;
And, in that heap of rocks, your body lies,
Part of the island till the planet ends,
My gentle comrade, beautiful and wise,
Part of this crag this bitter surge offends,
While I, who pass, a little obscure thing,
War with this force, and breathe, and am its king."
John Masefield (1878-1967)
Linda P.
crying in Los Angeles, - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 15:10:56 (PDT)
I hope it isn't inappropriate to say something positive in these sickening circumstances, but it is good to see that (nearly) all nations across the world, including many tradionally opposed to western ideologies, have united in voicing their feelings against this mass murdering of innocents. If only this could mark the beginning of some truly international cooperation against the minority of extremists of all nationalities and religions that shame us all - and the beginning of a real effort at addressing the background causes of extremism (poverty, greed, obscurantism, you name it)... well, we can only hope. Sincere thoughts to you people in the States - it feels bad enough from here, but I know exactly how I would feel if London or Paris had been hit. We all want to help the injured and bereaved, and I guess the best way to do so for many of us who live miles away and have no connections in the States is to renew our support to international organisations committed to peace, justice and the relief of poverty.
Uh ah, that rather sounded like a lecture, sorry, wasn't meant to be one at all. Just saying sorry.
GML
UK - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 14:12:42 (PDT)
To all our fellow Rickmaniacs, from everywhere, we thank you for your thoughts, prayers and kind words.
It has been two of the most horrifying days of my life,living just 8 miles south of the Pentagon, hearing a huge explosion, thinking it nothing more than another military base, about 6 miles south of here practicing dive bombing runs, then to turn on the noon news, and see the awful devastation, in New York city and at the Pentagon. I have many friends who work at the Pentagon, and have spent yesterday and today trying to make sure they are all right.
What's so frightening is, I still haven't been able to find out about everyone yet. So, I may have lost some friends, but I continue to hope they are just not reachable, but safe.
There is a terrible temptation to seek revenge and wreak havoc on those who did this. Please pray we do not sink into that terrible trap from which we all lose, as citizens of this small planet.
To all our fellow Rickman fans, from near and far, thank you for your caring thoughts and prayers and good wishes.
Anne <ahard73977@aol.comfoo>
Alexandria, VA USA - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 13:35:29 (PDT)
My deepest sympathy to all who lost loved ones at the World Trade Center/Pentagon explosions.
There were over 400 companies from countries from all over the world with offices at the WTC, with over 40,000 employees. This is a great tragedy to all countries.
Fausta <faustaw@yahoo.comfoo>
- Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 13:27:42 (PDT)
Julia thanks for reminding us of the innocents that were lost in the Pentagon. I understand that there were many diverse groups of people in the WTC,so this is truly an attack on the world, not just the US. We in the US have not had to experience a reality that other parts of the world face-when I went to the UK the first time, I asked "where are the rubbish bins?" This is truly a worldwide problem and I am glad that as a larger community of the earth, we are going to deal with this...Out of this great evil, the goodness of the world will rally.....
a Rickman Admirer
- Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 12:37:07 (PDT)
I wasn't sure if I would get to post a message here today as amougst the British reaction to these terrible events, the National Youth Parlaiment has been called. I am a member, and tonight I must make a speech to other members of my age, about what has happened. I have no idea how we will all manage it, except to say this, from both the British National Youth Parlaiment and the Scottish Youth Parlaiment, I send out our deepest sympathy and regrets to those people affected by this tragedy. The events that took place yesterday clearly show the cowardly selfishness of human nature. On a more topical and more personal note I hope that all Rickmanics and their families are safe. I think that those who are concern as to AR's where abouts can be confident that AR was in London, rehearsing. A friend said to me shortly before I left school, "this is just like every Hollywood terrorist movie rolled into one and gone wrong, but remember, the world is not going to end, not in our lifetime."
Elizabeth
UK - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 10:59:15 (PDT)
Mary- For someone who "rarely has anything intelligent to say" I think you summed up exactly how many of us feel. Thank you.
Sue
England (and anyway if your posts can make me laugh,you've succeeded!) - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 10:35:59 (PDT)
I appreciate the comments of support on this GB. I live near Washington DC. The Pentagon, being away from buildings, didn't affect DC the way NY was affected, fortunately. They are saying that several hundred people at the Pentagon are still unaccounted for. It has been creepy to hear planes overhead and know that they must military aircraft. Just a note and request. If you can donate blood, please do so, particularly if you live on the East Coast. Local supplies of blood were shipped off to NY and DC to deal with the tragedies leaving the local populace vulnerable if they need blood. If you're feeling helpless, it is something that most of us can do. Thanks.
Julia
- Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 10:16:47 (PDT)
Just checking in with the GB "family". When it all seems senseless, and worlds come crashing down, the knowledge and the feeling of connection, of shared loss and understanding, braces us, and gives us the heart and the hope to face tomorrow knowing we are never alone.
Renie
CA, - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 10:01:48 (PDT)
Don't worry Anna, I believe our Alan is in London preparing for the opening of "Private Lives". No doubt he is as appaled as we are.
STAR
NC USA - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 09:05:16 (PDT)
I am with you Mary, this is the kindest group.... I am very moved and impressed by the sympathy outpouring to us.These are trying times indeed and it is hard to keep a brave and smiling face for my children. Yesterday, when we could not escape the terrible images on TV, we ran to see a matinee of" Shrek"....nice escape! But when I came home I was almost afraid to turn on the news for fear we might have taken another hit. Thank God, all was as we left it at noon.I feel so close to our allies now,the international response has been encouraging. Now, let's do something!
STAR
NC USA - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 08:59:59 (PDT)
Have finally managed to get onto the Internet after the terrible events of yesterday. It is so hard to comprehend the enormity of what happened. My sympathies are with all who have lost someone - no words can make it better. My husband has spent most of his day today in the City trying to find out if a friend of ours who worked in the World Trade Centre is OK but no news yet. So many different nationalities are involved in this tragedy.
Jill
Kent UK - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 08:59:04 (PDT)
Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so, For those whom thou thinkst thou dost overthrow Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow And soonest our best men with thee do go Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die. -- John Donne
Sofia
- Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 08:53:05 (PDT)
Oh my god....I hope Alan wasn`t in NewYork!Doesn`t he live in London?
anna
- Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 08:46:06 (PDT)
That day no-one will never forget....how something like that can happen?Terrible! I hope that all AR-fans are safe. I live far away from USA,but my toughts will be whit you... Im sorry that this happened...thousands of people died for nothing!I hope you all are ok,and safe,whit your loveones.
anna
- Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 08:41:40 (PDT)
I live in a rural area where T.V. reception can be problematical at best, and in the midst of our largest nature preserves is an old house currently undergoing painstaking restoration by a group of dedicated volunteers. I felt drawn there yesterday (an absolutely beautiful autumn evening) and found most of the other volunteers drawn there too, gathered in the yard around a tiny black-and-white T.V. with an antenna, plugged in to an extension cord leading back into the house. We sat, transfixed, by the tiny, grainy pictures of sorrow and shame.
I rarely have anything intelligent to add to this guestbook, but I visit again and again because, apart from a genuine admiration of Alan Rickman, I am awed and fascinated by the community that exists here between people of such diverse lives, diverse interests, living sometimes thousands of miles away from each other. A community whose members will most probably never see another member's face. A true community, with people who sometimes irritate each other, who sometimes snip at each other, but one that remains inclusive nonetheless.
For allowing me to flit about the edges of this community, I thank you. Your kindness, your thoughts and prayers, and the warmth of your spirit reaches those most in need, whether they ever read this guestbook or not.
My last post on this, I promise.
Mary <mkeith@mccdistrict.orgfoo>
McHenry, - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 08:04:45 (PDT)
I live in asmall town in Michigan and I must say it is hard for anyone to feel completely safe anywhere anymore. I fear an outbreak in one of our schools or someone just going over the edge. These times we are facing now are just unbeleivable to young and old alike. Sometimes I wonder if everyone has gone mad , but I know thats not the case. I take one day at a time and hope for the best !
anne
mi usa - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 06:39:24 (PDT)
Having watched TV coverage yesterday, its impossible to express the right words to describe these awful events. Everyone here in the UK is stunned and shocked. All our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone effected by this terrible tragedy.
Dianne <diane.stott@gsb.co.ukfoo>
London, UK - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 05:58:46 (PDT)
My God.... I have been watching the TV all day and it is difficult to find the words which will convey my feelings... Our Prime Minister is in Washington and cannot get out, and Bill Clinton has just flown out of Cairns 2 hours ago, here in Qld. I hope everyone is O.K. and safe. It really tears me apart to see beautiful NY like this. To all our regular GB'ers from the U.S. you are in my thoughts and prayers at the moment. The U.S. is strong and will get through this. I hope AR is not over there at the moment. How did this happen? Now we will have to sit back and see what happens in the next few days....
Barbara the Australian
Gold Coast, Qld Australia - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 05:00:41 (PDT)
Finland is also praying for the victims of this horrible catastrophe in USA. I was walking with my friend to their house, and he heard it from the phone, and when we got to the house we watched with disbelief the collapse of the towers. It looked so unreal. We are mortified. My condolences to all who have lost someone. Love and light, Heli
Heli L. <akasha@iki.fifoo>
Helsinki, Finland - Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 01:08:32 (PDT)
Are all of the Rickmaniacs in New York safe then?
a Rickman admirer
- Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 20:53:00 (PDT)
I have been in and out of the GB a dozen times today, and each time have failed to find the words to convey my shock and horror at what has happened to a neighbouring country which I love to visit (we have just returned from a week's vacation in New England)and in which I have so many good friends. All I can say is that I wish I could wake up tomorrow morning and find all today's events a ghastly nightmare, and I know that I won't. I wish it were so.
Gail <gail.rayment@sympatico.cafoo>
Toronto, Canada - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 20:51:24 (PDT)
Yes, Claire we are fine. My husband usually works downtown, but had a breakfast meeting uptown today. He was the one that left me a voice mail and told me what was going on. I work on Fifth Avenue & E 53rd Street now. When I went outside in the afternoon and looked down south on Fifth Avenue, all you could see was a cloud of smoke. The unusual thing was, there was virtually no panic uptown. Everyone was horrified, everyone was worried they would lose someone (and some have been informed already, I am told), but there was no real out and out panic. More like everyone pulled together to help each other out. Thanks, Claire remembering me and putting up the post (Deb told me it was here). Sincerely, Marianne
MAP Marianne <map1011@aol.comfoo>
- Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 20:03:10 (PDT)
I have spent most of the day in a daze..Unbelievable! How could something like this happen? I thank all of you, especially our European friends for all your prayers and kind words for my country and it's people.My heart goes out to my fellow New Yorkers! Our skyline will never be the same!Something must be done!!!
STAR
NC USA - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 19:32:26 (PDT)
Here at home, we were shocked to see both towers of the World Trade Center collapse and having people running for cover on the ground. My mom was hysterical while watching the news because she knows my eldest sister and her husband were planning on visiting the Trade Center this week and she doesn't remember WHAT TIME OR DAY in the week. We were so relieved when my Dad called them and found they're ok and that their flight was cancelled. We're still wondering about our other relatives who may be in New York and are praying for all who lost their lives there and in the third crash site.
zel-anne <zelanne@yahoo.comfoo>
Philippines - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 19:18:46 (PDT)
this all is beyond my comprehension..oceans of tears, oceans of blood...It hurts to see the newsreels of people celebrating such a travesty... My soul cries out to the God of us all to comfort those who are bereft and suffering.It must have been horrendously expensive and sophistocated to have excaped all notice, but we will find out who is responsible..,thanks for all of the prayers and support from our friends "over yonder". Please take care also. When madness and irrationality are involved, none of us are safe.
a Rickman admirer
- Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 16:31:09 (PDT)
I want to say that all my thoughts are with everyone in the US. I'm still shocked by this tragedy and I can't tell you how sorry I am that it happened. It just shouldn't have. I hope that you are all OK, and so are your families.
Ewa <bricken@wp.plfoo>
Warsaw, Poland - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 14:12:31 (PDT)
My brother is safe, thank God. Too many will not be able to say the same thing. Thanks to all.
Mary
McHenry, - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 13:42:03 (PDT)
thank you to our friends across the world for the warm thoughts and prayers. it is a horrible, horrible day. I'm still trying to confirm the safety of friends and family in DC and NYC. so far so good, though.
S ;-(
usa - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 12:16:35 (PDT)
Thanks so much Sue!
Christine
Montreal, Canada - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 12:13:51 (PDT)
Christine- so glad you are safe. I was just about to call you and check.
Sue
England - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 10:45:20 (PDT)
My thoughts and prayers go out to our American neighbours. My heart is sick about what has happened there and I'm sitting here at work unable to concentrate on anything. We're all congregated in the Board Room watching CNN.
My trip to New York, which should have been yesterday, was delayed for a few weeks! I thank my guardian angel! Thank you Magda for thinking of me!
Christine
Montreal, Canada - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 10:41:31 (PDT)
OT-Having watched with horror all afternoon as events unfolded, my thoughts are with you all in the US and I pray that all our friends are safe.
Sue
England - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 10:40:45 (PDT)
TheatreNow has a nice feature on the 'autumn feast' being offered on the London stage this year, which nicely mentions Mr. Rickman as a returning favourite, and lists "Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan trying to recapture some of the sexual chemistry from Les Liaisons Dangereuses in Howard Davies's revival of Privates Lives" as one of the "three big theatre events in October."
Georgiana (my daughter who lives in Brooklyn and works in Manhattan had the day off today and is alive and well on Flatbush Avenue...)
Seattle - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 10:09:41 (PDT)
Thanks, Claire. Was wondering.
Lin
Canada - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 10:08:18 (PDT)
Those of you who know MAP who used to post here a while back and worked in the World Trade Centre will be please to know have had word via Dianne she was mid town when the planes hit, and is fine.
Claire
- Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 09:57:31 (PDT)
East Coast Rickman people, are you and your families okay?
FastFilm
L.A., USA - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 09:15:02 (PDT)
To all my American friends who make this board. My thoughts are with your nation at this time and I pray for your country and its people. God bless America and bring strength to those in need.
Steve <website@theatremonkey.comfoo>
London, England - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 08:58:47 (PDT)
Christine from Montreal who goes to New York often: please check in here.
Magda
Canada - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 08:40:33 (PDT)
God help us all - keep everyone in your thoughts and/or prayers. This may be considered an act of war...a time I hoped never to see in my lifetime.
Mary
McHenry, - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 08:03:34 (PDT)
OFF TOPIC: USA - Bad News. Check your TV's NOW. Planes smashing into World Trade Centre towers and explosion in DC.
Claire
- Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 06:47:40 (PDT)
Carol--I looked through a copy of the Entertainment Weekly and didn't see any pictures of AR, but I was in a hurry when I looked at it. I'll have to go back and look more closely. Meanwhile, I can hardly wait for the October Vanity Fair.
Best wishes to all our voyagers to the UK--looking forward to complete reports on Private Lives. And if this is the first-ever trip to London for any of you, you have a double treat in store! 8-)
Mary Anne
- Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 04:57:17 (PDT)
Hi! I've just moved all my files to another server, so my site has changed its URL address. That's because Yahoo GeoCities behaved like a greedy fool: they say I'm using more than the allotted amount of data transfer they provide for a free web site. That's 3GB a month. But I've done my math and sure *I'm not* using 3GB. Hence, goodbye Yahoo! Welcome Digilander. Here you are the new URL.
Raffaella <rossEross@tin.itfoo>
Italy - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 04:43:52 (PDT)
I just noticed that besides VF, the Sept. 14th issue of Entertainment Weekly also has Harry Potter as its cover story. Has anyone seen this mag? If so, are there any pictures of AR? Living in Japan, it'll a month or two for those magazines to reach the specialty bookstores here. I'll have to enjoy them vicariously (can you tell that I like that word?!) until then.
Carol <cebbyq@hotmail.comfoo>
Okazaki, Japan - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 04:06:18 (PDT)
Bit of a spooky coincidence but in the VF Potter issue, the advertisement featured on the page immediately preceeding the Potter item has none other than Ronan Vibert trying to look sultry and sell us a volvo or is it a vw?
Anon
London, - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 01:36:40 (PDT)
Georgiana: As there are only six days left before the curtain goes up on the first performance, well five days if you don't count the 16th,when it premieres, I am sure everyone is "off book", the play is fully blocked and everyone is sure of their roles.
Of course, this does not mean they are NOT wondering how they got themselves into this play in the first place.
I believe firmly, there is a period just before and during last dress rehearsals, where every actor wonders why he/she is there,and what on earth possessed them to attempt the darn thing in the first place, etc.
Still,it will undoubtedly be brilliant. With AR and Lindsay Duncan, a Noel Coward play, complete with every device Coward used to make his plays enjoyable, how on earth could it not be good? (please, that was a rhetorical question.)
I can just see the words and records fly! It should be a hoot!
I am looking forward to AR at the piano playing and singing love songs.
See you on the 28th, along with every AR fan who can attend. Take care and get rid of that cold.
Anne <ahard73977@aol.comfoo>
Alexandria, VA USA - Monday, September 10, 2001 at 20:13:30 (PDT)
So do you suppose they've gotten the basics down in rehearsals, finished blocking the play, learned all the lines, and now are polishing up the fine points? Or frantically wondering how it will ever come together in time and why is it they thought to do this in the first place?
Georgiana (just stood my ground--definitely the 'bumpee'!)
Seattle - Monday, September 10, 2001 at 18:37:01 (PDT)
Dear Friends, So happy to see that nasty post "outta here"!Let's hope that never happens to us again!!! I have a question: As beloved as our Alan is in the UK, what is the story on a Knighthood? Any rumblings from the Palace? Just wondering....Be nice to have our hero knighted!" Sir Alan Rickman": has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Oh! how I wish I could afford to fly to London and see Private Lives.... but alas with 4 children+ 1 dear husband+ 1 dog and 2 cats= IMPOSSIBLE!I can just imagine it though.... the curtain goes up, lights on, Alan makes his entrance,open's his mouth and out comes THE VOICE... the audience breaks into applause! The cast patiently waits for the outburst to subside before they can continue! Unfortunately, none will utter;" Jesus has just entered..."Opening night will be magic and as I suppose the curtain will rise at 8pm (3pm here )I will send out a little prayer for him as I sit and wait in the carpool line at school. Sorry about the babbleing! Wish you all well and by the way: I welcome the new fan site, very nicely done! What do you all think?
STAR
NC USA - Monday, September 10, 2001 at 17:32:03 (PDT)
Georgiana-Were you bumper or bumpee?!?
Sue
whose never managed to bump into anybody really interesting, England - Monday, September 10, 2001 at 15:06:43 (PDT)
I also accessed the Icelandic site before the warning was announced-is that legal? I should think that anyone, including small children could access that-there oughta be a law if there isn't one. As for the Odeon in Leicester Square, that is the one where the Batman premiered with Schwarzenegger and Clooney-boy was it crowded! I hung around for a bit, until I found out what was going on-I had hoped maybe it was something really good, like something starring Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, David Suchet, Juliet Stevenson, Judi Dench-what a disappointment! The Odeon was also where Princess Diana took "the boys" to see an IRA movie that had Brad Pitt in it--did that cause a stir! All she noticed was that it was something with Brad Pitt in it. I think the Odeon is the official premiere theatre in London.
a Rickman admirer
- Monday, September 10, 2001 at 14:04:45 (PDT)
I would have thought, with its entirely British cast, that they'd have made it a Royal Premiere for "Harry Potter." It seems to me that's where we saw the Royal Premiere of "The Grinch" letting out last year.
Georgiana (where Richard E Grant bumped into me...)
Seattle - Monday, September 10, 2001 at 12:51:17 (PDT)
Re the HP premiere on November 4. The actual theatre was announced today:
"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone will premiere at London's Odeon Theatre in Leicester Square on Nov. 4, Britain's Independent Television News (ITN) reported today."
Magda
Canada - Monday, September 10, 2001 at 12:18:29 (PDT)
Aha, Mahler! I had this sneaky suspicion about that, don't know why. I also have this fancy that he is an Elgar and Beethoven fan. Now I do hope that it was Mahler's 5th Symphony he brought. The man who did the score for CME made it sound very like the Adiagetto from that peice. I hope he isn't a Wagner man!!!
Elizabeth <elizabethr33@hotmail.comfoo>
UK - Monday, September 10, 2001 at 11:29:00 (PDT)
I've booked "Moon over Buffalo" for Nov 7 if anyone wishes to join me.
Georgiana (Mahler? Now *that* really narrows things down...) <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Monday, September 10, 2001 at 11:22:00 (PDT)
Re: AR musical tastes. The following was posted by a woman named "Caroline" on the uk.religion.pagan newsgroup on February 1, 2001: "The first week I worked for HMV on Oxford Street, [AR] came into my department and spent about half an hour browsing ....If you thought his voice was fantastic on film, it's about a semi-tone lower in real life, and an even darker chocolate sound. Every woman in the place made a beeline for the pile of Rachmaninov stock waiting to go out, as he was browsing in Mahler, which is the next aisle over and we could gawp without being noticed!"
R. Faey
USA - Monday, September 10, 2001 at 09:54:34 (PDT)
Just as a slight aside. Has anyone noticed that AR look-alike Ronan Vibert is starring an a play at the Savoy Theatre and that Frank Langella is also starring in a play in London, both at the same time as AR is doing 'Private Lives'. Just thought one or two of you may be interested!
John & Sue <jrnavigator@yahoo.co.ukfoo>
Derby, UK - Monday, September 10, 2001 at 05:26:30 (PDT)
Hello everyone! I'm new to this place but I'd like to announce that I've created my own Alan Rickman site; Truly, Madly, Deeply Alan Rickman (the title's a bit off, but it was the best I could come up with at the time). I'm really just starting so I hope you'll forgive that it's not that much there yet. Oh, and another thing - the pictures in the gallery are just images that have been on my hard drive forever, so if I've stolen someones image PLEASE let me know and I'll either remove it or give just credit. Thanks for your time :)
Linca <jennifermelfi9@yahoo.comfoo>
Norway - Monday, September 10, 2001 at 03:18:37 (PDT)
Fausta! Oh you are wonderful to put up THAT poster from PL!!! It looks really Good! Also the photo's from TATEOW!You do a really great job and to the others who also contributed. Sally, will keep an eye out for the HP special. Thanks for the tip! Bye.
Barbara the Australian
Gold Coast, Australia - Sunday, September 09, 2001 at 18:51:27 (PDT)
Hello everyone!Thanks for the warning Star! Will give it a miss. To all AR Australian fans the Pay TV has 2 AR movies showing this month on the Movie Network Channel! Dogma is showing this month Sept.21 & 22 (Movie One), Sept. 11 & 12,(Movie Extra). Now, at last Galaxy Quest!!! Sept 23&24 (Movie One), Sept. 29&30 (Movie Extra)! Plenty to watch and a some good laughs all round. It was interesting to read in my latest Hello (No. 678) with a great shot of Kate Winslet on the cover (S&S), the 8 page special on Ruby Wax! What a great lady she is - the photo's are really good. She has such a happy face. AR is a great friend to this lady and is her youngest, Godfather. I don't know whether this is old news or not, but apparently she took her Godfather for show and Tell!! Imagine that! It is a really amusing piece but unfortunatly no photo's of AR just Ruby and her family. Worth a look! Take care everyone. Barbara. P.S. hope this moron From Iceland, doesn't get on the GB again.
Barbara the Australian <hermione(underscore )3@hotmail.comfoo>
Gold Coast, Qld Australia - Sunday, September 09, 2001 at 18:37:44 (PDT)
Yikes! Sorry I wasn't able to delete that sooner!!! I just returned home after being gone most of the day. That wasn't the first time porn has been posted here (and probably won't be the last), but I usually catch it a lot quicker.
Suzanne (D.o.C.)
We deffinitly don't need stuff like the one from Icland. I too went to it how discusting.
NODODY GO TO IT!
Hope nothing like that comes through to this Guestbook again.
lynn
Ottawa, Canada - Sunday, September 09, 2001 at 16:08:30 (PDT)
Oh God, these things come to try us! I am sure Suzanne will sort it.
Elizabeth
- Sunday, September 09, 2001 at 14:31:00 (PDT)
Dear friends!!! WARNING !!!DO NOT OPEN THE PAGE FROM ICELAND! PORN AT IT'S WORST!!!! is there any way to delete this freak from our forum? How can we protect our GB from such predators!!!
Star
usa - Sunday, September 09, 2001 at 14:03:03 (PDT)
Post deleted.
Please visit my new Tango At The End Of Winter page, while we wait for PL to open, too.
Fausta <faustaw@yahoo.comfoo>
- Sunday, September 09, 2001 at 13:28:13 (PDT)
Thanks for looking, Elizabeth. The BBC production has much grappling on the floor ...
Georgiana (obsessed? Moi? LOL! My, but this play could be such fun! I can hardly wait for the first reviews... Who is going to the previews???) <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Sunday, September 09, 2001 at 10:34:12 (PDT)
Georgiana-I see you are just getting a wee bit obsessive about smooching!!....
Sue
England - Sunday, September 09, 2001 at 10:12:35 (PDT)
great site!I was just surfing and saw this site and it looks really cool. If you want to trade links let me know ok!
michael parsons <webmaster@payperclick-payperclick.comfoo>
scottsdale, AZ United States - Sunday, September 09, 2001 at 09:23:29 (PDT)
hi to you all , hope you have had a good weekend. I'm sitting here waiting to get ready for work and I thought I would stop by here.
I have a question and thught maybe someone out there might help solve it. I was just going through CPP and came across the arckives interviews and was thinking as I was reading up on the IN DEMAND interviews, wondering besides Texas being one of Alan Rickmans favorite music/band, what other music does he like. It may seem silly to ask but I thought i'd give it a shot. Does he like the music that is out there today or does he enjoy the older music.
Also does anyone know if there is a soundtrack to the movie BLOW DRY i hope there is I really enjoyed the music in that movie.
lynn
Ottawa, Canada - Sunday, September 09, 2001 at 08:52:58 (PDT)
I have given up trying to find out who Alex Belcourt is. As the character is female, I think we can just assume that they are female. AR has definatley make sure he has lots of friends surrounding him on this production. Do you remember the philisophical costume designer from TWG, well she is the same one as the PL one. I have to say the bit about the fight co-ordinator is the funniest thing I have read all week. That must be the bit where Amanda goes round smashing records over Elyot's head etc....... I just named my kitten Elyot, I wonder why. That said the choice was Sinclair or Elyot, and he is definatley an Elyot!
Elizabeth
UK - Sunday, September 09, 2001 at 08:38:10 (PDT)
...and, while we're on the subject, the poster also says, "with Alex Belcourt." I thought the fifth (small) role was the French maid. Does anyone know the sex of Belcourt?
Georgiana (I see no smooching coordinator... guess they can do that part on their own...)
Seattle - Sunday, September 09, 2001 at 07:38:40 (PDT)
I note from the PL poster (thanks, Fausta) that there is a fight arranger for the show. Might be interesting.
Gail <gail.rayment@sympatico.cafoo>
Toronto, Canada - Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 20:52:26 (PDT)
Regarding Mr Rickman`s appearance at the Royal Festival Hall on November 19th for the "Voices Of Exile" charity gala. I`ve booked my ticket and am planning on meeting up with Georgiana at the hall before the show. Is anyone else going to be attending, so we might all have a chat? It would be great to meet more Rickmaniacs!
Amanda <zaramuttle@btinternet.comfoo>
London, - Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 19:01:29 (PDT)
Hmm, Fausta. A "strictly limited season." I wonder what commitments follow?
Georgiana
Seattle - Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 17:55:23 (PDT)
Please also visit the Private Lives page. You are going to love that poster!
Fausta
- Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 15:30:25 (PDT)
I'm back from the beach, and would like to invite you all to visit the Sublime Rickman issue of the Monthly Rickmanista. Please send me your suggestions regarding the Rickman moments you've found to be sublime
Fausta <faustaw@yahoo.comfoo>
- Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 14:38:39 (PDT)
Well, perhaps our fearless D o C will fix that defective link.
Georgiana (I should stop fooling around and trot my nasty cold off to bed...)
Seattle - Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 13:33:13 (PDT)
I, too, enjoyed "Noises Off" at the National. "a href="http://www.theatreguidelondon.co.uk/reviews/noisesoff.htm">This review details changes made with the move of this 1982 play (perhaps best known to American audiences for the Carol Burnett/Christopher Reeve film) to the West End.
I am always amazed that its author, Michael Frayn, also penned the recent popular "Copenhagen," and was responsible for one of my favorite Rickman outings, "Benefactors."
Georgiana (Can you imagine? First preview a week from Friday??!) <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 13:31:34 (PDT)
I have just been informed that Bob Roberts is going to be on Film Four at 8 pm on Wednesday, if anyone is interested.
Also look out for news paper reviews for PL from 22nd Sept onwards, thats only two weeks away would you believe! I am going to buy an Observer to make sure "that" man Ratcliffe isn't around!!!! And a whole load more. I will take them into work and spend my lunch break looking for "nice" comments.
Elizabeth
UK - Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 13:19:17 (PDT)
hello everyone, I finally got my copy of Vanity Fair today and it is a great issue. Alan Rickman looks great as Snape.
Now I really can't wait to see the HP movie. I am now reading the books and think they are great well at least the first one so far. I have to finish that one then I am going to get the others to read.
I just bought my copy of Dogma and watched it last night and now that I have seen it for a second time I have to admit I like it now. I didn't really like it the first time around but now i do.
I just can't wait for Blow Dry to go on sale (video) form I really really want that one I loved it.
lynn
Ottawa, Canada - Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 12:42:12 (PDT)
CNN has just reported that the official HP premiere will be in London on November 4th. Boy, what I would give to be there......
Julia
Calgary, Canada - Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 12:23:58 (PDT)
Off topic, but I'd like to second Potterchris (Chris Potter, by any chance?)'s recommendations on other plays to see in London. Georgiana and I saw 'Noises Off' last fall in London, and I think it is one of the funniest farces I have ever seen, with the most amazing pratfalls in the last act. Even better than when I saw the original production way back when. And 'Antartica' is also high on my list, as I missed the original 'Inexpressible Island' both times it played at Cdn. Stage Berkeley St. Theatre here in Toronto. And what is your connection to the show, Chris?
Gail <gail.rayment@sympatico.cafoo>
Toronto, Ontario - Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 11:30:39 (PDT)
For those of you planning on Halloween in the US, the Harry Potter Wizard Store now has Severus Snape costumes (among others), including a one-size adult version. Click on 'others' under 'costumes' in the left-hand column.
Georgiana <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 09:42:08 (PDT)
For those due/hoping to attend Private Lives, this is a good link for finding hotels in London: http://www.superbreaks.com They have a guaranteed lower price than the hotels (!) and I rec'd mailed confirmation next day. You can find very good 3 & 4 star hotels near the theatre (try Covent Garden, West End, and also Russell Square on the London lists) and also plenty of good 2 stars. Prices are very reasonable. Anyone thinking of doing this the budget way should *avoid* a hotel off Russell Sq called The Repton unless they like fleas or legal battles. Nasty. Anyone spending more than one day in London could do a lot worse than see Noises Off! or Antarctica (plug!) next day. Cheers!
PotterChris73 <PotterChris73@hotmail.comfoo>
UK - Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 08:20:08 (PDT)
THANKYOU VERY MUCH Magda I am going to go tomorrow to the store and get myself a copy. I can't wait to have my very own copy lol,lol again thanks...
lynn
Ottawa, Canada - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 15:48:47 (PDT)
There's a wonderful on-line site called the Harry Potter Picture Gallery which has a few shots of Professor Snape, and this Alan Rickman page.
Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 12:46:46 (PDT)
It looks like the Vanity Fair cover is up at Yahoo news.
Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 12:26:17 (PDT)
Here is a news release regarding the HP movie screening in london. 'Harry Potter' Movie to Premiere in London September 7, 2001 10:43 am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Harry Potter will fly from the pages of J.K. Rowling's million-selling novels to the silver screen at its worldwide premiere in London on November 4, Warner Bros Pictures confirmed on Friday. "Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone" -- or "Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone" as it will be called in the United States -- will debut in London's West End with a gala celebration to follow, the studio said in a statement. The hotly anticipated film stars young actor Daniel Radcliffe as bespectacled Harry Potter, who learns on his 11th birthday that he possesses magical powers. The movie also features comic actor John Cleese, Dame Maggie Smith and Richard Harris in supporting roles and cost an estimated $150 million to make. But the studio behind it is banking on "Pottermania" to handsomely pay back the investment. The publishing industry has been astonished at the universal appeal of the books written by single mother J.K. Rowling in an Edinburgh cafe between school runs. The four Harry Potter books have topped best-seller lists around the world from Argentina to China and have sold 100 million copies. Harry Potter fans got a sneak peek inside the spider-infested cupboard where the schoolboy wizard spent the first 10 years of his life in a Vanity Fair magazine photo spread from the film set released on Wednesday. Photographs by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz show pictures of Potter and his fellow students in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft. Warner Bros said the movie will be widely released across North America and Britain on November 16.
Annette
Mansfield, Tx USA - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 10:58:48 (PDT)
caught a glimpse of the last 20 seconds of E! news daily this morning. they were showing clips from HP including a few moments of our man as Snape! I'm not sure but I suspect they run the same E! news daily several times during the day....They also mentioned Vanity Fair.
S ;-)
- Friday, September 07, 2001 at 10:34:59 (PDT)
Claire- thanks so much for the photo. He looks like an amalgamation of ever nightmare teacher I ever had. Scary. Off to Smiths tomorrow (village shops don't run to Vanity Fair!)
Christine- that's Hyde Park Corner you're thinking of.
Sue
England - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 10:22:35 (PDT)
The Soapbox Thing: When you're on a soapbox, you're not conducting a discussion, you're lecturing to people. By saying/writing something like "I'm getting off my soapbox now", you're making a humorous effort to tell people that you don't mean to lecture them. It's just one of those phrases that we use to make sure other people don't get riled.
Magda
Canada - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 09:35:28 (PDT)
Thank you Sue for the explanation about soapbox. And Cindy for the Death and the Maiden. Why being on a soapbox is so much a problem here ? I've noticed you often seem to be afraid of that. Am I the only one to be interested in other's points of view ? I'm sure not ! So we know that some ideas need words and time to be explain… I like long posts. And I like when they're a little personnal. Don't you ?
See you on monday
Claire, you always have amazing pictures !
MARIALIS
FRANCE - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 09:19:53 (PDT)
I heard there is a famous corner in London I think where people take turns getting up on the Soapbox. (or is it New York?) Does that still exist?
I'm hitting Loblaws after work Magda!
Christine
Montreal, Canada - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 09:12:34 (PDT)
Oh, my, Claire, more than a full page of darkness!
Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 09:09:20 (PDT)
Vanity Fair SNAPE photo up on CPP now !!
Claire
- Friday, September 07, 2001 at 08:39:48 (PDT)
Lyne, VF-HP issue is on sale at Loblaws; in fact they got extra copies of it for that issue.
Magda
Canada - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 08:15:53 (PDT)
The Harry Potter edition of Vanity Fair is now on sale in England. The pictures are amazing - Snape looks extremely menacing but wonderful! I am sure someone will be able to put them up my computer skills don't go that far though!
Jill
Kent UK - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 07:47:11 (PDT)
Hi to you all. I just also saw on Entertainment Tonight that there will be a pic. of our Man as Snape in the Vanity Fair magazine. I can't wait to get a copy of it. Just wondering if its out yet here.
I went to the video store to see if maybe Blow Dry was availiable for sale but of course its not. I loved that movie and can't wait to buy it, but as I was browzing the store I came across the video Dogma, and even though I wasn't crazy about the movie only the parts that Alan Rickman was in were great, and I wish he was in it more, I decided to buy it anyway. I am going to watch it probably tonight after I get home from work . With a nice cuppa tea I am going to watch it.
I hope we all keep each other informed of when Mr Rickman will be on tv in the interviews and anything else that he will be appearing in because if Harry Potter is going to be a big movie, and I think it will be, then I'm sure he will be doing a lot of interviews. so lets all keep an eye out for them ok? I want to be ready with my video machine to record them.and I think we all will be doing the same thing .
lynn
Ottawa, Canada - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 07:47:06 (PDT)
Marialis, The title of the movie you mentioned in its English release is *Death and the Maiden*.
Cindie
- Friday, September 07, 2001 at 07:43:38 (PDT)
The UK Ticketmaster site appears now to be functional, and those who are interested may purchase tickets to Private Lives on line.
Georgiana (...if the link works...)
Seattle - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 07:39:48 (PDT)
Marialis, the term "to get on your soap box" comes from the days when politicians etc., would get out in public and speak to people on street corners and in parks etc. To make themselves seen they would often stand on any old wooden box (for example a soapbox) and give their speech. The term is now used by people when they want to get some personal opinion off their chest even if they knoe it is not going to be particularly popular. Hope that helps
Sue
England - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 06:53:28 (PDT)
ITN news (UK) reports that the first showing of Harry Potter will occur in London on November 4 - wonder if AR will be attending the premiere... Could be a good time, bad time to be seeing him perform in Private Lives!
Sally
Sydney, Australia - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 06:50:47 (PDT)
Yes, yes that is it you understand me perfectly. Thank you! I have to say the first time I saw Closet Land I had to turn it off a few times and force myself to turn it back on again. However it is fasinating.
Definition of a soap box: A rostrum. I can't think of anything else off hand. But it is like when someone is notorious for gving big long speeches people say they get on a soap box. Does that make sense. I haven't explained it very well, maybe some one else can come up with something better.
I have to go to a lesson now and retrive my copy of Dogma from my english teacher. It is amazing how many parallels there are with Paradise Lost, which we are doing. Now that is an example of a wonderful vilian. Satan: It is better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven. Now wouldn't himself say that one well!!
Elizabeth
UK - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 03:42:31 (PDT)
Hi Elizabeth,
I've read carefully your long post and I find it very interesting. I haven't seen Closet Land (and I regret it more after my reading).
Movie's history is full of villains very human. More they're human more they're fascinating. Hannibal the first. They're fascinating for us, audience, and for actors because they could explore the dark side of their personality. While reading you, I were thinking about Ralph Fiennes in "Shindler", Gene Hackman in "Unforginven" Kathy Bates in "Misery" and many many others… But I think the movie witch illustrates the best the complexity of human nature and the way that everybody could, some day, become a monster is a movie with Ben Kingsley and Sigourney Weaver. I don't know its English title. In French it is "La Jeune Fille et la Mort". (The young girl and the death) by Roman Polanski. Have you seen it. It is based on a play I think. And it shows how a victim could become a torturer and a torturer a victim.
But I'm not sure to understand you when you say that we forget and closet ourselves as we do for people like interrogator and Lector. Don't you think that we have to keep most of the terrible things we see or learn deep inside our mind to continue to live in that society ? how could we keep on living if every morning and all day long we were thinking " Now somewhere someone is raping, killing torturing…" I don't think we closet ourselves. I think we closet all those terrible informations … and may be not so deep inside because they arouse us fear, revolt, angriness…
Society has a part, certainly, in the evolution or those people. But witch one ? Sometime it's easy to determine (political case as dictature) but sometime it's not. And I think there are all over the world lot of parents and friends and neighbours brothers and sisters who are wondering what they have missed to haven't noticed that their friends, child… could "do such a thing" The problem is certainly that we don't identify them before they act…
Hope I've understood you. If not, tell me. I'd really be happy to have your feeling about this.
BTW : What is a soap box ? I've seen it written many times here without understand. Am I in or out of it by answering you ?
Marialis
Marialis
france - Friday, September 07, 2001 at 03:23:50 (PDT)
Would it help if I pointed out it is the American copy of Vanity Fair that is to contain the HP pictures???
Sally
Sydney, Australia - Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 22:17:54 (PDT)
Just want to alert you that I am selling my copy of Mesmer on Ebay right now. I know its hard to get in some areas.
Bette <bettepage@excite.comfoo>
CA - Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 21:49:47 (PDT)
Just to let you know that New Zealand news reports that pictures of Snape are to appear in the October issue of Vanity Fair. Shouldn't be hard to miss - will have Harry potter on the cover on a broomstick! - See link at - New Zealand News Sally
Sally
Sydney, Australia - Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 16:28:55 (PDT)
Uli, the on-line agent is Ticketmaster (http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk), which site appears presently down. You can also book through Albemarle on line, or try telephoning the box office at: 020 7369 1740.
Georgiana <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 16:20:17 (PDT)
Hi everybody!! I´m from Germany and I will be in London for a few days in october and like to watch PL. Could anyone tell me how I can buy tickets online? Please answer: ujuschka@gmx.de Thank you very much!!!
Uli <ujuschka@gmx.defoo>
Heidelberg, Germany - Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 14:30:06 (PDT)
Thank you also, Claire. Perhaps a better option in any weather, for those of us staying in Bayswater, which is on the D&C. I take it we don't have to use that rollickingly unstable millenium footbridge?
Georgiana <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 14:01:17 (PDT)
Festival Hall - or you can walk across River Thames via Hungerford Footbridge from Embankment tube station (District and Circle lines) and arrive on the Festival Hall doorstep - most scenic option, weather permitting!!
Claire
- Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 13:00:04 (PDT)
Thank you, Amanda.
Georgiana
Seattle - Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 12:15:34 (PDT)
Georgiana - The Royal Festival Hall is part of the South Bank Centre which encompasses The Purcell Room, Queens Hall, the National Film Theatre and the RFH. The closest rail station is Waterloo, the Underground/subway stop is again Waterloo on the Northern Line. Just a short walk ! I hope this helps ? If I can give you any more info then just write me off-list - happy to help.
Amanda <zaramuttle@btinternet.comfoo>
London, - Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 12:11:37 (PDT)
Thanks, Sue! I don't think Vanity Fair hits the newsstands until Nov. 11th over here (where I live, anyway).
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
Hallettsville, TX USA - Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 07:27:32 (PDT)
Just thought it might be worth avoiding booking PL for 16th November just in case he has to attend HP premiere.
Sue
UK - Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 04:48:10 (PDT)
Vanity Fair will not be in WH Smiths 'till Friday or Sat according to the nice young man I spoke to. So I guess it might be out in the States already(that Yahoo page said Wednesday).Suzanne I'll send it as soon as I get it but you'll probably beat me to it.
Sue
England - Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 04:44:38 (PDT)
Ok so I never said I wanted him to play HL. I was just trying to point out that however repulsive a character is they are at the end of the day a human, and that lurcking inside all of us there is the possiblity of a serial killer. It is just that most of us our quite happy not killing people.
News does seem to be living in no mans land at the moment and perhaps we should er, talk, about some of his past characters.
Elizabeth
UK - Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 03:28:17 (PDT)
Thank you Mary Anne, it was most kind of you to provide me the information on the company which converts British Video to American format.
Anne <ahard73977@aol.comfoo>
Alexandria, VA USA - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 21:01:07 (PDT)
Hello everyone! I haven't had time to write lately, but I had to let ya'll know what I read in TV Guide today. There is a cartoon here in the US called "King of the Hill." It is about a family from Texas and their friends. It is a hillarious show. I'm from Tennessee and the characters remind me of the people in my town. Anyway, TV Guide said that AR will voice a character on one of the episodes this Fall. He is going to be voicing someone at a Renaissance Fair. I can't wait to see it, though it is small consolation for not being able to go to London to see him perform live. All of you that are going are making me so jealous!!!! I can't go for several reasons such has MONEY and no more vacation time. Those of you going will have to give the rest of us a really good discription of your experiences. Have fun! Michaele
Michaele <mmh1324@home.comfoo>
Chattanooga, TN - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 18:43:46 (PDT)
THANK YOU CLAIRE! I guess I learned something today... My beautiful "man in grey" and "vogue" gone forever!!! (get a grip girl...you don't want the Europeans to think we Americans are complete idiots!) Ah! Grrrr...C'est La Vie!I will do better next time. I certainly hope AR does not play HL, that would really be a turn off. I would really like to see him in more low key,sensitive roles....like the good Col Branden.But that's just me...hopeless romantic. Thank's again Claire for your quick response.
STAR
nc usa - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 18:09:14 (PDT)
Amanda, I just bought a ticket--assuming I can change my return flight and stay an extra week. And keep my hotel room. And figure out where the hall is... Is this southwest of the National on the South Bank of the Thames?
Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 17:48:42 (PDT)
Whoa, barely, Lin! Yes, definitely a keeper (I want one now!). :-)
By the way, I forgot to mention that I finally got the News & Schedule page up and running. Although I combined lots of the info about Private Lives from many of your posts, it will basically work like this in the future; whenever breaking news and schedule info is posted to the GB, I'll transfer it over there. So it's you guys that will make it work! And if anybody can think of anything else I need to add to the schedule right now (appearances, DVD/VHS release dates, etc., etc.), please let me know. Thanks to everyone for helping make this web-site as great as it is!
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
Watching Die Hard as we speak..., USA - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 17:32:23 (PDT)
Suzanne, you beat me to it! LOL
Lin
Canada - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 16:44:17 (PDT)
On Entertainment Tonight, there was a brief blurb about Vanity Fair's pictorial of Harry Potter. Brief shot of photo of AR as Snape included in blurb! It's a keeper.
Lin
Canada - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 16:40:45 (PDT)
Professor Snape *is* in Vanity Fair! They just showed a fantastic photo of him from the magazine, on Entertainment Tonight!!!
Suzanne <Suz@mail.usa.comfoo>
Still trying to catch my breath!, USA - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 16:39:28 (PDT)
I mean, the instructions about the pool made me laugh, not the rest about Closet Land. I need to think things out before I type.
Mary
McHenry, - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 15:52:23 (PDT)
Anyone wanting to book a ticket to the 19 November concert can do it online RIGHT NOW! I got my ticket through the Royal Festival Hall site.
Just go to
http://www.royalfestivalhall.org.uk/rfh/
and click on November in the upper right corner. Then scroll down to 19 November and you can book on line with a credit card. Yipee!
Linda P.
- Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 14:21:03 (PDT)
Hi all ... Is anyone else going to see AR at the Royal Festival Hall on 19th November ?
Amanda <zaramuttle@btinternet.comfoo>
London, - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 13:55:18 (PDT)
According to the Sky Movie News page on Satellite the Vanity Fair pictures include a picture of Prof. Snape's "dungeon". No mention whether he is in it or not!! Will endeavour to get a copy tomorrow.
PS Never having seen Hannibal,etc.(and never likely to) or Closet Land all this debate is wasted on me but keep it up.
Sue
England - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 13:34:27 (PDT)
Ok Magda, not exactly what I was trying to say but halfway there. And you think I need to chill out. This is chilled out. Today I was in a calm and thought provoked mood, you should see me in an analytical politically wired mood when I am in full swing!
Elizabeth
UK - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 13:33:17 (PDT)
Magda, you always make me laugh!
Mary
McHenry, - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 12:28:14 (PDT)
From Yahoo! Entertainment News:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Harry Potter (news - web sites) fans can peek inside the spider-infested cupboard where the schoolboy wizard spent 10 years of his life in a Vanity Fair magazine photo spread released on Wednesday.
In 22 pages of photographs by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, readers of Vanity Fair's October issue can see actors and props from the upcoming movie ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.''
The magazine, which hits newsstands in New York on Wednesday and the rest of the United States on Sept. 11, also features pictures of Potter and his fellow students in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry's Great Hall and the life-size chess team that guards the hidden Sorcerer's Stone at Hogwarts. The bespectacled boy with a lightning bolt scar also is seen astride his Quidditch broomstick.
The movie, estimated to cost $150 million, stars young actor Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, John Cleese, Dame Maggie Smith, Richard Harris and Alan Rickman. It is scheduled for release in November by Warner Bros.
In an interview with the magazine, J.K. Rowling (news - web sites), the author of the best-selling series of books, said she was eager to see the film version of her first literary hit, especially Quidditch, the basketball-like game played by wizards on broomsticks.
``I've been watching it in my head for nine years now -- and finally I'll get to see it along with everybody else,'' said Rowling, who wrote ``Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.''
The film released in the United States will carry the book's American title ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.''
The magazine said that every adult involved in the British-made movie, including Rowling and director Chris Columbus, wanted it to accurately reflect the book.
``I'm not against the idea of a film,'' Rowling said in the interview. ``The vital thing for me was that it would be true to the book.''
The four Harry Potter books, which have been translated into 42 languages, have sold 100 million copies and topped bestseller lists around the world.
Keyser <Keyserfan@email.comfoo>
USA - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 12:23:19 (PDT)
Ohhhh September!!! What a beautiful month!!! My favorite month of the year!!!!
P.S. I really hope Alan doesn't play HL!
Christine
Montreal, Canada - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 11:12:23 (PDT)
His performances are most enjoyable and he says it all with his eyes and his tone of voice. Without him "Robin Hood" would have been a flop. "Truly, Madly, Deeply", "Sense and Sensibility", etc, etc. were very enjoyable. He is undervalued as an actor.
Roxanne McGloin <roxanne.mcgloin@iwk.nshealth.cafoo>
Halifax, NS Canada - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 10:31:04 (PDT)
STAR - There is nothing pathetic about jump starting your computer day with AR photos, many of us do, that was the inspiration behind CPP back in February 1998.
However, the pictures are there on my server a limited time so book marking is not a foolproof method of storing your favourite photo. Right click your mouse to save the picture on your computer for later viewing.
And yes thanks Sue, I had a great time in Australia, no small thanks to Judy another denizen of the Rickman realm.
Claire
- Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 10:10:00 (PDT)
CLAIRE!!! I don't know what happened but all the beautiful pics I collected from your site(as bookmarks & favorites) have been mysteriously zapped out! When i click on ;for instance www.btinternet.com/~sc.i/ccp/vogue396.ipg(my personal favorite) I get rerouted to btinternet's default,their home page!!! What have I done? I am quite new to the internet and perhaps I did a social fault pas?Am I not welcome to add Alan's pics from your site to my bookmarks, etc?Please let me know if you have some insight. You can e-mail at the address below. I am broken hearted about the Vogue pic. I used to jump-start my day with it(pathetic...I know!)Anyway...thanks for your lovely site and all that you do for us "Rickmaniacs".Cheers!
STAR <daydream22146@yahoo.comfoo>
NC USA - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 09:06:18 (PDT)
I have read that Ed Norton has already signed to do the prequel Hannibal Lecter ( as a young man) and that Anthony Hopkins is also going to appear. Presumably they are going to do his life as some sort of flashback with older Hannibal reflecting on his life?
Jill
Kent UK - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 08:00:19 (PDT)
Of course it's spelled "Arendt", not "Ardent". Sorry about that.
Magda
Canada - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 07:57:53 (PDT)
Okay, to summarize Elizabeth's argument, then: The Interrogator was a normal human, got a weird job, couldn't handle it emotionally or pschologically and makes the young woman pay for his internal problems by torturing her. Is that it?
If it is, then it's not at all controversial. Don't get worked up about it. Cool down. Chill out. Have a daiquiri by the pool or something. Bring an extra thermos of them in case someone comes out and says "Hey, who are you and what are you doing by my pool?"
I haven't seen Closet Land but I do know that it was commissioned (?) or inspired by Amnesty International and that AR did it largely out of support for their work. If the idea was to let the world know about the evil of torture then the film was a failure because the storyline depended on a previous relationship of some kind between the two characters. The true horribleness of torture as an impersonal, all-in-a-day's-work activity (Hannah Ardent's "banality of evil") is pushed aside as this backstory comes to light.
I know someone who saw it as part of his professional work as a lawyer dealing with human rights abuses and he thought anyone seeing it would get sidetracked by the characters' stories rather than the issue. Which is, as I pointed out to him, the point of storytelling in print or on screen.
Magda
Canada - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 07:56:20 (PDT)
Personally, I'd nominate Ed Harris for the role. He lacks the accent, but he has everything else Lecter needs. I also don't think AR would take on the role, but it's fun to fantasize!
LynnP, who certainly didn't mean to stir up the hornet's nest
- Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 05:39:19 (PDT)
I started writing this last night, halfway through the process I stopped and deleted it, out of fesr that I might get blasted out of my seat by the reponse. I have since decided that blood is thicker than water, and that I am bigger than that, I hope you all are too
I have been triggered to write this by some of the responses to the Hannibal Lector entries. As some of you will be aware I do discussions at my local theatre and my school about different films. Recently I was asked to do one on "Closet Land", as I replaced the telephone handset my stomach turned, I promptly picked it up again adn rang my caller back, trying desparatley to get them to change their mind, but to no avail. The discussion went ahaed, I had two people walk out, incidently both were men, and the discussion went reasonably well. I was disappionted however to find that the Interregator was glossed over as just another psycopath.
You may well be asking where this is leading me, and what this has to do with Hannibal Lector, but please follow this through. Some people maybe be aware of the "story" about Mr Rickman being third choice for the role of Hannibal Lector in "Silence of the Lambs". So it will come of no surprise that he has "unoffically" nominated for the part in the prequel. (However I understood that Anthony Hopkins would be doing the film) Some peoples reation to this will be like Gene Hackman, one of repulsion, but one must ask why, if Lector is a man conceived of pure evil, why did Hopkins take the part. There is a well documented, and true story, about Judi Dench turning down the role of Reagan in King Lear, on the account that she could see nothing human about this character. Dench did however find something identifyably human in Lady Macbeth. Which brings me to the subjects of victims.
What now follows is my version of the thoughts behind the characters of Hannibal Lector and the Interregator, none of it should be confused with fact (whatever fact maybe); it is a totla piece of bias. However it is born from what I see as evidence provided to me by what is on the screen, what is being said, and moreover what is being heard and felt. My task is to make you hear, to make you feel - and above all to make you see. That is all and it is everything.
Both Lector and the Interregator are comparable characters, and both are comparable to the computer, Hal, in 2001:Space Odyssey. I shan't go in to detail over this other than to point out the dictatorship in each of these three characters. For now it is perhaps more suitable to explore two other characters played by Hopkins and Rickman, the Doctot in Elephant Man and Mesmer respectivley. I think you will all agree that both these characters are humanitarian, they have identified pain and suffering in the world and tried to do something about it. However as we see in Mesmer society shuns it, they turn thier backs and laugh. Mesmer is left only to watch from the sidelines and say "I told you so.". A bit like at the end of As You Like It when all the other characters are dancing and Jaques stands in the wings and twiddles his thumbs, and of Jaques ia another Rickman character. The Interregator, I believe is also a humanitarian, perhaps of a different breed. He has feeling, he is not with out a heart, although there is a part of him that we are not immedeatley intorduced to. The government that he is a part of have like Mesmer identified pain and suffering and done something about it, they have covered it up, they have if you like locked it in the closet. So why is it called "Closet Land"? Oh yes, her story is called "Closet Land", she lives in "Closet Land", she was aboused in the closet, but hang on a minute, we have forgotton someone, the Interragator. I think that I can say this with a reasonable amount of confidence, but the one thing that a title is not is biased. The title must reflect everything that will be found and discovered in the film, it must reflect every character in the film. In the film The Piano, the title tells us of a central character whose effects upon the rest od the cast moulds the story. The title Sense and Sensibility reflects every character, not just Elinor and Marianne. So that must lead me to say that Closet Land also tells us something about the Interregator. It is easy to be pulled into total sympathy for the woman , but it is not just her story. There are always two sides to every story. Initally we know nothing of the Interregator's past, the reason being that he has locked his past in the closet. When he walked out of the closet he left his past in there. He has pushed his past further and further away from him. He has spent his entire life trying to justify himself, his life, his actions to himself. At the end when he finally loses himself, "...it is just a pack of lies...." What is he really saying, the obvious is that the confession she tears up is lies, she is able to jump the hurdle and get over her past, he however has sunk deeper into his past and cannot get out. Is he saying that the past is a lie? That he is a lie? That his life is a lie? I am more convinced of these. He is a living, breathing, walking lie. A victim of his own actions, a victim of society, a victim of life. Of course there is more to the story than that. It is a film that asks to be explored, a film that also reaches out to you and says "put me away in your closet and never take me out again" or "put me away I don't like myself" Isn't that just what we do? We see terrible things happening around us so we lock them in away in the deepest, darkest cornes of our minds, and we closet ourselves. Isn't it exactly what we do with people like the Interregator and Lector? We lock them away in the closte and forget. And so these people, these self created victims are in turn made into victims of socitey.
The characters that the Interregator creates for himself are a cover, something to hide behind, and the whole thing about getting a confession out of her is as if he is saying "look, I have managed to get over this and forget, now all you have to do is admit it happened and then forget." Right? Disputable? Biased. However in getting her to come clean about he also goes through a process of admittance, he resolves that yes he is a lie.
You may indeed feel that I have climbed, uninvited onto a soapbox and forgotten to get off again. This may indeed be true, however everyone's opinion is valid however shocking or unconventional, and I expect a few dissmissive reponses, but this is something I have wanted to say for some time. I have not gone out of my way to dress up evil in white and place it on a pedastal, that was not my intetion, and I hope it does not seem like that. Neither did I set out to offend anyone, if this is the case I apologise in advance. I have of course only touched the iceberg and the ideas go far deeper.
Elizabeth <elizabethr33@hotmail.comfoo>
UK - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 04:51:17 (PDT)
I'm absolutely agree with you Sally. I don't really see what AR could bring new to the character of Hannibal. Now AH is Hannibal for everybody. An I add that the second episode was bad, making Clarice and Lecter's characters much poorer than in The Silence of the Lamb. I found no interest in the story and the way they have moved seemed to me totally absurd. Really… When Clarice sigh by hearing the voice of Hannibal as a teenager could do by hearing Ricky Martin it was ridiculous. I'm a huge fan of Silence of the Lamb so I were very deceived. I don't even find the Great Anthony at his best in that third-rated film. So … how can we be sure the third episode could be better ? I swear that I'll see it only if Alan is Hannibal… and just for Alan ! But, actually : we all already know that he could be a delicious Hannibal, cultured, so cruelly sophisticated… so from where could come the surprise ? Marialis
MARIALIS
FRANCE - Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 01:05:54 (PDT)
I heard that Tim Roth was originally slated for Snape (say *that* 10 times fast!), but turned it down for something else.
... goodie ...
Barbara the Wallpaperer
- Tuesday, September 04, 2001 at 19:32:17 (PDT)
I'm a bit suprised to read Anthony Hopkins is not coming back for the prequel - I read over the weekend that he was! Going to lead to a whole new era of Hollywood paranoia me thinks as apparently, they would have to film it and then digitally alter every scene with him in it to make him look much younger... Mind you, I know when Hannibal was released, AH squashed ideas that he was reprising the role - a bit squeamish about being digitall altered. So, who knows. Since it would be a Hannibal ca. 30-40s, I don't see why they can't use a younger actor like Doug Ray Scott or Sean Bean or Tim Roth...
Although AR won't care, I would rather hope he focuses on playing Sherlock Holmes than doing Hannibal! AH has alredy made Hannibal his character, and AR has yet to step into the shoes of a role that has already been played successfully by someone else, so hopefully he won't this time either!
Sally
Sydney, Australia - Tuesday, September 04, 2001 at 17:08:24 (PDT)
This is my first time visiting Alan Rickman websites and I'm glad I stumbled on to this one. I'm a newly obsessed devote'to all things Alan. I've seen alot of his movies,but I prefer his british films over his american releases. Loved Blow Dry, S and S, and Truely/Madly. Anyone disapointed with the ending to Big Adventure? Good movie until the last 5 minutes. And Alan's the ONLY reason I'll be seeing Harry Potter this fall. Thanks for being here! Back to therapy......Cathy.
Cathy S. <mat.cat.sees@juno.comfoo>
Rochester, NY USA - Tuesday, September 04, 2001 at 16:43:21 (PDT)
I'd be surprised he'd ever elect to play such a grisly villain as Lecter, especially one made famous in two prior outings by another actor.
Georgiana
Seattle - Tuesday, September 04, 2001 at 11:48:30 (PDT)
Does anyone know what ever happened to those GQ awards??
Emily <Dkny9428@aol.comfoo>
NJ USA - Tuesday, September 04, 2001 at 10:25:45 (PDT)
Great site dedicated to such a great talent. I was actually surprised to see such an extensive site for an actor that I think most would agree is very underrated. Keep up the goods! Regards, Harry
Debt <debt@debtconsolidationloanscentral.comfoo>
Topeka, KS USA - Tuesday, September 04, 2001 at 08:12:26 (PDT)
Hello, gang, it's been a LOOOOONNNNG time since I've posted (about a year, I think!), but I had to pass this along. If someone beat me to it, please forgive. Since Anthony Hopkins has permanently hung up his mask, Alan has been unofficially nominated for the role of Hannibal Lecter in the prequel to Silence of the Lambs. Oooh, wouldn't that be fun? (Horrible, but fun...) There's a link you can use to nominate/vote/whatever. Enjoy.
LynnP
York, PA USA - Tuesday, September 04, 2001 at 08:09:12 (PDT)
OFF TOPIC: For those planning a trip to London this fall, Frank Langella and Joan Collins will be doing "Moon Over Buffalo"--a ditzy theatre farce wherein a company runs amok between "Private Lives" and "Cyrano" in 1953 Buffalo (my home town!)--at the Old Vic. Opens, I believe, mid October and performances include a Wednesday matinee (the Albery being dark those times). Tickets available now at the Old Vic box office. From your home phone in the US this is 011-44-207-369-1722.
Georgiana (back from Maui) <gellis@drizzle.comfoo>
Seattle - Tuesday, September 04, 2001 at 06:56:28 (PDT)
SUNDAY TIMES Sept.2 Culture Magazine Look Ahead-"The top arts events of the coming months"
Private Lives-Alan Rickman reurns to the West End for the first time in 10 years, to star opposite Lindsay Duncan In Noel Coward's classic romantic comedy.Albery Theatre.
Nice to know they've finally noticed. Thanks Claire for more great photos, Hope you enjoyed Australia.
Sue
England - Tuesday, September 04, 2001 at 05:56:28 (PDT)
Anne--that company that changes over the format on videos is called Brits. Brits can be reached for enquiries at:
brits@britusa.com
Their toll-free telephone is 888-382-7487. They're located in Kansas.
Hope this helps!
Mary Anne
- Tuesday, September 04, 2001 at 05:00:32 (PDT)
Well, is there any hope Blow Dry will be showing on Singapore Airlines in october?! Otherwise, alas, I have obviously missed out! I am beginning to wonder if I need to buy it from Amazon...
Barbara, alarmingly, the only website I visited which listed Blow Dry's release date in Australia has yanked that date! I've begun watching the video releases now - maybe it will be a straight to video effort here... Or it might be like Judas Kiss - sat on for 2 years, then released only to find out that the movie gelled with australian humour and we love it... Who knows?!
Sally
Sydney, Aust - Monday, September 03, 2001 at 23:44:15 (PDT)
Hello everyone. I just rented BLOY DRY and I have to say that I LOOOOOOOOOOVE that movie. It is so wonderful. I just took it back and boy that was hard to do. I really wanted to keep it.
I can't wait until it goes on sale. I will be the first to buy it. I even cried in some parts.
I really enjoyed the bathtub scene. Thats all I'll say on that part, but to those who have seen it will know what I mean.
Mr Rickman if by chance you come across this and I really hope you do thankyou for bring such wonderful movies you are a fantastic actor :)........
lynn <pyewacket001@aol.comfoo>
Ottawa, Canada - Monday, September 03, 2001 at 12:07:26 (PDT)
It would seem the only way to see Blow Dry in either Australia or the UK was get on a BA flight between the two during August. I was lucky, BA were slack on their dates and it showed 1/2nd September flight too so I gratefully watched most of the seven showings!
However, the blub in the airline magazine was worrying, it classified Blow Dry as a lottery film without appeal to box office obsessed Hollywood, one of the "new British releases that may never reach you otherwise." Do they know something we don't about the PAL video release in either country?
Claire
- Monday, September 03, 2001 at 09:59:40 (PDT)
Claire, really Wonderful photo's!Especially Blow Dry. Hopefully this film will be shown here in Nov or December and I have been watching the Movie Show on SBS here for ANY news re this film. This show is probably the best movie show we have here at the moment... I have to say that it is really good to read all your news here in this GB as it seems so long before any AR films come down here. I know that AR is worth waiting for but wouldn't it be wonderful if all films were released at the same time around the world.... I know that I have to learn Patience but as an Pisces/Aries cusp I have precious little.
Barbara the Australian
Gold Coast, Qld Australia - Monday, September 03, 2001 at 03:13:08 (PDT)
Sort of off topic, but some time ago, say about 2 or 3 months agao, someone was kind enough to mention a company which translated British videos into US format.
I have tried in vain to find the posting, so is it possible that kind person would provide the information again?
I am anticipating the arrival of a British video, of AR which will need to be translated into US format, so as I said not really off topic.
Anne <ahard73977@aol.comfoo>
Alexandria, VA USA - Sunday, September 02, 2001 at 19:26:08 (PDT)
Hello everybody... I haven't write here for a long time. I had too much work… but I met lots of English tourists so I could keep on practicing my English. Of course I'm green of envy when I read that most of you will see HIM on stage… but I try to console myself by thinking that I'll see in October Kristin Scott-Thomas on stage in "Berenice". And she plays it with two excellent and charming actors : Robin Renucci and Didier Sandre. I could be great for me too, even if… it's not absolutely the same… You're so lucky ! Marialis
Marialis
france - Sunday, September 02, 2001 at 07:13:47 (PDT)
I got P and P on DVD as a result of Bridget Jones' Diary, but wouldn't sweat over the not having the featurette - especially if you were after it for more on CF - that wasn't a happening thing. I loved P and P though! But, CF as Valmont was an abosolute disappointment - I kept thinking how this film would have been massively improved with AR and his voice seducing the women...
sally
Sydney, Aust - Sunday, September 02, 2001 at 05:39:12 (PDT)
have to admit. have become a Jane Austen fan--because of our man in S & S. just got the dvd version of P & P in June (not the new version). groan! want the behind-the-scenes featurette!!! ahhh, to pre-order or not to pre-order, that is the question.....P & P is my current movie that I can't seem to get enough of. even my 12 year old daughter liked it! back to AR, I wouldn't read too much in one biased reviewers opinion of a trailer. I can't imagine Warner Brothers would allow for anything less than blockbuster material....and now Die Hard is awaiting me downstairs.....aahhhh, life is good...
S ;-)
- Saturday, September 01, 2001 at 21:32:14 (PDT)
Hi!
I haven't been her for quite a time so greetings to everyone!!!
I'm also one of the lucky going to see PL. Although I haven't booked my tickets yet, I intend to go to London at the beginning of December (date not specified yet).
And read what I just found. This piece of news comes from Neewsweek, date of August 23. The article is about movie trailers and includes a fragment about Harry Potter movie trailer, which I'm posting below. If anyone is interested in the whole article here is the link:
And the most interesting fragment is (big italics are mine)as follows:
“HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE” (Release date: 11/26, Warner Bros.)
SYNOPSIS: Young boy with a lightning bolt scar gets ... oh, forget it, you know what this is about.
THE TRAILER: OK, deep breath. I’m a huge Harry Potter fan, I’ve read all four books, I even waited outside Barnes & Noble at midnight to buy “Goblet of Fire” (No. 4) as early as possible. And when Warner Bros. announced that Chris Columbus, the sugar-coated hack behind “Home Alone” and “Bicentennial Man” would direct the first movie, I nearly cried. The decision made the studio’s intentions clear: they wanted a safe, simple, kid-friendly adaptation. They didn’t want genius; they wanted a sure thing. So I’m left to dream of the masterpiece Terry Gilliam would’ve made, or even the dazzling-but-shallow interpretation Steven Spielberg could’ve dreamed up in his sleep. All of this is a long way of saying that I’m a little bitter, so I might be more critical than is entirely fair.
OK, another deep breath. The trailer is ... fine. Harry seems well cast,
Ewa <bricken@wp.plfoo>
Warsaw, Poland - Saturday, September 01, 2001 at 13:21:04 (PDT)
Non-news really, according to SciFi.com, but FYI:
"Justin Long, who played the geeky fan Brandon in 1999's hit Galaxy Quest, told SCI FI Wire that he'd be willing to do a sequel, but added that he doubted one could come together. "They were talking about it when we were shooting it, I remember," Long said in an interview while promoting his current horror movie, Jeepers Creepers. "And I don't know. It was so much fun to do. And it was my first big thing. It was like my baptism by fire. I was working with these great, great actors."
But, Long added, "I think this thing with a sequel, I imagine it would be hard to do it. ... I'd certainly come back. But you're talking about really class-A stars in that, and it would be hard to bring them all back together." Galaxy Quest starred Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman, among others."
Magda
Canada - Saturday, September 01, 2001 at 08:08:05 (PDT)
