Frankly, My Dear
Scarlett O’ and Melanie,
presenting the dichotomies
of feminine near-felony
and law, would need lobotomies
to reconcile. If, frankly, dear,
you give a damn, you must decide
to which of them your heart is near,
allowing it to be your guide,
for if you choose them both the wind
will see that you are gone. Life ain’t
like Hollywood. If you have sinned,
don’t try to make out with a saint,
because there always is a clash
when opposites attempt to meet,
and if they do they tend to crash,
since those who cannot change must cheat.
Inspired by Michiko Kakutani’s review of Molly Haskell’s “‘Frankly My Dear: Gone With the Wind’ Revisited” (“Frankly My Dear: ” NYT, April 24,2009) :
Just as the dichotomy between Scarlett and Melanie, Rhett and Ashley gave the movie a classic bipolar architecture, so Cukor and Fleming became, in Ms. Haskell’s words, the movie’s stylistic “yin and yang”: Cukor providing “the delicate gradations of feeling between lovers and family” while Fleming supplied the movie’s “bold, sweeping movement through time and history.” At the same time, Ms. Haskell observes, the art director William Cameron Menzies endowed the sprawling opus with a visual coherence: “The expressionistic landscapes and character positionings designed by Menzies and his staff keep certain images as touchstones, in the forefront of consciousness — like the horse collapsing on the bridge, the fire in the background, the use of the new moon, ” even as his masterful use of the new process of Technicolor worked to heighten the drama of the story. In the end the real reason this movie with too many cooks miraculously worked, Ms. Haskell says, was “the fire and desperation of three people with strangely overlapping tastes and eccentricities”: “In ‘Gone With the Wind, ’ Mitchell’s only book, every crisis and trauma of her life is transmuted into narrative; Selznick seized the reins and threw himself into the making of the movie like a man possessed; and Leigh, whose casting was less accidental than legend has it, invested Scarlett with something beyond beauty, something altogether uncanny — a demonic energy, a feverishness that would later tip over into illness and pathology.” All three of these people, Ms. Haskell argues, were “possessed of fire-and-ice opposites that they projected into their lives and careers”: “Leigh, the mesmerizing mixture of bawdy sexpot and exquisite doll, echoed the Scarlett-Melanie sides of Margaret Mitchell, flapper turned matron. Mitchell, in turn, was attracted in fiction and in life to male opposites: the blackguard and the saint (she created one of each; she married one of each) .” As for Selznick, Ms. Haskell says, he liked to cast his protégées as “wide-eyed innocents” or “palpitating sexpots, ” who in turn were attracted “to good boy-bad boy opposites.” “The intensely personal energy of this dividedness, the deep-down tension in Mitchell, Selznick and Leigh between vulgarity and refinement, ” she concludes, “is what gives the archetypes in ‘Gone With the Wind’ their extraordinary human resonance, ” and thanks to the way the three of them threw themselves into the project, “that historical ‘costume’ story” never feels remotely past.
4/24/09
poem by Gershon Hepner
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Scarlett And Melanie
Scarlett O’ and Melanie,
presenting the dichotomies
of feminine near-felony
and law, would need lobotomies
to reconcile. If, frankly, dear,
you give a damn, you must decide
to which of them your heart is near,
allowing it to be your guide,
for if you choose them both the wind
will see that you are gone. Life ain’t
like Hollywood. If you have sinned,
don’t try to make out with a saint,
because there always is a clash
when opposites attempt to meet,
and if they do they tend to crash,
since those who cannot change must cheat.
Inspired by Michiko Kakutani’s review of Molly Haskell’s “‘Frankly My Dear: Gone With the Wind’ Revisited” (“Frankly My Dear: ” NYT, April 24,2009) :
Just as the dichotomy between Scarlett and Melanie, Rhett and Ashley gave the movie a classic bipolar architecture, so Cukor and Fleming became, in Ms. Haskell’s words, the movie’s stylistic “yin and yang”: Cukor providing “the delicate gradations of feeling between lovers and family” while Fleming supplied the movie’s “bold, sweeping movement through time and history.” At the same time, Ms. Haskell observes, the art director William Cameron Menzies endowed the sprawling opus with a visual coherence: “The expressionistic landscapes and character positionings designed by Menzies and his staff keep certain images as touchstones, in the forefront of consciousness — like the horse collapsing on the bridge, the fire in the background, the use of the new moon, ” even as his masterful use of the new process of Technicolor worked to heighten the drama of the story. In the end the real reason this movie with too many cooks miraculously worked, Ms. Haskell says, was “the fire and desperation of three people with strangely overlapping tastes and eccentricities”: “In ‘Gone With the Wind, ’ Mitchell’s only book, every crisis and trauma of her life is transmuted into narrative; Selznick seized the reins and threw himself into the making of the movie like a man possessed; and Leigh, whose casting was less accidental than legend has it, invested Scarlett with something beyond beauty, something altogether uncanny — a demonic energy, a feverishness that would later tip over into illness and pathology.” All three of these people, Ms. Haskell argues, were “possessed of fire-and-ice opposites that they projected into their lives and careers”: “Leigh, the mesmerizing mixture of bawdy sexpot and exquisite doll, echoed the Scarlett-Melanie sides of Margaret Mitchell, flapper turned matron. Mitchell, in turn, was attracted in fiction and in life to male opposites: the blackguard and the saint (she created one of each; she married one of each) .” As for Selznick, Ms. Haskell says, he liked to cast his protégées as “wide-eyed innocents” or “palpitating sexpots, ” who in turn were attracted “to good boy-bad boy opposites.” “The intensely personal energy of this dividedness, the deep-down tension in Mitchell, Selznick and Leigh between vulgarity and refinement, ” she concludes, “is what gives the archetypes in ‘Gone With the Wind’ their extraordinary human resonance, ” and thanks to the way the three of them threw themselves into the project, “that historical ‘costume’ story” never feels remotely past.
4/24/09
poem by Gershon Hepner
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I still don't consider myself as going Hollywood. I did a movie because the opportunity presented itself and it was fun. When everything stops being fun, I'll go onto something else.
quote by Colleen Haskell
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I don't know if I'm going to do any more acting. It's a great job, you know? Make a movie? Why not?
quote by Colleen Haskell
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I know I am right for Scarlett. I can convince Mr. Selznick.
quote by Vivien Leigh
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I guess when somebody offers you a movie, you don't say no. That's what I've learned.
quote by Colleen Haskell
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I wish I knew what was next. I got this movie without planning to. I'm really excited to be continuing in film because it's a great job but I have my portfolio and resume for any other opportunity.
quote by Colleen Haskell
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After Survivor, I was driving across country and moving to San Francisco, going to get a job interning at an ad agency. And then they asked me to read for this movie.
quote by Colleen Haskell
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The worst part was waiting around. Sometimes you are ready at 9 a.m. and you don't start until the afternoon. Occupying your time while you wait is the hardest part of the movie.
quote by Colleen Haskell
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You know the passage where Scarlett voices her happiness that her mother is dead, so that she can't see what a bad girl Scarlett has become? Well, that's me.
quote by Vivien Leigh
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I was on a game show and now I'm the game show girl who got a movie. That's how I consider myself.
quote by Colleen Haskell
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It's weird when people come up to me and know stuff about my life. That sort of creeps me out.
quote by Colleen Haskell
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Birthday Song
Written by kim & ricki wilde
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Theres a forest, a beautiful place
The sun always shines upon your face
And the wind blows away
The troubles inside your mind
Youll find your secret garden
A place that nobody knows (nobody knows)
Where you can go
(scarlett) the world looks bright today but one day youll want to cry
(scarlett) (ah-ah) and when your sky looks grey theres one thing I hope youll know
Theres a place you can go
In the distance, your life in the wings
Who knows what emotions it will bring
But the secrets you hold will help you through anything
(ah-ah) youll find your secret garden
(ah-ah) a place that nobody knows (nobody knows)
Where you can go
(scarlett) the world looks bright today but one day youll want to cry
(scarlett) (ah-ah) and when your sky looks grey theres one thing I hope youll know
Theres a place you can go
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Oh so dont be afraid
If you trust the voice inside of you
Itll guide you on your way
On your way
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
(scarlett) the world looks bright today but one day youll want to cry
(scarlett) (ah-ah) and when your sky looks grey theres one thing I hope youll know
(scarlett) youll find your secret garden, somewhere that you can go
(scarlett) (ah-ah) somewhere where you can grow
Scarlett
Theres a place you can go
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh
Ad lib to fade
song performed by by Kim Wilde
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Melanie
Watching, driving thru the night, Im all alone
Empty endless road, a thousand miles to go
Midnight five million thoughts are passing in a row
Will you still be waiting there God only knows
I can still see your face in my mind, with every turn I take
The wind through my heart feels so cold, as it calls out your name
Melanie, nothing but the touch of your hand can rescue me
Oh, melanie, reach inside this emptiness and you can set me free
Morning, suns in my eyes, Im tied to your soul
One chance, one solitary life, how could I let you go
Got a phone call, or was it a dream, a voice spoke to me
I could swear it was you that I heard crying desperately
Melanie, nothing but the touch of your hand can rescue me
Oh, melanie, reach inside this emptiness and you will set me free
I can still see your face in my mind, with every turn I take
The wind through my heart feels so cold, as it calls out your name
Melanie, nothing but the touch of your hand can rescue me
Oh, melanie, reach inside this emptiness and you will set me free
Melanie, nothing but the touch of your hand can rescue me
Oh, melanie, reach inside this emptiness and you will set me free
song performed by by Toto
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Comedy is so fun. I don't know how these people can make movies and work on them for four months and they're these sob stories. I don't know how emotionally you get through that.
quote by Colleen Haskell
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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But one of the attributes of love, like art, is to bring harmony and order out of chaos, to introduce meaning and affect where before there was none, to give rhythmic variations, highs and lows to a landscape that was previously flat.
quote by Molly Haskell
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Happy Birthday Scarlett (Belated)
I meant to write this yesterday,
because yesterday was your birthday.
Therefore, it’s better late than never
as the old saying says.
Now Scarlett when I first saw her name appear,
it reminded me of Scarlet O’Hara
in that famous book Gone With The Wind.
However, this Scarlett is nothing like her at all.
She is warm, friendly, charming and a friend to everyone.
As a good poet and a great friend
don’t worry about looking in the mirror
to find a wrinkle or two there,
from this side of the Atlantic there is none to be seen.
A belated Happy Birthday my friend.
I sincerely hope you had a happy one
surrounded with love from your family and friends.
Once again, I shall say
A BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCARLETT.
poem by David Harris
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I just saw Memento. It's very, very good. I watch a lot of French films.
quote by Colleen Haskell
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Scarlett Treat
Scarlett,
Treat me to your insights.
Your thoughts with wit,
So delight.
And Scarlett,
I must say
If not for you...
I would not feel as much encouraged,
Had not your comments
Made more sense and cleared my view!
Scarlett,
Treat me to your insights.
Your thoughts with wit,
So delight.
I just can not sit knowing you are right...
And knowing I had perhaps been wrong,
By not accepting a reflection of me,
With belief.
I see that clearly now...
Scarlett Treat.
And as I write,
High on a consciousness
I am blessed with that excites.
Thank you Scarlett for your 'wit treats'.
They have provided a wider vision,
For a mind like mine
That feeds to nourish
This mental appetite that loves to bite on wit!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Tv Movie
I woke up last night shaking from a dream
For in that dream I died
My wife rolled over and told me
That my life would be immortalized
Not in some major motion picture
Or great american novel, you see
No, theyre gonna make a tv movie out of me
Chorus:
Well now, its one two three you take the money
Yeah its as easy as a b c
Yeah theyre gonna make a tv movie out of me
Well they can change my name or they can leave it
They can change my story too
Or they can make me black or chinese
And do things that I never did do
Theyre gonna give my life a whole new ending
And put me in prime time first-run
And when its over, what I did there will be what I done
Now I dont want my name in a history book
Nobodys ever gonna see
No, theyre gonna make a tv movie out of me
(chorus)
Well Im a shoe-in for a sponsor
Goodyear blimp and radial wheels
Somebody had a meeting somewhere
Somehow somebody made a deal
Well I was one of them kinds of stories
That everybody liked to see
Yeah theyre gonna make a tv movie out of me
Now I dont want no inscription on my gravestone
No long soliloquy
No theyre gonna make a tv movie out of me
(chorus)
song performed by by Bruce Springsteen
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Play fair, okay?
quote by Colleen Haskell
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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