Discussion topic for January 2010:
What film hooked you to Vivien Leigh? If not GWTW what was it? What did you think when you saw her in another film?
January 4, 2010 by Jonas
Discussion topic for January 2010:
What film hooked you to Vivien Leigh? If not GWTW what was it? What did you think when you saw her in another film?
“Lady Hamilton” was the first picture I saw Vivien in. I was 9, 10 maybe and absolutely hipnotised by a neglected face of an old, homeless women telling the story of her glamour life. She was so hypnotising and the contrast between this (covered with make-up of course)face and “a pure” beauty of young Vivien in other scenes were so shocking for a little girl(me) that stopped me playing and made sit “frozen” and watch “silver” screen.
My mother took me to the cinema to see GWTW in 1979. Almost 13, I found immidiately, in the first scene that this beautyful women acting Scarlett is the same from the an old film in black and white I saw previously.
The second film of Vivien’s I saw was ‘Streetcar’ though at the time I didn’t realize it was the same actress who played Scarlett in my all-time favorite film. I definitely think GWTW hooked me. I rather enjoy her earlier films… they are much more light-hearted and whimsical almost. St. Martin’s Lane and Storm in a Teacup are fun films and it appears Vivien had fun playing those roles. However, my favorite films, besides GWTW, are Waterloo and Caesar & Cleopatra. Vivien looks beautiful in b/w and color. Vivien seems so real in Waterloo… so beautiful and modern and tragic.
GWTW was the first Vivien film I saw. It was my gateway drug into old movies and it literally changed my life. That sounds cheesy, but it’s totally true. Without Gone with the Wind, I never would have majored in film, and thus, my life would have been drastically different.
The second was Waterloo Bridge and watching it I remember thinking what a good job she did with an American accent in GWTW, and how much better she was at acting than Robert Taylor. I adore that film
A little off topic…but several years ago Tommy Tune turned “St. Martin’s Lane” (“Sidwalks Of London” in the US release) into a musical and it toured around the USA before it was to open on Broadway. It was called “Busker’s Alley” and Tune played the Laughton role (hard to believe Tommy Tune as Charles Laughton!) but Tune broke his foot before the Broadway opening and it never opened there. I saw it when it played in Cleveland and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The actress who played Vivien’s role was amazing—she looked very much like Vivien and they copied her costumes (close, anyway), esp the pantsuit outfit with stripes when she dances alone in the auditorium. I went with a friend who knew a member of the cast so I got to go backstage to meet Tommy Tune, who was very gracious.
I love that film because Vivien was at her most beautiful and I like the way she films in B&W…plus I liked her in a musical and playing a character that was a bit conniving and naughty like Scarlett.
Her voice in some of her 1930’s films is sometimes stilted and clipped, esp when you see her in the prestigious MGM film “A Yank At Oxford”. As I recall, Selznick was told of Leigh when he was looking for Scarlett and so screened this film and was totally unimpressed. Her voice was also like that in “Storm In a Teacup”. I am sure for the 1930’s British audience her voice was fine but it is hard to accept for a modern American audience (are there website members from other countries who disagree with this?).
It shows what an amazing talent Vivien had as she soon became so magical on film, and her film voice was magnificent.
Anyone else see “Busker’s Alley”?
i saw gwtw the first time and really found her fantatic and i saw it when i was only 9 and my mother tell me the plot because she had read the book.i found her the most as the most beautiful actress.she captured me to watch more of her films as well as classic movies.
secondly , i saw waterloobridge and i thought she is more beautiful in this film than gwtw.my grandfather who owned a cinema during that ere told me that gwtw is not a box-office success while waterloobridge is more successful in Burma.
i have watch streetcar too but i find vivien a bit old but thats because make up . till now i really dont understand the plot .
i have bought the vl dvd pack includes Fire Over England, Annna Karenina .i bought also the roman spring of mrs.stone.
i cant find others.
VL FILM RANKINGS
1.GWTW
2.WATERLOO BRIDGE
3.FIRE OVER ENGLAND
4.A Streetcar Named Desire
5.A ROMAN SPRING OF MRS.STONE
6.ANNA KARENINA
I saw GWTW at age 10 with my mother, and Vivien’s performance sparkled and crackled so on the screen, it held my attention straight through the entire movie. I thought I had never seen a more beautiful woman in my entire life. Also, she was a brunette just like my mother and I. In fact, my mother was nicknamed “Scarlett” when she was a young girl, she looked so much like her. I read GWTW when I was 12, and saw Vivien was the perfect fit. As I grew older, I branched out and saw more of Vivien’s performances: “Waterloo Bridge”, which I can’t watch without crying, she reminds me so of my dear mother, no longer with me, “That Hamliton Woman,” a personal favorite of mine — I love hearing her say, “My dahling..” to Olivier! And of course, Blanche Dubois, when she was playing too close to her own self to distinguish character from the real person. She was poignantly beautiful in “Anna Karenina” and delivered a beautifully understated performance in “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone.” Vivien Leigh is an icon, and a legendary actress who will go down in cinema and stage history as a classic performer who will take her place with the immortals. She was a one-of-a-kind whose likes are not ever to be seen again. I first saw her fifty years ago, and her star still shines as brightly for me as ever — I am also still brunette, and I even wear her perfume.
In “That Hamilton Woman” (“Lady Hamilton”) there was a line Olivier said to Vivien at the stroke of midnight when 1799 became 1800: “Now I have kissed you through two centuries”
Did anyone use that line way back when 1999 became 2000? If you did, it was surely remembered.
Thanks for sharing everyone!
For me it was GWTW. After that it was:
Fire Over England
Waterloo Bridge
Streetcar
That Hamilton Woman
Anna Karenina and many many more…
Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.
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