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Article: Shots in the dark: why the lure of the old-timers is still so strong.(Movie Column)
- Article from:
- Interview
- Article date:
- August 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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I was fascinated to learn that Gwyneth Paltrow had been cast as Marlene Dietrich in a film based on Maria Riva's memoir about her mother. Though the Dietrich mystique is inimitable, Paltrow is capable of capturing Dietrich's hauteur and erotic languor onscreen, and her insatiable romantic appetite off it. One of her major challenges will be to embody Dietrich in her pre-Hollywood years, when, in The Blue Angel (1930), she was the fleshy epitome of cheerful vulgarity in Weimar Germany.
I'm less convinced the film's makers will be able to find suitable actors to play Dietrich's friends, colleagues, and lovers, an elite who's who of European and American showbiz ...