Speaking of sounding gay (see previous post), can I take a moment to say how fantastic Cate Blanchett's performance is as Katharine Hepburn in "The Aviator?" I was completely skeptical that anyone could pull this off without becoming just a caricature (especially since the real Katharine Hepburn was practically a caricature of herself!) but Blanchett nailed it! I've never seen anyone inhabit the role of a real person so completely. And how cool that within a year of Hepburn's death, someone might win an Oscar for playing her on film. Blanchett's performance was way more than an impersonation, although she does master the accent and mannerisms. She is the main reason I'd sit through that film again. Kate Beckinsale is also good as Ava Gardner, although I still prefer Marcia Gay Harden's depiction (I can't even remember what movie that was in). And DiCaprio exceeds expectations as Howard Hughes. The scene where Hughes visits the Hepburns at their Connecticut estate is worth the price of admission. Frances Conroy is great as Katharine Hepburn's mother—you don't even think of her Ruth Fisher character once (or the fact that she's probably very close in age to Cate Blanchett!). Was there any family more fascinating, intelligent, and irritating as the Hepburns?
My favorite Katharine Hepburn movie, of course, is "The Philadelphia Story." I was surprised they didn't mention in "The Aviator" that Howard Hughes bought the film rights to the play for Hepburn, which she then sold to MGM on the condition that she play Tracy Lord. If Hughes hadn't done this, Hepburn would never have been able to star in the film version since that was around the time she was insanely labelled "box-office poison." Here are two of my favorite Katharine Hepburn quotations: "Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four," and "Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then." To her credit, I think Hepburn always realized what a pain in the ass she was in real life.
Is there any better scene in movie history than when Tracy Lord first meets Macauley Connor and Liz Imbrie?
Tracy: You're a kind of, um, writer, aren't you, Mr. Connor?
Mike: Sort of.
Tracy: A book?
Mike: Yes.
Tracy: Under what name do you publish?
Mike: My own. Macauley Connor.
Tracy: What's the 'Macauley' for?
Mike: Well, my father taught English History. I'm, I'm Mike to my friends.
Tracy: Of whom you have many, I'm sure. English History - it's always fascinated me. Cromwell, Robin Hood, Jack the Ripper. Where did he teach? I mean your father -
Mike: In a little high school in South Bend, Indiana.
Tracy: South Bend! It sounds like dancing, doesn't it? You must have had a most happy childhood there.
Mike: Yeah, it was terrific.
Tracy: I'm so glad.
Mike: No, I didn't mean it that way.
Tracy: I'm so sorry. Why?
Mike: Uh, well, lack of where-with-all I guess.
And then Virginia Weidler's Dinah Lord bursts in ("My real name is Diana but my sister changed it."). The best! But don't even get me started on the horrific Grace Kelly version, "High Society."
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