Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier

This is London calling

By Kendra + November 25, 2011

London is such a photogenic city that I have a had time keeping my camera turned off. On Monday, my friend Ali and I did a circular walk from Trafalgar Square to Lambeth Bridge, across to the South Bank and over to St Paul’s Cathedral (where I got to test my new tripod) before walking back to Holborn and catching the bus to Crouch End. This route is part of the Jubilee Walkway, a project chaired by Vivien Leigh biographer and friend of vivandlarry.com Hugo Vickers. Our mission was to get some good shots along the walk, which offers brilliant views of some of London’s most iconic landmarks.

Mission accomplished? I like to think so. We even said hello to Laurence Olivier along the way.

All photos in this post © Kendra Bean

interviews

Interview with author Ellen F. Brown

By Kendra + November 20, 2011

2011 marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of my favorite of all favorite books, Gone with the Wind. Back in August I wrote about the documentary Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel, produced earlier this year for PBS, and just a couple of weeks ago, I reviewed the insightful and wonderfully written biography of the book Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind: A Bestseller’s Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood. Today, I’m excited to share with you an interview with Ellen F. Brown, the award-winning author of A Bestseller’s Odyssey. Ellen was kind enough to answer questions relating to her research and some of the interesting things she and co-author John Wiley, Jr. unearthed relating to Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier’s experience during the huge uproar surrounding Selznick’s blockbuster film.

cinema experiences

Cinema Experiences: Hamlet

By Kendra + November 14, 2011

Its been a long while since I’ve done a post in the Cinema Experiences feature! I have actually seen a few classic films on the big screen since my last post about Gone with the Wind at the Prince Charles in Soho, but just didn’t have time to write about them. Fast forward to yesterday evening. The Ritzy cinema in Brixton is currently doing a series called the “A to Z of Cinema.” Today happened to be “O for Olivier” so my friend Chris and I went down to watch the Oscar-winning Hamlet (1948). And it was a celluloid print that made for some scratchy old-school viewing. I loved it.

Hamlet has long been my favorite of Laurence Olivier’s Shakespeare trilogy, and one of my favorite from his filmography as a whole. And I’m not just saying that because it condenses a 4 hour play into little more than 2.5 hours (although I have to admit that does help). No. I’m saying it because it feels more cinematic than Henry V or Richard III. There’s an artistry that is not present in the other two films, and indeed, this is what Olivier was striving for when he chose to collaborate with Alan Dent to adapt Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy for the screen.

With Henry V, Olivier wanted to bring theatre and cinema close together. He did so obviously by bookending the live-action with scenes set on the Elizabethan stage. In contrast, Hamlet is purely cinematic. Soliloquies are done by a mixture of speaking out loud and voice over, the later of which wouldn’t work in the live theatre. Although most of the story takes place inside a Elsinor Castle, the use of deep focus photography lets us know that what we are watching is “real”. However, what seems to really interest Olivier, and the theme around which all aspects of the film revolve, is Hamlet’s psychology. This is evidenced by the bare sets, moody black and white photography, and the loud, throbbing heart beat noises whenever Hamlet starts to go a bit off the rails.

Chris knows of my fondness for Larry and asked what it was about him as an actor that I liked best. I thought for a split second before answering. The thing I like most about Laurence Olivier as an actor is his voice. I love listening to him recite Shakespeare (okay, I’d listen to him recite the phone book but that’s beside the point) because he speaks the lines so naturally and you can just tell he actually understands the nuances and phraseology. It’s rather poetic and beautiful.

But back to the actual cinema experience. Sitting in possibly the most comfortable seats ever in one of the oldest picturehouses in London with a box of salty and sweet popcorn whilst a very handsome, blonde-haired Laurence Olivier rattles off Olde English as if it’s modern language? Priceless.

general discussion

La Reine Adjani

By Kendra + November 9, 2011

What’s this? A post about someone other than Vivien Leigh or Laurence Olivier? Yes, you read that right. Whenever I’ve highlighted other celebrities on this site it’s usually because they were somehow related to the Oliviers. This post differs in that respect. Today I have decided to dedicate this space to someone completely unrelated to the subjects of this website, and, to top it all off, she’s a modern actress. Yet, as I will explain, she is fully deserving of the spotlight.

I’m talking about Isabelle Adjani, the two-time Oscar nominee and winner of the most Caesar Awards (the French equivalent of the Oscars) for acting in cinema history. I first saw Isabelle on screen about three years ago when I watched Roman Polanski’s thriller The Tenant for the first time. But it wasn’t until last year when I wrote a paper about Werner Herzog’s remake of F.W. Murnau’s silent vampire classic Nosferatu for a film class that I really became aware of her. As Lucy Harker, her stunning beauty contrasted brilliantly with Klaus Kinski’s monstrous visage.

Throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s, she was one of France’s biggest stars, working with many of the greatest directors of European cinema including Roman Polanski (The Tenant), Herzog (Nosferatu the Vampyre), Andrezj Zulawski (Possession), Francois Truffaut (L’Historie d’Adele H.) and Luc Besson (Subway, and the music video for her pop hit Pull Marine). She was renowned for a combination of looks and exceptional acting talent, and although now 55 and admittedly a fan of anti-aging remedies such as botox, she beat out the likes of Brigitte Bardot, Ava Gardner, Catherine Deneuve and even Vivien Leigh to top an LA Times Magazine list of the “most beautiful women in film” earlier this year.

Adjani as Adele Hugo in L’Historie d’Adele H.

I recently “rediscovered” Adjani in the 1975 costume drama/biopic L’Historie d’Adele H. (The Story of Adele H.) and was blown away by her performance (so much so that I reviewed the film for YAM Magazine). She plays Adele Hugo, youngest daughter of Les Miserables author Victor Hugo, whose obsessive, unrequited love for British soldier Albert Pinson drives her to madness. Only 20 when this film was made, she picked up an Oscar nomination that validated her promise as a rising talent (she lost out to Louise Fletcher for her chilling performance as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). As Kimberly Lindbergs at Cinebeats aptly pointed out, it would have been easy for Adjani to make a name for herself based on looks alone, but instead of accepting a string of glamorous roles, she chose to broaden her horizons and play characters that offered her the chance to display her acting skills. Many of the women she portrays–Anna in Possession, Marguerite de Valois in La Reine Margot, Camille Claudel in Camille Claudel–combine enchanting beauty and sexuality with madness, and she holds nothing back. The results are often jarring and somewhat disturbing. You actually believe that she is being rather than acting and she projects a palpable intensity that makes it difficult to pay attention to anyone else sharing a scene with her.

In many ways, Adjani reminds me very much of Vivien Leigh and that’s probably partly why I think she’s so amazing. In fact, we were having a discussion over at the Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier Facebook page about how if a biopic had been made about Vivien 30 years ago, she would have been a great choice to “step into” Scarlett O’Hara’s shoes. Born in France to a German mother and Algerian father, Isabelle Adjani definitely had the right look. She is also trilingual and has performed in French, German and English. Like Vivien, Adjani has refused to be typecast, and has interspersed her film career with performances on stage (including several plays at the Comedie Francais). Like Vivien, she had a face that was suitable for costume dramas and has starred in many period films. She even played Marguerite Gautier in a stage version of Alexandre Dumas fils’ Le Dame aux camélias. Behold, the gorgeousness!

I would definitely recommend watching some of Isabelle Adjani’s films. She is truly a tour de force on screen and has quickly shot up to the top of my list of favorite modern actresses (of which there aren’t many).

Check out these clips if this post hasn’t quite persuaded you:

Isabelle Adjani as Adele Hugo in L’Historie d’Adele H.
Isabelle Adjani as Anna in Possession
Isabelle Adjani as Stella in The Tenant
Isabelle Adjani as Queen Margot in La Reine Margot

*Some screencaps by the Isabelle Adjani Blog | gif by rhera

vivien leigh

Remember, Remember the 5th of November

By Kendra + November 5, 2011

People have already started setting off fireworks in north London for Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes’, a celebration of the failed Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament in 1605. For Vivien Leigh fans, this day has a different kind of significance because it happens to be her birthday. Vivian Mary Hartley was born on the evening of November 5, 1913 in Darjeeling, India. Here at vivandlarry.com, there has been a tribute every year since the site was launched. In 2010, I took some roses to her former home in 54 Eaton Square, Blegravia, one of the most swanky neighborhoods in London where a blue English Heritage plaque reminds passers-by that a Very Important Person once resided there. This year, I invited other people to join. Many fans who visit the site live overseas, and many in London weren’t able to make it, but a few of us got together to celebrate!

I met Anthony, a Polish fan who now lives in London, at Victoria Station where we bought a bouquet of flowers before walking over to Eaton Square. There we met Zara and Chloe, two fabulous young ladies who attended the Weekend with the Oliviers back in May. A nice woman pushing a pram let us into the garden where we snapped some photos of the bench that Gertrude Hartley (Vivien’s mother) dedicated to her famous daughter in 1967, following Vivien’s death. We also had a celebrity sighting when we saw two-time Oscar winner Luise Rainer being escorted into No. 54 by her caregiver. The 101 year old German actress now occupies Vivien’s old flat.

Afterward, the four of us had lunch on the top floor of Peter Jones department store in Sloane Square, which offered a beautiful view of the rooftops of Kensington and Chelsea. They had good scones, too. This was followed by a walk over to Durham Cottage, which is looking particularly lovely and antiquated with all of the falling leaves.

Having done so many bi-annual tributes for Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, it’s difficult to think of anything new to say about why I admire them, or why I’m glad that so many other people still share in this admiration. I only know that I do still admire Vivien Leigh and I am glad that other people still do, as well. She’s been dead for nearly 45 years and yet so many people still love and remember her. I think this is a true testament to her legacy.

Vivien Leigh

November 5, 1913 – July 7, 1967

“Only England could have produced her. She was the perfect English rose. When the door opened and she was there, she was so terribly good-looking. She had such an exquisite unreality about her.” – former Vogue editor in chief Diana Vreeland