13 Comments
Dec 31, 2019Liked by Nicole Cliffe

I think this is the movie that inspired the famous aphorism: “if there’s a Ferrari in the picture, it must be destroyed.”

It is very sad about that beautiful car.

My mom loved this movie for the sheer audacity of it. Her preferred SIB was the Judy Garland version

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Dec 30, 2019Liked by Nicole Cliffe

Yay, I get to rec a thing my friend made! I know a brilliant woman with a proper film degree who did a little podcast miniseries about all of the A Star is Born adaptations. I know nothing about film and have seen zero of the four movies (but of course listen faithfully, because that is what friends do) and still enjoyed it. Here's the episode on this one: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/what-did-i-miss/a-rock-star-is-born-f9DEFBLrpzk/

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Jan 1, 2020Liked by Nicole Cliffe

Had never seen it and it was on (no audio) in the bar my friends and I visited after seeing Jojo Rabbit (fantastic). It’s an amazingly satisfying movie to watch w no sound. Kris is gorgeous. Babs is always glowing. I am obsessed with that adobe house, and there’s an edit which makes it seem they ride there from LA on horseback?!?! OH AND KRIS SHOOTS AT A HELICOPTER WITH A PISTOL WHILE IN A POOL. And yes, so much Busey. 5 stars

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Dec 31, 2019Liked by Nicole Cliffe

All 70000 hours of Ken Burns's Country Music doc is worth it for the extremely dreamy Kristofferson material and ALSO his rich family CUT HIM OFF because they were so ASHAMED that he had deigned to become a COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER. Johnny Cash heard about the letter from him mother telling him she wouldn't see him again (because MUSIC) and said "Its always nice having a letter from home, isn't it?"

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I saw the end once very early in the morning and was just like why am I supposed to care about any of these horrible people and it has colored my feelings of all the versions of this movie

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Hmmm ... Does she make all her directors sign NDAs now? I find it so frustrating when “the media” gets the blame for what sources say. I guess I can sort of see why she would be mad at the magazine for publishing the first-person account but, really, this whole thing is a reason TO participate in the traditional reporting process. I don’t think, were I reporting this piece, that I would find it nearly as crazy as the director does. Project was personal to her, she was handling romantic issues, and it sounds like she’s the sort of person who needs to really sit with things before she’s okay doing anything. Bad trait for producing a movie on a deadline but it’s not CRAZY.

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I think so many of the issues derived from there being ludicrous situations around who had final cut approval, etc. It’s impossible to work together productively when it’s not clear who has what job.

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Yes! I really felt for everybody involved when I read the remark about being a star so you can be in control. I fantasize so often about what life would be like if I were to have complete control of my life and every time I follow the daydream out to its logical conclusions, I end up disappointed and under someone else’s thumb, even if it’s only indirectly.

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Oh my gosh, that article!! Jon sounds just awful.

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My mom loves her so much. I like Kris Kristofferson. He was one of my fist crushes as a little girl in the late 70' and early 80's. I love her singing and I love country music, as do both my parents.

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Saw this in the theater my senior year of high school, with two highly impressionable friends. By the end, they were SOBBING as though they had lost a beloved pet, and I could not stop LAUGHING.

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I do feel that bc even though I was watching for lulz I did get a lil choked up when Kris died.

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Dec 31, 2019Liked by Nicole Cliffe

:) I think about A Star is Born a lot. It's just about as overwrought as a script can be, but it really does tug at one (hence the nearly generational remake). Every version has a bit of camp (Babs's, of course, is the campiest). But I've watched them all--sat up late at night a few weeks ago and watched Lady Gaga's version and found it moving. And, for the record, I'm actually a big Streisand fan and have seen ALL her movies. I rejected 70s aesthetics in real time, which kinda ruined her "Star" for me.

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