Funny though, some sort of squeezebox was present in the audio of the Valentino film but not in the band visuals.
Another changer, a very articulate young black woman:
Former progressive activist Sabrina Joy Stevens spent nearly two decades inside the world of left-wing activism—working across education, women’s rights, racial justice, and political advocacy.
In this episode of Confessions, she explains how an ideology built around oppressors and victims shaped her worldview, why the contradictions she witnessed during 2020 finally pushed her to question it, and what happened when she walked away. She also reflects on the forces keeping progressive activism alive—from nonprofit incentives and ideological conformity to grievance politics—and why she believes its influence is far from over.
I’ve seen Some Like It Hot many times, though not for quite a while now.
It was a couple years ago, when I was enjoying a cover band at a local spot and this young couple danced to a light hearted song with the right tempo for them.
They had the dance floor to themselves. I could tell they were doing West Coast Swing and she was leading him. They may have been married, but she was slightly taller than he and had a more sturdy frame as well.
Then it dawned on me… There was a West Coast Swing competition in town and they had taken over one of the large hotels. These two were pros. Their dancing was both quite amazing and hysterically funny. It wasn’t just that they switched their gender roles, but also that he was really hamming up his feminine dancing style. With WCS, it is the female that has most of the flashy maneuvers. She was dipping him with ease.
They danced to other songs that night and he was just as capable in the male leading role as well.
“Some Like It Hot” opened to critical and commercial success and is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made.
What is the matter with people, he asked rhetorically.
I think Some Like It Hot is very good, but not that great. Billy Wilder has a few outstanding films such as Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd., and The Apartment. Others like “Hot” are just very good.
The backstory on the making of Some Like It Hot was rather nasty, largely because Marilyn was drunk or on pills much of the time. Tony Curtis was struggling with his aristocratic accent, which was somewhat hit or miss for him. But he would prep himself and usually nail it on the first or second take. Marilyn couldn’t remember her lines and would typically require a dozen takes with coaching on her lines.
The problem was that Curtis’ accent would start to fall apart as they got to the 5th or 6th take. It was a nightmare for Wilder. There is a scene where Marilyn is in a hotel room, opens a dresser drawer and looks into it, and then delivers a couple lines. They put a sheet of paper in the drawer with her lines on it.
Wilder refused to invite Marilyn to the wrap party when shooting was finished.
I’m one of those people who thinks “Some Like it Hot” is extremely funny. For me, Jack Lemmon makes the movie. He is enjoying himself so manically that it always makes me laugh.
Depends if “great” means great acting, script, characters etc or just very enjoyable to watch. SLIH rates very high in the second though the same could be said of a few Marx Bros. films or even “This Is Spinal Tap”.
I made a list a few years ago of my own “ten greatest films”. The only comedy-adjacent movies on the list were “Dr. Strangelove” and “Network”. Both went a lot deeper than SLIH as well as featuring unforgettable performances by Peter Sellers, William Holden, Faye Dunaway and Peter Finch. My #1 film was “On The Waterfront”.
Yes, “Hot” is very funny. Jack Lemon is film magic IMO. So many great Billy Wilder comedies AND Lemon comedies.
I’ve only seen The Apartment once (I’ll put that on my list going forward) and at first I was thinking that it’s a Wilder-Lemon collaboration that is not a comedy, but I see it is described as a dark comedy and farce as well as a psychological drama and romance. So Lemon’s comedic chops come into play.
Irma la Douce is another Wilder-Lemon comedy.
An old favorite of mine is Good Neighbor Sam (1964) with Lemon and Romy Schneider. It is something of a classic slice of life in the 1960’s and I thought very funny, although as a teen and young man I appreciated sophomoric humor more than I do now.
Schneider is very lovely in the film. She’s also great in an old French film La Piscine (The Swimming Pool, 1969) if you can find it. Much later, I found out about the rather crazy and sad arc of her life.
For a time, Netflix was showing a lot interesting documentaries about Nazi Germany and the war. One of them included home movie footage of Hitler entertaining guests at his mountain retreat. There was 3 or 4 year old Romy Schneider toddling around with her mom who was a famous stage actress at the time. Out on the patio with Hitler.
Yes. Billy Wilder made more great films in more genres of filmmaking, than anyone else. I think he’s therefore the GOAT Director.
His only rival is, I think, the Great American director John Ford. But his range of filmmaking is more limited than Wilder’s. Ford was a more devoted lover of America, too.
Both with immigrant backgrounds— Ford from Ireland, and Wilder more recently from Austria (and Jewish instead of Catholic).
Does Anyone understand the Maria Bartiromo, Fox News kerfuffle? Apparently she was fired for colluding with the Trump White House but now she denies that she’s been fired. Let’s see if she does her Sunday morning show.
My favorite tango is Yira Yira/Gira Gira, composed by Enrique Discepolo (There were Discepolos in my hometown). Here are videos of Gira Gira with English and Spanish lyrics.
When talking about Yerba—this is about the universal Argentine drink, Yerba Mate. The singer is really down on his luck when he can afford only day-old Yerba mate (drying in the sun/secandose al sol).
Translation is tricky because of the use of Lunfardo–slang of Buenos Aires. Some translations I have seen fall really flat because they don’t know how to handle Lunfardo.
Bob Wilson, I suspect the answer is in the contract she signed in Feb. It’s probably just a question of how much it’s gonna cost Fox to persuade her to go away.
Ex-NBA player sues WNBA team, city of Chicago over T-shirt, ejection, and ban:
On Sept. 3, Enes Kanter Freedom filed suit in Chicago federal court against the Chicago Women’s Basketball Operations LLC, the formal business name of the Chicago Sky professional women’s basketball team; the city of Chicago; and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority.
[…]
In furtherance of what Freedom describes as as his support for women-only sports leagues, Freedom earlier this year declared he would identify as a “woman” for the purposes of winning the chance to play in the WNBA.
Neo: “I’m one of those people who thinks “Some Like it Hot” is extremely funny. ” Me too! Perhaps the best comedy ever filmed. The plot, the dialogue, and the performances are superb. But taking the tango as a leitmotif—and in a register very different from comedy—a novella by the Argentine writer Manuel Puig comes to mind: Boquitas Pintadas (English title Heartbreak Tango). It seems to me this is an underrated book and a rewarding read.
There’s always something about a Wilder picture, most often a sly European critique of the American Puritan ethos, but not always.
His “An American Affair” opens with a plane coming majestically down through the clouds, bearing a US Congress delegation, eventually landing at war-ravaged Berlin. Every time I look at it, I wonder if that opening is a sly reference to the opening of “Triumph of the Will,” which similarly delivers Hitler to a rally in Munich, IIRC.
“No one is saying …..”
Sorry, I don’t put it past someone saying that.
Ivana is stating the blunt truth of today’s progressive mores. Some mass murderers get more slack than others.
A horrible crime, a farce of justice.
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Bandoneon alone, Orlando Dibelo, “La Cumparsita” (3:39): https://youtu.be/vD5lGb1YzS8
Funny though, some sort of squeezebox was present in the audio of the Valentino film but not in the band visuals.
Another changer, a very articulate young black woman:
Former progressive activist Sabrina Joy Stevens spent nearly two decades inside the world of left-wing activism—working across education, women’s rights, racial justice, and political advocacy.
In this episode of Confessions, she explains how an ideology built around oppressors and victims shaped her worldview, why the contradictions she witnessed during 2020 finally pushed her to question it, and what happened when she walked away. She also reflects on the forces keeping progressive activism alive—from nonprofit incentives and ideological conformity to grievance politics—and why she believes its influence is far from over.
Sabrina’s substack: https://sabrinajoystevens.substack.com/
Follow her on socials: @realsabijoy on Instagram, TikTok & YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2noJMZYEQeQ
I’ve seen Some Like It Hot many times, though not for quite a while now.
It was a couple years ago, when I was enjoying a cover band at a local spot and this young couple danced to a light hearted song with the right tempo for them.
They had the dance floor to themselves. I could tell they were doing West Coast Swing and she was leading him. They may have been married, but she was slightly taller than he and had a more sturdy frame as well.
Then it dawned on me… There was a West Coast Swing competition in town and they had taken over one of the large hotels. These two were pros. Their dancing was both quite amazing and hysterically funny. It wasn’t just that they switched their gender roles, but also that he was really hamming up his feminine dancing style. With WCS, it is the female that has most of the flashy maneuvers. She was dipping him with ease.
They danced to other songs that night and he was just as capable in the male leading role as well.
“Some Like It Hot” opened to critical and commercial success and is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_Like_It_Hot
__________________________________
I’ve seen it twice.
While it’s a good film with its moments and a notable appearance by Monroe, I’ve never understood its elevation by some to “greatest” status.
–“Dolly Parton’s Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Is Being Repaired Following Vandalism”
https://people.com/dolly-parton-star-hollywood-walk-of-fame-to-be-replaced-following-vandalism-12076347
____________________________________
What is the matter with people, he asked rhetorically.
I think Some Like It Hot is very good, but not that great. Billy Wilder has a few outstanding films such as Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd., and The Apartment. Others like “Hot” are just very good.
The backstory on the making of Some Like It Hot was rather nasty, largely because Marilyn was drunk or on pills much of the time. Tony Curtis was struggling with his aristocratic accent, which was somewhat hit or miss for him. But he would prep himself and usually nail it on the first or second take. Marilyn couldn’t remember her lines and would typically require a dozen takes with coaching on her lines.
The problem was that Curtis’ accent would start to fall apart as they got to the 5th or 6th take. It was a nightmare for Wilder. There is a scene where Marilyn is in a hotel room, opens a dresser drawer and looks into it, and then delivers a couple lines. They put a sheet of paper in the drawer with her lines on it.
Wilder refused to invite Marilyn to the wrap party when shooting was finished.
I’m one of those people who thinks “Some Like it Hot” is extremely funny. For me, Jack Lemmon makes the movie. He is enjoying himself so manically that it always makes me laugh.
Re Nepal, Trump, CNN:
https://notthebee.com/article/cnn-edits-headline-after-trying-to-blame-trump-for-glacial-landslide-in-nepal
Depends if “great” means great acting, script, characters etc or just very enjoyable to watch. SLIH rates very high in the second though the same could be said of a few Marx Bros. films or even “This Is Spinal Tap”.
I made a list a few years ago of my own “ten greatest films”. The only comedy-adjacent movies on the list were “Dr. Strangelove” and “Network”. Both went a lot deeper than SLIH as well as featuring unforgettable performances by Peter Sellers, William Holden, Faye Dunaway and Peter Finch. My #1 film was “On The Waterfront”.
Yes, “Hot” is very funny. Jack Lemon is film magic IMO. So many great Billy Wilder comedies AND Lemon comedies.
I’ve only seen The Apartment once (I’ll put that on my list going forward) and at first I was thinking that it’s a Wilder-Lemon collaboration that is not a comedy, but I see it is described as a dark comedy and farce as well as a psychological drama and romance. So Lemon’s comedic chops come into play.
Irma la Douce is another Wilder-Lemon comedy.
An old favorite of mine is Good Neighbor Sam (1964) with Lemon and Romy Schneider. It is something of a classic slice of life in the 1960’s and I thought very funny, although as a teen and young man I appreciated sophomoric humor more than I do now.
Schneider is very lovely in the film. She’s also great in an old French film La Piscine (The Swimming Pool, 1969) if you can find it. Much later, I found out about the rather crazy and sad arc of her life.
For a time, Netflix was showing a lot interesting documentaries about Nazi Germany and the war. One of them included home movie footage of Hitler entertaining guests at his mountain retreat. There was 3 or 4 year old Romy Schneider toddling around with her mom who was a famous stage actress at the time. Out on the patio with Hitler.
Yes. Billy Wilder made more great films in more genres of filmmaking, than anyone else. I think he’s therefore the GOAT Director.
His only rival is, I think, the Great American director John Ford. But his range of filmmaking is more limited than Wilder’s. Ford was a more devoted lover of America, too.
Both with immigrant backgrounds— Ford from Ireland, and Wilder more recently from Austria (and Jewish instead of Catholic).
Does Anyone understand the Maria Bartiromo, Fox News kerfuffle? Apparently she was fired for colluding with the Trump White House but now she denies that she’s been fired. Let’s see if she does her Sunday morning show.
My favorite tango is Yira Yira/Gira Gira, composed by Enrique Discepolo (There were Discepolos in my hometown). Here are videos of Gira Gira with English and Spanish lyrics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uA7WhCo790 This has a better English translation, but it translates only one of the two verses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AARqJm2x-Ns&list=RDAARqJm2x-Ns&start_radio=1 Not as good a translation, but both verses
When talking about Yerba—this is about the universal Argentine drink, Yerba Mate. The singer is really down on his luck when he can afford only day-old Yerba mate (drying in the sun/secandose al sol).
Translation is tricky because of the use of Lunfardo–slang of Buenos Aires. Some translations I have seen fall really flat because they don’t know how to handle Lunfardo.
Bob Wilson, I suspect the answer is in the contract she signed in Feb. It’s probably just a question of how much it’s gonna cost Fox to persuade her to go away.
Ex-NBA player sues WNBA team, city of Chicago over T-shirt, ejection, and ban:
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_42cc4b08-2982-508a-b757-b9fdd7ee80e8.html
Neo: “I’m one of those people who thinks “Some Like it Hot” is extremely funny. ” Me too! Perhaps the best comedy ever filmed. The plot, the dialogue, and the performances are superb. But taking the tango as a leitmotif—and in a register very different from comedy—a novella by the Argentine writer Manuel Puig comes to mind: Boquitas Pintadas (English title Heartbreak Tango). It seems to me this is an underrated book and a rewarding read.
There’s always something about a Wilder picture, most often a sly European critique of the American Puritan ethos, but not always.
His “An American Affair” opens with a plane coming majestically down through the clouds, bearing a US Congress delegation, eventually landing at war-ravaged Berlin. Every time I look at it, I wonder if that opening is a sly reference to the opening of “Triumph of the Will,” which similarly delivers Hitler to a rally in Munich, IIRC.
“No one is saying …..”
Sorry, I don’t put it past someone saying that.
Ivana is stating the blunt truth of today’s progressive mores. Some mass murderers get more slack than others.
A horrible crime, a farce of justice.