Word: hollywoodism
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...Fonda was just the opposite: a triumph of convex geometry, his thin body a question mark that ambled at Stepin Fetchit pace toward a girl or a cause. Katharine Hepburn seemed always on the ascendant, scaling the invisible ramp of her own confidence. But of all the Golden Age Hollywood stars it was Fred Astaire who defined screen movement, for the 30s and forever. With athletic nonchalance, he showed moviegoers how the human body could express strength, savoir-faire, rapture, amazing grace...
...Italian films were often disguised as Hollywood films. They were in English (as released here) and usually boasted an American male star surrounded by a busty bambina and a cast of local scenery-chewers. Anthony Quinn must have had dual citizenship back then: he played in "Attila" with Sophia Loren, "Ulysses" with Kirk Douglas and Silvana Mangano, and Fellini's Oscar-winning "La Strada" with Giulietta Masina. I didn't see the "Hercules" movies and other sword-and-sand epics, but they were probably the biggest-grossing Italian pictures of the decade...
...Antonioni's first two features, "Cronaca di un amore" and "The Lady Without Camelias." Second place went to Gianna Maria Canale, who was "Theodora Slave Empress" before co-starring in "Hercules." And in third place: Gina Lollobrigida, one of an imposing group of Italian actresses to star in Hollywood as well as Italian movies. The list is long and enticing: Valentina Cortese, who made the 40s "Thieves Highway"; delicate Pier Angeli and her twin sister Marisa Pavan; Magnani, who won an Oscar for her first Hollywood movie, "The Rose Tattoo"; and the ever-intoxicating Valli (Hitchcock's "The Paradine Case...
...Hollywood had cast a worldwide net, globetrotting for new locations to fill the CinemaScope screen (thus proving its superiority, in size as well as quality, to TV) and for fetching females of all nationalities. Italians filled the bill. Exotic yet earthy, they couldn't be reduced to the American stereotypes: teen queens or cartoons of lust. The Italians were grown-ups, women with a capital Wow. Some of them were so buxom that an irreverent friend from my youth called their home country "Titaly...
...Eventually Hollywood paged her. For her debut, as a pearl-diver in "Boy on a Dolphin," she emerged from the sea in a clinging outfit that, when I was about 12, instantly induced puberty. But Loren had the whole package: swan neck, laughing voice, a poise and perfect posture rare among tall women and, not least, the gift to inhabit any role, serious or silly, as if she'd been born there. For me, Loren was Italian cinema incarnate - until Claudia Cardinale came along, and then Stefania Sandrelli. The Italian-actress assembly line just kept producing masterpieces...