Book Description
Actors, directors, and teachers now have the opportunity to study with the legendary actress and teacher Uta Hagen for the first time on DVD. Shot over the course of two years, the interaction between Ms. Hagen and the actors and audience puts the viewer right in the room. All ten of her celebrated Object Exercises are clarified and performed. Jack Lemmon, Whoopi Goldberg and Christine Lahti, among others - all former students - recall their classes with Ms. Hagen and her enduring influence on their work. As Ms. Hagen herself states, "When I believe that there is a human being in action up there, in that moment, alive - right there - then I get spellbound. When you really achieve that understanding of human nature, the ability to place yourselves in the shoes of another human being and reveal that life onstage, is to me the ultimate experience." 2 DVDS, 200 MINUTES TOTAL! Uta Hagen has received the Tony and Drama Critics Awards for her roles in Odets' The Country Girl and Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. She won an Obie Award for her role in Mrs. Klein and was awarded a Tony for Special Lifetime Achievement and the National Endowment for the Arts Medal of Honor. "Because I love the theater, and believe it to be not only the actor's training but testing ground, it is with great pleasure that I recommend this set." - Meryl Streep "Here is Ms. Hagen at her extraordinary best - witty, compassionate, inspired and inspiring. Will watching this make you a better actor, director or teacher? Yes, yes and yes!" - David Hyde Pierce "How fortunate that Hagen's teaching has been captured on film ... This is an important work." - Library Journal "It is absolutely required viewing." - Richard Brown, Professor of Humanities, New York University
Customer Reviews:
Utta Hagen's Acting Class: The DVD.......2007-03-28
This is an amazing investment for any actor, whether beginner or advanced. These dvds are actual classes and exercises by Uta Hagen herself, it seems as if you're right there in the class with her. For any actor out there who wants to advance and refine his or her craft, I absolutely recommend it.
Excellent .......2007-03-14
This dvd is perfect for the novice or the student.Ms. Hagen has a very engaging style and interacts well with her students. The different scenes are approached and critiqued in helpful ways without a lot of grand-standing or diva attitude. This lady is a professional and treats all with respect.Many comments from famous students like Amanda Peet and Whoopee Goldberg also add to the texture of the workshops.
Great to learn from the original source.......2006-12-03
These dvd's are a great tool for actors AND directors. Too often, directors (especially in film) neglect to study the acting discipline in sufficient depth to communicate well with their primary collaborators. DVDs like this can help do that without going through a lengthy and expensive class. Also recommended are the Sanford Meisner DVDs, called Sanford Meisner Master Class.
fantastic.......2006-11-06
Absolute gold, a real asset for any aspiring or professional actor and/or director for that matter.
Uta Hagen Acting Class DVD.......2006-07-30
I initially purchased this product because I was alerted to the fact that Robert Gant (of Queer as Folk fame) participated in it; but it was really a lot more entertaining on many other levels. She is a very insightful woman and the DVD is funny, provoking and just plain entertaining. There are a few well-known faces that pop up but the actual acting exercises are great to watch; even if you're not an aspiring thespian!
Check it out.
Customer Reviews:
great learning tool.......2007-04-12
a terrific tape for student and teacher alike taught by a master actor who knows film acting
Customer Reviews:
a standing ovation to kino.......2007-05-10
whenever i have to prepare for a production of 'cabaret' or 'chicago', i make it a point to refer to 'applause'. the arts camp i work at will be doing 'chicago' and i'm choreographing it. i will be driving my cabin mate nuts with it because i will watch it and other musicals of roxie's time a lot!
mamoulian was a maverick. it is hard to get the uninformed to appreciate what he was doing because there have been so many advances in film since 1929. but think of what sound did to slow movies down to a creeeping crawl at that point. and how this film has scenes that move and sweep along. the camera angles on many of the shots are arresting and they help to push you into that seedy milieu of kitty and april's world.
then, there's that wonderful, heart in the throat performance from helen morgan. she really does some astonishing work with the character, especially at the end. she would never be as good on film as she was in this film.
but mainly, though i enjoy morgan's work, i like to look at the dance steps of the 1920s and i like to see how they were set. then it's a good mix as i combine them with what people expect to see. and the style. and the design. and the capture of a pre-depression era manhattan. then i get back to morgan again and it's time for another enthusiastic viewing of a great film and a great time capsule of 1920s style girlie show.
Applause is not exactly everything these gals are gonna get..........2007-03-21
Rouben Mamoulian created a masterpiece in Applause, a movie that studies the dark, seamy and sleazy side of show business burlesque. The reviewers are right; Mamoulian makes it clear that this burlesque show won't exactly attract high society: his close up shots of the dancing girls with gold teeth who are not very slender highlight the sleazy elements of the burlesque side of show business and the lecherous men in the audience don't exactly seem like a "soft-sell" crowd either. Indeed, as one reviewer writes you still cringe at the brutality with which the burlesque girls are treated by both the bosses and their audience; their life is full of degradation and rough, hard work as they wish to lead better lives.
This desire for a better life gets its spotlight in Kitty Darling's character, played so ably by the great Helen Morgan. Kitty becomes inextricably tied down to the world of burlesque. However, when Kitty's daughter April is born, Kitty wishes April could lead a better life. Therefore Kitty sends April to a convent with a little prodding from one of her not so loyal men friends, Hitch Nelson, who is played by Fuller Mellish Jr.
Eventually money runs out and Kitty's daughter April, now eighteen or so, leaves the expensive convent school with its sheltered ways of life. April comes to New York to live with her mother Kitty and Hitch. However, although mother and daughter love each other very much, a reconciliation with total honesty may prove difficult. And what will happen after April meets the clean-cut man of her dreams just as her mother Kitty's career and personal life become all undone? A few plots twists later as you watch the film and you will get your answer. However, there will be no spoilers here, folks; you'll have to watch the movie to know how it all works out!
The cinematography is excellent; the camera angles reflect forethought and the camera moves along with the characters, even fading in and out to focus on only certain characters in one scene. Excellent! The black and white stays fairly sharp for the film's age but the sound is not as clear as you would experience in the movie theaters of today.
The DVD offers a few bonuses: direction Rouben Mamoulian gives a brief commentary on the film in retrospect; Helen Morgan sings a song with her real life husband and Helen sings yet another song from another movie which was produced in 1929, the same year that Applause came out in theaters.
I highly recommend this film for film buffs who want to enjoy excellent performances by very capable actors including the famous Helen Morgan. Applause provides us with excellent examples of the camera being used as a tool that moves about instead of being stationery; this in and of itself remains noteworthy in film history as Applause was one of the earliest films to use the camera this way.
Great job, everyone!
A Seedy Life.......2006-11-18
Applause seems like it would be an early musical, but in reality it is more of a drama. There are no memorable songs and performing on a stage is really only a backdrop. Other than a few shimmys here and there, we see basically nothing of the women on stage. What we do see is Helen Morgan as a small time berlesque actress named Kitty Darling in a specialty show who has a baby out of wedlock. Because of the way she lives her life, she sends her daughter away to a convent to go to school, but before long her daughter April (Joan Peers) comes back and is reunited with her mother. Kitty's lover urgers April to enter show business, but it repulses her. Instead, she finds a sweet young man, a sailor who wants to marry her.
There are plenty of conflicts in this film and the overall mood is dismal. The chorus girls are ugly painted dancers, unglamorous and pathetic. Kitty explains that just because you wiggle a little to make some money, it doesn't mean you're a bad person, but it does prove to be a sad existence, especially when your time is up. The film is a commentary on an industry that the world loved and still does love. Because of this, it is timeless.
The camerawork is revolutionary for this time period. In early talkies, there are more often than not static cameras and bad sound quality. The sound isn't perfect, but the moving camera shots that don't switch from angle to angle provide an interesting look into the characters and their lives. It also makes up for the lack of technology elsewhere.
Also included on this disk are some interesting extra features. We hear Morgan sing her signature "What I Wouldn't Do For That Man" in two clips, a video and written interview with director Rouben Mamoulian, and censorship files detailing which parts of the movie were considered to be objectionable and were ejected from many prints.
FAME! [1929 that is!].......2004-06-03
HELEN MORGAN [looking somewhat like Goldie Hawn in 'Death Becomes Her' - before the transformation] shines as the burning out Star [somewhat along the lines of a weaker Madame Rose - who made it to burlesque - but not Broadway] - tied to 'heel' Fuller Mellish Jr. with saintly daughter [Joan Peers]- who brings new meaning to 'the Show Must Go On!' - quite a transformation for this very, very talented gal [strikingly like Carrie Fisher]- Henry Wadsworth as Tony, the Young Sailor brings a breath of wholesome air to this shade tale of burlesque on the skids - brilliantly envisioned and conceived by ROUBEN MAMOULIAN - who certainly went on to bigger, bigger and better things - BUT this one's a real find.
PITY that the existing copy of somewhat damaged [like most of the cast ..... ] but still quite worth watching over and over again.
GREAT CAMERA-WORK - rivalling the world-weary Cabaret girls in 'Blue Angel' - never before have we seen SUCH a large and tired chorus line of gals - and fittingly so - Grandmamas possibly to Fosse's unshaven KitKatClub girls of CABARET.
Bit of a downer - one can see why this one did not quite work - but Helen Morgan is quite unforgettable - so's the rest - especially the very contemporary HENRY WADSWORTH [shades of Brad Pitt here....]
Movie also features great vintage shots of Manhattan's sky line and sky-scrapers circa 1929.
Still Powerful After 75 Years!.......2004-05-03
This nearly l00 year-old movie is still a fascinating excursion into the dark side of the Jazz Age. Made in l929 by wunderkind Rouben Maumoulian, the movie is often so seamy and dark and brutal that you still cringe. Helen Morgan has to be admired for allowing herself to play someone so repulsively weak and cringing. You see her at the turn of the century as hot little Kitty Darling, burlesque performer. She performs with a stable of "beef-trust" gals--genuine over-the-top burlesque dancers--who are all fat, sloppy and so unattractive you wonder if even the bottom of the barrel burlesque houses would have hired them. During this segment, Mamoulian lets you have it between the eyes: a montage of shots of sweating, broken-tooth lechers and bored, exhausted looking women with wrinkled tights and enormous thighs and rumps. Joan Peers portrays the innocent, convent bred daughter who leaves her cocoon and sees her mother on stage for the first time. When "Applause" was first released in late l929, the reaction was definitely ambilavent. Even then, critics and movie goers were turned off by the relentlessly down-beat tempo. Many were hoping to see a glamorous Helen Morgan, the radiant star of the Broadway smash, "Show Boat." What they saw was a flabby, weak looking entertainer who sported a head of bleached curls throughout the movie. You have to wonder why even a weak a character as Kitty Darling would tolerate a boyfriend as sleazy as the one she clings to throughout the movie. Still, this is a fascinating look at what the just emerging "talkers" could produce. Cameras were generally still frozen into place because of that new fangled gadget--the microphone. Mamoulian moves the camera all over the place and creates striking scenes of dramatic lighting and shadows. Unfortunately, this movie did nothing for careers of its talented cast. Helen Morgan made only a few more movies and Joan Peers, who plays her daughter and received glowing reviews, vanished off the radar screen.
Average customer rating:
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Tantalus
Starring:
A Ddhlp 314650
Manufacturer: Applause Books
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
 ( T )
| Titles
| Features
| DVD
| Video
General
| Educational
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
ASIN: 1557835330
Release Date: 2004-09-01 |
Book Description
A fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at one of the most talked about theatre events of our time - Tantalus, the ten-hour, nine-play cycle written by Royal Shakespeare Company co-founder John Barton and directed by Sir Peter Hall.The filmmakers take a "no-holds-barred" approach, exposing the fears, creative tensions and euphoric breakthroughs through the rehearsal period. We are present for the volcanic conflicts between author and director, the grueling rehearsals, the resignations, the schedule havoc, and finally the triumphant opening night. The film team was granted full access, roaming freely through rehearsal halls, climbing catwalks as they captured the gargantuan challenges of mounting this epic reinvention of the ancient Greek myths. 2 DVDs (00314650) or 2 Videos (00314649). 1 hour, 54 minutes.
Customer Reviews:
... And They're Off!.......2007-05-06
This Daily Double of B (or less) movies/documentaries are stills and movie clips collaged in 1990 by Golden West Films and narrated by some guy (Paul Durris) who, one speculates, is Evelyn Wood's (The Evelyn Wood Seven-Day Speed Reading and Learning Program) ADHD brother. Claiming to "exhume and examine," commentating at a Race Track announcer-like clip, Durris dishes deaths of Hollywood famous and infamous, rarely pausing long enough to smell the roses in the funeral parlor or offer new insights.
There *is* included what turned out to be an ironic public service announcement done by James Dean during a break in the filming of Giant (Two-Disc Special Edition) (Digipack) in which he admonishes teen fans to Drive Safely, and background info to make sense of the death of Thomas Harper Ince aboard Wm Randolph Hearst's (root of Citizen Kane, grandaddy to Patty a/k/a Tania, see Patty Hearst: Her Own Story ) yacht, as seen in The Cat's Meow.
From the Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle debacle, through the demise of Marilyn, Morrow, and John Belushi, this duo is often camp preachy a la Reefer Madness (B&W) on the dangers of drugs and demon alcohol, and is mildly entertaining and "informative" in a National Enquirer sort of way. /TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer
DVD.......2007-03-08
Thanks for the dvd. It is really interesting. Great Service. Thanks!!
Average customer rating:
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The Working Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Applause Books
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
General
| Special Interests
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
General
| Educational
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
( W )
| Titles
| Features
| DVD
| Video
Special Interests
| Boxed Sets
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
General
| Instructional
| Miscellaneous
| Styles
| Music
ASIN: B0009A1B3G
Release Date: 2004-09-01 |
Average customer rating:
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Uta Hagen's Acting Class
Manufacturer: Applause Books
ProductGroup: Video
Binding: DVD
General
| Theater
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Musicals & Performing Arts
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Hagen, Uta
| ( H )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
( U )
| Titles
| Features
| DVD
| Video
Genres
| VHS
| Video
| Action & Adventure
| African American Cinema
| Animation
| Anime & Manga
| Art House & International
| Classics
| Comedy
| Cult Movies
| Documentary
| Drama
| Educational
| Fitness
| Gay & Lesbian
| Horror
| Kids & Family
| Military & War
| Music Video & Concerts
| Musicals & Performing Arts
| Mystery & Suspense
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Special Interests
| Sports
| Television
| Westerns
ASIN: 1557835004 |
Book Description
In the UTA HAGEN'S ACTING CLASS video set, the revered actress holds forth on all the salient points of her approach to character, probing the text, testing technique, and challenging her students to act and think; act and reflect; act and choose. Above all, the viewer will learn that in Uta Hagen's classes, acting is doing. Not thinking or feeling, but in action. Clear and practical, her teaching is behavior based. "It's in the doing that we believe." The videos, 90 minutes each, provide illuminating examples of her teaching points selected from two hundred hours of recorded classes over a two year period. All ten of her famous "Object Exercises" are performed and critiqued. We watch as the actors/students present their scene and Uta gives her comments. As the student re-works the scene, we actually see her guide the student to be better.
DVD:
- Verdi - Macbeth / Welser-Most, Hampson, Marrocu, Zurich Opera
- W.E.W., Vol. 5
- Watership Down DVD 2 Pack (Journey to Watership Down/Escape to Watership Down)
- What Girls Learn
- While You Were Sleeping
- William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life (Broadway Theatre Archive)
- With A Friend Like Harry
- Without a Trace - The Complete First Season
- Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl
- Zodiac (Widescreen Edition)
DVD
DVD
Challenge For The Actor
Sanford Meisner Master Class
Respect for Acting
Stella Adler - The Art of Acting: preface by Marlon Brando compiled and edited by Howard Kissel (Applause Acting Series)
Acting: The First Six Lessons. (Theatre Arts Book)
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