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Dancing on the Ceiling: Stanley Donen and his Movies
93 photographs in text
- GenresBiography
390 pages, Hardcover
First published February 13, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 21, 2019
This book has a lot of meaning for me because it’s about director Stanley Donen. We learn a little about his private life in this book namely that he was a Jewish boy born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1924, that he has had five wives, and a love affair with Elizabeth Taylor and that he was a former chorus boy. This book is more about the movies he directed and the people who made them. He left Columbia at a young age not yet 20 and befriended Gene Kelly and became choreographer for MGM in the 1940’s. Before he was 30 years old, he directed the famous musicals, “On the Town, Royal Wedding, Funny Face, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”. He also later directed “It’s Always Fair Weather, The Little Prince, Movie, Movie, and the non-musicals Charade and Two for the Road”. These movies were performed by famous actors, Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Billy Wilder among others.
This book is a wonderful journey through the golden age of Hollywood when musicals were the craze. This book highlights the creation of each of the films, his thought process and the end product. We get anecdotes from Audrey Hepburn, Kay Thompson and other figures during this illuminating by-gone era. These were wonderful movies and we were lucky to have had Kelly and Donen create such works together.
If you are a movie buff, you will enjoy this book and probably recognize many of the movies he directed.
This book is a wonderful journey through the golden age of Hollywood when musicals were the craze. This book highlights the creation of each of the films, his thought process and the end product. We get anecdotes from Audrey Hepburn, Kay Thompson and other figures during this illuminating by-gone era. These were wonderful movies and we were lucky to have had Kelly and Donen create such works together.
If you are a movie buff, you will enjoy this book and probably recognize many of the movies he directed.
June 16, 2011
The Book Report: Really now, how mysterious is the subject treated in this book? It's a professional biography/filmography of the life of ace director/former wunderkind Stanley Donen, of "Singin' in the Rain", "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", "Indiscreet" and "Charade" fame. Being a professional biography, don't expect his personal life to come under salacious scrutiny, or hear whimperings and moanings from ex-wives (five!) or sons (three). Darn it.
My Review: The author knows his subject. Personally. And it shows: The anecdotage of any Hollywood player can come across as a personal hagiography, and so the trend towards memoir ("I remember") by these folks. Donen clearly cooperated with the author, and clearly smoothed his path to the major players in the Donen life story. There is some sense of stuff not gone into that a less involved and more prurient biographer, one bent on delivering the sense of the man to the detriment of the sense of the player, would have pursued. In some ways that feels like a loss to me, but overall I really was not aware of the small smears of whitewash that might or might not have been applied to certain passages in Donen's remarkable career until I had sat down to cogitate for this review.
From unpromising beginnings in middle-class Columbia, South Carolina, Donen ran far away to glamourous exciting New York City at age 17. He was in every right place at every right time for the next 20 years and became a close work associate of Gene Kelly's, leading him to Hollywood and to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, THE place for a dancer/choreographer/aspiring director to break into the biggest time musicals anywhere ever. There he worked on a long series of projects for Arthur Freed, a legendary producer of MGM's top-flight musicals. It was a good association, though Freed seems never to have fully appreciated the talent and the drive of Donen. He wasn't above making use of the man, though, and it's to our lasting benefit as filmgoers that he did.
At the end of the rainbow for musicals, about 1958, Donen had already read the tea leaves and fled Hollywood for London. There he produced and directed some of his best and worst stuff: "Indiscreet" (mature love affair between equals) and "Charade" (delightful caper dramedy about secrets, lies, and how gorgeous Audrey Hepburn was), some of the best work ever, both starred Donen's friend Cary Grant and are even today delightful and watchable. "Arabesque" and "Staircase", Donen's remake of "Charade" without Grant or Audrey Hepburn, and his sole effort at directing a story about gay men, were the pits.
But the two films that, I venture to say, will be remembered by cineastes long long after you and I are dead, are the 1957 musical "Funny Face" starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire, and "Two for the Road" starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. Both are *achingly* romantic. Both are gorgeously filmed, well acted, and far deeper than a casual glance at their stats will show. And both get a good long treatment in the book, the author and the director seeming to agree that here are monunments too large to ignore. The only other film so treated is "Singin' in the Rain," which has emerged as a major classic since the 1970s. And in every case, the stories told and the pitures painted are satisfying to the fan, and informative to the curious reader. In fact, that can be said of every part of the book.
I have to say that I'd've given the book a higher rating if it had gone into more personal detail...not prurient stuff, but more about Donen's off-set, off-screen life...than it does. I can understand the choice made by the author to focus on the *work*--probably required by the man written about, is my guess--but a **little** more than cursory mentions of marriages and divorces would not have come amiss.
The book has photos throughout the text, which I prefer to photo inserts, even though there is some sacrifice of quality. It seems worth it to me, I like seeing the photos near to the anecdotes they amplify. Recommended to film buffs, fanboys, and serious readers of movie-biz books. It's too light on fizz for the celeb-bio reader.
My Review: The author knows his subject. Personally. And it shows: The anecdotage of any Hollywood player can come across as a personal hagiography, and so the trend towards memoir ("I remember") by these folks. Donen clearly cooperated with the author, and clearly smoothed his path to the major players in the Donen life story. There is some sense of stuff not gone into that a less involved and more prurient biographer, one bent on delivering the sense of the man to the detriment of the sense of the player, would have pursued. In some ways that feels like a loss to me, but overall I really was not aware of the small smears of whitewash that might or might not have been applied to certain passages in Donen's remarkable career until I had sat down to cogitate for this review.
From unpromising beginnings in middle-class Columbia, South Carolina, Donen ran far away to glamourous exciting New York City at age 17. He was in every right place at every right time for the next 20 years and became a close work associate of Gene Kelly's, leading him to Hollywood and to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, THE place for a dancer/choreographer/aspiring director to break into the biggest time musicals anywhere ever. There he worked on a long series of projects for Arthur Freed, a legendary producer of MGM's top-flight musicals. It was a good association, though Freed seems never to have fully appreciated the talent and the drive of Donen. He wasn't above making use of the man, though, and it's to our lasting benefit as filmgoers that he did.
At the end of the rainbow for musicals, about 1958, Donen had already read the tea leaves and fled Hollywood for London. There he produced and directed some of his best and worst stuff: "Indiscreet" (mature love affair between equals) and "Charade" (delightful caper dramedy about secrets, lies, and how gorgeous Audrey Hepburn was), some of the best work ever, both starred Donen's friend Cary Grant and are even today delightful and watchable. "Arabesque" and "Staircase", Donen's remake of "Charade" without Grant or Audrey Hepburn, and his sole effort at directing a story about gay men, were the pits.
But the two films that, I venture to say, will be remembered by cineastes long long after you and I are dead, are the 1957 musical "Funny Face" starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire, and "Two for the Road" starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. Both are *achingly* romantic. Both are gorgeously filmed, well acted, and far deeper than a casual glance at their stats will show. And both get a good long treatment in the book, the author and the director seeming to agree that here are monunments too large to ignore. The only other film so treated is "Singin' in the Rain," which has emerged as a major classic since the 1970s. And in every case, the stories told and the pitures painted are satisfying to the fan, and informative to the curious reader. In fact, that can be said of every part of the book.
I have to say that I'd've given the book a higher rating if it had gone into more personal detail...not prurient stuff, but more about Donen's off-set, off-screen life...than it does. I can understand the choice made by the author to focus on the *work*--probably required by the man written about, is my guess--but a **little** more than cursory mentions of marriages and divorces would not have come amiss.
The book has photos throughout the text, which I prefer to photo inserts, even though there is some sacrifice of quality. It seems worth it to me, I like seeing the photos near to the anecdotes they amplify. Recommended to film buffs, fanboys, and serious readers of movie-biz books. It's too light on fizz for the celeb-bio reader.
March 6, 2009
Either this book has a bunch of lies in it, or other biographies do. I don't know which, but I do think this book was written with an agenda against Gene Kelly. Kelly never says bad things about Stanley Donen (in print anyway) and always gives credit where credit is due. That to me says wonders about who is really telling the truth.
June 3, 2022
Inelegantly written and undervalues a couple of Donen's movies - especially Lucky Lady and The Little Prince. Inconsistent style, such as dissecting Singin' in the Rain almost like a DVD commentary which just has no flow. Not a very enjoyable read but I did chuckle at every dig at Vincente Minnelli, a far inferior director in my opinion!
October 21, 2024
This is more less the "authorized" biography of Stanley Donen and traces his career in detail from a 1941 Broadway Chorus line to his 1995 retirement. The focus is on his work not his colorful private life, which included 4 marriages and possible communist ties in the 1940s.
We get Donen's comments on every movie along with remarks on the actors and screenwriters. The discussions of Funny Face, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Charade, or Singing in the Rain are excellent.
But the biography mostly gives us Donen's side of the story, and people he disliked aren't given much chance to respond (exception: Debbie Reynolds). Nor is there much criticism of Donen, except his self-criticism. Usually others are blamed for any Donen film that didn't succeed critically or financially.
Donen vs. Gene Kelly
Which leads of us to Gene Kelly. The author (and maybe Donen) really hates Gene Kelly. From 1946-1955, Donen worked with Kelly as his assistant and sometimes Director/ Co-Director. But the book claims Gene Kelly's artistic contribution to those films was minimal, and Kelly is trashed for hogging the camera, taking credit for Donen's work, and loading up On the Town, American in Paris, and Singing in the Rain with "Boring" "Cliched" ballet dances and dance numbers. But the Kelly bashing doesn't stop there. In describing a 1980s Singing in the Rain reunion, Gene Kelly is painted as an egoistical bore, who's rude to the fans and demands to be the center of attention. The author also smugly compares Donen's success as a Director to Kelly's and states Kelly only directed Hello Dolly - because Donen turned it down.
Summary
Kelly bashing aside, one of the better Hollywood biographies.
We get Donen's comments on every movie along with remarks on the actors and screenwriters. The discussions of Funny Face, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Charade, or Singing in the Rain are excellent.
But the biography mostly gives us Donen's side of the story, and people he disliked aren't given much chance to respond (exception: Debbie Reynolds). Nor is there much criticism of Donen, except his self-criticism. Usually others are blamed for any Donen film that didn't succeed critically or financially.
Donen vs. Gene Kelly
Which leads of us to Gene Kelly. The author (and maybe Donen) really hates Gene Kelly. From 1946-1955, Donen worked with Kelly as his assistant and sometimes Director/ Co-Director. But the book claims Gene Kelly's artistic contribution to those films was minimal, and Kelly is trashed for hogging the camera, taking credit for Donen's work, and loading up On the Town, American in Paris, and Singing in the Rain with "Boring" "Cliched" ballet dances and dance numbers. But the Kelly bashing doesn't stop there. In describing a 1980s Singing in the Rain reunion, Gene Kelly is painted as an egoistical bore, who's rude to the fans and demands to be the center of attention. The author also smugly compares Donen's success as a Director to Kelly's and states Kelly only directed Hello Dolly - because Donen turned it down.
Summary
Kelly bashing aside, one of the better Hollywood biographies.
September 30, 2014
Biography of the director. If you love movies (particularly musicals) you might find this book interesting. I didn't like the tone of the book (very dismissive of Gene Kelly, for one) but I can't deny that Donen helped create some of my favorite movies.
November 7, 2014
This book is no about Stanley Donen but about how the author hates Gene Kelly. Besides, he seems to try to make Stanley Donen a sympathetic carácter when, in fact, he gets the completely opposite effect. If I were Stanley Donen I wouldn't be happy with this book.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews