WEIRDLAND: Paulette Goddard, and the femme-fatales of yesteryear and today

Monday, June 04, 2012

Paulette Goddard, and the femme-fatales of yesteryear and today

Happy Anniversary, Paulette Goddard! Born Pauline Marion Goddard Levy on June 3, 1910 in Whitestone Landing, Long Island, New York, Died: April 23, 1990 in Ronco, Switzerland

"Leave yourself alone as much as possible. Don't worry. I never do. I'm too busy remembering things" -Paulette Goddard

Pauline Marion Goddard Levy was born in Whitestone Landing, New York, on 3 June 1910. She was a beautiful child who began to model for local department stores before she made her debut with Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies at the age of 13. For three years, she astounded audiences with her talent. It wasn't until 1936 that Paulette would again appear in a motion picture, in Modern Times (1936). Once again she found herself with a bit part. Finally, after ten years, she gained a decent part in George Cukor's The Women (1939), and Paulette thought that maybe her career was finally taking off. In her next film, she played Joyce Norman in The Cat and The Canary (1939), which was intended to be a send-off vehicle for Bob Hope. It not only did that, but it also established Paulette as a genuine star.

Her performance won her a ten-year contract with Paramount Studios, which was one of the premier studios of the day.

Paulette Godard teamed up with the great Fred Astaire in the acclaimed musical "Second Chorus" (1940) directed by H.C. Potter.

Paulette Goddard photographed by Clarence Sinclair Bull, 1932.

where are the femmes fatales of yesteryear? One thinks of pesky Paulette Goddard who married four times, thrice to famous men: Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich Maria Remarque.

Or Rita Hayworth who wed Orson Welles, Dick Haymes and Prince Aly Khan. Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Keira Knightley in a sophisticated femme-fatale pose for "Interview Magazine" (photoshoot - April 2012)

After years of speculation, possible false starts, casting rumours and constant questions for Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, Sin City 2 - officially now known as Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame To Kill For - finally solidified last month with a for-real-this-time-no-take-backs announcement from its co-directors. With Cannes in full swing, The Weinstein Company has taken the chance to announce the movie’s planned US (and possibly worldwide) release date and confirm that Jessica Alba and Mickey Rourke will return.

Jaime King as Goldie/Wendy in a scene from "Sin City" (2005)

With a script by Rodriguez and The Departed’s William Monahan, the Sin City sequel will start shooting later this summer at RR’s Troublemaker Studios in Texas, and will emerge into the wild on October 4 next year. Source: www.empireonline.com

Christopher Nolan Explains What Makes Catwoman a Femme Fatale in 'Dark Knight Rises': The English filmmaker branded the female character a "very iconic figure in the Batman pantheon", but revealed she will not be referred by the name in the forthcoming movie. He said, "I was nervous about how she would fit into our world. But Jonah [Nolan] was very much convinced that there would be a great way to do it and eventually turned me around."

The director went on sharing that he eventually decided to present the character as a dangerous lady in his movie. "Once I got my head around the idea of looking at that character through the prism of our films, saying, 'Who could that person be in real-life?', we figured it out. She's a bit of a con-woman, something of a grifter. A hard-edged kind of criminal." Source: www.aceshowbiz.com

No comments :