23 3 / 2013
20 3 / 2013
i’m glad you’re refuting this stuff about vivien! like if her sex drive WAS heightened bc of her mental problems then it’s a very sensitive issue, not just some juicy rumor
There are so many rumors and labels that have been placed on both her and Laurence Olivier that it’s hard to unwrap them and get to the bottom of things. As a researcher that can be both fun and frustrating because no matter what your research reveals to refute or confirm something, people have a tendency to take everything they read at face value. It’s very difficult to change people’s opinions.
Vivien was a very passionate person who had very large emotions.
13 3 / 2013
Laurence Olivier will be TCM’s Star of the Month in April. I don’t get TCM here. What is this travesty?!
27 1 / 2013
I’m about 1,000 words over my limit for this chapter and still have 2 years to cover
Dear End of Vivien Leigh’s and Laurence Olivier’s Marriage, why were you so complicated?
26 1 / 2013
Larry’s ‘non-existant’ screenplay for Macbeth has been found in the archives of the British Library
An academic searching for something quite different has stumbled upon 13 versions of the lost screenplay among papers and discovered that Olivier had some surprises in store.
For example, Olivier and his then wife Vivien Leigh were to play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, but also two of the three witches. Olivier planned to cut out the famous “Is this a dagger which I see before me?” line to make Macbeth seem more heroic and in an early draft Lady Macbeth was to suffer a miscarriage, which does not happen in the play but did befall Leigh in real life.
This is actually really interesting (though of course, any script is to be taken with a pinch of salt) both about Larry’s ideas for the play/film (and his interpretation of Macbeth - possibly emphasising the heroic) and also the mystique that continues to surround Macbeth.
I always think that Macbeth is one of my favourite plays (possibly because I know it very well) and I’ve seen a few, ranging from bloody amazing (Antony Sher/Harriet Walter) through challenging and really good (Jonathan Slinger), concentration-camp-in-the-round (David Threlfall/Frances Barber), good but unchallenging (David Morrissey) all the way to oh my god this is really, no, really disappointing (Derek Jacobi - yes, I know). I never think that certain actors should just play certain roles, but I do think that there’s something about Macbeth - play and character - (is it the supernatural element? the darkness? the visceral intensity? the ‘fatal flaw’?) that is very slippery for an actor to grasp. I mean, if Ralph couldn’t get it, then you know it’s difficult.
I wouldn’t find it surprising if it was Olivier’s intention to draw parallels between his marriage to Vivien and the Macbeths. There were many comments - from both people who knew the couple personally and those who didn’t- that said their performances in the 1955 Glen Byam Shaw production at Stratford mirrored the Oliviers’ marriage. As in, their performances were entirely convincing in a way previous actors hadn’t managed to achieve - you believed that they had once been in love. You saw why Lady Macbeth had so much power over her husband, etc.
(via idlesuperstar)
19 1 / 2013
Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. Paris, 1957. This was their last significant appearance together on stage. It was not a good time for Vivien.
