34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A BIG Disappointment, November 16, 2008
This review is from: Fred Astaire (Icons of America) (Hardcover)
The apparent premise and presumption of Joseph Epstein's book "Fred Astaire" is that the magic of Fred Astaire will be analyzed, described and explained to the reader. In the words of Mr. Epstein: "Whence derived Fred Astaire's sublimity, his magic? That is the great, happy question at the center of this little book." While Mr. Epstein is a witty and sometimes pleasantly irreverent writer, this slim volume of mostly recycled information falls far short of answering this question.
The initial attempt to define Mr. Astaire's magic is directed at the physical appearance of this "most attractive of men". Epstein begins this exercise by spending an inordinate number of pages describing and belittling Astaire's physical features, while admiring his clothes. However, he describes at the outset that Astaire was like a male version of "belle laide" : homely feature-by-feature yet stunning in totality. By his own words he therefore admits that this exercise is pointless. It is doubly pointless since nothing is said that has not appeared elsewhere or is not obvious from watching the films.
Recognizing after two chapters, that perhaps the force of Mr. Astaire's personality may be important to explaining his attractiveness, Epstein spends more fruitless pages trying to define his great charm; to pin down the indefinable. Charm is a characteristic that needs to be experienced and words are simply not adequate, as Mr. Epstein himself handily proves. During this discussion he says time and time again, that by his definition, Astaire is "not at all sexy". Of course, Epstein's definition of sexy includes features such as brutality, manly reticence, handsome features, and ample height and muscle. He fails to comprehend that romantic, gentle and graceful sensuality can also be sexy and that Fred Astaire excelled at projecting these qualities and has had, and continues to have, great appeal to women.
Mr. Epstein then proceeds to brutally spear the genre of musical comedy, mainly on the basis of "absurd scripts". To illustrate the point he provides examples from plot summaries of many Astaire films. Not only is this rather tedious, it is also unnecessary since he says absolutely nothing new. In my opinion, judging musicals on the basis of plots is not the best criteria since plots are usually the least important aspects. It is the execution that is critical, and that depends on successfully melding superior acting, singing and dancing against a background of lovely music and imaginative staging. The integrity of Mr. Astaire's acting, whether in dialog, song or dance, makes almost any character and situation plausible within the film's context no matter how irrational or absurd-seeming. Mr. Epstein is also somewhat puzzled by how the nonsense of the musicals can charm and be unforgettable. But he does finally concede that this "frivolity" (as he calls it) can produce uncomplicated happiness and joy.
Another surprising conclusion is that Mr. Astaire's acting abilities were limited to light comedy. He says that it is "unimaginable for Astaire to play heels" and that "being mean or dispirited was not in his range". In making these assertions, Mr. Epstein reveals his unfamiliarity or lack of understanding of many of Astaire's roles. Mr. Astaire has in fact successfully projected those very traits in post-1939 films like "The Barkleys of Broadway", "The Pleasure of His Company", "The Sky's the Limit", "On the Beach" and even in the 1936 movie"Swing Time". Mr. Epstein should have done more research.
The concluding section of the book is devoted to examining how to categorize Fred Astaire. He is being measured by Mr. Epstein for the roles of genius and icon. According to Mr. Epstein's judgment he qualifies as an icon, but not as genius. It seems that to be a genius "by any serious definition" it is necessary to produce something that others cannot immediately appreciate. So even though Mr. Epstein recognizes that Fred Astaire elevated popular entertainment into art, his deficiency was that it was too appealing to mass audiences. Although there is no question that Mr. Astaire's innovative artistry appealed to children and other unsophisticated people, it was also lauded by the most discerning of professionals in the dance and ballet world, as Mr. Epstein himself notes. The complexity and layers of meaning in his dances are still being unraveled and are not yet completely understood. In fact, Fred Astaire did not aspire to create art. He did what he did to please himself, and us, with his drive for perfection, amazing musicality and creativity, and a surplus of talent, charm and style. All he did was to produce magic.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Waste of paper, January 18, 2009
This review is from: Fred Astaire (Icons of America) (Hardcover)
I bought this for my husband who is a huge Fred Astaire fan. He has read every book about him, so I thought this would be great. A new book he's never read! He hated it from the beginning. I thought it couldn't be that bad, but it was. He spends half the time just quoting from other sources. The other half unfairly criticizing Mr. Astaire. I thought this was a book written by someone who LIKED him. In the end, he comes around to it, but I doubt many people would read long enough to get there. A complete waste, and a terrible gift.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Dead Beats, July 10, 2009
This review is from: Fred Astaire (Icons of America) (Hardcover)
If one is looking for a brief biography of Fred Astaire, this book by Joseph Epstein is definitely not the place to start. While Epstein does include some biographical material, he purports that he will try to answer the question of what made Fred Astaire so magical and beguiling. Yet he fails in even answering that.
"Fred Astaire" begins promisingly enough with some early biographical information about the dancer, but it is quickly derailed by Epstein's focus on the qualities that supposedly made Astaire so magical. He concentrates on Astaire's eccentric features and frame, his style and choice of clothing, his aristocratic airs, and his unique singing voice and ability. The best information that Epstein manages to squeeze into his critique of Astaire is the information regarding his various dancing partners and a comparison with Gene Kelly, but even that information seems all too scant.
Epstein's writing style can best be described as flogging a dead horse. In order to make sure the readers understand his comparisons he must carry them to the nth degree (and for no purpose whatsoever). The material is redundant as Epstein seems to cover the exact same material in several different chapters. Each chapter is taken up with a lot of quotes rather than narrative or new information, and some of his choices of comparison seem rather odd for a volume about Fred Astaire and his movies and talent. For someone who is supposedly a fan of the dancer, Joseph Epstein seems awful disparaging, which makes "Fred Astaire" a rather depressing read rather than a joyful or magic one.
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