One thing I noticed and wondered if it was scripted. When Florence collapses in the hotel lobby and Hugh (St. Clair) turns her over - he puts his hand on the top of her head to keep her wig from falling off.
I thought it was so sweet.
I thought there were many incredibly sweet moments in the film. You could see the devotion of St. Clair to FFJ when he kissed her after she had fallen asleep. Also, the scene where she and Simon Helberg play the piano together (he doing the left hand and she doing the right hand) was very touching.
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Never say never...
You are so right. There were a lot of small sweet things he did. For a while I thought he was using her for her money. But then I realized that he truly cared for her.
Folks are saying someone should have told her that she couldn't sing. But knowing her health problems and the fact she might not live long - wouldn't we all love to live out our fantasies.
I always wanted to be a singer - and my voice was not bad but I was certainly no opera singer. But it would have been nice.
Also, I didn't know she was a real person till the end of the movie. After that I couldn't laugh at her singing.
As we were leaving the theatre - someone told me that was her third time. In the Ladies room - everyone was talking about the movie and a lot of bad singing was going on. I could laugh at them.
LOL!!!
I really didn't laugh at FFJ's singing so much as I laughed at people's reaction to her singing.
It's funny-- I saw this film at the recommendation of my mother, who referred to Hugh Grant as FFJ's "gigolo." I think it may very well have started out that way were it not for the innate goodness of St. Clair's character.
I looked up FFJ on the internet. She and St. Clair never married. (Their real age difference was actually much narrower than in the film. She was only 7 years older than him.) It got me thinking of other famous marriages of the day that were not based on sexual relationships, but rather common interests-- like Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne or Cole and Linda Porter. Whose to say that the devotion between these couples was any less because they did not have sex with each other? There are other ways to show love, and this film was a prime example.
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Never say never...
I did notice that. I was wondering about her baldness, was it from syphilis?
shareRE: Baldness. A truth. And supposed as the result of FFJ's treatment with mercury for her syphilis. The widespread use of penicillin -- very effective in early stage syphilis with some efficacy in later-stage, too -- wouldn't happen until the synthetic mass production of it began after her death. In the movie, FFJ talks about her treatment with mercury and arsenic -- both highly poisonous.
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