Post by davidhr on Nov 1, 2011 10:00:06 GMT -5
A very difficult week for Lara, perhaps one of the hardest of her professional career. And it’s ramifications may be worse, still.
At this time last week, Lara’s fans were just beginning to appreciate the trailer for the Madmoiselle Zhivago movie, and there was an air of excitement concerning it. Finally an international audience would be able to see Lara’s wide-ranging talents in full display. The one puzzling aspect was that her official FB site seemed to be trying to ignore it. As we know, that was highly meaningful, for Lara’s subsequent message indicated she was astonished that the trailer had appeared, and was adamant that the movie would never be shown. Alan Badoev, who had prepared and released the trailer, then published a message indicating his own astonishment at Lara’s reaction, given what he said was her involvement in every aspect of the film. He indicated that if Lara were really against it appearing, he would kill it, though he thought it would be a shame. So did many of the fans.
The first thing to note is that Badoev had been saying for a month that the trailer would appear in October, even indicating that we would see it by October 20th (in reality it appeared a few days later). So why Lara was astonished is hard to fathom. Yet she seemed genuinely unprepared for it, so much so that she had to play ‘catch-up’ as the trailer quickly migrated to websites like ‘chartsinfrance’ and ‘pitiblog’, and has since appeared on NRJ12TV in France (see the videos at www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhNDRvZRxD0 and www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8v1pS0Rp_E While the commentator is not flattering, at least it put Lara back in the discussion). All of her private fan sites carried it, and links to it and various translated versions appeared in the discussion section on her FB site. Did she think Badoev wouldn’t dare go through with it, despite the increasingly specific nature of his release dates?
She claimed she did not approve the trailer’s release, and that’s probably true. It doesn’t take much detective work to figure out why Badoev created it and made it available, however. He was being pressured by Lara’s fans everytime he had a public appearance, and was being made to look like ‘a slacker’ for continually missing the deadlines for the movie’s appearance (starting from his prediction that it would appear at the Cannes Film festival last spring). It would seem he made the decision to in effect let the public know that Lara was the real hold-up, perhaps thinking that once the trailer appeared, the momentum for the movie would be such that Lara would back down. That still might happen, but it hasn’t happened yet, and it didn’t prevent Lara from going public with the dispute (which is probably the real cause for his astonishment). Lesson to be learned once again by people in the entertainment business: never underestimate Lara’s determination when she is against something!
But what precisely is she against? Fans have compared the segments of the trailer with those that were released from the respective ‘making of’ clips last years, and they are pretty similar. If Lara seemed happy enough with those – and at the time, and even afterwards, expressed no disapproval, indeed as Badoev said, seemed happy with them – why now does she finally find fault?
Lara is one of the celebrities who is profiled in the new 10 year anniversary edition of the magazine “Paris March”. In the text that goes with her glorious picture (availabe at: larafabianbrasil.blogspot.com/ ), she says (in translation):
"I am a girl who only feeds the positive. Many times before a show, I do not sleep well. Therefore, I must make an absolute vacuum. So I put myself in a position of prayer, meditation. I think anything, even in the worst case, I picture the better. That's my principle of life is what we think attracts the vibration of what is displayed. Never think about what you do not want, but what you want and every day I keep the "positive attitude."
It’s easy to see from the movie trailer that the film will likely run counter to that philosophy in emphasizing the harshness of existence, even if it is mitigated to some degree by love. The problem for Lara is that if she really felt that way, consistently, why did she film these scenes in the first place? Why waste, as Badoev said, two years of everybody’s life before deciding it was incompatible with her ‘morals’?
Lara has said she would explain herself ‘shortly’, but that was a week ago, and we may never actually find out her reasoning. She spoke about ‘politics’ entering it, and as we haven’t seen the full film, we cannot know what really bothered her. My personal view – which could be completely wrong - is that she didn’t appreciate from the script what she was getting into, and while the filming was in progress, she was just trying to survive as an actress, in a medium unfamiliar to her. She did what the director said, hoping to be successful, and please him and the other actors. And each scene was separate, unpleasant perhaps, but with a moral she could support. It was only when she viewed the film in its entirely that perhaps the full harshness of the experience struck her, and at that point she may have been horrified. If this is the case, one has to admire her for having the courage to stand up for what she believes, despite the consequences. And there will likely be plenty of consequences, some direct, but others indirect, closing off paths of ‘what might have been’.
First of all, Lara’s whole identity in the ‘countries to the east’ has become associated with the ‘Mademoiselle Zhivago’ project, first the CD but particularly the film. It was played up in the media wherever she went, her being named for the character in the Dr. Zhivago movie, etc. So even though she had given concerts in Russia prior to all that, she is now known for it. The suppression of the film (a concept that always leaves a bad taste) would likely follow her everywhere in these locales, and it’s hard to see how she could defend herself for ‘changing her mind’. The Russian fans’ letter to Lara begging for the film’s release is just the tip of the iceberg of what she might face. Lara talked about buying a house in Kiev or Moscow (and may even have done so already), and had planned to expand her presence in these countries. Hard to see that happening now. In retrospect, she was probably the one (not Universal) who cancelled the Russian/Ukrainian tour when she found the film unpalatable (remember, we heard vague rumors during the summer about how Lara was not happy with this or that concerning the film). Maybe she has already resigned herself to this eventuality, hence her sudden decision to make a new French album.
An international release for the movie could have opened the doors to the CD as well,, and allowed her to gain a presence in the Western European and English speaking markets that the music certainly deserves. Maybe the hold-up in what Krutoi had said would be its worldwide distribution has been film-related all along.
Even in France Lara could have benefited. Some of the comments on the ‘chartsinfrance’ and ‘pitiblog’ sites from those seeing the trailer were of the nature of “I’ve never been a fan of Lara Fabian, but this might cause me to take a second look at her, I’ve never seen her like this…”. Though she’s fallen somewhat out of the limelight in the French entertainment scene, the general view of her is still as a ‘diva’, great voice but very self-concerned. To be filmed in such unflattering positions would have revolutionized the opinion of Lara in many people’s eyes. Instead, when word of Lara’s decision gets out, the media will not think Lara took a moral stance, but conclude she was afraid to let herself look unglamorous – solidifying their negative beliefs. Even Badoev seems to think this, as he keeps repeating "but Lara looks beautiful" in the film. (And who knows, maybe this IS part of the problem…).
Then there is her career as an actress. Who would possibly hire her for a role when she has proven herself so capricious – she couldn’t be trusted. Even a play would be a gamble – she might decide to walk out at any time. Another door closed…
Finally, one has to wonder about the financial circumstances of Lara’s rejecting the release. Is Universal France just going to swallow the $3 million they reportedly invested in it? Will she be the subject of civil law suits from them, or even from Alan Badoev? Hard to know what the laws are, or what the contracts were - does she even have the right to stop the film, or does Badoev even have that right if the producers demand its release? The 65,000+ hits that the trailer has gotten on the ‘ello’ website so far, along with the highly positive comments, imply that the film has commercial potential; failure to exploit it might be deemed Lara’s responsibility.
We have not heard from Igor Krutoi about all this, and we know Lara has thought very highly of him. On the trailer he says that in 20 years, he hoped that his daughter would be able to see from this film how her father had done something right. If he still felt that way after seeing the whole movie, he must surely be working to allow it to survive. Also, as pointed out by jjrparis on laradomus, Alan Badoev has not had any additional ‘Twitters” since October 26th (he rarely misses a day), suggesting he may be elsewhere, perhaps in communication with Lara. It is on this basis that there is some modicum of hope that Lara’s decision can be altered and the project rescued. If not, Lara will go back to focusing on “Le Secret” for her shrunken francofile audience, and the entertainment industry will move on to something else, never looking back.
In other news, Nana Moskouri is releasing a new album in November celebrating her 50 years in the business. The album to be called "Nana Moskouri and Friends" will be sung in several languages and will include the participation of singers who have interacted with her at some point during her career. Lara will be one of them, with the song “La vie, L'amour, la mort”. In the promotional video from the album below, Lara shows up at 1:45.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGnYwz3AORs
The album will be released November 21.
The Lara Fabian Romanian channel added English subtitles to a video of Lara and Gerard at Arthur’s show on the 21st. (This is in addition to the red carpet interview shown earlier). It provides some interesting insight into the backstage viewpoint and production.
Lara’s coming week may include a further announcement on the fate of the MZ movie or it may not – one shouldn’t hold one’s breath. This looks like one of those times when alternate realities are possible – one in which the film is released and Lara is looked upon in a new light, and another where all this is turned away from, and Lara goes back to being a singer of French songs. We shall see which one we are in...
David
At this time last week, Lara’s fans were just beginning to appreciate the trailer for the Madmoiselle Zhivago movie, and there was an air of excitement concerning it. Finally an international audience would be able to see Lara’s wide-ranging talents in full display. The one puzzling aspect was that her official FB site seemed to be trying to ignore it. As we know, that was highly meaningful, for Lara’s subsequent message indicated she was astonished that the trailer had appeared, and was adamant that the movie would never be shown. Alan Badoev, who had prepared and released the trailer, then published a message indicating his own astonishment at Lara’s reaction, given what he said was her involvement in every aspect of the film. He indicated that if Lara were really against it appearing, he would kill it, though he thought it would be a shame. So did many of the fans.
The first thing to note is that Badoev had been saying for a month that the trailer would appear in October, even indicating that we would see it by October 20th (in reality it appeared a few days later). So why Lara was astonished is hard to fathom. Yet she seemed genuinely unprepared for it, so much so that she had to play ‘catch-up’ as the trailer quickly migrated to websites like ‘chartsinfrance’ and ‘pitiblog’, and has since appeared on NRJ12TV in France (see the videos at www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhNDRvZRxD0 and www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8v1pS0Rp_E While the commentator is not flattering, at least it put Lara back in the discussion). All of her private fan sites carried it, and links to it and various translated versions appeared in the discussion section on her FB site. Did she think Badoev wouldn’t dare go through with it, despite the increasingly specific nature of his release dates?
She claimed she did not approve the trailer’s release, and that’s probably true. It doesn’t take much detective work to figure out why Badoev created it and made it available, however. He was being pressured by Lara’s fans everytime he had a public appearance, and was being made to look like ‘a slacker’ for continually missing the deadlines for the movie’s appearance (starting from his prediction that it would appear at the Cannes Film festival last spring). It would seem he made the decision to in effect let the public know that Lara was the real hold-up, perhaps thinking that once the trailer appeared, the momentum for the movie would be such that Lara would back down. That still might happen, but it hasn’t happened yet, and it didn’t prevent Lara from going public with the dispute (which is probably the real cause for his astonishment). Lesson to be learned once again by people in the entertainment business: never underestimate Lara’s determination when she is against something!
But what precisely is she against? Fans have compared the segments of the trailer with those that were released from the respective ‘making of’ clips last years, and they are pretty similar. If Lara seemed happy enough with those – and at the time, and even afterwards, expressed no disapproval, indeed as Badoev said, seemed happy with them – why now does she finally find fault?
Lara is one of the celebrities who is profiled in the new 10 year anniversary edition of the magazine “Paris March”. In the text that goes with her glorious picture (availabe at: larafabianbrasil.blogspot.com/ ), she says (in translation):
"I am a girl who only feeds the positive. Many times before a show, I do not sleep well. Therefore, I must make an absolute vacuum. So I put myself in a position of prayer, meditation. I think anything, even in the worst case, I picture the better. That's my principle of life is what we think attracts the vibration of what is displayed. Never think about what you do not want, but what you want and every day I keep the "positive attitude."
It’s easy to see from the movie trailer that the film will likely run counter to that philosophy in emphasizing the harshness of existence, even if it is mitigated to some degree by love. The problem for Lara is that if she really felt that way, consistently, why did she film these scenes in the first place? Why waste, as Badoev said, two years of everybody’s life before deciding it was incompatible with her ‘morals’?
Lara has said she would explain herself ‘shortly’, but that was a week ago, and we may never actually find out her reasoning. She spoke about ‘politics’ entering it, and as we haven’t seen the full film, we cannot know what really bothered her. My personal view – which could be completely wrong - is that she didn’t appreciate from the script what she was getting into, and while the filming was in progress, she was just trying to survive as an actress, in a medium unfamiliar to her. She did what the director said, hoping to be successful, and please him and the other actors. And each scene was separate, unpleasant perhaps, but with a moral she could support. It was only when she viewed the film in its entirely that perhaps the full harshness of the experience struck her, and at that point she may have been horrified. If this is the case, one has to admire her for having the courage to stand up for what she believes, despite the consequences. And there will likely be plenty of consequences, some direct, but others indirect, closing off paths of ‘what might have been’.
First of all, Lara’s whole identity in the ‘countries to the east’ has become associated with the ‘Mademoiselle Zhivago’ project, first the CD but particularly the film. It was played up in the media wherever she went, her being named for the character in the Dr. Zhivago movie, etc. So even though she had given concerts in Russia prior to all that, she is now known for it. The suppression of the film (a concept that always leaves a bad taste) would likely follow her everywhere in these locales, and it’s hard to see how she could defend herself for ‘changing her mind’. The Russian fans’ letter to Lara begging for the film’s release is just the tip of the iceberg of what she might face. Lara talked about buying a house in Kiev or Moscow (and may even have done so already), and had planned to expand her presence in these countries. Hard to see that happening now. In retrospect, she was probably the one (not Universal) who cancelled the Russian/Ukrainian tour when she found the film unpalatable (remember, we heard vague rumors during the summer about how Lara was not happy with this or that concerning the film). Maybe she has already resigned herself to this eventuality, hence her sudden decision to make a new French album.
An international release for the movie could have opened the doors to the CD as well,, and allowed her to gain a presence in the Western European and English speaking markets that the music certainly deserves. Maybe the hold-up in what Krutoi had said would be its worldwide distribution has been film-related all along.
Even in France Lara could have benefited. Some of the comments on the ‘chartsinfrance’ and ‘pitiblog’ sites from those seeing the trailer were of the nature of “I’ve never been a fan of Lara Fabian, but this might cause me to take a second look at her, I’ve never seen her like this…”. Though she’s fallen somewhat out of the limelight in the French entertainment scene, the general view of her is still as a ‘diva’, great voice but very self-concerned. To be filmed in such unflattering positions would have revolutionized the opinion of Lara in many people’s eyes. Instead, when word of Lara’s decision gets out, the media will not think Lara took a moral stance, but conclude she was afraid to let herself look unglamorous – solidifying their negative beliefs. Even Badoev seems to think this, as he keeps repeating "but Lara looks beautiful" in the film. (And who knows, maybe this IS part of the problem…).
Then there is her career as an actress. Who would possibly hire her for a role when she has proven herself so capricious – she couldn’t be trusted. Even a play would be a gamble – she might decide to walk out at any time. Another door closed…
Finally, one has to wonder about the financial circumstances of Lara’s rejecting the release. Is Universal France just going to swallow the $3 million they reportedly invested in it? Will she be the subject of civil law suits from them, or even from Alan Badoev? Hard to know what the laws are, or what the contracts were - does she even have the right to stop the film, or does Badoev even have that right if the producers demand its release? The 65,000+ hits that the trailer has gotten on the ‘ello’ website so far, along with the highly positive comments, imply that the film has commercial potential; failure to exploit it might be deemed Lara’s responsibility.
We have not heard from Igor Krutoi about all this, and we know Lara has thought very highly of him. On the trailer he says that in 20 years, he hoped that his daughter would be able to see from this film how her father had done something right. If he still felt that way after seeing the whole movie, he must surely be working to allow it to survive. Also, as pointed out by jjrparis on laradomus, Alan Badoev has not had any additional ‘Twitters” since October 26th (he rarely misses a day), suggesting he may be elsewhere, perhaps in communication with Lara. It is on this basis that there is some modicum of hope that Lara’s decision can be altered and the project rescued. If not, Lara will go back to focusing on “Le Secret” for her shrunken francofile audience, and the entertainment industry will move on to something else, never looking back.
In other news, Nana Moskouri is releasing a new album in November celebrating her 50 years in the business. The album to be called "Nana Moskouri and Friends" will be sung in several languages and will include the participation of singers who have interacted with her at some point during her career. Lara will be one of them, with the song “La vie, L'amour, la mort”. In the promotional video from the album below, Lara shows up at 1:45.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGnYwz3AORs
The album will be released November 21.
The Lara Fabian Romanian channel added English subtitles to a video of Lara and Gerard at Arthur’s show on the 21st. (This is in addition to the red carpet interview shown earlier). It provides some interesting insight into the backstage viewpoint and production.
Lara’s coming week may include a further announcement on the fate of the MZ movie or it may not – one shouldn’t hold one’s breath. This looks like one of those times when alternate realities are possible – one in which the film is released and Lara is looked upon in a new light, and another where all this is turned away from, and Lara goes back to being a singer of French songs. We shall see which one we are in...
David