Kate and Leopold

[jo]

I was channel-surfing when a familiar scene and a familiar face in period costume came into view. It was halfway through this movie which I have been planning to revisit for sometime now. I am still going to watch it in full, but I decided I could spend the next hour rewatching the movie where I first saw Hugh Jackman as a film actor. It was KATE AND LEOPOLD!

Those scenes where they danced on the rooftop, where they listened to Moon River, where they finally reunite a century or so earlier get me all the time.

I had originally classified it as a rom-com ( not exactly a great fan - I can take some but not all the time), while some call it a time-travel story.

As I watched it, I did not realize how much I was enchanted by this movie -- and Hugh looked such a sensitive soul and so aristocratic and so deliciously handsome ...And part of the charm is that the storyline melds the two New York time periods in one romantic story. I do have a special affinity with the city!

When the finale came, for the first time I was choked and almost teary-eyed! Such a beautiful, romantic, and improbable ending -- that is why I think it is a modern fairy tale smiley-love029. A pity that the modern generation may think Cinderella is the best fairy tale ever, when there is KATE AND LEOPOLD

Because this movie is what a modern fairy tale should be ( down to the romantic music from STING)!


If I have to name my top Hugh Jackman favorite movies, I think Kate and Leopold will be among Les Miserables, Australia, The Wolverine/XMen 2, The Prestige, and The Fountain! Of course Oklahoma! is not a film adaptation, but the filmed stage musical also deserves mention among my most watched


PS: It seems that James Mangold is able to draw very sympathetic performances from Hugh. I hope their third teaming up ( Wolverine 3) will be another Jackman favorite movie to watch!


Jo

[mamaleh]

Every time I watch K&L, three views of Hugh especially transfix me: his gorgeous close-up when he's riding in the carriage post-purse snatcher, yet another breathtakingly handsome shot when he says, "I am the man who loves your sister," and his sweet smile at the end, as he scoops up Kate for their engagement waltz. They get me every time.

Ellen

[njr]

I love time travel movies and K&L is one of my favorites (along with the Christopher Reeve/Jane Seymour movie Somewhere In Time)

(and of course our friends Janis and Bill are in K&L!)

Nancy

[jo]

If I had to choose my favorite moment of Hugh Jackman dancing -- it would not be the dream ballet from Oklahoma!, nor the Fosse-like Legs Diamond number, nor the tap dancing in Back on Broadway, nor the samba in the finale from The Boy from Oz, nor the Rockette precision-dancing at the Radio City Music Hall, nor the Tony performance with Bicoastal/Not The Boy Next Door...

it will always be the gorgeous sight of an elegant Hugh Jackman leading his partner magnificently in a beautiful waltz smiley-love029

And he has to be in period costume smiley-love067




Jo

[jo]

Behind the scenes ( from another HJ film site.


smiley-love029

[foxie]

Mar 21, 2015 0:19:31 GMT -5 jo said:

I was channel-surfing when a familiar scene and a familiar face in period costume came into view. It was halfway through this movie which I have been planning to revisit for sometime now. I am still going to watch it in full, but I decided I could spend the next hour rewatching the movie where I first saw Hugh Jackman as a film actor. It was KATE AND LEOPOLD!

Those scenes where they danced on the rooftop, where they listened to Moon River, where they finally reunite a century or so earlier get me all the time.

I had originally classified it as a rom-com ( not exactly a great fan - I can take some but not all the time), while some call it a time-travel story.

As I watched it, I did not realize how much I was enchanted by this movie -- and Hugh looked such a sensitive soul and so aristocratic and so deliciously handsome ...And part of the charm is that the storyline melds the two New York time periods in one romantic story. I do have a special affinity with the city!

When the finale came, for the first time I was choked and almost teary-eyed! Such a beautiful, romantic, and improbable ending -- that is why I think it is a modern fairy tale smiley-love029. A pity that the modern generation may think Cinderella is the best fairy tale ever, when there is KATE AND LEOPOLD

Because this movie is what a modern fairy tale should be ( down to the romantic music from STING)!


If I have to name my top Hugh Jackman favorite movies, I think Kate and Leopold will be among Les Miserables, Australia, The Wolverine/XMen 2, The Prestige, and The Fountain! Of course Oklahoma! is not a film adaptation, but the filmed stage musical also deserves mention among my most watched


PS: It seems that James Mangold is able to draw very sympathetic performances from Hugh. I hope their third teaming up ( Wolverine 3) will be another Jackman favorite movie to watch!


Jo

It will always be my fav of Hugh's

[foxie]

Aug 5, 2015 18:31:07 GMT -5 foxie said:

Mar 21, 2015 0:19:31 GMT -5 jo said:

I was channel-surfing when a familiar scene and a familiar face in period costume came into view. It was halfway through this movie which I have been planning to revisit for sometime now. I am still going to watch it in full, but I decided I could spend the next hour rewatching the movie where I first saw Hugh Jackman as a film actor. It was KATE AND LEOPOLD!

Those scenes where they danced on the rooftop, where they listened to Moon River, where they finally reunite a century or so earlier get me all the time.

I had originally classified it as a rom-com ( not exactly a great fan - I can take some but not all the time), while some call it a time-travel story.

As I watched it, I did not realize how much I was enchanted by this movie -- and Hugh looked such a sensitive soul and so aristocratic and so deliciously handsome ...And part of the charm is that the storyline melds the two New York time periods in one romantic story. I do have a special affinity with the city!

When the finale came, for the first time I was choked and almost teary-eyed! Such a beautiful, romantic, and improbable ending -- that is why I think it is a modern fairy tale smiley-love029. A pity that the modern generation may think Cinderella is the best fairy tale ever, when there is KATE AND LEOPOLD

Because this movie is what a modern fairy tale should be ( down to the romantic music from STING)!


If I have to name my top Hugh Jackman favorite movies, I think Kate and Leopold will be among Les Miserables, Australia, The Wolverine/XMen 2, The Prestige, and The Fountain! Of course Oklahoma! is not a film adaptation, but the filmed stage musical also deserves mention among my most watched


PS: It seems that James Mangold is able to draw very sympathetic performances from Hugh. I hope their third teaming up ( Wolverine 3) will be another Jackman favorite movie to watch!


Jo

It will always be my fav of Hugh's

As much as I love him I don't like wolverine!

[carouselkathy]

Jo,
I used to watch KATE AND LEOPOLD at bedtime every night. Of course, I eventually would fall asleep, so it became my "blankie". The TV in my bedroom is broken, but when I get a new one, K&L might again be a nightly ritual.

[mamaleh]

What a soothing way to drift off!

Ellen

[jo]

Love that scene when Leopold has Kate in a cuddle...and she starts to fall asleep...while Moon River plays in the background!

[foxie]

Golden globe nomination!

[jo]

Hugh Jackman Retweeted


Mangold ‏@mang0ld · 5h5 hours ago

Photo by @lievschreiber from #Kate&Leopold set 2001. Me, @realhughjackman & cameraman Lukasz Jogalla.

Hugh Jackman and Mangold

[jo]

Thanks to JLanding --


Nice time travel back to Kate and Leopold filming locations

www.brickunderground.com/live/Kate-and-Leopold-NYC-locations


Jo

[jo]

Some of the scenes --




Hugh was singing the song of The Pirate King from the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta PIRATES OF PENZANCE. A musical hint of things to come ( Broadway...Les Miserables...and now Greatest Showman)









I have some interesting personal memories of walking in the downtown area re work. I do remember walking very fast ( to keep up with the pace of my long-legged banker/host) around the Wall Street area for some consultations with people on buildings located in different locations. I was also once a guest (among others) at the New York Stock Exchange and one of the top floor Executive Dining for one of the major banks. There were many physical reminders of the time when Leopold "once" lived there....Also in the area is the famous Trinity Church near the end of Broadway St ( yes, the same Broadway where the modern-day Leopold, aka Hugh Jackman, performs once in a while). It still has a cemetery/churchyard nearby and where one of its most famous people buried there is Alexander Hamilton ( yes, that HAMILTON!).








I call this the MOON RIVER scene! It reminds me of the movie where it came from -- BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY! Did you ever copy Audrey Hepburn gazing at the famous Tiffany yellow diamond or was it another set of fabulous Tiffany jewels on its window on Fifth Avenue

Fifth Avenue itself has its share of famous locations -- from Kate and Leopold era buildings to modern glass structures. The most interesting of this part of central Manhattan stretches from the Museum Mile... to the luxury residences overlooking the park... to arguably the most famous shopping strip in the world ... down to the New York Library (where the nearby Bryant Park was a location for the scene where Hugh and Ewan McGregor acted out their roles in DECEPTION ).


And no missing arguably the most famous park in the world -- where Leopold took Kate on a carriage ride...and where he chased a bag snatcher riding through the park on a horse! Yes, Central Park ( including that street which intersects Fifth Avenue called Central Park South).






And if the location was supposed to be in the TRIBECA area, could the modern-day location of LAUGHING MAN ( Duane St) be somewhere close by




Jo

[jo]

Hugh looked so young and handsome here


Jo

[mamaleh]

Leopold's house now also contains a restaurant that a bunch of us dined in a couple of years ago. Nice place.

And Jo, I think the song the trio were singing around the piano was not "(I Am a) Pirate King," but "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General." THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE is my favorite Gilbert & Sullivan operetta.

HJ did indeed look fresh-faced and adorable throughout this movie. I really wish he had done more quality rom-coms in his career.

Ellen

[jo]

Lol - you are very right -- that is the song of "the very model of a modern major general"

Maybe it was my wishful thinking that Hugh, if ever he does operettas, sing the role of THE PIRATE KING.

I had a chance to see the operetta at the Sydney Opera House at the time of Hugh's 2006 TBFO arena tour. The Pirate King was played by Anthony Warlow who seemed to be channeling Johnny Depp's Pirate of the Caribbean. I also remember watching a filmed version with Kevin Kline as the Pirate King and Linda Rondstadt as Frederic's love interest and Angela Lansbury or was that someone else as her nanny. Did you ever see that long-ago version? Did I get the casting right

But my real intro to Pirates of Penzance was when I researched the operetta ( and got the Kevin Kline version) because the role of Frederic had Michael Ball in one of his first professional appearances. I did see him at the New York State Theatre ( Lincoln Center) in another G&S operetta called PATIENCE. Anthony Warlow also played one of the key roles in the Australian production of PATIENCE ( which I saw via a DVD).

It's funny how the names Anthony Warlow, Michael Ball, and Hugh Jackman would all come together not just because of PIRATES OF PENZANCE but also because of LES MISERABLES, in one production/adaptation or another


Jo

[jo]

While I do like Pirates of Penzance, my favorite operetta is Sigmund Romberg's THE STUDENT PRINCE. I only saw the film version, with Edmund Purdom and Ann Blyth, but with Mario Lanza's voice dubbing the male lead played by Purdom! I was lucky to have gotten a DVD ( transferred from the VHS copy presumably) and I still enjoy playing it once in a while. While Hugh cannot sing anywhere near Mario Lanza's stunning vocal prowess, I can visualize him as the Prince. He looks aristocratic enough, as Kate and Leopold proved to us



Jo

[njr]

I first saw The Pirates Of Penzance when I was 8 or 9 on a school field trip! This would have been 1963 or 1964. Loved it!

Nancy

[jo]

This reminds me of something - when I saw Gilbert & Sullivan's PATIENCE at Lincoln Center, I was apprehensive that the husband of my niece ( I took them both with me) would find the show boring because of the patter songs that characterize comic operettas. He assured me: "Don't worry - I was cast as one of the pirates in a presentation of PIRATES OF PENZANCE in our boarding school!" LOL!

[jo]

Susan McCranie ‏@dancingriver16 · 3h3 hours ago

Dear God. I don't ask for much, but please may I have my own Hugh Jackman circa "Kate & Leopold"? Please & thank you.

I think it was KATE AND LEOPOLD which started the Jackman female fanbase


Jo

[jo]

James Mangold as a filmmaker sometimes likes to court controversy ( and in LOGAN it seems to be paying off) --

This or That Edition‏@thisthatedition 2h
2 hours ago
@mang0ld Which edition of Kate & Leopold do you prefer: Theatrical or Director's Cut?


Mangold
Verified account
‏@mang0ld
@thisthatedition Director cut. Forced to cut heavily for 2 critics who were horrified by @lievschreiber's distant relationship to Leo.

[njr]

So the director's cut is longer and minus the cuts? Or the opposite? The statement in bold above has me confused. Just pulled out my copy and will have to watch the director's cut. Probably saw the theatrical version only.

Nancy

[jo]

In what scene did you fall in love with Leopold








Jo

[jo]

I've just found this old interview ( 2001) by the LA Times when Hugh was just on the cusp of Hollywood glory ( XMen, then Kate and Leopold) --

www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-28-et-king28-story.html

Conducting Himself Like a True Gentleman
By SUSAN KING
Dec. 28, 2001 12 AM
TIMES STAFF WRITER


Chivalry isn’t dead, at least not for Hugh Jackman.
The Australian actor apologizes profusely for having to conduct a recent interview in the back of a stretch limo on his way to “The Tonight Show” in Burbank, but it is the only free time he had that day. “Thank you for doing this,” he says. “This is beyond the call of duty.”

These old-fashioned good manners shine through in the new film “Kate & Leopold,” a time-travel romantic comedy that could turn Jackman into an international star. In the Miramax film, which opened Christmas Day, Jackman plays a British duke named Leopold who is sent from his native England to New York in 1876 in hopes of finding a rich wife. Leopold, though, is more interested in pursuing his inventions, including devising something called the elevator.

Leopold’s life is turned upside-down when he accidentally is sent to the year 2001 after falling through a portal in time while chasing after a man, Stuart (Liev Schreiber), who is behaving oddly at a gala ball. When he wakes up in Stuart’s apartment, he is quickly confronted by Kate (Ryan), a frazzled, cynical working woman who at first doesn’t believe Stuart’s story that Leopold is from the 19th century. But Leopold’s charm quickly wins over the stressed-out Kate, Stuart’s hyper dog and Kate’s younger brother, Charlie (Breckin Meyer). The only problem is that Leopold has to return to 1876 within the week or he’ll change the course of history.



Though Leopold is chivalrous to a fault, Jackman points out that Leopold is “not a caricature of niceness. All the things that are remarkable about him are natural to him. That is the way he is brought up; his manners, the way he treats people, are just the norm. He lives in a trapped world of privilege. Everything is planned for him, including his wife. Then he arrives in New York and he has no servants and he has to fend for himself.”

“Kate & Leopold” director James Mangold (“Girl Interrupted”) knew he had found his leading man when he met him for lunch earlier this year. He had seen Jackman in last year’s hit “X-Men"--he played the cigar-chomping, tough-but-tender superhero Wolverine--as well as in an Australian comedy called “Paperback Hero,” in which he played a truck driver who writes romantic novels.



“When I sat down and met him, I felt I was meeting such a refined man, such a gentleman,” recalled Mangold. “But that sense of grace and poise is also married to such masculinity. I think that is so rare today. I didn’t want Leopold to be kind of prissy or foppish in any way, just a walking rule book for chivalry. I wanted someone men and women could fall in love with.”

Notes Meyer, who became pals with Jackman during the “Kate & Leopold” shoot in New York, “He is a guy you want to hate because he is so darn good-looking and strapping. But he’s the sweetest and most charming guy. The guy sings, dances and he plays the piano. There isn’t anything he doesn’t do.”



Riding in the limo, Jackman apologizes yet again, this time for yawning. He explains that he’s still exhausted from hosting “Saturday Night Live” a few days before. On the show, he wowed a national audience with his beautiful singing voice--he played Curly in the acclaimed London revival of “Oklahoma!” in 1999--performing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “Music of the Night” and playing everything from a computer nerd with braces to a rather randy doll designer.

Jackman’s hosting of “SNL” is testimony to his newfound celebrity, along with the host of magazine covers and talk-show interviews to accompany the release of “Kate & Leopold.” And he’s just received his first Golden Globe nomination, best actor in a comedy or musical, for “Kate & Leopold.” He’s the new hunk on the block, the next Brad or George or Matt, the kind of handsome romantic leading man that movies are made for.

But Jackman isn’t a kid; at 33, he’s relatively old for his first experience as a major star, much less a sex symbol.
“I mean, 33 is a very young man, but it is not the same as becoming a mega-star at 21,” says Mangold. “He has done a lot of living and knows very much who he is. It gives him a lot of weight. It is such a sign of actually how awful the world we live in is that saying things like this makes such bad copy, because in a way you so want a kind of lurid story, something lurking [underneath].


“So much of what can throw you off as all of this stuff hits you--the fame and money and celebrity--is if it happens so young you haven’t found yourself. One of the clearest things about Hugh is he’s so comfortable in his own skin.”
In fact, during the 40-minute ride to “The Tonight Show,” Jackman talks less about stardom than about his wife of five years, actress Deborra-Lee Furness, whose career he says has been put on the back burner over the last two years. “I am probably the worst thing for her at the moment because we keep moving from place to place,” he says. “We don’t want to really be separated.”

And the actors’ brown eyes light up at the mention of their 19-month-old adopted son, Oscar. “Being a father has brought to me more joy than I have ever known,” he says. “It has revolutionized my life.”



Since making an impressive American film debut in “X-Men,” Jackman has been working nonstop. He was the best thing about the tepid Ashley Judd romantic comedy “Someone Like You,” in which he played a womanizer with a heart of gold, and in the frenetic John Travolta-Halle Berry action thriller “Swordfish,” in which he played a computer genius.

Though Jackman looks muscular on screen, in person he’s as skinny as a beanpole. So he’s been trying to bulk up for “X-Men II,” which is set to start production in April. As the limo departs the Four Seasons, he starts chomping on a rather nasty-looking protein bar.

“You see, you lose a lot of weight doing the part,” says Jackman. “So I want to get bigger than I need to be because it will be impossible to put it on [once the movie starts]. Because I am tall, it works against me. In the meantime, I am playing a New York cop in this movie called ‘Pride and Glory.’ We start filming any minute now. It’s with Ed Harris, [Robert] Duvall and Anthony LaPaglia.”



All of this good fortune in Hollywood has taken Jackman by surprise. Just two years ago, he was completing his successful run in the Trevor Nunn production of “Oklahoma!,” his third musical in as many years, having also starred on the Sydney stage as Gaston in “Beauty and the Beast” and as Joe Gillis in “Sunset Blvd.”

“I totally felt [during “Oklahoma!”] like it can’t get any better this,” he says. “On some level that production will be one of the highlights of my career. I don’t remember ever having dreams of [doing movies in Hollywood]. It comes as a real pleasant surprise.

“I find it a generous place. I thought, being a foreigner in Hollywood, [actors would say]: ‘These are American parts, why are you taking our parts?’ But there has been no attitude whatsoever.”

After his appearance on “The Tonight Show"--on which Jackman also sang--the limo was taking him to the Hollywood premiere of “Kate & Leopold.” He had, thus far, seen only a rough cut of the film. But he was happy with the result. “I found it tough and funny and kind of charming.” The reviews for the film were mixed but universally positive for Jackman.
During the filming, Mangold would frequently just whisper the name of the legendary star Errol Flynn into Jackman’s ear before a scene. “As much as we were making a movie about 1876 and modern day, I think we were making a movie about Hollywood in the ‘30s and today,” says the director. “The kind of man Hugh is playing is even in a way less an accurate portrayal of a period man and more a kind of beautiful, fantastic creation [found in ‘30s movies] like Ronald Colman, Errol Flynn and Cary Grant.”



Though he seems born for stage and screen, Jackman didn’t take up acting until his senior year in college in Australia (he has a degree in journalism). “In my last term I took acting as an elective just to get by because I heard it was a really easy course,” he says. When the class did a play, “out of the blue I got cast in the lead. I spent more time on the play than I did anything else. I just scraped through with my degree.”

After graduation, he trained for a year at an acting school. “I got the bug completely. Then I got accepted into drama school. I was so happy. My dad was all for it. Dad always told us just feel passionate about what you do.”
Jackman received a sign that he was pursuing the right career when he learned that the tuition for the drama school was $3,500. Just the month before, he had been given $3,500 exactly from his grandmother’s will. At first he was worried about approaching his father and telling him he was going to use his grandmother’s bequest for drama school. “But he said, ‘I couldn’t think of any better way for you to spend the money,’” says Jackman. “Journalism was something I would be all right at, but I also knew it wouldn’t occupy my heart.”

When asked how he feels about his rapid rise to international stardom, Jackman flashes a disarming smile and describes doing “Saturday Night Live.”

“It was so amazing to me that I was doing that. I often say to myself, ‘Don’t they realize I am just from Sydney?’ I am a kid and acting is a hobby, and all of a sudden, I am going through the door!”

It's still the same Hugh we know today!