Conference bookie::movies

Can you tell me which actors played which roles?  This is one of my 
all time favourite books.  I have seen a lot of press on the movie, but 
other than Winona Ryder playing "Jo" and Susan Sarandon playing "Marmei", 
I haven't been able to figure out who is playing Meg, Beth, Amy, Laurie, 
John and the professor.

Gabriel Byrne is in there.

    I saw this film last night and loved the scenery as well so I watched
    for the film location during the credits it was done in Victoria,
    British Columbia.  
    
    If you decide to see this movie bring some tissues - they really lay
    it on pretty thick but try as you may - I personally couldn't stop the 
    tears from rolling down my cheeks.
    
    Thumbs up for this nice little film. 
    
    PChaplinsky

    
    
    
    sorry I didn't stay for the credits, but it was convincing to me
    that it took place in MA; 
    
    Kirsten D. played...Amy
    Trini Alvarado .......Meg
    ???????????...........Beth  (she was Good, even though I can't rem.her
    name)
    The others ????? unknowns.....
    
    Top Stars....Winona Ryder & Susan Sarandon
    Mary Wickes as Aunt March (She is about 109 yrs old)
    
    
    
    

    I've seen Clare Danes (from TV's "My So-Called Life") and Kristen Dunst
    (from _Interview with a Vampire_) as a couple of the girls.  I believe
    Gabriel Byrne is the Professor.

Siskel and Ebert both gave this movie big thumbs up - were both very 
impressed with Winona Ryder's performance.  I could tell from the clips they 
showed that Gabriel Byrne does play the professor (Baer?) and that Christian 
Bale plays Laurie.  It opens in Toronto this Wednesday and I think I'll be 
seeing it asap.  Hope it doesn't disappoint - I find that movies never quite 
capture a book and because this is one of my favs, it will be hard to please 
me!

    I mentionned Victoria, B.C. but forgot to add that it was partly filmed
    in Vancouver, B.C. as well.  Amazingly enough, Canadians flock to these
    places for the mild winters - yet there was plenty of snow in this
    film.
    
    PChaplinsky

RE who plays whom:

    Winona Ryder plays Josephene and Susan Sarandon plays the mother. I'm not
sure of the others.

RE the movie

  I saw this on the big screen the other day. The acting is 1st rate, the
direction is tight, the costumes are lovely, and the cinematography is
beautiful. There is very good character development and the actors really bring
their parts to life.

  The problem is that the movie has no plot. Nothing happens. Nothing at all. 

  Well there is a very small story about Josephene struggling to become a
writer which takes up some time in the middle, but the rest is just rite of
passage stuff for the family as they pop from one family event to another. 

  The movie drags quite a bit from time to time but still it is a pleasant
movie and the acting and beautiful scenery make it worth the price of the
ticket.

  Being a bit generous I'll give it
  *** out of 5

  George

    To settle the casting, once and for all:
    
    Marmie		Susan Sarandon
    Jo			Winona Ryder
    Meg			Trini Alvarado
    Beth		Claire Danes
    Amy (child)		Kirsten Dunst
    Amy (adult)		Samantha Mathis
    Laurie		Christian Bale
    John Brooke		Eric Stoltz
    Prof. Bhaer		Gabriel Byrne
    
    I haven't read _Little Women_ in ages, but my impression is that they
    were quite faithful to the book.
    
    It took me a little while to get into the movie; the opening scene
    seemed contrived, like they needed to say, "Okay, here's the March
    family, see?  Now let's get into the story."  This book and the movie 
    aren't really "about" anything.  The plot, such as it is, is simply to
    let the characters develop from youth to maturity.  A real sign that
    we're not dealing with a modern movie is that the girls are consciously
    concerned with analyzing and developing their moral character; they are
    deliberately trying to be better people, not because they want to
    "self-actualize" but because it's the duty of any human being.
    
    The movie is beautifully filmed and well-acted; in particular, I liked
    Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder and Kirsten Dunst.
    
    Worth full price if you enjoyed the book or want to introduce a child
    to the March family.

I look forward to reading the book.  The movie hints that Alcott
has a sharp focus on personality, family life and courtship.
I know the film was supposed to convey these  things, but I didn't
connect to it.  I thought it was  a hard  film to  make  and
I understand this is much better than other film attempts of the novel.
What I enjoyed the most was the portrayal of the shear  beauty of things - 
New England in the winter, maple trees in fall, lush interiors warmed 
yellow by fires in the hearth, gourgeous custumes.  And everyone's 
stunning good looks.  

Brian

    I noticed this has a PG rating. 
    
    Having read the book many times and can't think of anything that would
    warrent a PG rating, what's in the movie that might be PG?

>    I noticed this has a PG rating. 
>    
>    Having read the book many times and can't think of anything that would
>    warrent a PG rating, what's in the movie that might be PG?

Having neither read the book nor seen the movie, I can't point to incidents
or situations that warrant PG, but I have observed that a movie normally
has to be EXTREMELY bland or targeted straight at 8-year-olds and under 
to rate a G.  Hence PG-13 was invented to give some intermediate guidance 
between the merely routine blandness of PG and the explicitness of R.

- tom]

  I didn't see anything at all in the Little Women that would be a problem for
kids of any age. In fact, it seems targeted at adolescent kids and several
women I've talked to have said it was their favorite book when they were
pre-teen. 

  Go figure,
  George

    >Having read the book many times and can't think of anything that would
    >warrant a PG rating, what's in the movie that might be PG?
        
    Also haven't seen the movie, but I wouldn't be surprised if the
    producers intentionally left in a bit of bad language in order to
    preserve the PG rating. When Spielberg made ET, for instance, he was
    afraid that the movie might get a G rating, and thus not be taken
    seriously by older kids and adults. So he made sure that one of the
    kids called another "penis-head" just to kick it into PG territory.
    
    Jim

    I bought the Phoenix for the movies review section a couple weeks ago
    to help me decide what I was going to see.  "Turkeys" and "Mixed Dice"
    populated all but one of the movies... "Little Women" which had "Stars"
    straight across the board.  The decision didn't take long.

    I saw the movie and loved it.  It was a refreshing change from the same
    old killing/swearing/sex/action stuff that predominates today.
                     
    I agree with .9's rendering of the plot.  It's simple, innocent and
    clean, not to mention very moving at times.  I take exception to .12's
    "EXTREMELY bland or targeted straight at 8-year-olds and under".  Both
    the novel and the movie deserve better than that.

    *****+

    -dave

>    I take exception to .12's
>    "EXTREMELY bland or targeted straight at 8-year-olds and under".  Both
>    the novel and the movie deserve better than that.

You seem to have misunderstood what I wrote.
I was observing that that's what a movie needs to get a G rating.
The question was why is "Little Women" a PG and not a G movie.
I was explaining that, given what it takes to get a G, "Little Women"
is apparently NOT "EXTREMELY bland or targeted straight at 8-year-olds 
and under".

- tom]

  This is the first time I have read or written to this conference. Since there
is no intro topic, I will briefly introduce myself here.
  I don't watch movies often. I rarely go to the cinema and don't have a VCR.
I dislike most modern movies; too much sex and violence, and just plain "junk".
I also can't stand the commercials on network TV movies, so rarely watch those
either. My favorite movie-watching is seeing the classics on PBS stations. Few
or no commercials (they occasionally have pledge breaks) and I like the 
classics better.
  One of my interests in movies is seeing local (New England) location shots
in movies. So I'm curious, are there any location shots in Little Women that
you can recognize as specific sites in New England?
  About the time the movie was being filmed, I took a tour of the Alcott house
and the guide had no idea if any scenes in the movie had been filmed in or
near Concord, MA. But I did hear that a few scenes were filmed somewhere in
New England.
  I'm not suprised that most of the location shots were done in Canada. 
Concord, MA is, sad to say, far too built up to be a suitable place to 
replicate the Concord of 150 years ago, which was then a small farming town
just like the one in the novel. The other problem is that MA's labor climate
is unfavorable for movie making. Despite vigorous promotion by the MA Film
Bureau, moviemakers rarely film in MA unless they want to get something that
is unique, such as the Boston skyline.
  If this movie does have recognizable New England scenes, I just might see
it.

  Many of the out door scenes looked very New England like but as to whether
they were actually filmed in New England or on some production companies back
lot I couldn't tell. A lot of it is in doors and some of the scenes are suppose
to take place in Europe or New York City. 

  There's really only one or two "New England" locations and those are just
houses, nothing historic like the State House in Boston, Fanuel hall, or
anything else that would stand out as being a unique New England building. 

  So I guess if you are interested in seeing something that looks like 19th
Century New England this movie would be for you but if you are looking for a
specific location so that you could go there and say "hey, I saw this in the
movies" then you'd be limited to a house or two if that.

  George 

    The closeups of the March house were filmed outside the Orchard House
    in Concord, Mass last winter.  This was Louisa May Alcott's childhood
    home.  Many of the exterior shots were filmed in the old village at
    Deerfield, Mass.
    
    Fortunately for the film, New England had major snow last winter, making
    for some incredible winter vistas.