(Howard Rollins), and his struggle for justice after racist city firemen vandalize his vehicle without punishment. It primarily follows an African American ragtime piano player, Coalhouse Walker Jr. Doctorow and directed by Miloš Forman, the film takes place in the 1910s New York. It's not too difficult to imagine why Meryl would've been interested in a film like Ragtime. We don't learn for which role Meryl had been cast, but I suspect it was likely for the part I originally intended to select, that of "Mother." Mary Streenburgen ultimately portrayed the character in the film.
And I honestly don't even remember how I happened to come across the interview, but after doing so, I was even more confident in my choice. I had already planned to include this film in the 'supporting' version of my recasting project by the time I saw this clip. Meryl provides the example of when she had been cast in a movie called Ragtime, which she dropped out of after finding out she was pregnant with her first child, Henry. It's the first question in the interview and comes within the first minute:
The United States became a superpower in the 20th century, and Doctorow charts its meteoric rise by concentrating on America's largest city.In a 2015 interview for Ricki and the Flash, Meryl Streep was asked a question about whether there was ever a project she really wanted to do but ultimately turned down because it was the right choice for her family. New York is the center of the earth." What Doctorow is foreshadowing, by setting Ragtime in New York at the turn of the century, is that the United States would loom freaking large in the 20th century. Today, America is the Roman empire, and New York is Rome itself. In 1971, John Lennon famously said, " If I'd lived in Roman times, I'd have lived in Rome. Through it all, more and more immigrants are arriving at Ellis Island, trying to pursue the American dream. Doctorow plays the city like a piano, hitting notes where he wants and bringing characters in and out of famous locales.įreud spots the Little Girl and Tateh on the Lower East Side, Houdini hangs above Times Square, the mansions of the rich contrast with the tenements of the poor. But between rich and poor lies a broad spectrum, and it's in the middle-income melting pot of New York that Doctorow focuses the action of his novel. (4.4)Īnything and everything is possible in New York City, if you have the right amount of money. He liked to feel clean so they passed along a change of clothes delivered each morning to the jail doors by his valet. Thaw was not really fond of the jail fare so they brought in his meals from Delmonico's. (3.7)Īnd on the other end of the income spectrum there's this: Their exposed intestines heaved with rats. Fathers raced through the streets looking for ice. The sink at the bottom of the stairs was dry. The tenements glowed like furnaces and the tenants had no water to drink. By using New York as his setting, Doctorow can examine a bajillion different themes: from immigration and poverty to class differences and intolerance and sex.Ĭheck out the contrasts that Doctorow conjures up. New York at this time is the center of America, and is on its way to becoming a global capital. While Ragtime does take trips to the Arctic, Egypt, Europe and other locations in the Unites States, the book's real center is New York: from the beginning of the turn of the century to the end of World War I. What could be more American than New York City (besides apple pie)?
0 kommentar(er)
