Mister  D: Sorry for all the spacing in this article, but it did not transfer so well, and it would have driven me crazy to delete each little space.  But do take the time and effort to read the article for it is quite interesting.
Altoona Mirror
Success Blooms for Bette Midler as”The Rose‘ Heads Her Toward Oscar
By DICK Â K L E I N ER
Wednesday, January I5, 1980
H O L L Y W O OD ( N E A ) ”¢ If t h e re is a n y t h i ng t h a t ‘s c e r t a in in this l i f e, besides d e a t h, taxes and the r i s i ng cost of gasoline, it is t hat Be t te Midl er wi ll get an Ac ademy Awa rd n o m i n a t i on for her l e a d i ng role in “The Rose.”
So f a r, t h e re is o n ly one o t h er f e m a le p e r f o r m a n ce in ’79 t h at comes close io hers – S a l ly Field in “No rma Rae”. And it a p p e a rs t o t a l ly p o s i t i ve th at bolh of these g i f t ed l a d i es w i ll get n o m i n a t i o n s.
Miss Mi d l e r ‘s is the more surpr i s ing of ihe two. We a ll k n ew Sally Field c o u ld act – we had seen p l e n ty of evidence of t h at b e f o r e, B ut a ll we knew about B e t te M i d l er was t h at s he w as a gr e a t, a l t h o u gh o u tr a g e o us singer.
In “The Rose,” h o w e v e r, she is s u p e r b. If you see i t, you w i ll he knocked o ut by t he p ower of her p e r f o rma n c e. You may not l i ke the cha r a c t er she p l a ys – a t o r t u r e d , s e l f – s e r v i n g rock s i n g e r, suppos edly modeled s omewh at a f t er the l a te J anis J o p l in – b ut y ou w i ll f e el h er p a in as Itiough it we re i n s i de you.
T he b r i l l i a nt d i r e c t or ot t he f i l m, Ma rk Ryde l l, calls her a genius, n o t h i ng less. “Yes, a genius ,” R y d e ll says. “Somebody l i ke her comes along once in a decade, ma y be less.
R y d e ll says t h at A l an B a t e s, who c o – s t a rs in t he mo v ie w i t h h e r, “had his m o u th open the whole t i m e .” R y d e ll says B a t es told him he had been w o r k i ng for 30 ye a rs and has n e v er seen a n y b o dy l i ke her.
” B a t es said he c o u l d n ‘t b el i e ve it was h er f i r s t f i l m ,” R y d e ll says. ” A nd n e i t h er could I.”
R y d e l l s a ys t h at M i s s. M i d l e r, w i th a r e p u t a t i on f or temperament, was anything but t e m p e r m e n t al d u r i ng t he f i l m-ing. He c h a r a c t e r i z es her as “an angel, a puppy dog.” But he does say t h at so me limes the prospect of the day’s work that lay ahead of her was a lmo st too ‘ o v e rwh e lmi n g.’
“She would come in in the morning,” the d i r e c t or says, “and would be f a c i ng a day of a c t ing unhappy or miserable all day long. So she had t rouble g e t t i ng s t a r t ed many m o r n i n g s, w i lh t h at f a c i ng her, and I u n d e r s t o od it.”
He says the q u a l i ty t h at most impressed him about Bette Midl er was h er h o n e s t y. “She is savagely h o n e s t ,” he s ays. “She has a bui l t – in p h o n y de t e c tor and it is
w o r k i ng all t he time.”
He s ays h er hone s ty a f f e c t ed everyone on the s et in a p o s i t i ve ways. It m a de
e v e r y o ne o p e ra te at his best, he says.
R y d e ll says t h at he d o e s n ‘t k n ow w h e re s he g ot i t, b ut s he k n ew a lot a b o ut mo v i e -ma k i ng going in. “She is a s t u d e nt of movi emaking,” he says, ” b ut she is a s t u d e nt wi th a Ferrari engine. I t h i nk t h a t, wi th h e l p, this g i rl w i ll be a b le to do
a n y t h i n g .”
For R y d e l l, “The Rose,” w h i ch has a he avy rock mus ic s e t t i n g, m i g ht have s e emed an u n l i k e ly project. He says l h at he n e v er l iked rock m u s ic – he s t u d i ed at J u t l l i a r d and was a serious j a zz mu s i c i an before he t u r n ed to a c t i ng a n d, u l t i m a t el y, d i r e c t i n g.
He says that in the ’60s – J a n is Jopl ln’s decade – he was wo r k i ng hard as an a c tor and d i d n ‘t have t ime to listen to the c u r r e nt musical fads. So he never really was conscious of Joplin and her contemporaries. But he became a Midl er fan w h en he f i r s t s aw h e r, s i n g i ng ” S u p e r s t a r ,” on a B u r t Bacharach TV spe c i a l.
“I r e a l i z ed then,” he s ays, ” that she was t r e m e n d o u s ly g i f t e d. I r e a l i z ed t h en t h at s he is an arc l i g ht w a i t i ng to be t u r n ed on.
And so, when the people who w a n t ed to make “The Rose” approached h i m, he read the script and said, yes, he’d do it – but o n ly w i th B e t te M i d l er as the star. Pr evious ly, there had been several a t t e m p ts to make the f i lm w i th other s t a rs – Ken Russell, for one, was p l a n n i ng lo do it w i th Va l e r ie Perrine.
This is only R y d e t l ‘s s i x th p i c t u r e. He is very s e l e c t ive, w i th good reason. As he says, when you spend two years of y o ur l i fe on a p r o j e c t, y ou d o n ‘t w a nt to g et involved w i th a n yt h i ng except the best.
