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f i l m The Rose FILMING "The Rose" began April 24, 1978, in New York City and Los Angeles, and finished on July 18, 1978, two days ahead of schedule. The film had a twelve-week shooting schedule, and a $9 million budget. The concert footage was shot at the Wiltern Theater in L.A., and the Long Beach Veterans Memorial Stadium was the site of the final concert sequence. The audience for the final concert was made up of paid extras. When the film was released in November of 1979, audiences saw several scenes where Rose fights with her manager, Rudge (Alan Bates). There are those who felt that those scenes bore a similarity to Midler's real-life experiences with Aaron Russo, her personal manager. The world premiere of "The Rose" was held November 6, 1979 at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City; the opening night party was at the Roseland Ballroom. The premiere and party raised $60,000 for the Phoenix House, a drug rehab organization. The West Coast premiere was held the following evening at the Plitt Century Plaza Theater; the party was at the Century Plaza Hotel. The premiere raised $130,000 for the Los Angeles International Film Exposition. From "Bette Midler: Outrageously Divine," an unauthorized biography by Mark Bego, a Signet Book, New American Library, copyright 1987 by Mark Bego (ISBN 0-451-14814-2).   Review: A Good Bette, an old story BETTE Midler is very impressive in her feature film debut as a rock singer caught in the fast lane of drugs and death. She's always compelling, never boring, and she plays the part without ever once breaking character and playing her own stage persona as "the Divine Miss M." As for the film, well, let's face it: At its heart, "The Rose" is a routine show biz saga of the lonely life at the top of the heap. It perpetuates the myth that a successful female entertainer must be a hard woman who's unlucky in love. And so we follow Midler on the all-too-predictable path of rejection by men, acceptance by the crowd, still more rejection by men, and the descent into the hell of booze and smack. Yes, you've seen this story before, but you haven't seen Midler perform it. The role is quite close to Janis Joplin, the Texas blues-rock singer who died of a heroin overdose in 1971 at age 27. Joplin was a flower child who impressed young white people with her willingness to slug it out with the best of the black-dominated blues field. She sure could scream, and her penchant for swilling Southern Comfort during a concert only added to her sweet-but-tough-mama image. Midler plays a character nicknamed "Rose." She hails from a poor part of Miami. She, too, has that captivating energy. As the film opens, she stumbles off a private jet carrying her on tour. She's apparently bombed out of her mind on booze, and her bearded, Mephisto-like English manager (Alan Bates) gives her a knowing look. He's a macho shepherd holding together this fragile star out of the goodness of his bank balance. A great moment in the film occurs when we see Midler backstage for the first time. Just before going onstage she does some deep breathing exercises that sound like a long-distance runner hyperventilating. Actually it's a scary moment. For the first time in a backstage story we get a sense of just how physically tough the entertainment business really is. Gene Siskel, The Chicago Tribune, 9 November 79.   Interview: Acting Class "I TRY TO do different things most of the time. I don't really try to follow any particular pattern." For this reason, Alan Bates is something of an enigma. He's a consummate actor, so he becomes submerged in the roles he plays - to the detriment of his public image. The force of his talent should have made him a superstar, yet the range of his roles has been so wide that he has never been typecast. Bates has appeared in such varied films as "The Entertainer," "A Kind of Loving," "Zorba the Greek," "Georgy Girl," "King of Hearts" and "The Fixer," for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. In America, he's best known for two films, "Women in Love" and "An Unmarried Woman." "Over here," he says, "you never know quite what they're going to see in you or like you for, because in America, the image is a tremendously important element. I think to become an image is an enormously limiting thing." Pure Acting The full international recognition Bates deserves hasn't been granted him partially since he returns for long periods to the theater, where the audience is obviously more limited. He does this because he feels the stage is more rewarding for pure acting. "Once the curtain goes up, only the actor can do anything about it. You're really in charge of what you do. The final responsibility is greater in the theater." He achieved his initial recognition in "Look Back in Anger" in 1956. The play caused a revolution in the English theater, and he eventually came with it to Broadway. At 44, he's now regarded as one of England's finest stage actors, thanks to such recent triumphs as "Butley" and "Otherwise Engaged." However, he doesn't decry film acting. "The camera requires a greater truth. You can't fake anything. You have to be there - present. Screen acting is rewarding in the sense that it's intimate. I like the closeness of films." Alan Bates doesn't believe that this closeness should go beyond the job of acting. Although the film world has a tendency to regard the private lives of its stars as public property, he assigns great importance to keeping his home life in London separate from his career. "I try to keep my private life totally for myself." So, he's tactfully reticent about his wife and twin sons, in order to protect them from the cutting edge of the public spotlight. There's a dichotomy in that Bates feels his work on a very personal level and will therefore expose parts of his personality. "I choose a script if it touches me, if something in me responds to it. I do things because they move or excite me. You need to feel a sympathy with what you're doing, to feel that you're saying something." Best Roles One of his favorite parts was in "The Fixer." "It was about someone in a very desperate situation, something most people don't have to deal with, something really tough." He also feels that TV's "The Mayor of Casterbridge" is one of his best roles. It's the second time he has played a character from Thomas Hardy. "I felt completely in touch with the part. I think it touches so many facets of one complex being." Although the English critics were divided over the series, he contends: "I simply didn't care. I know it was good. My spirit was there, although I don't mean that it couldn't have been done differently. You can't please everybody and can't attempt to. Sometimes,you have to do it for yourself." This strong individuality manifests itself in Bates's personal style. He isn't overly concerned with dressing up and, like most actors, he doesn't equate style with fashion. "I really choose clothes I feel comfortable in. I'm pretty random about them. I like tailored clothes, because I think they suit me slightly better. Most of the things I wear I pick up from jobs; I find that quite fun." Yet, he's aware of his personal style. "Simply by virtue of being a particular person, personal style comes from your individuality; it's unavoidable. But I think that if you become too aware of style, you become mannered and unopen to experiment." Strange Relationship Perhaps that's why he chooses such diverse parts. Certainly, his latest film is a departure for him. In "The Rose," scheduled for release next spring, he plays the manager of a rock star at the height of her fame and insecurity. While the film belongs to his co-star, Bette Midler, he finds "it was exciting to do something with her. I think she's wonderful. It's a very good role; it searches that strange relationship between a rock star and her manager that's very intense and almost incestuous. The creating of the star becomes an obsession for the manager, and the actual performance is the obsession of the artist." The theme Alan Bates returns to in his work is the unfolding of a complex relationship. However, this seems to be a far cry from his own personality. He has a quality of quiet "Englishness" that defies public dissection. He has a profundity that's as elusive and difficult to explain as his public image. An artist is always something of an enigma, even to himself. "I've never worked out why I wanted to act," he insists. "I just wanted to. It's a mystery when you want to do certain things." This isn't to say that Bates is a distant person; in fact, the opposite is true. He's courteous, yet intense, with a wry sense of humor that shows great warmth. One of his most endearing qualities is his genuine modesty. "I don't know what my public image is, because I haven't tried to have one. If I've got one, someone will have to tell me what it is." Jonathan McCoy, Gentlemen's Quarterly, October 1979

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