Brigadoon

As I watched the film in class, I mentally went over my top 100 list and wondered why Brigadoon isn’t on it. 

There are no songs that I don’t like. In fact, I really like every one of them—a lot. 

I’m a big fan of the three leads and they are well cast here. 

Is it the pastoral setting and the unfolding of a day that keeps it from standing out? It’s as if the mists had obscured my memory and when I rediscover how wonderful it is, the mists will roll in again after I leave. 

The movie is so low key and of another time, that the beginning narration sounds like a reading of an old book. The action happening onscreen might as well have happened long ago. 

We’ve been talking in class about how an audience walks away from reality to sit in a theatre and how a musical takes that a step further by having the characters walk away from their reality to a higher realm. It can happen through dream, memory or wish and is wrapped up in song. 

Brigadoon itself is that dream and does a fine job of taking the audience there. It’s time to reassess my list before the wonder of it all dissipates.

The Epic Review of Silk Stockings

I watched Ninotchka a while ago and realized I had seen something similar many years before and hadn’t liked it very much. I don’t know if it’s because I now have the original film as a reference or if I’m more open, but I had a much more enjoyable viewing of Silk Stockings this time around. Notably, it is a perfect example of the best and worst musicals have to offer.

Worst

Caricature characters: This one goes to Peggy Dayton played by Janice Paige. She’s loud, uninteresting and if Paige pantomimed knocking water out of her ear one more time, I was going to hit her upside the head myself.

Dated songs: Ritz Roll and Rock wasn’t in the Broadway Play and shouldn’t have been in this film either. The choreography is messy and has Fred Astaire on the floor for much of it. The only redeeming quality is Astaire crushing his top hat symbolically signifying the end of his movie dancing career.

Banal Songs: We got the Red Blues has no more than 20 words and they’re stuck on repeat like a needle on a record. Cyd Charisse saves the day by keeping our minds off the words with her magic.

Awkward Performers: I love Peter Lorre, but he gets put here. I know it’s not fair to pigeon hole someone into type, but watching Lorre sing and dance throws me for a loop. He himself looks a little bemused as if to say, “look at me, I'm dancing!”  I was watching his face closely throughout the film and it really looked like he was having a very nice time and for that I’m happy for him.

Best

The Great Divide: “What keeps the lovers apart?” is the question and plot to all romance stories; the greater the divide the greater the story. What could be a better source of division than ideology; it’s almost impenetrable. Communist meets capitalist-- It worked in Ninotchka and it works here.

Memorable Songs: “Suggestive lyrics, clever rhymes and complex forms (Wiki)” are the trademarks of a Cole Porter song; and All of You hits everyone.  Hearing Fred Astaire sing the words, "The eyes, the arms, the mouth of you. The east, west, north and the south of you” is a little shocking and completely unforgettable.

Awe Inspiring Dancing: Fated to be Mated/All of You is performed by two of the greatest film dancers and marks an end of an era. There is one inexplicable aspect to the dance that I can’t figure out. For two small segments Charisse’s skirt is replaced with culottes. The cut and color are the same, so either they tried the dance both ways and the editors hoped no one would notice or the Hayes Code was in effect and required 2 of the shots be filmed in a split skirt. In this next picture, as they lunge back in hopes of catching the bar, I wonder if Astaire is saying to himself, "I'm getting too old for these pranks."

Another notable dance is during Red Blues. Again, Charisse is fantastic and the ensemble does very well filling in the Cinemascope sides.

Lead Characters: What can I say about Fred Astaire that hasn’t already been said in a hundred ways? He’s 57 years old in the film and there are only glimpses of him showing his age. When someone makes dancing look so effortless, there is a true artist at work. Cyd Charisse is the most unassuming of female leads. She never hogs the spotlight or demands greater attention, but she gets it by sheer talent alone. Her dancing is a triumph over polio as a child and her long, long legs and beautiful lines are impossible to improve upon. Because I enjoy these two performers so much, I wish I liked The Band Wagon, but Silk Stockings is a nice alternative.

New Moon

(ed. note: this is NOT a review of the film in the Twilight saga)

Six movies in and the plot gets pretty far-fetched for the Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy team. 

Contrived grievances to keep them apart are irksome, but what can you do? I like Opera (with subtitles ), so the singing style doesn’t bother me... much. Jeanette’s clipped words and trilled “r”s get to me after a while and I find myself liking Nelson’s voice more. This is one of my favorite Nelson songs, "Stout Hearted Men"
It looks suspiciously like this clip from Babes in Arms which came out a year earlier. Check out the torches.
 

I wonder if the studio was called out for plagiarizing another film. Wait a minute. I need to check something…  Just as I suspected; they are both from MGM. Reusing props and choreography is their prerogative I guess--you can’t steal from yourself.

I enjoyed this enough and am familiar with their songs so I want to see all of their films eventually. Naughty Mariette is first solely because of this song.

New Moon has similarities to Captain Blood, so if you don’t want to be sung to, I’d highly recommend that one. 

Zulu

That which courses through men’s veins is inscrutable. It demands that they hold the line, take that hill or march out as firearm fodder so a chief can assess the enemy. What again were the soldiers defending? A few buildings? A corral? Inconsequential. These men had orders and were determined to obey them. There was no clear enemy and no clear purpose—just men fulfilling their duty on both sides.

I was in shock and awe. What would I do in that world? --I’d hide out in the chapel tending to the wounded, while inwardly being beside myself with the futility of it all. Then, in the end, if I survived, I’d find a way to be alone to involuntarily lose the contents of my stomach and have a solitary breakdown.

No soldier's life for me.

The film did provide some glimpses into men’s thoughts and internal struggles. Even with all the stoicism, there were some fine moments of self inspection, realization and vulnerability. (For an insightful look at men and war, read oldkid’s review of War Horse!) Overall, the contrasting lieutenants, the rhythms of the Zulus and the strategies of both were my favorite aspects.

Back story almost always rivals a movie itself. The Zulus had never seen a motion picture; so Stanley Baker (Lt. John Char) brought in a projector and showed them a Gene Autry film. Oh how I would have loved to be there to see the images flicker across their faces. Magic.

Another Year

Gardening is a chore—the weeds, the watering, and the waiting to taste that first tomato. But the law of the harvest is so much more than the final product (though that’s especially nice). It’s perceiving the movement of air, the feel of the soil, and the bending of muscle. When Gerri lifts her face to the sun and breathes in the moment, I know she understands.

Poor Mary trying to live off borrowed light. As the dinner party reminisces about the past, Mary is left “outside” looking in.  She recognizes the light and wants to bask in it, but it’s not hers and she’s unable or unwilling to create her own.

Pieces of Lou Reed’s song, “Perfect Day” kept playing in my head throughout the film.

You just keep me hanging on…

Just a perfect day
You make me forget myself
I thought I was someone else
Someone good

You're going to reap just what you sow…

Gigi

I’ve spent much of my life not liking Gigi. To be more precise, I was disgusted by the men’s attitudes and infuriated with the women’s behavior. In the Most Hated Musicals Thread, I wrote, “With her grandmother and aunt's help up the steps, Gigi laid herself on the altar of second class citizenship. She had the chance to be formidable, but blew it.” I kind of resented her for caving and had similar reactions to the endings of Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Annie Get Your Gun. Where’s the conviction? Where are the strong women role models? After watching the film again last week, I softened my feelings towards the grandmother. I hadn’t noticed how she had tried to inform Gigi about what she was getting herself into. A weak attempt maybe, but for someone who knew no other life pursuit, the grandmother did make an effort. Besides my overwhelming distaste for Gigi’s reversal decision, I found the story and music to be, for the most part, a bore.  There was little forward movement and the songs, though luckily shorter than song renditions in Kiss Me Kate, were uninteresting or worse, creepy.

Enter Dual Focus Narrative. My textbook for the semester is Rick Altman’s The American Film Musical, a wordy treatise on the theory of genre analysis. With the Dual Focus concept, he managed to turn on a light bulb over my head and walk me through a movie that I thought I had seen and understood, and said, “Forget everything you think you know and look at this from a different standpoint.” I’d become comfortable with the protagonist driven story and expected to follow along as plot points begat plot points. Sometimes I complained about the predictability, but I still liked the linear style.

The idea of parallelism as a “different principle of organization” was something I hadn’t really considered before, but I was intrigued, and by the end of the chapter Altman had sold me on the concept. Vincente Minnelli wasn’t wandering around haphazardly, fitting in songs willy-nilly. The scenes were very precisely choreographed to mirror Gaston and Gigi’s experiences and the montage scenes took on elevated meaning as they illustrated their similar predicaments. With the male/female, wealthy/beautiful, child/adult dichotomies all explored, the film turned into a much more interesting piece. I had dismissed it because of my convictions, but I had missed out because of my ignorance.

Dual Focus Narrative opens up a whole new way of looking at a film as psychology, sociology, history and ethics come into play while two characters slowly make their way to reconciliation. Even though I still don't like Gigi, I'm now aware that there is more to it than I had given it credit for.

Sherlock Jr.

I put the writing of this review on the back burner for a long time because I’ve become somewhat sentimental towards Buster Keaton and am unable to separate the man from his work. 

The more I learn the more bitter-sweet his movies become. He uncompromisingly gave everything to a part and in the process put himself at extreme risk. Why did he do it? What compelled him to make those types of sacrifices? I don’t see in him an over-sized ego that says, “Look at me!” Instead I observe an unceasing drive to perform to please. His humility and resignation in his later work, especially In the Good Old Summertime and Film, are almost too much to look at.

Lest I forget what I’m here to do, Sherlock Jr. is a wonder! It appears that many other movies have taken little bits from it. Jacques Tati must have studied Sherlock Jr. well to help in creating some of his antics in Jour de fête and the writers of I Was a Male War Bride liked the motorcycle scene enough to use their own version of it. There were so many jaw dropping moments that I stopped the movie often to re-watch, just to be sure that what I saw really happened. Even so, my favorite part is the simple scene where Sherlock Jr. is taking romancing cues from an actor on screen. 

My hat’s off to you Mr. Keaton.

A Sense of History

The aristocracy façade crumbles as Jim Broadbent walks us through the story of The 23rd Earl of Leete. 

Mike Leigh, making a departure from directing his own material, understatedly captures Jim Broadbent’s biting social commentary. Athena-51 posted on IMDb that A Senseof History was “ingeniously crafted with Jim Broadbent entrapping me perfectly in his web.”  I too was caught up and for a moment forgot that it was a spoof of the politics of the times. This pointed approach is much more effective than an all out rant or broad satire. Broadbent, standing in the frigid water reenacting a moment in his past, will stay with me forever.

The Earl of Leete defending his support of Hitler reminded me of The Remains of the Day and the dilemma the butler had with his employer’s loyalties. He said, "Lord Darlington wasn't a bad man. He wasn't a bad man at all. And at least he had the privilege of being able to say at the end of his life that he made his own mistakes. His lordship was a courageous man. He chose a certain path in life, it proved to be a misguided one, but there, he chose it, he can say that at least. As for myself, I cannot even claim that. You see, I trusted. I trusted in his lordship's wisdom. All those years I served him, I trusted I was doing something worthwhile. I can't even say I made my own mistakes. Really - one has to ask oneself - what dignity is there in that?" 

While The Remains of the Day uses this quiet, fatalistic, detached dialogue to create a sense of history, A Sense of History uses it as a wakeup call by infuriating the audience.