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Post by rberman on Jan 2, 2020 14:01:52 GMT -5
Watched "Oklahoma" with the family yesterday, as that was one of the movies in a Rodgers/Hammerstein collection I got my wife for Christmas. Weird movie in parts, especially the trippy ballet sequence in the middle. No one really enjoyed it, and by the start of the second half, my older daughter and I were just one robot short of going full-blown MST3K on it. Not likely to ever watch it again, but I can say I've seen it once. I saw it for the first time on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London a couple of years ago. Its mellow crooner songs and ballet sequence reflect artistic values that were a big hit at the time but would not survive the 1940s.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jan 2, 2020 14:17:56 GMT -5
Watched "Oklahoma" with the family yesterday, as that was one of the movies in a Rodgers/Hammerstein collection I got my wife for Christmas. Weird movie in parts, especially the trippy ballet sequence in the middle. No one really enjoyed it, and by the start of the second half, my older daughter and I were just one robot short of going full-blown MST3K on it. Not likely to ever watch it again, but I can say I've seen it once. I saw it for the first time on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London a couple of years ago. Its mellow crooner songs and ballet sequence reflect artistic values that were a big hit at the time but would not survive the 1940s. Don't tell that to last year's Tony voters and thousands of theatre-goers: www.broadway.com/buzz/196006/daniel-fishs-innovative-oklahoma-wins-2019-tony-award-for-best-revival-of-a-musical/or to Ali Stroker: www.nytimes.com/2019/06/09/theater/tony-awards.htmlAli Stroker becomes first wheelchair user to win a Tony.One of the night’s emotional highlights: Ali Stroker becoming the first wheelchair user to win a Tony. Ms. Stroker, 31, lost the use of her legs in a car accident at age two; now she is featured as Ado Annie, the lusty young woman who “cain’t say no” in a revival of “Oklahoma!” “This award is for every kid who is watching tonight who has a disability, who has a limitation or a challenge, who has been waiting to see themselves represented in this arena,” Ms. Stroker said. “You are.”
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Post by The Captain on Jan 2, 2020 14:52:34 GMT -5
I saw it for the first time on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London a couple of years ago. Its mellow crooner songs and ballet sequence reflect artistic values that were a big hit at the time but would not survive the 1940s. Don't tell that to last year's Tony voters and thousands of theatre-goers: www.broadway.com/buzz/196006/daniel-fishs-innovative-oklahoma-wins-2019-tony-award-for-best-revival-of-a-musical/or to Ali Stroker: www.nytimes.com/2019/06/09/theater/tony-awards.htmlAli Stroker becomes first wheelchair user to win a Tony.One of the night’s emotional highlights: Ali Stroker becoming the first wheelchair user to win a Tony. Ms. Stroker, 31, lost the use of her legs in a car accident at age two; now she is featured as Ado Annie, the lusty young woman who “cain’t say no” in a revival of “Oklahoma!” “This award is for every kid who is watching tonight who has a disability, who has a limitation or a challenge, who has been waiting to see themselves represented in this arena,” Ms. Stroker said. “You are.” Thing is, I like the songs from Oklahoma, but the movie just left me cold. Ado Annie comes off in the film as borderline-intellectually disabled, Ali Hakim is so horribly stereotypical as a crafty Persian bazaar trader, the ballet sequence is just weird, and the climax in the hay piles is over too quickly and then the entire incident is treated like a joke and minor inconvenience in the path of getting Curly and Laurie off on their honeymoon. Not my favorite musical I've ever seen, I'll certainly say.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jan 2, 2020 16:22:46 GMT -5
Thing is, I like the songs from Oklahoma, but the movie just left me cold. Ado Annie comes off in the film as borderline-intellectually disabled, Ali Hakim is so horribly stereotypical as a crafty Persian bazaar trader, the ballet sequence is just weird, and the climax in the hay piles is over too quickly and then the entire incident is treated like a joke and minor inconvenience in the path of getting Curly and Laurie off on their honeymoon. Not my favorite musical I've ever seen, I'll certainly say. I know just what you mean. But it is amazing that even something as old-fashioned and odd as Oklahoma can be given a new and different life. The ballet sequence is more jarring on screen than on stage, I think. DeMille wanted to delve into Laurey's unconscious and bring her anxieties and terrors to the forefront, and the ballet gave her that opportunity, which would have been difficult, if not impossible to depict in the musical sequences in 1944. As she recounted telling Hammerstein, who wanted a big circus-type number, "There's no sex in this play... Nice girls dream rather dirty dreams. They do. You better get inside that girl's mind. She's a mess!" Like so many films of that time, for instance, Otto Preminger's Laura, Val Lewton's Cat People, Hitchcock's Spellbound and a score of noir detective movies, the creators were intrigued and influenced by the burgeoning interest in psychoanalysis. The significance of symbols in dreams and the sexual sub-text in Freudian psychology enabled directors and writers to explore sexuality without being obvious about it; the Hays Code was still powerful enough to prohibit anything obvious. The impulsive, unrestrained Jud is easy to see as an interpretation of the id; Laurey finds herself not just attracted to him, but choosing him over Curly... whom she also fantasizes about in her dream. Laurey is certainly more erotic in her dream than in everyday life, particularly when the French postcard women arrive. But poor Curly; his gun doesn't work and Jud wins the day. Meanwhile, Jung might have seen Jud, who lives in fire and smoke, like the devil, as an avatar of all the Oklahomans we see throughout the play, of all the darkness that lives within them that must be kept from the light of day. Btw, Carousel got the "dark" treatment both a few years ago and more recently -- maybe a year or so ago? -- and both interpretations revealed more beneath the surface than had been seen before.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jan 2, 2020 22:25:18 GMT -5
If you’ve never seen Wag the Dog, no worries. It’ll be on all the news channels all day tomorrow.
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Post by berkley on Jan 2, 2020 23:04:36 GMT -5
New Year's Eve night was spent with Orange Chicken and Pot Stickers dinner curled up on the couch for an All-Nighter. When I got home and flipped through the stations, MoviesTV HD channel was running Dance in the New Year: a marathon of Fred Astaire movies. It had ran some other Astaire movies all day long so I began watching from 6pm until 2:30am while listening to gunshots, firecrackers and dogs barking throughout. Follow the Fleet: 1936 with Ginger Rogers, Harriet Nelson and Randolph Scott Top Hat: 1935 with Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton and Helen Broderick Royal Wedding: 1951 with Jane Powell, Sarah Churchill and Peter Lawford Flying Down to Rio: 1933 with Ginger Rogers, Gene Raymond and Dolores del Rio What a splendid way to end out the year watching some dashing and debonair men and ladies dancing, laughing, singing and frolic away. such scrumptious looking movies with lavish production's for choreographed dancing and singing. Astaire is so smooth on his feet that he makes it all seem so effortless and easy. These movies transport us to a different place and time in history when musical dance films where big sellers and produced regularly rather than one or two a year as they are done today. Such fun and truly movies which will have you smiling and dancing along with them. Astaire? Really? I guess you forget what was written about him after an early screen test: “Can’t act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little”
I remembered it as, "Can't act. Can't sing. Can dance a little."
Any special recommendations of the Astaire/Rogers movies? I'll probably watch them all eventually, but just in case I ever get in the mood to see just one, out of the blue.
I find Adele Astaire an interesting character and always feel a little sorry that she didn't make at least one film with Fred. But she retired before his film career took off and married a British lord.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jan 2, 2020 23:16:20 GMT -5
Astaire? Really? I guess you forget what was written about him after an early screen test: “Can’t act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little”
I remembered it as, "Can't act. Can't sing. Can dance a little."
Any special recommendations of the Astaire/Rogers movies? I'll probably watch them all eventually, but just in case I ever get in the mood to see just one, out of the blue.
I find Adele Astaire an interesting character and always feel a little sorry that she didn't make at least one film with Fred. But she retired before his film career took off and married a British lord.
Yes, that comment has several variations. I'm not an Astaire expert by any means. I know more the individual highlights than whole movies. I love the "Dancing on the Ceiling" routine and his hatrack dance in "Royal Wedding." Also “Dem Bones Cafe” in "The Bandwagon;" "Cheek to Cheek" in "Top Hat;" and "Let's call the Whole Thing Off" in "Shall We Dance" are iconic. I need to watch more of his movies. Have leaned more toward Gene Kelly's more muscular style, but Astaire is equally graceful; he often seems to be dancing on air.
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Post by berkley on Jan 2, 2020 23:26:13 GMT -5
I remembered it as, "Can't act. Can't sing. Can dance a little."
Any special recommendations of the Astaire/Rogers movies? I'll probably watch them all eventually, but just in case I ever get in the mood to see just one, out of the blue.
I find Adele Astaire an interesting character and always feel a little sorry that she didn't make at least one film with Fred. But she retired before his film career took off and married a British lord.
Yes, that comment has several variations. I'm not an Astaire expert by any means. I know more the individual highlights than whole movies. I love the "Dancing on the Ceiling" routine and his hatrack dance in "Royal Wedding." Also “Dem Bones Cafe” in "The Bandwagon;" "Cheek to Cheek" in "Top Hat;" and "Let's call the Whole Thing Off" in "Shall We Dance" are iconic. I need to watch more of his movies. Have leaned more toward Gene Kelly's more muscular style, but Astaire is equally graceful; he often seems to be dancing on air. That's interesting because I had much the same experience, watching old Hollywood movies on Canadian tv channels: saw lots of Gene Kelly, but don't remember seeing any old Astaire/Rogers films, just excerpts on Hollywood specials or (I'm guessing) that big, long compilation of song and dance numbers that I recall seeing in the 70s sometime: it was so long it usually aired in two separate parts. Kind of a tribute thing, I think it was.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jan 2, 2020 23:51:21 GMT -5
Yes, that comment has several variations. I'm not an Astaire expert by any means. I know more the individual highlights than whole movies. I love the "Dancing on the Ceiling" routine and his hatrack dance in "Royal Wedding." Also “Dem Bones Cafe” in "The Bandwagon;" "Cheek to Cheek" in "Top Hat;" and "Let's call the Whole Thing Off" in "Shall We Dance" are iconic. I need to watch more of his movies. Have leaned more toward Gene Kelly's more muscular style, but Astaire is equally graceful; he often seems to be dancing on air. That's interesting because I had much the same experience, watching old Hollywood movies on Canadian tv channels: saw lots of Gene Kelly, but don't remember seeing any old Astaire/Rogers films, just excerpts on Hollywood specials or (I'm guessing) that big, long compilation of song and dance numbers that I recall seeing in the 70s sometime: it was so long it usually aired in two separate parts. Kind of a tribute thing, I think it was. Maybe “That’s Entertainment”? There were two of them, and Astaire was a narrator in the first, I think.
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Post by berkley on Jan 3, 2020 1:42:20 GMT -5
That's interesting because I had much the same experience, watching old Hollywood movies on Canadian tv channels: saw lots of Gene Kelly, but don't remember seeing any old Astaire/Rogers films, just excerpts on Hollywood specials or (I'm guessing) that big, long compilation of song and dance numbers that I recall seeing in the 70s sometime: it was so long it usually aired in two separate parts. Kind of a tribute thing, I think it was. Maybe “That’s Entertainment”? There were two of them, and Astaire was a narrator in the first, I think. Yeah, that must have been it. I was thinking "That's Hollywood", but knew that wasn't quite right.
Along similar lines, much of my knowledge of certain old country songs comes from those tv commercials for big record sets compiling a bunch of them, where they'd squeeze in excerpts from what seemed like dozens of tracks in one commercial.
I can still hear some of them in my head right now: "See the pyramids along the Nile ..."
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Post by The Captain on Jan 3, 2020 6:16:32 GMT -5
I remembered it as, "Can't act. Can't sing. Can dance a little."
Any special recommendations of the Astaire/Rogers movies? I'll probably watch them all eventually, but just in case I ever get in the mood to see just one, out of the blue.
I find Adele Astaire an interesting character and always feel a little sorry that she didn't make at least one film with Fred. But she retired before his film career took off and married a British lord.
Yes, that comment has several variations. I'm not an Astaire expert by any means. I know more the individual highlights than whole movies. I love the "Dancing on the Ceiling" routine and his hatrack dance in "Royal Wedding." Also “Dem Bones Cafe” in "The Bandwagon;" "Cheek to Cheek" in "Top Hat;" and "Let's call the Whole Thing Off" in "Shall We Dance" are iconic. I need to watch more of his movies. Have leaned more toward Gene Kelly's more muscular style, but Astaire is equally graceful; he often seems to be dancing on air. My wife is a huge Gene Kelly fan; he is her all-time favorite actor. I know she has seen all of his movies and owns most of them on DVD. Her favorite film, not just of his but ever, is "An American in Paris", which will be shown on the big screen on January 19 this year and she has already blocked out the day to go see it. I liked "Singing in the Rain" well enough, and there are a couple others of his that I'd watch again. By and large, I can take musicals in small doses, but the ones that lean heavily on the dancing like Kelly's and Astaire's really don't do much for me.
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Post by brutalis on Jan 3, 2020 7:40:38 GMT -5
Astaire? Really? I guess you forget what was written about him after an early screen test: “Can’t act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little”
I remembered it as, "Can't act. Can't sing. Can dance a little."
Any special recommendations of the Astaire/Rogers movies? I'll probably watch them all eventually, but just in case I ever get in the mood to see just one, out of the blue.
I find Adele Astaire an interesting character and always feel a little sorry that she didn't make at least one film with Fred. But she retired before his film career took off and married a British lord.
Hmmmm, let see. My personal preferences are (not in any order, just remembering) for Top Hat: 1935 because it is has a more comedic musical mixture (with Ginger Rogers and Lucille Ball) to it, Follow the Fleet: 1936 another with more plot and comedy (with Ginger Rogers and Randolph Scott) to carry it along. Of course Holiday Inn: 1942 (with Bing crosby) has tons of fun dance. Funny Face: 1957 (Audrey Hepburn) is more comedy than dance but still has the Astaire suave dance man style. Band Wagon: 1953 (Julie Newmar, Cyd Charisse) has some of the most beautiful dancing (and 2 stunning leading ladies) to be found. There are others which have some stunning dance routines to be enjoyed within them: Swing Time, Band Wagon, Flying Down to Rio, Daddy Long Legs and Royal Wedding. For light, breezy entertainment Astaire movies are truly wonderful and joyful to watch.
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Post by brutalis on Jan 6, 2020 8:07:00 GMT -5
Oh the joys of free TV movie Channels. Friday night sat up late enjoying Lee Marvin and Jack Palance in 1970's Monte Walsh. While not really following the book, this one takes a more tragic look towards the end of the final days of the Wild West for most cowpokes. The real delight here is watching Marvin as Monte and his friendship with Palance as Chet in their declining years trying to adjust to being part of society.
Saturday morning turned on Irwin Allen's "disaster" pic the Swarm from 1978. Probably one of the last in a genre which Allen milked out, this movie's only real entertainment value is for once more providing aging and out of work movie and television stars a last moment for being in the spotlight. I mean you really get your money's worth here: Richard Widmark, Michael Caine, KAtherine Ross, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda, Slim Pickens, Lee Grant, Jose Ferrer, Patty Duke Astin and Bradford Dillman. All of them wrapped up in pure B-Movie Schlock about mutated African Killer Bee's coming to the USA. Rather plodding and dry without much fun as the earlier Allen disaster movies, but still interesting enough while bringing back memories of watching this when it would show on television during my youth.
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Post by rberman on Jan 6, 2020 8:24:34 GMT -5
Rewatched Steven Spielberg's The Terminal last week. Fun little comedy about a plucky underdog (Tom Hanks) stuck in an airport by stupid laws. His nemesis, played by Stanley Tucci, was a needlessly sadistic Homeland Security supervisor who was stuck in the airport in a different sense. His love interest (Catherine Zeta-Jones) was written in a way that made me cheer when they didn't end up together, though I don't think that was the intent. Good John Williams music. A minor role was played by a young, scrawny Diego Luna, who went on to play a more heart-thobbing Cassian Andor in Star Wars: Rogue One more recently.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2020 14:12:12 GMT -5
Is it my perception or are there fewer romantic movies being produced nowadays, at least from a mainstream perspective?
I'm not the biggest fan of romantic films, although I do enjoy some such as When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle. For the most part, I avoid them. But there was a time when I couldn't go to the cinema without seeing a trailer for a romantic movie, comedy or otherwise. So that makes me wonder if fewer such movies are being made.
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