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litlover12) wrote2011-04-02 10:47 pm
litlover12) wrote2011-04-02 10:47 pm
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Top 20 countdown: 'My Fair Lady' & 'Singin' in the Rain'
Yes, my two favorite movies are musicals. I don't know, there's just something about people randomly breaking into song and dance (accompanied by full orchestra out of nowhere) that's really special for me!
2. My Fair Lady (1964; dir. George Cukor; starring Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway)
My mom bought this movie for me when I was about eleven, because she had always loved it and thought that I would love it too. Boy, was she right. There was a time when, as preteens and teenagers will do, I ate, slept, and breathed this movie. I wanted Eliza's dresses and Higgins's house, with its endless floors overflowing with books. I knew the songs by heart -- yes, even Higgins's long and complicated songs -- with their lovely melodies and brilliant lyrics. I could even recite some of the scenes . . . and now that I mention it, I think I still could. ("Well, you've had a bit of your own back, as you call it" -- okay, never mind, I'll spare you.) More than anything, I think, the movie fed my love of words, a love that was awakened when I was still pretty young and has never stopped growing. Eliza may get sick of "words, words, words," but to me, they were -- and are -- meat and drink.
When life in junior high was just too much, My Fair Lady was the place my imagination escaped to. But unlike some of our teen obsessions, this one only gets better with time.
I hesitated over posting this clip, because as someone on YouTube remarked, it may be difficult to understand if you don't know the movie. But I love it, so I'm going ahead with it. All you really need to know is that after a long hard struggle, Eliza has finally mastered proper pronunciation, and fallen in love with her teacher. (And I don't blame her, as Harrison pulls off the difficult feat of making a blustering, domineering man utterly charming!)
1. Singin' in the Rain (1952; dir. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen; starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor)
Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, about this movie works. Even the things that don't quite work, like Reynolds being so young and having hardly any dance experience -- somehow even those things work.
(And if you ever think you have a tough job, read sometime about how she was prostrated with exhaustion from Kelly's relentless dance training! Or if that doesn't do the trick, read about how O'Connor had to be hospitalized -- twice -- after filming "Make 'Em Laugh," or how Kelly himself danced the title number with a 103-degree fever. They made 'em tough in those days.)
In the documentary That's Entertainment! Frank Sinatra says that musicals are based on a simple formula: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy sings a song and gets girl. But this movie is so much more than that. It's not just a romance, though the romance in it is lovely and funny and touching; it's also a story of friendship and creativity and hard work and fun. It simultaneously embraces Hollywood's creative types -- like the very types who were making it -- and pokes gentle fun at them. Kelly and the people around him poured all their years of experience into this, and more than that, their passion and joy. These were people who loved what they did and were bursting with ideas and energy and couldn't wait to try new things. And that energy and joy are so contagious that they come right out of the screen and grab you. The first time I saw it, I walked around afterward in what I can only describe as a kind of joyous haze. (Seriously, I was floating on air as I went to take the trash out for my mother!)
There were great film musicals before this and, as you've seen on this list, there have been great ones since, but with this musical, Kelly took the form as far as it could go. Sophisticated, simple, satirical, and sweet all in one, Singin' in the Rain broke the mold.
And there is only one scene I can possibly post from it . . . my favorite of all movie scenes.
And that's a wrap! I hope you've all had as much fun with this as I have. Thank you for the feedback and discussions that have helped make it all the more fun. Hope you've gotten some good Netflix fodder from it, and I hope to get suggestions from some of you too.
(And sorry I haven't fixed that Charade post yet -- I'll get on that as soon as I can!)
2. My Fair Lady (1964; dir. George Cukor; starring Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway)
My mom bought this movie for me when I was about eleven, because she had always loved it and thought that I would love it too. Boy, was she right. There was a time when, as preteens and teenagers will do, I ate, slept, and breathed this movie. I wanted Eliza's dresses and Higgins's house, with its endless floors overflowing with books. I knew the songs by heart -- yes, even Higgins's long and complicated songs -- with their lovely melodies and brilliant lyrics. I could even recite some of the scenes . . . and now that I mention it, I think I still could. ("Well, you've had a bit of your own back, as you call it" -- okay, never mind, I'll spare you.) More than anything, I think, the movie fed my love of words, a love that was awakened when I was still pretty young and has never stopped growing. Eliza may get sick of "words, words, words," but to me, they were -- and are -- meat and drink.
When life in junior high was just too much, My Fair Lady was the place my imagination escaped to. But unlike some of our teen obsessions, this one only gets better with time.
I hesitated over posting this clip, because as someone on YouTube remarked, it may be difficult to understand if you don't know the movie. But I love it, so I'm going ahead with it. All you really need to know is that after a long hard struggle, Eliza has finally mastered proper pronunciation, and fallen in love with her teacher. (And I don't blame her, as Harrison pulls off the difficult feat of making a blustering, domineering man utterly charming!)
1. Singin' in the Rain (1952; dir. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen; starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor)
Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, about this movie works. Even the things that don't quite work, like Reynolds being so young and having hardly any dance experience -- somehow even those things work.
(And if you ever think you have a tough job, read sometime about how she was prostrated with exhaustion from Kelly's relentless dance training! Or if that doesn't do the trick, read about how O'Connor had to be hospitalized -- twice -- after filming "Make 'Em Laugh," or how Kelly himself danced the title number with a 103-degree fever. They made 'em tough in those days.)
In the documentary That's Entertainment! Frank Sinatra says that musicals are based on a simple formula: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy sings a song and gets girl. But this movie is so much more than that. It's not just a romance, though the romance in it is lovely and funny and touching; it's also a story of friendship and creativity and hard work and fun. It simultaneously embraces Hollywood's creative types -- like the very types who were making it -- and pokes gentle fun at them. Kelly and the people around him poured all their years of experience into this, and more than that, their passion and joy. These were people who loved what they did and were bursting with ideas and energy and couldn't wait to try new things. And that energy and joy are so contagious that they come right out of the screen and grab you. The first time I saw it, I walked around afterward in what I can only describe as a kind of joyous haze. (Seriously, I was floating on air as I went to take the trash out for my mother!)
There were great film musicals before this and, as you've seen on this list, there have been great ones since, but with this musical, Kelly took the form as far as it could go. Sophisticated, simple, satirical, and sweet all in one, Singin' in the Rain broke the mold.
And there is only one scene I can possibly post from it . . . my favorite of all movie scenes.
And that's a wrap! I hope you've all had as much fun with this as I have. Thank you for the feedback and discussions that have helped make it all the more fun. Hope you've gotten some good Netflix fodder from it, and I hope to get suggestions from some of you too.
(And sorry I haven't fixed that Charade post yet -- I'll get on that as soon as I can!)
no subject
My sister is two years younger than I am, and in the last trimester of my mom's pregnancy with her, she watched a LOT of movies. Singin' in the Rain was my favorite. I've basically had it memorized since I was one and a half, and twenty-two years later, it hasn't gotten old!
One really fun thing about liking a film that long, though, is that I didn't truly "get" everything in it. I distinctly remember the first time I saw the "dignity, always dignity" speech, and realized that the visuals are meant to show that he's speaking a load of codswallop. :-D
Whatdya think I am, dumb or somethin'?
!!!
Hm, might have to try it!
****
SitR - I didn't know all those bits about them being sick!!
I forget how and when I first saw this movie. I don't think I was a kid, maybe older teen? Anyway, it's one of those movies where I measure life as Before it and After it. It's become part of my everyday life, my sister's and now my nieces' as well. We sing the songs and recite the scenes and I'm forever quoting it on my own.
And I always twirl my umbrella in the rain, and sometimes even sing the song. In public.
Now, if only I could do the dancing part. *g*
Oh, Gene Kelly. Le sigh...
And Donald O'Connor was a genius. A crazy!mad genius!
Re: Whatdya think I am, dumb or somethin'?
no subject
Mwahahaha! I am forever wanting life to be a musical. Every time I get the chance, I do my part in trying to make it so. *g*
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I heard once and it always stuck with me, that at the highest of emotions when you're about to burst, the "burst" is singing since there is no greater exclamation humanly possible. This is why Beethoven's 10th ends with a choir because there is no higher expression than the human voice.
ANYWAYS...
"And I caunt stand him"
"And I caaaaaaan't stan-im"
"And I caunt staund him"
"And I caaaaan't stan-im"
"Caunt"
"Caaaaaaan't"
I also love that Fred Astaire (who was a "proper" dancer unlike Gene who was a "hoofer") took Debbie under his wing and practiced the routines with her. (I think he found her crying in a closet after a rough rehearsal with Gene?) I never really cared for Fred Astaire (since I'm a Gene girl) but after hearing that my heart melted towards him.
Moses supposes his toeses aren't roses
As Moses supposes his toeses to be
Moses he knowses his toeses aren't roses
As Moses supposes his toeses to be.
Man, I love that movie.
I also love that it was a movie making fun of the movie industry!
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