Author Topic: The Movie Musicals Thread: Now Dis. "Kiss Me, Kate" (1953)
Zaz  38328 posts
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 1/3/08 12:39pm Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: (Now Disc. 22. "Gigi") - Date Edited: 1/3/08 12:40pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Zaz
21. "Beauty and the Beast" (1991)

"Still the only animated feature to be nominated for Best Picture, and one of the great love stories in any medium. It's the last full score that lyricist Howard Ashman completed with composer Alan Menken, and it's his finest hour: Witty, intensely emotional, and perfectly integrated with the story. Downside: The movie was such a hit (along with Ashman and Menken's The Little Mermaid) that Disney replicated the cartoon-musical formula till they wore the concept out."

Still only seen part of this, this story is a male fantasy, which is why the story endures.

 

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dp4m  36462 posts
Registered: Nov '01
13878_Luke Skywalker Dark Empire
Date Posted: 1/3/08 3:05pm Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 21. "Beauty and the Beast")
Zaz posted:
Still only seen part of this, this story is a male fantasy, which is why the story endures.


Hate to break it to you, but it's a female fantasy as well, which is ALSO why the story endures, good sir. wink

In any case, this is one of my favorites, if only for the historical note that this contains, IIRC, the very first completely computer animated scene in motion picture history (the dancing sequence).

 

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Obi Anne  25656 posts
Title: FanForce RSA
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Registered: Nov '98
8066_Danni Quee
Date Posted: 1/4/08 4:40am Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 21. "Beauty and the Beast")
I love Beauty and the Best, it was definitely one of my favourite films when I grew up. That dance sequence is superb. I still remember watching a BTS about it and they claimed that sequence cost as much as the rest of the film or something.

 

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Thrawn1786  9436 posts
Registered: Feb '04
49451_H59: Wicked
Date Posted: 1/4/08 9:39am Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 21. "Beauty and the Beast")
I was crazy about Beauty and the Beast when it came out(I had all of the dolls and things), and I still love it today(which is rare, most of the stuff I liked back then I see as hokey now). The score is fantastic and the animation is top-notch. If only Silence of the Lambs hadn't come out at the same time... tongue

 

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Zaz  38328 posts
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 1/7/08 4:05pm Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 21. "Beauty and the Beast") - Date Edited: 1/7/08 4:06pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Zaz
20. Funny Girl (1968)

"Can you imagine today's pop machinery making a star out of someone as unusual looking as Barbra Streisand? She keeps this biopic of Fanny Brice, her movie debut, from becoming completely soggy in the second half, and takes her vowel-bending vocals to spine-tingling places in ''People'' and ''I'm the Greatest Star.'' Homage alert: The belting-out-on-a-tugboat shot that caps ''Don't Rain on My Parade'' shows up transposed to a garbage truck in this year's Hairspray." (EW)



It's not her looks that bother me, in particular; in fact, without being pretty, she is oddly beautiful in a rather non-American way. I like her way with a comedy line, too. But I hate the way she sings...divaesque in the extreme, glory-noting to a fare-thee-well. It's all about her, not the song. This sorry-a$$ habit was picked up from Judy Garland and worked to death. It was a bad habit in the beginning (which is here) and is now all-consuming, so that she is no longer worth watching. tongue

 

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Zaz  38328 posts
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 1/8/08 12:24pm Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 20. "Funny Girl" (1968) - Date Edited: 2/1/08 10:09am (1 edits total) Edited By: Zaz
19. "The Sound of Music" (1965)

"Its initial runs played in theaters for several years, it was so popular. Some of the more maudlin passages may make you wince — like ex-nun Maria (Julie Andrews) comforting adopted daughter Liesl, or Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) singing ''Edelweiss'' — but the Austrian scenery will beat you into submission, and the Rodgers & Hammerstein score will penetrate your noggin and remain there forever. The opening hillside shots haven't been topped, though they have been cribbed in Beauty and the Beast and Enchanted, among other places."


This was shown on CBC over Xmas, and I started watching rather idly. But not for long...it's really, really very, very bad. How Julie Andrews won Best Actress for this beggars my understanding.

 

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yankee8255  10694 posts
Registered: May '05
49389_NY Yankees
Date Posted: 1/9/08 1:58am Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 19. "The Sound of Music" (1965))
Bite your tongue, Zaz, Sound of Music is brilliant, as is Andrews performance in it. A bit overly sugar-coated at times? No question. But the score is a masterpiece, as is the cinematography.

Of course, I live in Salzburg, so I can't claim to be entirely unbiased.

 

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Obi Anne  25656 posts
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Registered: Nov '98
8066_Danni Quee
Date Posted: 1/9/08 9:38am Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 19. "The Sound of Music" (1965))
I loved Sound of Music as a kid and just some time ago I watched it again, and I must say that it wasn't as bad as I had feared. Sure it's sugary, but the story and the music is still good, and some of the scenes are brilliant.

 

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Rogue1-and-a-half  22151 posts
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered: Nov '00
16485_Wedge Antilles
Date Posted: 1/9/08 12:07pm Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 19. "The Sound of Music" (1965))
I love Streisand's take on My Man in Funny Girl and I usually don't like her singing either. But a great film.

Sound of Music I agree with Zaz on.

 

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Zaz  38328 posts
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 1/9/08 12:47pm Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 19. "The Sound of Music" (1965))
Salzburg ain't the problem, just saying. tongue

The real Maria von Trapp was an extremely tough cookie. When the family went broke during the Depression, it was she that turned the family into a musical group by way of continue to eat. And she thoroughly dominated the Baron.

Next:

18. "The Busby Berkeley Disc (2006 compilation)
The trouble with all those old '30s movies with Berkeley production numbers is you have to sit through a lot of creaky, tedious exposition to get to the good parts. But this DVD roundup (sold as part of a Berkeley boxed set) gives you just about every sequence you need from 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933 and 1935, Footlight Parade, and many others. Highlight: The expressionistic mini-epic ''Lullaby of Broadway,'' a sort of retro club-kid cautionary tale."



He has a point...there is one movie where all the good stuff is at the end.

 

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Thrawn1786  9436 posts
Registered: Feb '04
49451_H59: Wicked
Date Posted: 1/9/08 1:22pm Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 18. "The Busby Berkeley Disc (2006 compilation)
The real Maria Von Trapp was also something of a prima donna. Mary Martin, who originated the role of Maria in the stage version, once said that at first, whenever the real Maria was at a performance and it was time for bows, she would stand up and steal Martin's applause. After a while, Martin would introduce Von Trapp from the stage when she knew she was in the audience, but that's still ridiculous, that she had to do that.

Also, when the film was being shot in Salzburg, everyone dreaded Von Trapp coming to the set because they knew she'd take over. Luckily, she visited the set only once, was invited to be an extra, and got so bored with the whole thing she never came back.

 

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Zaz  38328 posts
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 1/10/08 12:05pm Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 18. "The Busby Berkeley Disc (2006 compilation)
Next: 17. "Chicago" (2002)

"There's not much left of Bob Fosse's original Broadway choreography, and not all the John Kander-Fred Ebb songs made it, either. But that's OK, since director Rob Marshall and screenwriter Bill Condon find ingenious ways to make the overtly stagy source material work as a mind's-eye musical fantasy on film. Dandy performances by Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger and John C. Reilly help elevate okay work by Richard Gere, and the cross-cutting only occasionally gets too busy. By and large, razzle-dazzling."


I don't know if Fosse staged "The Press Conference Rag" as it's done in the film, but whoever did was brilliant.

 

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Rogue1-and-a-half  22151 posts
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered: Nov '00
16485_Wedge Antilles
Date Posted: 1/10/08 12:11pm Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. "Chicago")
Sometimes the staging is really, really awful; see Razzle Dazzle and the Tap dance. Other times it works brilliantly; see All That Jazz, Press Conference Rag, Hot Honey RAg, etc.

Definitely a great film with largely great performances.

 

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Thrawn1786  9436 posts
Registered: Feb '04
49451_H59: Wicked
Date Posted: 1/10/08 12:34pm Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. "Chicago")
The Cell Block Tango and "I Can't Do It Alone" are brilliant too. Plus there is a nice tip of the hat to the original production as Chita Rivera, who created the role of Velma, makes a cameo as the cigarette smoking prisoner who talks to Roxie right before "When You're Good to Mama."

Still, I would've liked to have seen "Me and My Baby" and "I Know a Girl" onscreen...I imagine they would've been great, despite the fact "I Know a Girl" would not work with the concept Marshall used.

 

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Rogue1-and-a-half  22151 posts
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered: Nov '00
16485_Wedge Antilles
Date Posted: 1/11/08 10:24am Subject: RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. "Chicago")
That was the problem with Marshall's concept; it sort of hamstrung some great things. The concept worked really well sometimes, for instance, on Press Conference, but other times it added nothing. And it made him cut the brilliant Class as well, so no points there.

 

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