Funny Face (1957)

'S Wonderful! 'S Marvelous!

Here's a romantic musical comedy with the most promising ingredients:

• featuring winsome Audrey Hepburn in her first musical outing and legendary dancer Fred Astaire
• directed by Stanley Donen, uncrowned king of Hollywood musicals and director of the glorious classic "Singing in the Rain"
• music by George and Ira Gershwin
• choreography by Eugene Loring
• set in New York City and Paris

Sadly, what should be a light and airy soufflé turns out to be a bit of a pudding.

The film starts well enough with a sprightly musical dance title sequence in a modernistic Mondrian-like style, apparently designed by photographer Richard Avedon, in which Maggie Prescott (the fabulously talented Kay Thompson), editor of Quality fashion magazine, throws out the design for next month's edition, and demands a bold new look, all in pink. Lead photographer, Dick Avery (Astaire), a character apparently based on Richard Avedon himself, seeking inspiration in a Greenwich book shop, happens upon fashion-eschewing philosophy-loving sales assistant, Jo Stockton (Hepburn), and convinces Prescott that Stockton has the fresh new look the magazine needs. Stockton, though somewhat smitten with Avery following an impromptu kiss on the lips, is at first reluctant to be involved. But, on the strength of a free trip to Paris, where at last, in her free time, she can attend lectures by her idol, Emile Flostre (Michel Auclair), professor of empathicalism, she finally agrees to work as Quality magazine's featured model, and they all fly to Paris.

The setup is a bit like a fifties' version of The Devil Wears Prada (2006), with Hepburn pre-figuring Anne Hathaway's fashion-ambivalent journalist Andrea Sacks, and Thompson trailblazing the tyrannical reign of Meryl Streep's ruthless Runway magazine editor, Miranda Priestly. It is a setup with fantastic potential for subtly exploring issues relating to the role of women in the modern world via the conflicting external and internal forces acting on the character of Stockton, a woman who, rejecting conventional gender stereotyping and espousing the world of ideas, nevertheless, has temporarily agreed to compromise her ideals by working in the fashion industry.

A great setup, yes, but a very unsatisfying payoff, where the issues posed in the setup, even the relatively minor issue of the questionable value of fashion (which The Devil Wears Prada addresses very smartly), are pretty much left by the wayside. Instead (without dropping specific plot spoilers), Stockton's behaviour becomes irrationally, even selfishly capricious, leading to peculiar plot developments, all apparently serving to maintain the conventions of the genre. Could this lack of bite in the script have resulted from a failure of nerve when facing up to the popular modern monsters of feminism, intellectualism and anti-materialism?

Forgetting the film's questionable morals and character development, taking it purely in terms of entertainment, the film is simply rather dull. Despite being awarded a Golden Laurel nomination for "Top Male Musical Performance" at Cannes Film Festival (1957), to my unschooled eyes, Astaire seems rather subdued and does not really do anything very impressive in dance, except when pretending to be a French beatnik, and his singing isn't that great, either. My teenage daughter, who has had a good deal of dance training, commented that his dancing was boring. The songs by Gershwin are quite unmemorable. The view provided on the bohemian Left Bank culture looks stereotyped and unconvincing. That said, the Paris-based Bohemian dance numbers by Hepburn, Thompson and Astaire are pretty funny. The best performers are Hepburn who does a funny modern dance routine to express herself in a French dive, and her boss, the head of Quality magazine, who is a hugely entertaining dancer.

Astaire was terribly miscast. (According to Wikipedia, Hepburn insisted that he be cast. He had starred with his sister Adele in the stage version years before.) Hepburn was 28 but looked younger. Astaire was 58 and looked it, especially in his frequent cardigans, a 30-year age gap, too wide. There seemed to be no reason why she should fall for him, except that he took the liberty of kissing her on the lips a couple of times, and also that he was the one that saw her potential as a model and chose her for the magazine feature.

According to Wikipedia, only a year or so after the release of this film, the bottom fell out of the musical film genre, and Donen had to change to other kinds of work. On the evidence of this film, I'm not really surprised.

Sources:

• Stanley Donen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Donen
  

---

• Director: Stanley Donen
• Writer: Leonard Gershe
• Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Kay Thompson, Michel Auclair, Robert Flemyng, Suzy Parker

---

• Rating: Rental
• When seen: 22 Apr 2011
• Where seen: Home
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Posted using Blogo from my MacBook Pro

Amendment: Added ranking image.

Amadeus (1984)

Amadeus. The man. The music. The magic. The madness. The murder. The mystery. The motion picture.

Who could make a film about the life of a dead white European classical music composer that would be anything but worthy and dull? Peter Shaffer and Milos Forman, that's who. Adapted from Shaffer's stageplay, Amadeus (the middle name of Wolfgang Mozart) is a highly entertaining film, a wonderful portrayal of creative genius and the feelings of people around a creative genius, positive and negative, and a very effective dramatic packaging of the music of Mozart.

In Vienna, Austria, in the late 1700s, Emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones), a rather dull-witted but enthusiastic and well-meaning, if undiscriminating, patron of music, is surrounded by a group of master musicians, with vested interest in maintaining their influence over him. Into their midst comes the young hugely gifted composer and performer, Mozart (Tom Hulce), whose brilliance, to their annoyance, far outshines anyone else's. The current leading light, Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), finding himself beginning to be eclipsed by this new star, begins a secret "dirty-tricks" campaign against Mozart, while at the same time pretending to work on Mozart's behalf.

The story is structured as a series of flashbacks, narrated to an incredulous priest by an apparently victorious, aged wheelchair-bound Salieri, incarcerated in a madhouse, and fixated on the idea that, many years ago, he murdered Mozart. Telling the story mainly from Salieri's point of view is a very effective device. Unlike the rest of his contemporaries, apparently, Salieri has the capacity to fully appreciate the beauty of Mozart's music and the seemingly superhuman power of his genius, is transported by the music, flooded with admiration for the ability to create it. Through Salieri, we, the audience, are brought to feel a similar appreciation. What Salieri, and to an extent, we, the audience, cannot understand is why a person of such obvious personal failings as this arrogant crass immature youth should be chosen to be the vessel of (divine) inspiration, rather than a more deserving recipient, such as himself. Viewing Mozart through Salieri's twin emotional filters of admiration and jealousy intensifies our appreciation of Mozart's genius.

As well as providing an excellent way to view the genius of Mozart and an appreciation of his music, Salieri's jealousy of Mozart provides the engine that drives the story forward. Paraphrasing Sherlock Holmes' remark to Dr Watson about mediocrity, Salieri's tragedy is that he has the talent to recognise genius in others, but not the talent to create genius in himself. In so far as Salieri cannot possess that which he loves best, he will be compelled to act to destroy it, and these actions provide the trials that beset Mozart and start to take their toll on his career and his family life. With regard to historical accuracy, according to Wikipedia, in order to heighten the dramatic thrust of the story, Shaffer used a large measure of artistic licence, pretty well inventing Salieri's dirty tricks campaign and even tampering with Mozart's character, making him more childlike in his personal life than he probably was.

Whatever the case as regards historical accuracy, this is a really enjoyable film that succeeds in dramatising musical genius with a compelling story and a masterful script. The staging of the musical numbers is terrific. The choice of an all-American cast was apparently controversial at the time, but did not bother me, maybe because I'm half-American myself. Amongst a host of excellent performances, including Hulce, with his signature giggle, in the title role (Wikipedia says Hulce is thought to have based his performance partly on the character of the irascible tennis player John McEnroe), and Jones as the slightly dimwitted Emperor, the performance by F. Murray Abraham as Mozart's nemesis, Salieri, is simply outstanding. Interestingly, both Hulce and Abraham were nominated for Best Actor Oscars; Abraham won. The film also won seven other Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeus

• Rating: Exceptional
• When seen: 7 Apr 2011
• Where seen: Home
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Posted using Blogo from my MacBook Pro

Amendments: Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.

StreetDance 3D (2010)

Two worlds, one dream.

As Mark Kermode pointed out re High School Musical 3 (2008), you've got attractive athletic young people displaying fantastically skillful dance numbers to foot-tapping music in a coherent narrative. What's not to like? The lead actress was very charming and the supporting cast were fine if unremarkable.

True, the story was fairly unoriginal, seeming to pretty much retread the narrative of Step Up 2 (2008). There wasn't much verbal acting for the supporting dancers. There wasn't a big villain, as in the High School Musical franchise, to create lots of conflict.

As for the 3D... It's annoying and I find it gets in the way of my appreciation of what's happening on the screen. I actually find that it's somewhat difficult for my eyes to physically focus on what I'm trying to look at. Worse, it seems that everything is calling out for my attention, and I'm being distracted from the main action by insignificant peripheral objects. For example, there's a bed scene where we're looking up at the lovers from the foot of the bed, and there are various planes of vision: first, in the foreground, the foot of the bed, then the sheets on the bodies of the lovers, receding to the more distant head of the bed, where the main action of the heads, arms and faces of the lovers can be seen. But alongside them, calling for attention, are various cups, etc.

I think there is a use for 3D, connected to what seems to be vertical planes of vision bisecting the audience's view. So, for instance, a film using the kind of tracking shot that Peter Greenaway used in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989) movie... But they didn't make such great use of it in this film.

• Rating: Matinee
• When seen: 2 Jun 2010
• Where seen: Cinema
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Posted using Blogo from my MacBook Pro

Amendments: 1) A few tweaks of the text, mainly to add years to films mentioned. 2) Corrected foolish link to "Step Up 3" (wrong film entirely) in Amazon.com to StreetDance 3D - Sorry! Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.

Crazy Heart (2009)

The harder the life, the sweeter the song.

Unfortunately, as with so many DVDs watched at home, under less than ideal conditions, I didn't see this all at once, but saw the last 15 minutes some days later. It wasn't easy to find the right occasion to watch the last part of the film, and now, sadly, I can't remember much of what I thought and felt about the film.

The story is very simple, and is told in a straightforward fashion. An aging country singer/songwriter with a failing career and a drinking problem meets a woman who he really likes. How will it all turn out? Can a person like him find happiness?

Bridges, of course, is very good, though so method (or mumble-core in modern vernacular) that it is sometimes difficult to make out what he is saying, at least for my poor ears, and I'll admit after a while I resorted to subtitles. (Apparently in True Grit, he's even more incomprehensible. Don't suppose they'll let me run subtitles at the cinema!)

Gyllenhaal too is fine, but at the risk of being ungallant, I don't really understand why she is chosen for lead romantic roles. I can't understand her appeal. Farrell is good as the face of new country.

I read on Wikipedia that The New York Times said the novel, written by Thomas Cobb, "also functions as a shrewd and funny running critique of contemporary country music." Sounds great. This film doesn't really achieve that, to my mind, although it does indicate that if you live the kind of hard-drinking life rhapsodised in many country songs, you'll be unsuited for a career in country music.

The story line with the Gyllenhaal's son is interesting and well done.

I remember thinking the country music was pretty good, and that Jeff Bridges sang well (bought a couple of the songs off the soundtrack album from iTunes). Made me wonder about other similar singing actors, like Joachim Phoenix in Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash story, Kris Kristofferson in A Star Is Born, Bob Dylan in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and in the shower I've been singing Lee Marvin's Wandrin' Star (which I really like - unlike many, apparently) from Paint Your Wagon, while wondering about Clint Eastwood's A side song (was it Talk to the Trees?) and thinking I should check out other stuff by him.

Clint Eastwood has a pretty good voice, and composed the music for a number of his films, if I remember right. So why hasn't he been praised for doing the whole shebang - the way Chaplin was? Could it be because country music is considered too low-brow?

• Rating: Full price
• When seen: 17 Feb 2011
• Where seen: Home
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Posted using Blogo from my MacBook Pro

Amendments: Added genre tag "romance"; deleted a reference to a family member who objected to having their opinions aired in public. Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.

Enchanted (2007)

The real world and the animated world collide. This fairytale princess is about to meet a real Prince Charming.

Very enjoyable. Good story with strong positive underlying message about women's role in fairy tales, with Giselle (Amy Adams) developing from paper doll into a strong relatively rounded character.

Especially notable for Adams' performance, bringing credibility to a tricky role requiring sweetness and naïveté as well as inner strength.

• Rating: Full price
• When seen: 26 Dec 2010
• Where seen: Home
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Posted using Blogo from my MacBook Pro

Amendments: added actor tags: "Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall, Idina Menzel, Rachel Covey, Susan Sarandon". Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.

Once (2006)

How often do you find the right person?

A lovely gentle musical film with three main strands of interest: the developing relationship between the two leads; an overview of the music-recording process, from street performing to the professional production of a studio CD; and lastly, an insight into the lives of the kind of people we see in the street selling things and performing.

The film is very naturalistic, with a kind of intimate small story about believable people. John Carney, the director, was a drummer in Glen Hansard's band The Frames, and the musical side of things seems entirely authentic. The leads, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, are musicians and wrote and perform their music themselves. In an interview on the DVD, Carney explained that the story underlying the film was purposefully short and simple. For people with short attention spans, there may be a dearth of action, and too many musical sections, allowed for by the simplicity of storyline. As well as a great amount of music in the film, a notable feature is the diegetic nature of almost all the music.

The arc of the relationship between the two leads and its denouement is very interesting and well done. I was told by a Russian student that when he asks her in Czech if she still loves her husband, and she answers mysteriously in Czech, and won't translate, that what she says is that she loves HIM. I read that in real life, the leads had a romantic relationship, but that it only lasted a couple of years.

The final crane shot, pulling back from the final configuration of characters, with one of them looking out, is very emotional for me, still after several viewings.

• Rating: Exceptional
• When seen: 27 Jan 2011
• Where seen: School
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Amendments: Added actor tag: "Markéta Irglová". Corrected spelling of "diegetic". Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.