Euphoria #5
Progress report: have uploaded David E’s ciné-bliss excerpt to YouTube, but it hasn’t appeared yet. Probably the system is overloaded with patriotic Brits downloading the Queen’s Speech (we must start calling it OneTube). Am just uploading Craig K’s example of movie-jubilation in the B.G. as I type this.
But if, like the population of HOGMANAY CITY, where I reside, you have a woken this morning with a sair heid and a pocket full of sticky pennies, you will undoubtedly be needing a fresh fix of soothing cinematic satori, this time suggested by regular reader Levi Stahl.
IT’S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER should sooth those troubled brows.
”My euphoric moment would probably also be a musical number: Gene Kelly’s dance on roller skates in It’s Always Fair Weather. For a cinematic depiction of floating two feet off the ground because of love, you can’t do much better.”
For me, it’s not just the song, it’s not even the dancing per se, it’s the GLIDING (which is part of the dance, OK). And also the WIDE SIDEWALKS. Nothing mean about these streets. Not only is Kelly happy (and the lyrics do a great job of conveying the surprise of happiness to those not used to the sensation) but, as in so many of the best musical numbers, the world redesigns itself around him to allow the emotion to be expressed through the media of song and dance, the crowds miraculously part and thin to allow him to move with total freedom. Kelly is in tune with the universe, and my belief that the true nature of cinema is expressionistic gets a boost.
Best wishes for 2008 from Shadowplay.
January 1, 2008 at 3:43 pm
It’s Always Fair Weather is a truly great film. The bottom had dropped out of MGM by te time it was released and rather than the Music Hall it opened wide in the nabes. Kelly and Done were barely speaking during production — which matches the story. Groucho Marx was a huge fan of the film. It’s easy to see why as it’s one of the most painfully honest movies ever made. Dreams fail to become real, friendships die, and love is not enough. A very crucial influence on Sondheim, most obviously in Merrily We Roll Along. The “I Like Myself” number is one of the few moments of genuine cheerfulness in the movie — which is about former friends who’ve come to hate each other — but not as much as they despise themselves. For a brief moment they rekindle that friendship and sense of worthwhile self, but it cannot be sustained and they go their separate ways in the saddest ending in motion picture history.
January 1, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Fiona read this and, glutton for glumness that she is, said “We HAVE to see this movie.” I’ve seen it, but not in its correct aspect ratio, or not all of it. Isn’t there some dumb version available where only the songs are in scope?
It’s kind of fascinating that Kelly was apparently so difficult — it never comes across on screen, except in yr seasonal fave CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY, where he’s brilliantly used.
Must write about Siodmak soon.
YouTube and I seem to be on speaking terms again, so Euphoria #3 will be making its belated debut shortly.
January 1, 2008 at 7:04 pm
He seems to be trying to top the Singin’ in the Rain sequence.
A downbeat musical you say?
My first purchase of 2008 I think.
January 1, 2008 at 7:15 pm
You won’t be disappointed — as long as you check the aspect ratio before you buy.
Kelly seems to have had quite a competitive streak: the AN AMERICAN IN PARIS ballet was an attempt to beat THE RED SHOES, and one of his main tasks was to outdo his own previous triumphs. This made him tough to work with, but also gave us all these great moments.
January 1, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Kelly had a competitive streak a mile wide with everyone over everything. There’s a rather devestating anecdote about his anger over what was supossed to be a friendly afternoon tennis game recounted by Arthur Laurents in his indispensible “Original Story By.” In all my years as a journalist in Hollywood stories of how “difficult” Gene Kelly could be popped up time and time again — even when I was doing a piece that seemingly had nothing whatsoever to do with Gene Kelly. He was brilliant, but he was also “a real piece of work.”
January 4, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Learning that Kelly was a difficult and problematic man was really hard for me, too–I agree that it just never comes across in any way on screen. He exudes such ease, charm, and sustaining interest in the world and those around him that it’s hard to imagine the real man behind it.
Yet as with great athletes, that drive may be one of those essential traits that separates him from us schlubs. Could anyone who wasn’t fanatically driven have pulled off that tearing-newspaper dance in Summer Stock, for example?
January 7, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Yes, I’m inclined to cut him plenty of slack (of course, I didn’t have to put up with what Stanley Donen did). Nobody else could do quite what Kelly can on the screen*, so he’s entitled to his temperament!
*Astaire is even BETTER, but a different animal.