Sunday, January 01, 2006
Classic movie musicals go well with the holidays and a bad cold
Both the S.O. and I are down for the count with nasty coughs and colds...his being much worse than mine. So instead of spending this holiday week (which the S.O. off as vacation) out doing fun things, we've been home, miserable, but consoling ourselves with TV, including a bunch of classic movies.
Last night we watched How to Marry a Millionaire, not a musical, I know. Lauren Bacall is the oldest soul on earth, and the more you see marilyn Monroe in action, the more you have to admit she really just had something special.
The night before we watched Rhapsody in Blue, supposedly a biopic of George Gershwin. What is glorious about this film is the long, uninterrupted passages presenting some of Gershwin's more "serious" musical works...including complete performances of Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and major portions of his Cuban Concerto and his Concerto in F. Ira gets a little shortchanged frankly, because they focus so little on his work in musical theatre. The movie stars a young Robert Alda, and you can really see his son Alan's resemblance to him in this film. What is not so glorious is that we found out via the channel commentator post-movie that almost every "biographical" plot point in the movie is pure fiction!
We also watched Funny Face, starring Astaire and Audrey Hepburn. Yes, Astaire is too old for her. And yes, this movie shows you why you should be very very glad Hepburn didn't do her own singing in My Fair Lady. And yes, the beatnik scenes are kind of painful. But Hepburn is just smashing in those Givenchy outfits, and Kay Thompson is a hoot. Honestly, I wish Astaire had had more to do. He has one solo number, but mostly just waltzes around with Hepburn.
Anyway, I know it sounds like a very high brow weekend, but we capped it off by watching Project Runway, the Bravo reality show about fashion designers (kinda fits with the theme, now that I think of it, given the fashion angle of both Funny Face and How to Marry a Millionaire) so don't think we're too cultural :)
Happy new Year to all. Hope your New Year's Eve was a little more festive than ours.
Last night we watched How to Marry a Millionaire, not a musical, I know. Lauren Bacall is the oldest soul on earth, and the more you see marilyn Monroe in action, the more you have to admit she really just had something special.
The night before we watched Rhapsody in Blue, supposedly a biopic of George Gershwin. What is glorious about this film is the long, uninterrupted passages presenting some of Gershwin's more "serious" musical works...including complete performances of Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and major portions of his Cuban Concerto and his Concerto in F. Ira gets a little shortchanged frankly, because they focus so little on his work in musical theatre. The movie stars a young Robert Alda, and you can really see his son Alan's resemblance to him in this film. What is not so glorious is that we found out via the channel commentator post-movie that almost every "biographical" plot point in the movie is pure fiction!
We also watched Funny Face, starring Astaire and Audrey Hepburn. Yes, Astaire is too old for her. And yes, this movie shows you why you should be very very glad Hepburn didn't do her own singing in My Fair Lady. And yes, the beatnik scenes are kind of painful. But Hepburn is just smashing in those Givenchy outfits, and Kay Thompson is a hoot. Honestly, I wish Astaire had had more to do. He has one solo number, but mostly just waltzes around with Hepburn.
Anyway, I know it sounds like a very high brow weekend, but we capped it off by watching Project Runway, the Bravo reality show about fashion designers (kinda fits with the theme, now that I think of it, given the fashion angle of both Funny Face and How to Marry a Millionaire) so don't think we're too cultural :)
Happy new Year to all. Hope your New Year's Eve was a little more festive than ours.
// posted by ElisaC @ 10:20 AM 
