Funny Girl On Blu Ray

[DAME]

Posted: 5/4/13 at 8:17pm

Found a review. Looks like this will be great to have.
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Funny-Girl-Blu-ray/66223/

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/4/13 at 10:12pm

The screen shots look great!

[DAME]

Posted: 5/4/13 at 10:38pm

And only $14.00.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 5/5/13 at 10:32am

I have this and the new Hello, Dolly! blu-ray as well. Two of the best blu-rays I've purchased this year!

[DAME]

Posted: 5/5/13 at 1:37pm

The reviews for the Hello Dolly Blu Ray have also been raves.
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Hello-Dolly-Blu-ray/66015/

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 5/5/13 at 2:33pm

The Funny Girl Blu Ray is gorgeous. It's amazing to watch a movie I've seen countless times and notice new things via the high def master. I wish they'd put new extras with it, but the new picture/sound makes up for it. Hello, Dolly!!! is also well done.

[AnthVoice2010]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 1:39pm

I still can't believe that no one can find the missing Anne Francis scenes.

..they also cut other scenes that have never showed up.

It's a shame.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 3:57pm

For me, Funny Girl doesn't hold up nearly as well as Hello, Dolly! today (as a film).

Both are giant, splashy musicals with Streisand giving stellar performances in each. Dollly doesn't seem to buckle under its own weight the way Funny Girl does.

Funny, as a kid, I felt the opposite.

But Dolly has pace and rhythm and a strangely giddy style that carries throughout (thank you, Gene Kelly). Outside of Streisand's brilliant performance as Fanny Brice, the latter feels bloated to me. Some truly wonderful moments, but a lot of it creaks and stumbles. The idea of adding "more scenes" sounds like having a fifth helping of a very rich dessert.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 4:17pm

I'd find DOLLY a lot more endurable if it wasn't so staggeringly over-produced, everything's just way overdone and over the top all the way, the sets are gigantic and the crowds put CLEOPATRA to shame. That scene with the waiters just never f*cking ends. I usually find myself enjoying Walter Matthau, for some reason, his bitterness is a real antidote to the aggressive cuteness.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 5:46pm

Oh, I agree the whole thing is overdone, but it maintains its own giddy, inflated, "ice cream social" style throughout.

I guess that's the difference for me. Dolly is inflated (but still buoyant), and Funny Girl is (too often) bloated.

I think I need a Gas-X now ...

[DAME]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 6:00pm

Now we just need a Blu Ray of "What's Up Doc". HOWARD.. HOWARD BANISTER!

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 7:28pm

I rather agree with best12bars. And I, too, felt the opposite as a teenager.

I haven't seen the FUNNY GIRL blu-ray, but watching it on HD cable last night I was rather amazed that I had ever found it amusing or even interesting.

The on-stage numbers still work, but the rest of the score is just exhausting. IMO, obviously.

[DAME]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 7:55pm

You didn't like People or Rain On My Parade? Both of those are not on stage numbers and my favorites.

[all that jazz]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 7:59pm

Really?? I mean there's no question that the Hello Dolly film is perfection, but I find Funny Girl way more powerful and the score for the movie absolutely thrilling, with perhaps the exception of Sadie. Maybe I'm biased since My Man is one of my absolute favorites songs of all time, along with People and Don't Rain On My Parade. I've never seen a production of Funny Girl but I listen to its OBCR quite often, and IMO the film actually improved the original score.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 8:04pm

Dolly on film has always left me feeling exhausted, but I admit I simply am not a big fan of the show (although it was fun doin it in high school.)

But really All That Jazz? You don't miss WHo Are You Now? or especially Music That Makes Me Dance at all?

[artscallion]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 8:11pm

The Music That Makes Me Dance is one of my all time favorite songs.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 8:18pm

Both Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael praised Funny Girl but with the conceit in that the movie was squarely carried on the shoulders of Streisand's star turn. Even when you read their reviews, you know talking about anything else but her was a chore. It was a chore to watch Funny Girl when she is not present.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 8:47pm

The film of course cuts back a lot of the non Fanny material from the play. I suppose that was smart--but, while the play on stage is definitely flawed, but I sorta miss the scope being more open when I watch the film... If that makes sense.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 8:48pm

Funny Girl was one of my first big musical's as a youngster. It holds a special place in my heart.

I have ordered the Blu-rays and can't wait to see them!

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 8:54pm

You didn't like People or Rain On My Parade? Both of those are not on stage numbers and my favorites.

I've always thought "People" was a snooze-fest, DAME. The lyric is just impossibly dull, despite the lovely tune.

And "Don't Rain on My Parade" is powerfully sung, of course, but what, exactly, are "...ten American Beauty toes..."? My point isn't that the line bothers me so much but that the lyrics in general are banal, if not random.

Really, I have to wait for "Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat" and (my favorite) "His Is the Only Music" midway through the second act. Both, of course, were cut from the film.

I think the Yiddish humor was novel for some of us in 1969, but by now it is the stuff of basic-cable sitcoms. And the core "problem" of the play--that poor Nicky is saddled with a smart and successful wife--isn't worth our notice.

In short, what I found witty 50 years ago turns out to be schtick. (But I understand that the show and movie hold fond memories for lots of us and there's no shame in that.)

Updated On: 5/6/13 at 08:54 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 9:01pm

The Music That Makes Me Dance is one of my all time favorite songs.

Mine, too. I had it played at my wedding.

But if we really think about it, does that music sound like somebody has to dance? The song should probably be called "The Music That Makes Me Sing."

Furthermore:

"In ev'ry way ev'ryday
I need less of myself,
I need more him,
more him."

What does "I need less of myself" mean, anyway? Is Fannie going on a diet?

A lot of FUNNY GIRL is like that for me: sheer genius from Jule Styne and "Huh?" from Bob Merrill.




Updated On: 5/6/13 at 09:01 PM

[DAME]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 9:05pm

Someone somewhere must have the cut scenes with Ann Francis.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 9:06pm

I'd love to see them, DAME. I think Francis is absolutely charming in the film.

Do you think maybe Streisand had them cut and keeps them in her barn?

Updated On: 5/6/13 at 09:06 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 9:13pm

I'm bveyond the point of ever trying to justify Merrill's lyrics (I understand why he turned it down, but it's too bad Sondheim didn't reunite with Styne for the score.) But I've come to terms with that and don't let them bother me anymore (really, in show order, it starts with a girl's incidentals being no bigger than two lentils and just goes even further South from there...)

I had no idea Francis' material was cut. The film is *long* (and feels it) even with the cuts, so it could have purely been a time thing.

[DAME]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 9:20pm

Anne Francis was a pretty big name at the time. The rumor is Streisand had all her scenes cut. I can't imagine she would sign on for what her screen time ended up being.

Updated On: 5/6/13 at 09:20 PM