TCM Love Thread- Page 17

[Mamie]

Posted: 2/4/08 at 8:25pm

EVERYTHING about that film tells me I should love it - and I really have tried, but it just doesn't ring for me. I adored Oscar Levant's Gershwin so much that I've bought the recording in LP, cassette, and CD formats. But the film - not so much.

(I'll go dig a hole and crawl into it now)

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/4/08 at 8:32pm

I think the ballet works because the rest of the movie is so semi-bad. And I LOVE this film! Let me explain.

Gene Kelly's character is AWFUL. He treats poor Nina Foch like she's not even human and pursues Leslie Caron like a dog in heat.

Nina Foch's character is AWFUL, too. Oscar LeVant's acting is AWFUL, and his character is just miserable! Even the lovely Leslie Caron is AWFUL. I mean, she's carrying on behind her fiance's back, lying and leading poor Gene Kelly on. The only person who comes out unscathed is Georges Guetary, but while he's not AWFUL, he does come across as kinda dumb!

It's obvious that the plot is pieced together (like Mamma Mia, actually!) to show off the music of George Gershwin. And that it does. Also, the dancing is sensational.

So there's all the cliche, bad dialogue and cheesy situations...topped off by a SILENT and sumptuous ballet that makes the film seem perfect.

Updated On: 2/4/08 at 08:32 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/4/08 at 10:06pm

Mamie & Miss Penny---I'm seeing the same things you are... but with a different reaction, which is interesting.

All the main characters in An American In Paris are flawed. YES. I completely agree. There are "ugly" sides and romantic sides to both. No one is entirely good or bad. Virtuous or treacherous.

Kelly shows us what he must have been like in Pal Joey here. He's a struggling artist. Self-involved and opportunistic. He's also passionate, talented, focused, charming and sad. All the characters have layers like that. I find it FAR more complex and sophisticated that the average MGM musical.

Each character is searching for beauty and love, as all artists do... but not necessarily truth or virtue.

Honestly, it's one of my favorite films for this very reason.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/4/08 at 10:39pm

Oh I see all that, Besty. My point is that they are all "ugly" as you say...until the end, when all are redeemed by love. That's why the ending is so perfect.

The kiss as Kelly and Caron meet on the steps is one of the most romantic moments in cinema.

Please don't misunderstand. This has been my favorite movie musical for decades. I know it's not as polished a script as SINGIN IN THE RAIN, for instance, but the music and choreography are unsurpassed. Leslie Caron was such a wonderful dancer, and that is captured so beautifully here. I adore the STAIRWAY TO PARADISE number. And I GOT RHYTHM is, to me, on par with Kelly's dancing in the rain.

I also love the fact that al those TV actors of the 50s and 60s are in the movie: Lois Lane from SUPERMAN, Aunt Whatsername from BATMAN, and Major Bellows from I DREAM OF JEANNIE!

[Glebb]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 9:21pm

Now Showing -

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 9:36pm

Oh my god. I love VERTIGO.

[Glebb]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 9:52pm

Me too!

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 10:20pm

Today is Francois Truffaut's birthday. VERTIGO was one of his all-time favorite films or, as he called them, "the films of my life."

[nitsua]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 2:24pm

We watched GIGI and 42ND STREET last night. Loved them both. When Ivan and I watch classic movies, we always cast the remake.

Gigi - Anne Hathaway
Grandma - Patti Lupone
Aunt - Meryl Streep
Gaston's uncle - Michael Caine
Gaston - ?

Peggy Sawyer - Katie Holmes (She looks so much like Ruby Keeler)

We also recorded CITIZEN KANE and how is THAT the best movie ever made? It's not even a movie. It's a preachy, long winded crapfest with cool images.

It's what a movie ISN'T supposed to be. I don't want to be spoonfed every thing. I want action, and conflict and events. Not to be told what happens.

We turned it off maybe 10 minutes in. If I wanted to read a biography, I would.

[Glebb]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 5:05pm

No one could hold a candle to Ginger Rogers in 42nd Street.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 5:14pm

Glebby, I love how "trashy" she is in 42nd Street!

I saw a dress of hers and a tux of Astaire's at the film museum in London once. My god, they were both so TINY!

[nitsua]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 5:18pm

Did women really wear monocles? I've only seen Mr Peanut wear one.

[gettinhep]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 5:31pm

And Colonel Klink.

[Mamie]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 9:04pm

[nitsua]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 9:05pm

Who's Dave?

[Mamie]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 9:22pm

I DO hope you're kidding.


But if you're not - turn on TCM right now.

[nitsua]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 9:25pm

I don't think my TCM and your TCM is the same thing.

But I looked online and I should be recording it.

[Mamie]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 9:31pm

Oh - sorry.

"Dave" is Dr. Dave Bowman, crewman on the Discovery One spaceship, heading for an orbit around Jupiter. The purpose of the trip is to investigate signs of possible intelligent life outside of earth.

the film - 2001: A Space Odyssey

the speaker - The HAL 9000 computer on board the Discovery, and some folks' pick for the greatest film villain of all time!

Updated On: 2/7/08 at 09:31 PM

[nitsua]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 9:35pm

2001 should be recording now. I haven't been in my loft in a while.

[Glebb]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 11:04pm

Now Showing -

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 11:19pm

Brilliant film of an even more brilliant novel.

[gettinhep]

Posted: 2/8/08 at 12:18am

2001 was on TCM down here, yesterday.

Now showing: Singin' In the Rain.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/8/08 at 12:30am

I want to marry TCM!!!!

[gettinhep]

Posted: 2/8/08 at 12:43am

I never knew you were into polygamy.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/8/08 at 12:50am

Hey, Hep, my husband loves TCM, too. It could be a menage a trois!

Me, my husband and a TV station. How kinky is that???