Did you see The Evita film in theaters? - Page 2

[littlemouse921]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 1:12pm

I would love to see a Miss Saigon movie filmed in the same style that Evita was filmed. I think that big sweeping landscape shots would add an even bigger emotional punch to the story.

[sueb1863]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 1:18pm

I don't think Streep could have played the 15 year old Eva convincingly. Neither could Madonna, but I think with Streep it would have been even more obvious that she wasn't a teenager.

 

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 1:20pm

I'm surprised that Beverly D'Angelo wasn't seriously considered.  She proved herself in Hair and in Coal Miner's Daughter.  The "Vacation" movies made her well known in the 80s.  If they had filmed Evita in the mid to late 80s, I think she could have done it.

[Bilbo3]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 1:23pm

It has been said that Streep filmed one or two scenes.  I don't know whether it was Streep or Andrew Lloyd-Webber or who, but somebody wasn't happy with the results.

 

I can't imagine ALW wasn't happy with the results if he green lighted the casting of the vocally weak Madonna. Perhaps Streep new her limits and knew she wouldn't be able to sing the score as it was supposed to be heard. Like someone else said, Madonna didn't even try.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 1:24pm

"I don't think Streep could have played the 15 year old Eva convincingly. Neither could Madonna, but I think with Streep it would have been even more obvious that she wasn't a teenager."

Yeah but Meryl has actress daughters Mamie and Grace who are her spitting image.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 1:25pm

Her daughters were 3 and 6 at the time. 

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 1:28pm

^  Point well taken

:) Mea Culpa

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 1:35pm

"I can't imagine ALW wasn't happy with the results if he green lighted the casting of the vocally weak Madonna."

Maybe he just wanted to get the picture made and get revenue coming in.  Or maybe he didn't have casting authority.  I don't understand why Sondheim let Elizabeth Taylor go ahead with his very successful song Send in the Clowns and the movie A Little Night Music or why Jerry Herman allowed Streisand to play Dolly or Lucy to play Mame.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 1:48pm

"Were you excited for the film and did Madonna live up to your expectations? "

I did see it in the theater. To answer this: Somewhat and yes, because I didn't expect a lot.

My favorite were these girls behind my sister and I as we walked away: "That was really good, except for that guy who was, like, EVERYWHERE!"

[Dave19]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 1:57pm

"I would love to see a Miss Saigon movie filmed in the same style that Evita was filmed."

I agree.

I think that Evita is one of the best musical films out there. Mainly because of the fantastic cinematography. It actually looks like a real movie. They really used all the benefits and magic of film, cinematography and filmic editing.

The Les Mis film is basically just the stage show filmed in 1 take songs, but then not well sung. Film is much more than that. Raw emotion lies in other things in film.

There is this quality in editing which just fits like a very smart puzzle. Sometimes you hear a sentence sung as a "voiceover" while you see other things happening. Flashbacks, sung thoughts, things happening at the same time, very clever montages during a song (The lady's got potential for example). This film was so much more than I expected it to be. It is a real gem.

The singing is quite mediocre though, but at least the singing voices sound a bit more natural than in the les Mis film. I loved Jonathan Pryce's singing in the film (which is more like the way they sing in the Miss Saigon revival at the moment) Natural singing is always the best. Most musicalfilms either have musical theatre parody singing (Les Mis) or lame singing (Phantom). 

 

 

Updated On: 6/14/15 at 01:57 PM

[Dave19]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 2:06pm

" I also didn't like the fact that they gave "Another Suitcase In Another Hall" to Madonna. In the stage version that number was one of the most poignant moments in the show for me."

I thought it was a very smart move to give it to her. It fits very well at that moment in the film. Any person trying to pursue his/her dreams in a big city on his/her own can relate to her situation in that moment. I love the montage where she is called in for the job interview/audition and then she walks out, and one of the girls hands her her handbag. "Call in 3 months time and I'll be fine, I know, well maybe not that fine, but I'll survive anyhow".

It is an essential part of her story and I never understood why a random girl had to sing this in the stage show, how is the audience supposed to feel for someone they don't know at all and listen to a solo out of the blue and then we never see her again?

Updated On: 6/14/15 at 02:06 PM

[Bilbo3]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 2:19pm

I think that Evita is one of the best musical films out there.

The King of of hating every musical film because the actors don't service the score thinks Evita(we are talking about the one Madonna was in right?) thinks Evita is one of the best musical films?! I'm absolutely dumbfounded. 

[Dave19]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 2:25pm

"I think that Evita is one of the best musical films out there.
The King of of hating every musical film because the actors don't service the score thinks Evita(we are talking about the one Madonna was in right?) thinks Evita is one of the best musical films?! I'm absolutely dumbfounded. "

I say the film is great because of the cinematography and filmic editing and using all the benefits film has to offer. And some people (like Jonathan Pryce) sing the material very well and therefore truthful. I agree that the film could have been even better with a better singing leading lady, but her singing performance was at least "mediocre" which is better than many other musical films (Les Mis film sounds like a parody (vibrating too long at the wrong syllables) and Phantom film sounds just lame/inadequate). Both things ruin it for me. At least she sounds kind of truthful.

 

Updated On: 6/14/15 at 02:25 PM

[Bilbo3]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 2:32pm

I don't know man, I would watch Les Mis 10 times if it meant I didn't have to sit through Madonna's Evita. Even calling her singing mediocre is being generous. 

[Dave19]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 2:40pm

"I don't know man, I would watch Les Mis 10 times if it meant I didn't have to sit through Madonna's Evita. Even calling her singing mediocre is being generous. "

Well, I agree with you that roles like these (and others, Valjean in Les Mis, or Kim in Miss Saigon) should actually be played by exceptional vocalists, who know how to act through sung notes, use them instead of act "in spite of" the notes. People who preferably played the role on stage for at least a year, so the artist knows all the nuances, details and influences of certain notes.

What Hugh Jackman does (vibrating for 2 minutes on the exact wrong syllable, emphasis on the wrong notes, basically not understanding the material at all, like a parody on musical theatre) has nothing to do with natural singing like for example, John Owen Jones, who understands this emotional finesse perfectly.

So yeah, the film could have been even better with a great singer. But despite this, Madonna seems to have a good understanding of the material, even though she lacks the singing voice.

Updated On: 6/14/15 at 02:40 PM

[Bilbo3]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 2:47pm

I think Hugh Jackman understood the score, It's just that he sounds so shrill onscreen. He sounds much better onstage.

[Dave19]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 2:49pm

"I think Hugh Jackman understood the score, It's just that he sounds so shrill onscreen. He sounds much better onstage."

 I disagree, his timing and intonation and emphasis on the wrong syllables, are just as off on stage.

Take a look at this clip. The second actor who sings bui doi is exactly doing what Hugh Jackman does. Misunderstanding the material, especially on film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcS1uIarnME

Updated On: 6/14/15 at 02:49 PM

[Bilbo3]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 2:56pm

I disagree. He sounds beautiful here: https://youtu.be/KNEUtN21cuU. The live performance of Who am i was great also: https://youtu.be/SRMUNVx-qzE And his vocals were very on point for his tony winning performance as Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz. To each their own I guess.

[Dave19]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 3:00pm

"I disagree. He sounds beautiful here: https://youtu.be/KNEUtN21cuU. The live performance of Who am i was great also: https://youtu.be/SRMUNVx-qzE And his vocals were very on point for his tony winning performance as Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz. To each their own I guess."

He still comes across as too forced and has the most unnatural timings, and I think that with this type of parody-theatrical singing you can get away on stage (sometimes) but not on film.

 

Edit: I hate the word of "theatrical singing" because that's not what he does. I wish he did, that would have made it more filmic. In the clip I posted, every stage Valjean actually sings very filmic and truthful. I wish more filmmakers would understand this.

 

 

Updated On: 6/14/15 at 03:00 PM

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 9:37pm

The film was my first "Evita." I saw it in the theatres but didn't know the history and couldn't follow the plot.

Things start out simple. Poor girl blackmails musician into taking her to the city. Sleeps her way into better gigs. "Good Night and Thank You" was a highlight and fit the "take no prisoners" attitude I associated with 90's Madonna.

Then she meets Peron and things got fuzzy. The soldiers and the rich people hate her. The poor people love her. Antonio Banderas keeps telling the audience not to trust her. But what is she actually doing? Giving speeches on the radio, giving a speech on a balcony, touring Europe and starting a foundation? Then dying of... something? What's so bad about that?

Shortly afterwards I purchased the OBC and the cut lyrics showed me what I missed. The "We shall see little man" after "Don't Cry for Me" came from Eva rather than "random extra playing Eva's sister." Che explicitly told us that Eva was lifting funds from her own foundation. Learning what I'd missed retroactively soured my opinion of the film.

[RagzJr]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 10:23pm

I was in college at the University of Wyoming in Laramie at the time -- a theatre major, of course.  I drove down with a bunch of friends from the department to Denver to see it.  To somewhat quote Sondheim, it was nice -- not good, not bad, just nice.  I loved that people were actually going to the movie theatre to see this musical.  That particular night covered so many demographic bases.  It was very much a two-hour music video and, while I appreciated what it meant to be, I was let down, in general. 

Eva's role was musically butchered in terms of arrangement and keys.  Part of what made this role thrilling was the range and bite.  I loved the sharp, shrew-like aspect of her because it was also balanced with a more controlled/intimate side.  Casting Madonna meant changing so much musically and dramatically.  I was completely let down by it in that sense.  Suddenly we had this Eva who was missing the highs and lows.  I applauded (I was as much a musical theatre fan as I was a Madonna fan back then) her vocal work to achieve what she was able to achieve (it was an INCREDIBLE opportunity for her to really dig into her vocal abilities).  But it still sullied the ultimate outcome for me with regard to truly capturing the entire work of EVITA.

The one thing I did completely appreciate, and that I still remember vividly, was that folks laughed.  There are moments that they SHOULD giggle, and folks did at the "RIGHT" places -- when she sang "We'll... YOU'LL be handed power on a plate...", etc.  That, in and of itself, was thrilling.

Another, however, downer... She was so obviously pregnant throughout, I had a tough time NOT seeing it.  I, again, appreciate everyone's determination in making this film when they could, but WOW.  That lady was SUPER pregnant, which does, also get in the way of the storytelling.

In the end, I thought then what I think now.  This was a film that was fun, but ultimately not what I WISHED it could have been.  There's so much to this piece that I feel was lost when it was given this treatment.  I wanted more.  I wanted the fire.  Che shouldn't have more fire than Eva and, in this film, he did (in my little opinion).  I appreciate it for being a musical film with ambition but, in the end, I will always be a bit more frustrated by it than I am appreciative of it.

 

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 11:09pm

First time I ever had anything from Evita was Oliva Newton John saying Don't Cry in front on The Queen in Australia in 1978 or 79

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LLvNDHBlfvw

[RaiseYouUp]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 11:20pm

The movie was my first exposure to Evita. (Well technically, the movie soundtrack was my first exposure, then I saw the film after becoming familiar with the music.) At first, I liked Madonna in it, but then I started listening to the OBC and became obsessed with Patti's version. It quickly became apparent to me how lackluster Madonna's Evita was.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 11:40pm

The Evita movie stinks on ice and Madonna is horrible in it.

How DARE she lobby for that part for a decade and then get pregnant after she was cast. What a pig. Like poison, I hate her.

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 6/15/15 at 12:24am

The movie was my first exposure to Evita as well and I found it completely incomprehensible. 

I was left with questions like:

What was the significance of Antonio Banderas?

Why were they so poorly lipsyncing?

Why is the score so annoying?

Why does Madonna sing like a cat in a blender?

Why did I just rent this film for $2.99?

I have since listened to the OBC and I have a completely different opinion of the show.