Madonna's Evita

I saw Patti and Madonna and liked both very much. :)

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Aw jeez. Here we go.

Unfortunately, I was too young to see the original production of Evita, which apparently had spectacular staging. I have, however, spent many hours listening to several different recorded versions of the score and come to one conclusion: For a woman who did so much in her life, NOTHING HAPPENS IN THE MUSICAL.

Very little is active. It is either narration or political discourse. So, imho, the only sources of excitement come from the staging and the vocal pyrotechnics of the lead actress.

Madonna couldn't supply those...and the script isn't there to back her up. Add to it, the coy, dead-behind-the-eyes look she sometimes employed (though not in the very effective death-bed scene), and you have a lackluster performance.

There is very little movement or action in Evita. And the naturalism of the film (and the smallness of the lead performance) exacerbated that.

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As I have said many times before, I hate Madonna with a ferocious passion. She is an untalented biatch with a faux British accent.

However...

I thought she was great in this film.

This is what I posted in the other Evita thread (and sorry folks, but this is just how I feel):

"I found her performance in Evita cold, remote, plastic, unemotive (partly the director's fault as well) and undersung. It was like her video for "Vogue" -- lots of posing and attitude, but without a drop of warm blood running underneath the facade. Where was the fire? The spontaneity? The life behind the eyes? The whole film looked like a two hour feminine hygiene commercial to me. Nice cinematography. No depth whatsoever. Whatever criticisms one may have of Lupone, she never lacked in urgency and fire and passion (to say nothing of VOICE)."

I would also add that Parker further distanced Eva during the crowd scenes (notably "Don't Cry For Me Argentina") by filming Madonna singing to the crowd and then cutting to the crowd staring up at Madonna, leaving us in the audience in the odd position of being a third party observer not only of Eva, but also of the crowd itself. By never having Madonna sing directly to us (an odd choice since Che and other charcters do sing directly into the camera), Parker cuts us off from the full emotional impact of that and other scenes, making Eva a remote figure to us and thus she is never fully able to engage our (or at least MY) sympathies.

Beyond her vocal shortcomings, Madonna's performance to me is all posture and artifice, but part of that is the fault of her director whose camera and editing choices, rendered her even more one-dimensional than her hollow performance deserved. Forget Lupone for a moment, imagine the richness and charisma and nuance and inner life a Streep or even a Pfeiffer could have brought to the role, even with a less-than-competent Parker at the healm.

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Everyone knows what I think already.

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At one point, Bernadette Peters was seriously being considered.

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None of the three (Madonna, Streep, Pfeiffer) are up to the vocal demands. I love the score.

I did not see the movie - in the movie Eva sings Another Suitcase?? How bizarre. Especially considering the range...it's a completely different tessatura than Eva's songs.

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Updated On: 10/28/04 at 04:37 PM

Yes, Rath. She sings it while she is trying to find a job and at the end she meets the photographer who starts her rise to the top. I love hearing Evita do it. There is also a little reprise when the young girl sings it after Evita tells her to leave Peron. LOVE it.

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I would love to see that footage

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GASP!!! I didn't know that the laser disk existed. I want them to release it too. NOW, DISNEY. NOW!!!

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I just don't think Madonna could handle the vocal demands of the role.

And, as stated before, she lacked energy and passion. She was just very bland.


And, as MArquise said, I also felt they should have left 'Another Suticase, Another Hall" to the mistress.

But, all-in-all, it wasn't a horrendous performance by any means. It was just very mediocre.

Antonio Banderas is what really ruined the movie for me. They should have kept Mandy.


But I DID like Jonathan Pryce.

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I don't, and never will, understand why some people don't like him.

He is effing brilliant. In everything.

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