Sunday 30 June 2013

MoMoMu: Singin' in the Rain

A second installment of June's Monthly Movie Musical as promised! The timing for this post is perfect, because there's been a couple of rainy days lately – and even an electricity cut for a while! I'm not complaining though, the weather here in Finland has mostly been uncommonly warm and sunny and we even got all the way through the Midsummer celebrations without a single drop of rain (when has that ever happened – somewhere way back in the sixties maybe?)

Alright, here's a nutshell description of Singin' in the Rain: The setting is Hollywood at the end of the 20s, with a serious change in the movie world coming up: the transition from silent films to "talkies". Gene Kelly plays Don Lockwood, a dashing Hollywood superstar with impossibly white teeth and jaw-dropping dance moves. His on-screen love interest is always a fellow superstar Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), and while Lina and the fans believe that Don loves her in real life too, Don is swept off his feet by a sweet and talented ingénue – Kathy Selden, played by Debbie Reynolds. No wonder why Don prefers her – Lina is a Hollywood diva at its worst, and the sound of her voice is indescribably, hilariously terrible. This has never bothered her career before, but as I mentioned earlier, talking films are on their way to Hollywood! Film industry politics and Don's pursuit of Kathy are spiced up with several tap dance routines and upbeat songs.

Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont "singing"
Singin' in the Rain is among the most notable American classic films, and even most people who have never seen the film know the title song and the fact that Gene Kelly does a very famous dance routine in the rain. Now what is it exactly that makes a 1952 film still so well-known and liked in these days? What are its best qualities?

If you ask me (you are currently reading my blog, right?) I would say the best thing about this film is that it's just so delightfully funny, in more ways than one. There are many funny one-liners from various characters and even a classic cake-to-the-face-that-lands-on-the-wrong-face, but when it comes to the preview of Don and Lina's first talking film and everything goes wrong... Good laughs are guaranteed. After the disastrous occasion, Kathy, Don and Don's best friend Cosmo come up with the idea of turning the new film into a musical, and even find a way around Lina's screechy voice: Kathy will dub her singing as well as her speaking lines. To keep the facade up at the new musical's opening night when Lina – now a supposed singing sensation – is asked to sing live, Kathy is ordered to sing from behind the curtain so that Lina can just move her mouth. And then the curtain goes up and everyone discovers where Lina's voice really comes from! I absolutely love that scene every time I see it.

Besides the uplifting comedy, there are also some pretty marvellous dance numbers to enjoy. Debbie Reynolds dances very well considering she hadn't had any training before working on this film, but Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor (who plays the aforementioned Cosmo Brown) are absolutely phenomenal when they put their moves on. In fact, I think this film displays Kelly much more as a dancer than as an actor. Don Lockwood's character is too much of an easily produced "perfect nice guy" to require very great acting. But let's get back to the dancing for a moment. Even someone like me, who doesn't care about dancing that much, can appreciate something like this:



So the comedy is lovely, the dancing is expert, the film-historical aspect is really quite interesting, and most of the actors do their roles very nicely – special attention should be given to Jean Hagen and Donald O'Connor in particular. However, in one respect it could be a bit problematic for a modern-day viewer, and the extent of the problem depends on how much of a feminist the viewer is. I myself am not a big fan of what I call extreme feminism; I just think hardcore feminists are a really nitpicky bunch of people who can't enjoy any form of entertainment because they see mistreatment and degradation of women lurking on every page or scene.

That being said, I have to say I find the character of Kathy Selden quite underdeveloped. Her first scene, when Don jumps into her car to escape overenthusiastic fans and she gives him her unflattering opinion of movie acting, is very promising, but once the two get romantically involved, she seems to exist mainly to admire Don. How isn't she the least bit offended when it turns out that she won't get any credit in Don and Lina's movie for dubbing Lina? No, she's just delighted that dear Don's film is getting a good reception. Still more disappointing for Kathy's characterization is when it turns out that she's secretly been a big fan of Don's all the time, even though she told him otherwise. So the point of her being the only woman who doesn't blindly fangirl about Don Lockwood and who sees something to criticize about Hollywood films is completely lost. First she talks about wanting to do great, serious roles on the stage, but in the end she becomes Don's new screen partner. Why didn't she go to New York like she said she would?

People who watch this movie should keep in mind that Singin' in the Rain was made in the 50s and set in the 20s, and women's position in entertainment as in everything else was quite different than nowadays. The way how there's always a chorus of women (usually wearing short outfits) swaying and smiling admiringly at a single man is close to ridiculous from a modern point-of-view. Just look at this ode to beautiful and well-dressed girls, which is completely pointless to the main plot except for the short moment where Don finally discovers Kathy among the dancers after looking for her for weeks. Did we really need that weird fashion show thing?



All in all, Singin' in the Rain is a very entertaining musical film which will absolutely put you in a good mood. The almost parodical approach to 20s Hollywood is very amusing, and there are really good funny moments as well as superb dancing throughout the film. Gene Kelly's fans will certainly be satisfied even if his character is a bit boring and unrealistically noble, and I really hope there's enough love to spare in the audience for Donald O'Connor with his strikingly blue eyes. Just put your pair of ultra-feminist glasses down if you happen to possess them. When you're in the presence of Lina Lamont, you will always be entertained.

Donald O'Connor as Cosmo Brown on the left


Monday 17 June 2013

How to succeed in organizing your sheet music business without really trying

As a result of this year's singing lessons, I had a binder full to bursting point of sheet music. Then I decided that collecting sheet music from musicals would be an especially fun thing to do. So I went to the local library, not expecting to find much... and came back with six books. When I had copies taken from all the music I wanted from them, I'd have a sheet music catastrophe in my hands. The solution: a whole new binder just for musicals!


So I went and bought

  • a cute red binder
  • a tab organizing whatever-it's-called thing where you can sort the papers in alphabetical order
  • a plastic thingie (apologies for my lack of filing-related vocabulary) where you tuck in the papers so that they stay nice and smooth
  • cute sparkly stickers!




Now it's ready to accommodate stacks of new sheet music! (The light makes the binder look a bit pinker than it really is)


Wednesday 12 June 2013

MoMoMu: Jolly holiday with Mary!

MoMoMu??? That stands for "Monthly Movie Musical", which means I'm going to blog about one movie musical each month. I started off with my Les Mis post in April but missed May, so I'll try to redeem the situation by doing TWO movie musicals for June.

I actually did watch this movie in May even though didn't get around to write about it till now. 9th of May was some sort of a Christian holiday – I wasn't really aware of what the celebration was, but I decided that a holiday would be a wonderful excuse to watch a dear movie musical which I hadn't seen  in a couple of years. So, the next installment of the Monthly Movie Musicals: Mary Poppins!

Mary Poppins was one of Disney's most successful films, earning 13 Academy Award nominations and winning five, including Best Actress in a Leading Role for Julie Andrews, who made her film debut as the title character. She made another great musical film role in The Sound of Music, so things turned out pretty fine for her even though she didn't get the much-expected lead role in the My Fair Lady film.

But it isn't the amount of trophies that shapes your personal opinion of a movie. I still love the same things about Mary Poppins that I loved when I was younger: Julie Andrews in all her beauty, the whole animation combination part in the painting, the chimney-sweeps' awesome Step in Time dance, and Uncle Albert who just floats around the ceiling and laughs.

However, a whole new aspect of the movie rises up when you watch it after learning something about the English history. I didn't realize until now what Mr Banks – the more than slightly chauvinistic banker who ends up hiring Mary Poppins as his childrens' nanny – is really rejoicing about when he sings "King Edward's on the throne, it is the AGE OF MEN!" Before King Edward, Queen Victoria had been on the throne for 64 long years. Get it? And married to Mr Banks with these ideologies is Mrs Winifred Banks, who energetically sings, shouts and marches for women's votes whenever her husband is out of the house. Clearly a match made in Heaven.

This brings us to the central theme of the movie: the reunion of a dysfunctional family from which especially the uptight father Banks is estranged. In flies Mary Poppins who puts the household upside down by teaching the children, Jane and Michael, the things that their parents can't teach them, and when the father's eyes are opened and the whole family is happily flying a kite, Mary Poppins leaves as her work there is done.

There is another intended theme which doesn't come across quite as well. The Feed the Birds ballad and the resulting "invest your money in the bank vs. buy food for the pigeons" heralds the morale of caring about others around you and giving what you can, but the birds make kind of a weak target for sympathy because we never see them properly in the movie (and judging by the amount of pigeons in my area, they really don't need peoples' charity to get fat).

Speaking of the ballad, I should say something of the music in general to make this a proper MoMoMu review. Most of the tunes are really catchy and I could still remember almost all the lyrics even though it had been a while since I last heard them. Memorable as they are, I don't think there's anything ultra-special about the songs themselves – it's the setting where they're in. Like the jaw-dropping dance number of the chimney-sweeps, to take my favourite example. And now that I've mentioned them twice already, I really have to share this video.

Did you see Dick Van Dyke's (Bert's) moves there? Did you know he'd never had any dance training before Mary Poppins? I find it just as amazing as the fact that this was Julie Andrews' first movie. It just seems so totally natural to her what she's doing. The two Banks children (Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber) act very nicely as well, which can't be said of all child actors.

Even though none of the movie's songs make it to my list of favourite musical tunes and it isn't very deep thematically, Mary Poppins is definitely a recommendable movie musical. It's very clear how much heart and effort was put into it, and it will always make you happy – it's quite literally a "jolly holiday with Mary!

Good old English fox-hunting in good old English countryside – wouldn't even dream of chuckling at these elegant upper-class redcoats! I honestly didn't!!


Fun Facts

  • Julie Andrews does the bird whistling in A Spoonful Of Sugar
  • Feed The Birds was Walt Disney's favourite song, he would constantly invite the Sherman brothers over just so they could play it.
  • While Dick Van Dyke showed some natural talent in dancing, his wannabe Cockney accent was ranked #2 on the Empire magazine's poll of the worst film accents in 2003.
  • David Tomlinson, who played Mr Banks, also voiced Mary Poppins' talking parrot umbrella handle.
  • The three geese in Jolly Holiday are voiced by Marni Nixon, who has dubbed many singing parts for actresses who couldn't sing – she sang Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady as well as Maria in West Side Story, and finally made an actual screen appearance in The Sound Of Music as one of the nuns.
  • Dick Van Dyke also played the ancient and hobbling Mr Dawes Sr. and had some fun with it: he'd go outside in full Mr Dawes Sr. makeup, spot a tourist bus and make it wait while he slowly limped across the street à la Mr Dawes. When he'd finally made it across and the bus took off, he'd run at a full sprint next to it and shock the tourists.
Before you go, take this challenge: try to watch Uncle Albert's clip from start to finish without laughing out loud!

Saturday 8 June 2013

Challenge - 5 Things

Thank you Kristallikettu for sending me my first blog challenge! This is going to be fun!


1. Thank the person who challenged you and link to their blog.
2. Choose 5 blogs with less than 200 subscribers and leave them a message challenging them.
3. Hope the people you challenged spread the challenge further.


Alright, item 1 I just did. The second part is tricky; I'm such a newbie with blogging that I really don't know that many blogs yet and it would feel weird to just throw this at some random blog that I don't know at all. So the carrying on of this challenge rests entirely on Some Superfluous Opinions!

Now, the challenge itself – a chance to learn weird/interesting things about me!

5 things I need daily
  • My glasses, because without them my vision gets blurred at about 20 cm distance (and that's with my better eye)
  • My cell phone, because otherwise I don't know what time it is. And I might want to call someone, or someone might want to call me!
  • My laptop – I have to say this even though it makes me sound like a pathetic tech addict. 
  • Toothpaste, for obvious reasons
  • Music. It rarely happens that I don't turn Spotify on at least once every day, but even if I don't, I've got songs playing in my head almost all the time.
5 books I recommend
  • Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
  • Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
  • Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  • Macbeth by William Shakespeare (a play instead of a book, but anyway, a great literary work!)
  • The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
5 materialistic gift wishes
  • At least a dozen books of sheet music from musicals of my choice
  • About a hundred tickets for Broadway and West End shows
  • A Dickens-themed old board game that I just found online and which looks amazing (called The Dickens Game)
  • A pink Le Sac Dress from American Apparel 
  • An unspecified amount of shoes made to measure my small and weird-shaped feet
5 places I'd like to visit
  • Paris
  • New York City
  • Ireland, especially Galway
  • Wales
  • Iceland
5 adjectives that describe me
  • Illogical
  • Carefree
  • Book-wormish
  • Creative
  • Unorganized
5 maxims to give to others
  • I have to take this one from a 90-year-old woman's "good advice for life" list that went around in Facebook for some time: When it comes to chocolate, resisting is futile.
  • Live your life according to your beliefs, not other peoples'.
  • Learn to see how beautiful simple little things around you can be.
  • Never say never.
  • "Life's not about waiting for the storm to pass – it's about learning to dance in the rain!" -Vivian Greene, whoever that is
I promise I'll be back to blogging about my usual stuff soon – it's just impossible to sit down with my laptop when the sun's been shining and the temperature's been up to over 20 degrees for at least a week now, which never happens over here in June!