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zedz wrote:Neverthless I'll be voting for it, unless mini-series are ruled ineligible for this arm of the Lists Project. I'm pretty sure I voted for Pennies from Heaven in the 70s list (unless Casanova took my Potter preference that go-round).

Sloper wrote:Don't hesitate, Yojimbo - the mini-series is grim viewing but utterly addictive, crammed full of world-class acting, great songs, witty low-budget dance numbers, and dialogue so bleak it will turn your hair grey. There's a scene in the second or third episode where Freddie Jones, as the tyrannical headmaster, explains to a young teacher why he is so cruel to the children: it's so as not to give them any false hopes about the world in which they're about to suffer out their lives. It's really just a very long, very great film about the ways in which we lie to ourselves in a vain effort to make life seem bearable, and it's telling that the headmaster doesn't get a song (if I remember rightly; it's been a while). The songs express the deepest, most idealised yearnings of the characters, but are in stark contrast with the sordid tragedies that punctuate their lives. Time and again Potter situates the songs in a context that insistently draws out their bleakness.

The effect of having the actors mime along to original recordings, rather than actually sing (as I think they do in the film?), is to add an extra layer of aching poignancy to the proceedings, because we're always hearing these delicate, quivering voices from the distant past, and theyr're the voices of the characters' souls: buried deep inside them and inaudible to the other characters, a fascinating comment on the artificiality of musicals. But it also retroactively makes those old songs and musicals seem like 'pennies from heaven' in the most degraded, despairing sense - scraps of love, beauty and happiness thrown to us by an ultimately malignant fate, just to keep us clinging on a bit longer, papering over the horror of life with a veneer of melodious gaiety. It's both a very earnest celebration of the genre (the songs are all great) and a scathing critique of it. I guess a lot of this must be true of the film as well, but the great joy of the series is getting to know the characters over a long space of time - you really invest in their fates. And of course, there must be fewer songs in the film, which can't be good. And no Bob Hoskins; also not good.

EDIT: Cold Bishop, that cheap made-for-TV look of the original is one of the things I love most about it, perhaps because I'm fond of that era of British television in comparison to the glossy pseudo-filmic look everything has now. It's not just that, though - the rough and ready quality of the dance numbers is absolutely central to the series' purpose. (Glee might actually be a series worth taking seriously if it de-glossed itself a little, though I guess its ratings would plummet...)

Anyway, the last couple of comments do make me want to see the film more; I look forward to the (eventual) real discussion.

Cold Bishop wrote:PURPLE RAIN!

Fiery Angel wrote:

Cold Bishop wrote:PURPLE RAIN!

Great music, hilariously bad movie....Prince and Apollonia give 2 of the worst performances ever committed to celluloid. And don't get me started on Morris Day's annoying ham.

Yojimbo wrote:

Fiery Angel wrote:

Cold Bishop wrote:PURPLE RAIN!

Great music, hilariously bad movie....Prince and Apollonia give 2 of the worst performances ever committed to celluloid. And don't get me started on Morris Day's annoying ham.

not forgetting 'Under the Cherry Moon'

Fiery Angel wrote:

Yojimbo wrote: not forgetting 'Under the Cherry Moon'

Oh, I've forgotten it, don't worry.

Cold Bishop wrote:[-X It sounds like some people need to purify themselves in the waters of Lake Minnetonka.

zedz wrote: and one song doth not a musical make (even when it's Barbara Stanwyck and Gene Krupa belting out 'Drum Boogie').

Cold Bishop wrote:But what do you think of Graffiti Bridge???

Cold Bishop wrote:But what do you think of Graffiti Bridge???

zedz wrote:

Cold Bishop wrote:But what do you think of Graffiti Bridge???

I did watch it once and it seemed like a really bad TV special for kids that no kid would ever want to watch. And I say this as an Under the Cherry Moon apologist.[/shame]

As for Nashville, I don't see how you could rationally exclude it from the category of musical, since it's a narrative feature film in which a number of major characters perform songs on screen, which is surely the fundamental definition of the genre.

zedz wrote: BUT: Although there's plenty of music in 40 Shades of Blue, none of it is performed by major or significant secondary characters, as I recall, so I wouldn't classify that as a musical. True Stories, on the other hand, would definitely be a musical by the zedz rule.

Yojimbo wrote:Yeah, I suppose thats critical; but does Elisha Cook Jnr's solo in 'Phantom Lady' ensure it qualifies?

zedz wrote: I'm looking forward to testing it out, but I'm pretty sure that Night of the Hunter would qualify as a musical (albeit a weird one) under my criteria, as a number of major characters sing and there are song set-pieces (the spiritual accompanying the journey down-river). Hell, the climax of the film is a singing duel between hero and villain!