Author Topic: Top 100 Club: Sandy  (Read 56500 times)

1SO

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #200 on: May 01, 2020, 08:15:07 PM »
Gwen Verdon, Vera Ellen and Cyd Cherisse are great picks. I'd have to research for some titles.
Gwen Verdon is tough. Her big movie is Damn Yankees, which I've seen, but I like it and could watch it again. The 3 I haven't seen - On the Rivera, Meet Me After the Show, The I DOn't Care Girl - she's only listed as "Speciality Dancer".

Vera Ellen has 11 Musicals. I've seen 5. Call Me Madam is on my Watchlist. It also stars Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor and George Sanders.

Cyd Charisse has 20. I've seen 9. She's in Easy to Love, starring Esther Williams (and Van Johnson) but Charisse is one of the many dancers. That leaves Meet Me in Las Vegas and The Unfinished Dance. I don't lean towards either and I think availability for you will be the deciding factor.

Debbie Reynolds: On my Watchlist
The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
The Tender Trap (1955)
The Singing Nun (1966)
Bundle of Joy (1956)
The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953)
Say One for Me (1959)
« Last Edit: May 01, 2020, 09:08:01 PM by 1SO »

MartinTeller

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #201 on: May 01, 2020, 11:31:34 PM »
Carrie wasn’t interested in watching (or re-watching) anything on the list, so I’ll be watching What’s Up Doc on my own. The big selling point was Madeline Kahn.

Teproc

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #202 on: May 02, 2020, 03:45:33 AM »
Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh, 1996)

Kind of stunned to learn this isn't a play adapted to the screen. I suppose the first half-hour or so isn't that talky, especially the Marianne Jean-Baptiste part of the narrative, which doesn't rely on dialogue as much, but everything else does, and of course the whole final sequence very much feels like theater, complete with Timothy Spall having a short monologue with a dramatic title drop.

I had some trouble with the tone of this film. At times, it felt like a parody of a socially realist drama, at other times like a straight-up satire, then like a smug, condescending look at the "hanging on in quiet desperation" type of middle and working class life in the UK, and at others like a deeply sincere and humanistic piece. I think the intention is much closer to the latter, but some of this undoubtedly feels comedic to me, like anything involving Roxanne's boyfriend during the final sequence, or even Spall's assistant Jane... not to mention Jean-Baptiste herself. In the end, the performances (by Spall and Jean-Baptiste especially) are so strong that I did find it affecting, but these perceived tonal shifts did make this a bit of a strange experience of trying to guess exactly what the point of view was here. To come back to my intial point, there's a bit of a clash between the naturalistic style of acting and the very stagey nature of much of what is going on here, especially at the screenplay level. The secret Spall and his wife are keeping especially feels like a screenwriter going "well, we need to give them a secret too for thematic purposes" rather than drama naturally growing out of the whole situation. Same with Spall's old colleague howing up at his work: it's like the film doesn't realize that the key interest here is the Blethyn/Jean-Baptiste story and that, as good as Spall is, and as much as he serves as a very necessary anchor of kindness for us to latch onto, he probably needed to be more of a supporting character here.

But now I'm trying to remake the film, which one shouldn't, and of course those scees also serve to inform the class dynamics at play here. Obviously Jean-Baptiste's social status compared to Roxanne's is this huge element of subtext that permeates every interaction between them and with Blethyn, but Spall's financial success is also key, especially since the final sequence takes place in his pretty fancy house acquired due to years of hard work, which can't be easy for his sister to reckon with, and indeed isn't.

So this is a pretty subtle and affecting film, but it kept me on my toes a bit too much for me to fully embrace it. Still, great acting all-around makes for a journey that ends up emotionally fulfilling.

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Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #203 on: May 02, 2020, 01:25:47 PM »
Carrie wasn’t interested in watching (or re-watching) anything on the list, so I’ll be watching What’s Up Doc on my own. The big selling point was Madeline Kahn.

She won't disappoint.

Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #204 on: May 02, 2020, 01:40:09 PM »
Gwen Verdon is tough. Her big movie is Damn Yankees, which I've seen, but I like it and could watch it again. The 3 I haven't seen - On the Riviera, Meet Me After the Show, The I DOn't Care Girl - she's only listed as "Speciality Dancer".

I can get On the Riviera and I Don't Care Girl on YouTube! I'm happy to see both, but On the Riviera has Danny Kaye and Gene Tierney, so that makes it a higher wish for me.

Quote
Vera Ellen has 11 Musicals. I've seen 5. Call Me Madam is on my Watchlist. It also stars Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor and George Sanders.

Call Me Madam is also on Youtube. :)

Quote
Cyd Charisse has 20. I've seen 9. She's in Easy to Love, starring Esther Williams (and Van Johnson) but Charisse is one of the many dancers. That leaves Meet Me in Las Vegas and The Unfinished Dance. I don't lean towards either and I think availability for you will be the deciding factor.

I can rent Meet Me In Las Vegas on Amazon Prime. Someday I'd like to see The Unfinished Dance because of Margaret O'Brien.

Quote
Debbie Reynolds: On my Watchlist
The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
The Tender Trap (1955)
The Singing Nun (1966)
Bundle of Joy (1956)
The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953)
Say One for Me (1959)

I marked the ones I've seen. I can rent The Tender Trap and The Affairs of Dobie Gillis from Amazon Prime.

Which films from these possibilities are of the most interest to you. :)

1SO

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #205 on: May 02, 2020, 02:04:08 PM »
Even before you posted, my preferences were...
On the Riviera
Call Me Madam
Meet Me In Las Vegas
The Tender Trap

Do you want to try for one a week?  With my quarantine body clock so out of whack it could be easiest to aim for every 7th day. So the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th. or is that too ambitious?

Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #206 on: May 02, 2020, 02:10:01 PM »
Hurray on the synchronicity!

Yes! I would like to try and watch all four and the schedule works for me. Would you like for us to take it over to the May Musical thread and then anyone who'd like to join in can? Also, would you like for us each to write a review and then discuss? Or, would you rather a discussion be the review? I'm good either way. :)

1SO

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #207 on: May 02, 2020, 02:30:16 PM »
I've been looking for a special project for the Marathon and now I have one.

Would you like for us to take it over to the May Musical thread and then anyone who'd like to join in can?
Probably best to help drive attention over there. I have Music From Another Room ready for here.


would you like for us each to write a review and then discuss? Or, would you rather a discussion be the review? I'm good either way. :)
I'm better starting with initial thoughts and then discussing details.

Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #208 on: May 02, 2020, 03:17:12 PM »
Great! - on all three remarks.

Thanks for setting it up over at the May Musical thread. :)

Antares

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #209 on: May 02, 2020, 04:01:04 PM »
Carrie wasn’t interested in watching (or re-watching) anything on the list, so I’ll be watching What’s Up Doc on my own. The big selling point was Madeline Kahn.

Her part is very small in this one. This is Babs' show.  ;)
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