20 Film Collection from Warner Brothers: Musicals

Posted on February 25, 2013 at 8:00 am

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Lowest Recommended Age:	All Ages
MPAA Rating:	Varied
Profanity:	Varied
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Varied
Violence/ Scariness:	Varied
Diversity Issues:	Varied
Date Released to DVD:	February 25, 2013
Amazon.com ASIN:	B009Z59782

Warner Brothers has issued a spectacular collection of musical films, from the ground-breaking “The Jazz Singer” to classics like “Cabaret,” “Signin’ in the Rain,” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” and “The Music Man.” This is a treasure that should be in every family DVD library, and every school and community library as well. It includes:

The Jazz Singer ( 1927) Al Jolson plays the son of a cantor who wants to sing popular music in this groundbreaking film that was the first live-action film with a synchronized soundtrack. (Remade twice, with Danny Thomas and Neil Diamond)

Broadway Melody of 1929 Winner of the second Best Picture Oscar, this early talkie includes “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “You Were Meant for Me.”

42nd Street (1933) “You’re going out there a chorus girl, but you’re coming back a STAR!” This classic pre-code backstage musical features the title tune and “Shuffle Off to Buffalo.”

The Great Ziegfeld (1936) Another Best Picture winner (and Best Actress for Luise Rainer), this story of impressario Florenz Zeigfeld has rare filmed performances by Fanny Brice (the singer Barbra Streisand played in “Funny Girl”).

The Wizard Of Oz (1939) One of the most beloved films of all time, this enduring classic has Judy Garland singing “Over the Rainbow” and following the yellow brick road to see the wizard.

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) James Cagney plays the bantam-like singer/dancer/performer George M. Cohan in this biopic of the superstar who wrote classics like “For it was Mary” and “Give My Regards to Broadway.”

An American in Paris ( 1951) Gene Kelly. George Gershwin. Vincente Minnelli. Glorious.

Show Boat (1951) This second version of the Jerome Kern musical based on the Edna Ferber story stars Ava Gardner, Marge and Gower Champion, Howard Keel, and Kathryn Grayson, with classic songs like “Old Man River” (sung by Wiliam Warfield in the part played by Paul Robeson in the original), “Life Upon the Wicked Stage,” and “Only Make Believe.”

Singin’ In The Rain (1952) This may just be the perfect movie as comedy, romance, satire, and musical. Gene Kelly is the silent movie star who has to adjust to the talkie era. In addition to the rapturous title number, the movie features Donald O’Connor’s classic “Make ‘Em Laugh.”

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) Seven rambunctious red-headed backwoods brothers named in alphabetical order (Adam, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephram, Frank, and Gideon) are tamed by love in this rollicking musical with wildly athletic dance numbers choreographed by Michael Kidd.

A Star Is Born (1954) Judy Garland and James Mason star in the second (of three–so far) versions of the story of the fading star who marries a rising star. Garland sings “The Man That Got Away” and “Born in a Trunk” and introduces herself as “Mrs. Norman Maine!”

The Music Man (1962) Robert Preston re-creates his legendary stage performance as “Professor Harold Hill,” a con man who sells a small Iowa town on the idea of a boys’ band. He plans to skip town before they discover that he has no idea of how to teach kids to play instruments, but then he meets “Marian the Librarian” (an almost impossibly pretty Shirley Jones) and things get complicated. Songs include “Trouble,” “76 Trombones,” “Goodnight My Someone,” and “Til There Was You.” And a barbershop quartet singing “Lida Rose.”

Viva Las Vegas (1964) Elvis and Ann-Margret sing and dance. What else do you need to know?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFw5a5Bp_Pw

Camelot (1967) The grand Lerner and Lowe musical about King Arthur, Guinevere, and Sir Lancelot stars Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, and Franco Nero. Songs include “The Lusty Month of May,” “If Ever I Should Leave You,” and the poignant title number.

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971) This is the first and best version of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book about the poor boy who finds a golden ticket to visit the world’s most magnificently magical candy factory. Too bad for the naughty kids who are greedy and spoiled!

Cabaret (1972) The film, director Bob Fosse, and stars Joel Gray and Liza Minnelli won Oscars for this searing musical about pre-WWII Germany, brilliantly presented in an adult musical that deals with issues like the rise of the Nazi party, anti-Semitism, and “divine” decadence.

That’s Entertainment (1974) This delicious compilation includes highlights of dozens of classic and underrated musicals and led to two sequels.

Victor, Victoria (1983) James Garner, Robert Preston, and Julie Andrews star in a wildly funny musical about an impoverished singer whose career takes off when she pretends to be a man pretending to be a woman.

Little Shop Of Horrors (1986) Possibly the most improbable source for a musical was a cheap horror film about a carnivorous plant, shot over a weekend. But the cheeky score made it a theatrical hit and this movie version is a lot of fun.

Hairspray (1988) John Waters’ non-musical film about the controversy over integration on a teen dance show in 1960’s Baltimore inspired this musical remake with John Travolta as the mother of the adorable Tracy (Nikki Blonsky). Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah, and Zac Efron co-star in this tuneful treat that includes “Good Morning Baltimore,” “Run and Tell That,” and “You Can’t Stop the Beat.”

Les Misérables

Posted on December 24, 2012 at 6:00 pm

Fair warning: I seem to be impervious to the appeal of “Les Misérables.” I was not a fan of the stage show or the songs, but I understand that it is the most popular musical of all time, and I approached this movie version with an open mind. My take is that it will make the fans happy, but I am still unpersuaded.

The musical is based on Victor Hugo’s vast novel about Jean Valjean (a magnificent Hugh Jackman), who served 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family and spends the rest of his life trying to do good and to avoid the relentless pursuit of Police Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe), who is trying to put him back in prison for violating his parole.

When Valjean is first set free, he is bitter and angry. He repays the kindness of a priest who tries to help him by stealing valuable silver treasures from the church. Immediately captured, he is returned to the priest (played by Colm Wilkinson, the foremost Valjean in the stage version). But the priest insists that the items were gifts, and with the police watching, he encourages Valjean to take more. Valjean is transformed by this compassion and generosity, and he vows to be as good, loving, and devoted to helping others as the man who cared for him.

Years later, Valjean, under another name, is prosperous and public-spirited. He owns a factory and he is mayor of his town. Fantine (a heart-breaking Anne Hathaway) works in his factory to support a daughter she boards with an innkeeper and his wife. She loses her job because she refuses to sleep with a foreman and is forced into prostitution. Valjean is horrified and feels responsible. As she lies dying, he promises to care for her daughter, Cosette.

Valjean rescues Cosette from the corrupt innkeeper (Sasha Baron Cohen) and his wife (Helena Bonham-Carter). But he has attracted the attention of Javert, and so he and Cosette must hide. Ten years later, with Paris in the upheaval of a revolution, an idealistic young man named Marius (“My Week with Marilyn’s” Eddie Redmayne) sees Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) and instantly falls in love with her. In the midst of uprisings and violent reprisals, Valjean tries to keep his promise to Fantine and keep Cosette safe and happy.

Production designer Eve Stewart has done a masterful job, making the setting as vibrant and as essential to the story-telling as any of the characters. Director Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech”) made a critical contribution by having the actors sing their parts while they were filming, instead of pre-recording them to be played back when the movie was being shot. Since the movie is “sung-through” (all dialogue is sung rather than alternating speaking and singing), this gives the music a welcome organic quality and immediacy. Hathaway’s character is on screen for only a brief time, but her big number, the “I Dreamed a Dream” song memorably sung by Susan Boyle, is wrenching. Hooper keeps the camera on her beautiful face, like the “Nothing Compares 2 U” Sinead O’Connor video, the better to feel her anguish, and it is a stunning moment. Elsewhere, he over-does the artsy angles and sometimes assumes too much familiarity with the storyline. Crowe’s voice is not up to the task and Seyfried’s is stretched beyond its capacity. Newcomer to film Samantha Barks (from the London cast) as Eponine, the daughter of the innkeepers who also loves Marius, sings like an angel and lights up the screen.

It’s a long slog at nearly three hours, for a non-Miz-head. But I came away with more understanding of those who are.

Parents should know that this is an epic story of struggle against oppression with disturbing and graphic abuse of prisoners and others, many characters injured and killed, sad deaths (including death of a child), and a woman accused of sexual misconduct and forced into prostitution.

Family discussion: How does the priest change Jean Valjean’s notion of what he should do? Why was Javert so conflicted? Why were the rebels willing to risk their lives?

If you like this, try: the PBS concert specials saluting the 10th and 25th anniversaries of the musical and the non-musical film versions

Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away

Posted on December 20, 2012 at 6:00 pm

Her curiosity overcoming her shyness, a girl with big eyes and a gamine haircut (Erica Linz) walks through the gate for the “Circus Marvelous.” She sees “The Aerialist” (Igor Zaripov), first smiling a welcome as he helps install the tent, then on a flier given to her by a clown, and then high above, performing with breathtaking ease and grace. Suddenly he falls, hitting the sandy ground below, which collapses beneath him like quicksand. The girl goes after him through an enchanted world of fantasy, splendor and feats of artistry, acrobatics, dance, music, and very firm, lithe bodies jumping, swirling, twisting, and bending, all in very tight costumes. Plus there is an adorable tricycle powered only by a pair of small yellow galoshes, and a man on fire reading a newspaper. He is not at all flustered when the flames creep up his body and onto his hat. The fire is almost a dance partner.

Cirque du Soleil is an international phenomenon with shows on every continent but Antarctica. Its founding principle is the immediacy and drama of live performance, the exact opposite of a movie. Anything that can be imagined can be put on film; its very appearance of truth makes us marvel at the technology for fooling us so effectively. We value Cirque for its old-school reality. When we sit in the tent, we see performances in real time, with real peril, never to be seen exactly the same way again. Producer James Cameron (“Avatar”) and director Andrew Adamson (“Shrek”) understand that they cannot replicate that experience and instead give us the chance to marvel by taking us up close and inside the action with immersive 3D. The seamlessness and grace of the acrobatics adds to the dreamy quality. In real life, we expect a sense of exertion and anxiety to underscore the sense of risk. In the movie, the balletic movement adds to the fantasy that we are in a frictionless world unlimited by the laws of physics.

The girl and the aerialist wander, fall, fly, and are chased through dreamlike — and occasionally nightmarish — scenes from seven of Cirque du Soleil’s Las Vegas shows: O, KÀ, Mystère, Viva ELVIS, CHRIS ANGEL Believe, Zumanity, and in one of the film’s highlights, the Beatles tribute show, LOVE. An almost mythic inclusion of the four classical elements: fire, water, earth, and air, provide the settings for movement that flows seamlessly between dance, athletics, and stunts that do more than defy the laws of gravity; they transcend them. In one stunning sequence, an enormous board studded with pins is tilted, distorting our perspective so that the performers swing as though they are weightless.

The costumes and make-up are dazzling, witty, and wildly inventive. In one scene, a pair of girls are connected by a single Dr. Seuess-style hairdo. In another, humans shaped like crustaceans skitter across the stage. Many of the trippy visuals are accompanied by the kind of music they play in spas to relax people getting facials, but things pick up with an Elvis song and a medley of Beatles classics, including “Octopus’ Garden,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “For the Benefit of Mr. Kite,” that unmistakeable first chord from “Hard Day’s Night,” and a resounding “All You Need is Love.”

Zaripov has a striking purity when he performs. It is beyond ease; it is serenity. There is no sign of stress or exertion, even when he seems to be holding himself parallel to the ground with just one hand on a rope. He juggles a giant cube as though he is balancing a prima ballerina. And when Linz finally catches up, their exquisite aerial ballet is one of the most eloquently romantic moments on screen this year.

Parents should know that there are some mildly scary moments including a snake and a kidnapping.

Family discussion: How is Cirque du Soleil different from traditional circuses? Which of the settings was your favorite and why?

If you like this, try: See Cirque du Soleil in person or watch the dance videos by LXD online

Disney’s Cinderella — New Diamond Edition

Posted on October 3, 2012 at 3:57 pm

This week, Disney’s animated classic Cinderella is being released with a glorious new Three-Disc Diamond Edition: Blu-ray/DVD + Digital Copy, and that glass slipper really sparkles!

The classic fairy tale by Charles Perrault is lovingly and imaginatively brought to life in this animated Disney version, also a classic. Cinderella, a sweet, docile, and beautiful girl forced to act as a servant for her mean stepmother and stepsisters, goes to the ball with the help of her fairy godmother. But her godmother warns that the beautiful coach and gown will only last until midnight. Cinderella meets the Prince at the ball, and they share a romantic dance. But when the clock begins to strike midnight, she runs away, leaving behind one of her glass slippers. The Prince declares he will marry the girl whose foot fits that slipper. He finds her, and they live happily ever after.

Disney expanded the simple story with vivid and endearing characters and memorable songs. The animation is gorgeously detailed and inventive. In one musical number, as the stepsisters squawk their way through their singing lesson in another room, Cinderella sings sweetly as she scrubs the floor, reflected in dozens of soap bubbles.

When Cinderella asks if she can go to the ball, her stepmother tells her she can, if she can make an appropriate dress. She then keeps Cinderella much too busy to have time to make the dress. But Cinderella’s friends, the mice and birds, make one for her in another delightful musical number. As the fairy godmother sings “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo,” she transforms a pumpkin into a coach, the mice into horses, the horse into a coachman, and finally, Cinderella’s rags into a magnificent ball gown. The scene when the Duke comes looking for the girl whose foot will fit the glass slipper is very suspenseful and highly satisfying.

While the story has enduring appeal, many people are troubled by the passive heroine, who meekly accepts her abusive situation and waits to be rescued, first by her godmother and then by the Prince. It is worth discussing, with both boys and girls, what some of her alternatives could have been (“If you were Cinderella, would you do what that mean lady told you?”), and making sure that they have some exposure to stories with heroines who save themselves. A Ella Enchanted, based on the book by Gail Carson Levine, and Ever After, starring Drew Barrymore, have ingenious explanations for the heroine’s obedience and spirited heroines who can rescue themselves.

In today’s world of blended families, it might also be worth discussing that not all step-parents and siblings are mean. Even children who are living with intact families of origin may need to hear this so that they will not worry about their friends.

Families who see this movie should talk about these questions: Why does Cinderella do what her stepmother says? What could she have done instead? Why is the King so worried about whether the Prince will get married? If you had a fairy godmother, what would you like her to do for you? Or would you like to be a fairy godmother? Whose wish would you grant?

This story has been told many times, and families might enjoy seeing some of the other versions, including Cinderfella, with Jerry Lewis as the title character and Ed Wynn as his fairy godfather. The made-for- television musical version Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, starring Leslie Ann Warren and the remake with Brandi and Whitney Houston are well worth watching.

Children might be amused to hear the rumor that Cinderella’s most famous accessory is the result of a mistake. It is often reported that in the original French story, her slipper was made of fur. But a mistranslation in the first English version described it as glass, and it has stayed that way ever since. But in reality, while there have been many versions of the story over the years, the best-known early written version, by Charles Perrault, did describe her slippers as glass. Other versions have her wearing gold slippers or a ring that fits only the true Cinderella.

Pitch Perfect

Posted on September 27, 2012 at 6:00 pm

The sensationally talented Anna Kendrick finally gets to play the lead in a story about the cutthroat world of a capella competitions. It’s “Stomp the Yard” with singing, or “Glee Goes to College.” The songs are fabulously entertaining, the romance is sweet, Rebel Wilson’s understated zingers are hilarious, Kendrick is pure joy. John Michael Higgins (“Best in Show”) and co-producer Elizabeth Banks (“The Hunger Games”) are the acid-tongued commentators at the big competitions.

And the projectile vomiting is torrential.

I blame “Bridesmaids.” I am certain that as this movie was being prepared, some dimwit studio executive saw how well “Bridesmaids” was doing at the box office and ordered up three scenes of disgusting bodily function humor be (awkwardly) inserted. Minutes after the film begins a musical performance is interrupted by massive barfing. We are later treated to two additional and increasingly ludicrous throwing-up tsunamis, plus some cringeworthy jokes, many very crude, uncomfortably racial, or based on increasingly lame plays on the words “a capella.” Few are even remotely funny.

Kendrick plays Beca, who arrives at college by herself as everyone else is being dropped off by their parents. She is a loner and she does not want to be there. She just wants to get a job creating music. But her professor father makes her promise to give it a year. If she can complete the year successfully, and that includes an activity, he will let her drop out and pursue her dream. So she joins the girls’ a capella (no musical instruments, just voices) group, led by micro-managing control freak Aubrey (Anna Camp), who is determined to come back from the unpleasant nausea incident at the finals of the previous year that has made them the objects of derision, especially from the champion male group. She insists on keeping everything safe and bland, with uniforms that make them look like 1970’s flight attendants and a set-list of safe but bland middle-of-the-road pop.

And there’s a guy. Jesse (Skylar Astin) likes Beca, but Aubrey has made consorting with the members of the male singing group a firing offense. And Beca, very hurt by her parents’ divorce, really does not want to like anyone. But her natural gifts and passion for music inspire her to remix some fresh and edgy songs. The relationships play out through and amid various musical encounters, with the best an informal riff-off competition in an empty swimming pool (good acoustics).

Kendrick proves she is a real movie star but the mash-up with low comedy keeps tripping up the movie’s momentum. The musical harmonies are sublime but Beca’s pointlessly hostile Asian roommate, who only speaks to other Asians and a member of the singing group who is unable to make an audible sound are way off-key.

Parents should know that this movie has some racial and sexual humor with crude references (though the lead couple do nothing more than kiss), some strong language, drug references, and torrential projectile vomiting

Family discussion: Should Beca’s father have pushed her to go to school and try activities? What was the most important thing she learned from being part of the group?

If you like this try: “Glee 3D: The Concert Movie” and the television show “The Sing-Off” and the non-fiction book that inspired this film, Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory by Mickey Rapkin