Dancing in the Disney Dust wrote:But when I watched "Dancing in the Dark", it wasn't as sensual as I thought. I think I've seen more sensual stuff than that, but maybe I'm confusing sensual with sexual and there's a fine line.
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I liked the part where she did a bellerina pose and he just steered her in rotation. What's with the Marilyn Monroe flying up over a vent dress? I guess this was made during the the time that style was in. But it was funny because, I will admit this was sensual, after they danced they looked satisfied and exhausted in the carriage (like after sex)!
Yeah, "sensual" probably was the wrong word on my part. I think I was reaching for passionate or stimulating, which can also be tied to sexual, but not really as strongly as sensual. The Monroe thing was probably more to do with the ballerina style for Charisse, it helped accent her moves and such. Plus, the famous Marilyn Monroe vent pose wasn't until
The Seven Year Itch in 1955, two years after
The Band Wagon.
I also noticed the sex look
and made the same connection when I first saw the movie. But the two pretty much are physically spent after days of rehearsal and such, so it's entirely natural, lol.
"Sensual" actually makes more sense if you watch the dance within the context of the entire film. Astaire is Tony Hunter, an aging Hollywood star whose movie career is all but gone, and so he returns to New York to do a Broadway musical written by his friends Lily & Lester Marton (Nanette Fabray & Oscar Levant). However, when they give their musical proposal to famed Broadway producer/director/actor Jeffrey Cordova (Jack Buchanan), he turns their fun and frolicky song-and-dance pieces into an epic modern version of the classic "Faust". And in order to bring in audiences to the play, Cordova gets Paul Byrd (James Mitchell) to choreograph, with his girlfriend, prima ballerina Gabrielle Girard (Cyd Charisse) playing opposite Tony.
Naturally, with the musical being adapted so radically from the original intentions, along with the clash of dance styles between Gabrielle & Tony, Tony gets upset and quits the production. Gabrielle goes to apologize, and we learn that the two of them both were nervous/apprehensive about working with the other (Gabrielle with such a renowned movie star, Tony with such a young lead).
They go to the park to sort out their feelings, and when it gets to "Dancing in the Dark", it's their way of "testing the waters", so to speak. It's an experiment for the two of them, to see if they can blend classical ballet with song-and-dance hoofing. Thus, you see the two of them dancing from the heart, they're attempt at making this partnership work by blending their two styles together. The two eventually reach the point where they're both fluid within each other's movements, and thus, have captured that perfect blend of ballet and hoofer. It's almost as if there's nothing left in the world except their dancing, that nothing else is real to them.
It also helps to know the original lyrics to "Dancing in the Dark", as they only used an instrumental in the movie. The lyrics are a great companion to their dancing, as it helps make "sense", but I felt it would have hindered the movie if it had played to the sequence:
Dancing in the dark ’til the tune ends
We’re dancing in the dark and it soon ends
We’re waltzing in the wonder of why we’re here
Time hurries by, we’re here and we’re gone
Looking for the light of a new love
To brighten up the night, I have you love
And we can face the music together
Dancing in the dark
What - though love is old
What - though song is old
Through them we can be young
Hear this heart of mine
Wailin’ all the time
Dear one, tell me that we’re one
Looking for the light of a new love
To brighten up the night, I have you love
And we can face the music together
Dancing in the dark, dancing in the dark
Dancing in the dark
Disney Dust is never fake, but it can sting a little if it gets in your eyes wrote:The set looked really fake.
Yeah, that's one of the drawbacks of the film. I think the intention was because since it's about a group of people putting a show together for the theatre, that it should look like a theatrical production as well. Plus, it came during a time when MGM had to start cutting back in the budgets on their lavish musicals because even though they were still popular, the audience was now switching to television. Other MGM musicals that suffered this fate are
Brigadoon and
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, two epic musicals that were originally set to film on location (abroad for
Brigadoon and in the mountains for
Seven Brides...). Instead, those two were restricted to soundstages that had obvious matte paintings for backgrounds (at one point in
Seven Brides..., real-life birds flew into the canvas!).
Hopefully Disney Duster isn't reading this at 4:37 pm EST because I had to come back and edit in a name as I forgot to put one! wrote:But the Jazz scene seemed way more sensual (or is it sexual?) to me, with the red dress (red invokes sex, like heated flesh, love, burning desire), and all the bangs and the leg-lifting and the falling like you're laying down or taking it or exhausted from the orgasm.
Yeah, the jazz scene definitely should have used my "sensual" description, lol. It's probably my second favorite sequence in the film after "Dancing in the Dark", and unfortunately, the clip on youtube cuts off before the
really cool frenetic jumps and twists and turns that Astaire does when he "fights" the bad guys. The whole Girl Hunt Ballet is about 12 minutes long and has a lot of inspiring dance sequences. One of my favorites is at the subway station, where Gabrielle slides across the stage floor on her knees (it was waxed) and physically pleads for protection (it's all in pantomime except for Tony's narration) while in the background, two mobsters are cartwheeling and shooting each other, then exaggerate being shot. I'll try and post a clip of the whole ballet on youtube when I have the chance to rip the DVD to my laptop.
After my longwinded post about The Band Wagon, no, I did not forget you jeremy88! wrote:The Ten Commandments is your favorite movie Escapay? Like the 1956 one? No kidding, thats one of mine and my Mom's favorites lol.
Out of the many melodramatic quotes from the movie this one always cracks me up, and I have no idea why.
Nefertiri: Who is this fair young God to come into the house of Pharaoh?
Haven't seen it in a while, talking about it makes me want to watch it again lol.
Yeah, the 1956 is the one.
Some of the best melodramatic lines came from Nefretiri, and Anne Baxter's performance definitely ranks up there in the hammy acting as well (which actually helps the movie rather than hurt it, IMO, lol). I think my absolute favorite lines in the entire movie besides the oft-repeated "stubborn splendid adorable fool" would have to be this exchange:
Moses: You know it is death to strike an Egyptian.
Joshua: I know it.
Moses: Yet you struck him. Why?
Joshua: To free the old woman.
Moses: What is she to you?
Joshua: An old woman.
Scaps
. I love playing Disney games with my cousins. Last weekend I re-enacted Enchanted Tales with them (oh the fights about who gets to be what princess).
