Movie #242 The Red Shoes *1948*

I blogged about The Red Shoes in post # 168.  These are my 3 Reasons to see The Red Shoes:

Reason #1.  It is the greatest movie about dance ever.  No question.

Reason #2.  Amazing Techicolor through the entire movie.

Reason #3.  Anton Walbrook as Boris Lermontov is perfect!  There is no other person that could step into his shoes.  Mild pun intended.

I give The Red Shoes ★★★★★.

Movie #183 All That Jazz *1979*

Roy Scheider - Joe Gideon
Jessica Lange - Angelique
Leland Palmer - Audery Paris
Bob Fosse (Director)

I really enjoyed this moive.  However, I feel like being lazy so here are my 3 Reasons:

Reason 1.  Roy Scheider in sequin jumpers unbuttoned to his navel.

Reason 2.  Fantastic dance/music numbers that really express feeling and emotion.

Reason 3.  The movie is 8 1/2 meets Cabaret.

I give All That Jazz ★★★1/2.

Movie #97 Black Orpheus *1959*

Turner Classic Movies is the only thing  on TV worth watching.

Last night I watched their presentation of 1959's Black Orpheus.  This is a film shot on location in Rio de Janerio during the carnival.  It is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus.  Orpheus was a mortal who was an expert lute player.  He was madly in love with Eurydice.  On their wedding day she was bitten by a snake and died.  Orpheus played a song so sad it made all the gods cry.  They allowed Orpheus to go into the underworld and confront Hades in an attempt to get Eurydice back.  He played a song for Hades and they agreed to allow Eurydice to leave on one condition.  Orpheus couldn't look back at Eurydice until they had both left the underworld.  The instant Orpheus exited the underworld he was overwhelmed with passion and looked back at his love, but she hadn't made it out yet.  She was cast back into Hades control and Orpheus never saw her again.

In this film the story is basically there with some changes.  Orpheus is sort of the village playboy.  He seems to have several girlfriends or at least girls that would like to be his woman.  He is actually engaged to Mira at the start of the film.  But once he lays his eyes on Eurydice he falls deeply in love with her.  He serenades her with his guitar.  The second act is spent trying to convince her to fall in love with him and keep the entire affair away from Mira.

This movie is electric from start to finish.  The Brazilian music almost never stops through out the entire film.  It is almost like the pulse of the picture.  The performances are fantastic.  There is singing and dancing in the streets.  The attitude is through the roof even though the characters live in what is basically a slum.  The color in this films is so brilliant.  I would love to see and hear this on Blu Ray.  This movie must be what the inside of a pinata looks like.

Then the third act gets very serious.  There has been a man stalking Eurydice through out the movie.  He is dressed in a skeleton costume of sorts.  He wreaks havoc during the Carnival.  No spoilers here, but the third act totally breaks from the pacing of the rest of the film.  I didn't really like this at first, but once I saw what they were going for I fell in love with this movie.  The myth the film is based on is a tragic one of the lengths one will go to for love.  Black Orpheus embodies this with every frame.

It was written, directed and produced by a French crew, but this is a South American film 100%!  Black Orpheus won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1960 for France.  The director is Marcel Camus.  I am not familiar with any of his other films.  The Criterion Collection re-released this film on Blu Ray last year.  I think this is the first film on the year to get added to my wish list.  I give Black Orpheus a 4.5/5 stars.  Check out the Trailer Park to see for yourself.

Guest Blogger!!! You Can't See Them All

I read on Facebook the other day that a friend of mine saw and enjoyed the new Christina Aguilera vehicle, "Burlesque".  I sent her a message asking if she thought I would enjoy it.  In response to that she sent me a full review of the movie.  I thought it was very well written so I got her permission and Jennifer will now become my first ever Guest Blogger!

My guess is to answer your question - no, you won't be very impressed.

The dancing was really good. And any numbers performed by Christina Aguilera (Ally) completely showed off her vocal skills and made me love her voice that much more. She's an awesome singer and that carried her through the movie. Her voice also overshadowed her dance skills, which are less impressive than her vocals and her not-so-great acting skills. I do think her acting could be developed, but she really is a singer first. There were a few songs performed by by Cher (Tess), but were just okay and not fantastic. She's seen her better singing and performing years in her 50s and 60s. Her acting, was normal Cher in my opinion. It was just okay; not impressive and felt forced. Sean, Tess's best friend, played by Stanley Tucci, and Jack, the bartender, played by Eric Dane were the comic relief through the movie. Eric had a little bit of physical comedy towards the end of the movie that had some similarity to Jim Carey style comedy. And Stanley Tucci just does well in the supportive comedian actor role.

The plot was disconnected and had too many sub-plots inner-laced into it. A country girl from Iowa wants to make it big. She leaves Iowa, moves to L.A., finds an apartment, then looks for a job that includes singing and dancing. She ends up at Burlesque and gets turned down by the owner to dance, so she basically takes it upon herself to replace the current "bad" waitress, the same day she walked in. Within 48 hours, she develops a mother-daughter relationship with Cher's character. Within Burlesque, she's the enemy of the star of the show, of course, and is the apple of the engaged bartender's eye. And then there's also another story line of financial problems for the club. I'm sure I'm missing another theme in there too. It's just too many plots and unfortunately, they're all diverting attention from the main attraction of the movie, Christina Aguilera. After two hours nearly of dancing and singing, all problems are resolved and of course, Christina's character fixed nearly all of them.

However, I went for the main attraction, Christina.  And I left feeling inspired to plug in more to my own talents and to start going to see Vegas Shows, the Rockettes live, and possibly see a show at the ShadowBox in Newport, KY.


And that, my friend, is Burlesque, in my opinion.


Wonderful review Jen!  I love it that the film inspired you to further your interest in musical theater.  Thank you for allowing me to post your review.  Check out the link below for the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2r_8l1c2nQ