"I prefer being in distress."

[icepixie]

This weekend, I corrected a grievous oversight plaguing my life: I finally saw a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers flick (Top Hat). The plot was so incredibly lame* that I wound up fast-forwarding through most of the talky bits to get to the dancing, which is magnificient. I wanna be able to do that.**

You can really see the influence they had on American Smooth dancing (my favorite of the four ballroom dance types). Like right here, in this clip from Roberta, there's definitely some American Foxtrot sensibility going on, even if they aren't performing actual steps from the syllabus. (Granted, there are sometimes little Russian-accented voices in my head yelling at them to stand up straight when they dance with each other, for the love of God, but then I remember that, a.) they were doing tap dance together more often than they were doing anything strictly ballroom-related, and b.) it's Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and I have absolutely no room to criticize.)

Speaking of YouTube, there appears to be some kind of fad over there for replacing the original music with modern songs (such as here and here) and...it actually works, once you get past the initial weirdness. I guess when the beats are roughly the same, you can kind of do whatever you want. (Or possibly just that particular number is so amazing it can handle any music you throw at it.)

There are also actual fanvids, such as this one, which was surprisingly well-done and even somewhat touching.

Anyway. Back to the thesis. I have new critical scaffolding that I like better than my old one, so I need to go and integrate that.


* Mistaken identity plots are my number one narrative hate. I truly, truly despise them, because they rely on characters being SO, SO STUPID.

** Also, Ginger manages to make being sung to by--and dancing with--Fred look like the most awesome thing in the world. Since he's doing the soloing, in theory my attention should've been on him, but no, it was all on her. I am duly impressed.

Comments

[vallentine.livejournal.com]

While I agreed that the plot is thin at best I think it's a shame that you fast forwarded through the talking. One of the joys of Top Hat is all of the delightfully ridiculous and razor-sharp conversations. Obviously the best bits are the dancing scenes but there is joy to be had in the absurdity of the rest of the film.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

I guess you're not a fan of North By Northwest, then. Pity.

[pellmelody.livejournal.com]

"Top Hat" isn't a favorite of mine for Fred/Ginger, though "Cheek To Cheek" is gorgeous). I'm much fonder of "The Gay Divorcee," (Cole Porter's "Night And Day"...guh) "Swing Time" and "Shall We Dance" (I'm a sucker for Gershwin). When you get down to it, the plot of all their movies is pretty weak (a lot of boy wants girl, girl can't stand boy, boy wins girl over). It's about the dancing and their chemistry more than anything.