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icepixieDue to some ill-advised Wikipedia browsing, I now have "Heart and Soul" lodged in my head for all eternity for at least the next day.
And now, because I mentioned it, so probably do many of you. Bwahahaha.
(And if you don't, you can!)
*
I watched Roberta last night.
I've decided that I actually have three favorites out of the series. I have a favorite for plot, a favorite for characters, and a favorite for dances.
For plot, it's something of a toss-up between Shall We Dance and Swing Time. I do enjoy the everyone-thinks-we're-married and the getting-married-to-get-a-very-public-divorce hijinks of SWD--as I think I've said before, the marriage of convenience is my bulletproof narrative kink. Plus, there's that incredible Gershwin score. And yet ST has a plot that hangs together at least somewhat better, and it gets the dance beats exactly right, from the getting-to-know-you of "Pick Yourself Up" to the joyous public performance of "Waltz in Swing Time" to the exquisite angst of parting in "Never Gonna Dance." It's criminal that Fred and Ginger didn't dance to "They Can't Take That Away From Me" in SWD. Also, that ending number was all wrong--they needed a romantic duet, and instead we got bad ballet. Feh.
Characterwise, I'm still stuck on Sherry and Bake from Follow the Fleet. They're such fun, unprepossessing people; Ginger in particular does an especially good rendition of the 1930s screen staple of Independent, Practical, Sarcastic Woman. And they have an interesting past together to boot: they were crazy about each other before the movie, things didn't work out, but they're still crazy about each other and now they've got a second chance they aren't going to waste. (Much of Bake and Sherry is repeated from Huck and Lizzie in Roberta, but the two from FtF win almost entirely because they get more screentime than their earlier counterparts. Also because...)
Dancewise, my favorite is actually Roberta. I love every movement they make in there. Their characters are, essentially, the peanut gallery--they're the comic leads, so they make lots of snarky comments on the main plot, but they're also two people who share a history and are delighted to be rediscovering each other and falling back in love (if indeed they ever fell out of it), and the dances are what communicate this more than anything else. So we have a playful falling-back-into-sync dance, a song that pushes them from flirtation to admission of a more genuine attachment, a dance that shows how deeply they've fallen for each other, and a short final dance after the marriage "acceptance" (which is cute as hell) where they go out and are just so damned excited and happy about the whole thing, they can't keep still.
I know, intellectually, that they rehearsed "Hard to Handle," because it's complex and awesome. But it looks entirely spontaneous from beginning to end, and every time I watch it, I believe it is unrehearsed. The first bit, where they're dancing in a partner hold, really loose and falling back and forth on each other, not really trying to match leg extension or anything, is exactly what two really good dancers noodling around on a floor do/should look like. And then Ginger's giggling as they really get into it is so authentic and wonderful. Characters and actors, these are two people who obviously genuinely enjoyed dancing with one another. I can feel myself grinning like a lunatic every time I watch it.
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is, I think, my favorite of all their dances. It's slower than usual--of course, as someone who adores Waltz, I like slow--and allows us to really see how connected they were when they danced, like there was an invisible string tied between their centers of gravity. And the moment where they're both facing the camera, and Fred presses Ginger's head to his shoulder as they walk forward a bit to the rhythm is simultaneously one of the hottest and sweetest things I have EVER seen. Then a couple seconds later as they're doing some back and forth movements closer to the camera, still with him holding her head to his shoulder, there's an instant where she looks up at him and he looks down at her, and it's just really well-played by both of them. *swoons*
I do wish they'd done a rumba at some point in their career together. Then again, they might well have set the camera on fire if they did. (Although the Carioca from Flying Down to Rio looks like it might be some bastard lovechild of Samba and tap, so maybe they did something Latin, anyway. It's next on my list, so we shall have to see!)
*
It is raining, and yet I still must head down to campus and make copies/print paper comments/return library books. Booooo.
And now, because I mentioned it, so probably do many of you. Bwahahaha.
(And if you don't, you can!)
*
I watched Roberta last night.
I've decided that I actually have three favorites out of the series. I have a favorite for plot, a favorite for characters, and a favorite for dances.
For plot, it's something of a toss-up between Shall We Dance and Swing Time. I do enjoy the everyone-thinks-we're-married and the getting-married-to-get-a-very-public-divorce hijinks of SWD--as I think I've said before, the marriage of convenience is my bulletproof narrative kink. Plus, there's that incredible Gershwin score. And yet ST has a plot that hangs together at least somewhat better, and it gets the dance beats exactly right, from the getting-to-know-you of "Pick Yourself Up" to the joyous public performance of "Waltz in Swing Time" to the exquisite angst of parting in "Never Gonna Dance." It's criminal that Fred and Ginger didn't dance to "They Can't Take That Away From Me" in SWD. Also, that ending number was all wrong--they needed a romantic duet, and instead we got bad ballet. Feh.
Characterwise, I'm still stuck on Sherry and Bake from Follow the Fleet. They're such fun, unprepossessing people; Ginger in particular does an especially good rendition of the 1930s screen staple of Independent, Practical, Sarcastic Woman. And they have an interesting past together to boot: they were crazy about each other before the movie, things didn't work out, but they're still crazy about each other and now they've got a second chance they aren't going to waste. (Much of Bake and Sherry is repeated from Huck and Lizzie in Roberta, but the two from FtF win almost entirely because they get more screentime than their earlier counterparts. Also because...)
Dancewise, my favorite is actually Roberta. I love every movement they make in there. Their characters are, essentially, the peanut gallery--they're the comic leads, so they make lots of snarky comments on the main plot, but they're also two people who share a history and are delighted to be rediscovering each other and falling back in love (if indeed they ever fell out of it), and the dances are what communicate this more than anything else. So we have a playful falling-back-into-sync dance, a song that pushes them from flirtation to admission of a more genuine attachment, a dance that shows how deeply they've fallen for each other, and a short final dance after the marriage "acceptance" (which is cute as hell) where they go out and are just so damned excited and happy about the whole thing, they can't keep still.
I know, intellectually, that they rehearsed "Hard to Handle," because it's complex and awesome. But it looks entirely spontaneous from beginning to end, and every time I watch it, I believe it is unrehearsed. The first bit, where they're dancing in a partner hold, really loose and falling back and forth on each other, not really trying to match leg extension or anything, is exactly what two really good dancers noodling around on a floor do/should look like. And then Ginger's giggling as they really get into it is so authentic and wonderful. Characters and actors, these are two people who obviously genuinely enjoyed dancing with one another. I can feel myself grinning like a lunatic every time I watch it.
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is, I think, my favorite of all their dances. It's slower than usual--of course, as someone who adores Waltz, I like slow--and allows us to really see how connected they were when they danced, like there was an invisible string tied between their centers of gravity. And the moment where they're both facing the camera, and Fred presses Ginger's head to his shoulder as they walk forward a bit to the rhythm is simultaneously one of the hottest and sweetest things I have EVER seen. Then a couple seconds later as they're doing some back and forth movements closer to the camera, still with him holding her head to his shoulder, there's an instant where she looks up at him and he looks down at her, and it's just really well-played by both of them. *swoons*
I do wish they'd done a rumba at some point in their career together. Then again, they might well have set the camera on fire if they did. (Although the Carioca from Flying Down to Rio looks like it might be some bastard lovechild of Samba and tap, so maybe they did something Latin, anyway. It's next on my list, so we shall have to see!)
*
It is raining, and yet I still must head down to campus and make copies/print paper comments/return library books. Booooo.
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no subject
Date: 2009-11-22 09:25 pm (UTC)Evillllll.
(However, courtesy of my thesis it's been replaced already: "I'm goin down down baby, your street in a Range Rover...")
no subject
Date: 2009-11-22 11:51 pm (UTC)*bows*
(However, courtesy of my thesis it's been replaced already: "I'm goin down down baby, your street in a Range Rover...")
I'm very glad I don't get the reference.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 12:09 am (UTC)Did you go to high school in this country, or were you an exchange student that year or something?
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 02:12 am (UTC)Did you go to high school in this country, or were you an exchange student that year or something?
I googled, and found that you mean 2000. And the answer is...I was here, but was studiously avoiding anything remotely associated with the words "hip" or "cool" or "modern." As I recall, that was around the time I got very into Fleetwood Mac. I was also into Sarah McLachlan and the Smashing Pumpkins, but I don't think the cool kids liked them in the same way they liked rap.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 04:13 am (UTC)As I recall, I avoided this stuff too, at the time. I think it's more compelling now because it reminds me of home, and because writing about it constitutes a more interesting form of rebellion now than it did in high school. :D
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 06:57 pm (UTC)Noooooo, not the zeitgeist!
I think it's more compelling now because it reminds me of home, and because writing about it constitutes a more interesting form of rebellion now than it did in high school. :D
Yeah, it doesn't remind me of home, because I was oblivious to the whole "popular music" thing back when I was living at home. (Not that this has changed in the intervening years.) I do like the idea of writing academic treatises on it as a form of rebellion, though. The equivalent for me would be writing a paper on a science fiction show--which, nicely enough, I managed to do in undergrad. :D
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 06:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 07:08 pm (UTC)I love these ads. This one get extra points for Stephen Hawking. :D