From Mom:
So,
I decided to watch Spinal tap today. I had a pre-notion that i would enjoy it, because I loved Best in Show and enjoyed A Mighty Wind. But I wasn't prepared to actually believe that the performances weren't real!
Best in Show was really funny, and the characters in the movie were actors that became caricatures of the parts they played. I really believed that these guys in Spinal Tap WERE Spinal Tap!! They never seemed ridiculously too much.
The whole feel of the movie seemed real. Even Rob Reiner (who usually reminds me of his Meathead days) was completely the documentary director at all times.
The gigs they played were hysterical. The music and lyrics were very reminiscent of the Kiss/Pink Floyd/Bowie/Alice Cooper era. That glam, punk, reinvention of groups transitioning from the flower-power 60's, to the 70's and 80's hair bands.
The stonehenge gig was so funny, with the dancing druids, and the 18" structure!! Also the gig when Derek gets stuck in the creation pod. Elaborate theatrics like that were such commonplace in rock concerts of that era.
I was really glad that Nigel and David reconciled and that Janine(in the classic Yoko style) didn't ruin their long standing partnership. I think that Nigel was my favorite band member. He was so sweet and innocent. I thought I would keel over when he was playing that beautiful piano solo, and when asked what he called it he says, Lick my Love pipe!!
It was a sweet ending, Spinal Tap playing to a sold out crowd in Japan...like many other hair bands of days gone by are still doing as we speak!!
From Tony:
The genius behind Spinal Tap is exactly what you said, and what I warned you about, is that as outlandish as they are hair metal was so fucking weird that they do in fact become a real rock band. Lars Ulrich--the drummer of Metallica--has frequently referred to some of their backstage antics as "very Spinal Tap." The world they inhabit in the movie is so real and so well layered in that respect that you will always ALWAYS catch something new when you re-watch it. My most recent example is after like my fifteenth viewing I caught a fan at the very beginning of the movie yell "Do Stonehenge!" They don't actually start to talk about that song until halfway in.
I like that you mentioned Nigel's sweet innocence because after all, most rock and rollers are just man-children playing out some perverse teenage fantasy. It's all pretty gay and they even allude to that when they're discussing being up on stage "with armadillos in our trousers."
This is infinitely quotable. "Going to eleven" is as commonplace as any movie reference you'll ever come across. I even heard Gimme Some Money on a commercial a year or so back and I was pleasantly surprised to hear Hell Hole on some hair metal block the other morning before work. My favorite song is Tonight We're Gonna Rock You because of the lines "Your sweet but your just four feet and you still have your baby teeth/Your too young and I'm too well hung but tonight I'm gonna rock you."
Anotehr element of their genius is that this probably came out before hair metal hit its lowest point. You nailed it, they totally called these bands' decent into obscurity and chart topping success in the last place they ever expected.
What were some of your other favorite scenes and jokes? I personally loved the album cover for "Introvenous De Milo" and that David's family name, St. Hubins, comes from the patron saint of quality footwear. Also, anytime Viv is seen is a riot and when Mick Shrimptom explodes well after the audience has forgotten about the earlier joke about their laundry list of dead drummers...gold. Pure gold.
You should watch it again while you have it for these reasons:
1) To catch all the jokes you may have missed
2) To play Name That Celebrity! Did you catch Billy Crystal, Dana Carvey and Angelica Houston just to name a few?
3) Watch it with the commentary track. They do it in character, twenty years later, and their reflections on Marty DiBergi, the making of the film and even the stupid sweater Janine made for David is like a whole other movie.
p.s.
Not sure if this changes the joke for you at all, but that piano song was "Lick My Love Pump."
From Mom:
I did notice all of the celebrities you mentioned. One of my other favorite scenes is when the are trying to get onstage, and they are going in circles, and have to ask the maintenance man for
directions. Going to eleven was very clever. I bought it hook line and sinker.
I actually started singing along with Gimme Some Money, and I thought that it belonged to another hair band until I read the credits, and realized that I must have heard it somewhere. Do you remember what commercial it was?
I can't remember all of the songs like you do ,but one about a girl with a big butt, and I think they say something like,how can I leave this behind? Totally funny to hear being sung as a rock ballad. Oh yeah, when they're at Graceland at Elvis's grave trying to harmonize Heartbreak Hotel. I think I will need to watch it again to get the more subtle jokes, but the overall movie was fun, and very clever. Maybe this is one to watch together!
From Tony:
Yes. Big Bottom is a classic. "Talk about mud flaps my girl's got 'em." And they all play bass on that song...I heard a lot about it when I was taking bass lessons. And no, I can't recall what commercial the song was on. Probably some credit card with some sort of rewards deal or something.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Singin' In The Rain
From Tony:
So I killed this one last night and am pleased to report that I liked it as much as I was expecting to.
It was refreshing for me to see that America has always been so celebrity obsessed. Maybe refreshing isn't the right word for it, but you know what I mean. The film's treatment of celebrity worship, especially in the opening scene, was awesome. I loved how sarcastic and condescending they were towards it, like when the woman doing all the red carpet announcing said that Lamont and Lockwood are as common in American homes as "Bacon and eggs." A line that killed me was in the premiere of the movie at the beginning of the film a girl in the audience says of Lina "She's so refined. I think I'll kill myself." Loved it.
Now, I haven't seen a lot of musicals from around this time, but aside from The Sound of Music--which I recall having some pretty epic, swooping shots--they all seem kind of bland visually. I usually get the impression that the camera is just there to get every dance move, but with this one I felt like there was more of an effort to make it stand out. There were a lot of angles and shots that, especially for 1952, seemed pretty impressive for something like a big budget musical. Look at it compared to White Christmas. As light and fun as White Christmas is it never really takes you anywhere visually. It's blocked out, like I said before, just to get all the dancing in the frame. It never even convinces you that it's not being filmed on a sound stage. Singin' in the Rain really felt like a movie, where I was looking at people occupying spaces that were actually what they were supposed to be. White Christmas feels like a pageant with a lot of cardboard scenery.
Of all the musical scenes, I'd say my lest favorite was "Gotta Dance." It felt really long, which is a bummer because I thought that it had a really cool look to it. But the problem with it was it took me out of the movie. It felt like it didn't quite fit. That and it came after Singin' in the Rain, which is just such a wonderful example of "movie magic"...tough act to follow.
From Mom:
So I killed this one last night and am pleased to report that I liked it as much as I was expecting to.
It was refreshing for me to see that America has always been so celebrity obsessed. Maybe refreshing isn't the right word for it, but you know what I mean. The film's treatment of celebrity worship, especially in the opening scene, was awesome. I loved how sarcastic and condescending they were towards it, like when the woman doing all the red carpet announcing said that Lamont and Lockwood are as common in American homes as "Bacon and eggs." A line that killed me was in the premiere of the movie at the beginning of the film a girl in the audience says of Lina "She's so refined. I think I'll kill myself." Loved it.
Now, I haven't seen a lot of musicals from around this time, but aside from The Sound of Music--which I recall having some pretty epic, swooping shots--they all seem kind of bland visually. I usually get the impression that the camera is just there to get every dance move, but with this one I felt like there was more of an effort to make it stand out. There were a lot of angles and shots that, especially for 1952, seemed pretty impressive for something like a big budget musical. Look at it compared to White Christmas. As light and fun as White Christmas is it never really takes you anywhere visually. It's blocked out, like I said before, just to get all the dancing in the frame. It never even convinces you that it's not being filmed on a sound stage. Singin' in the Rain really felt like a movie, where I was looking at people occupying spaces that were actually what they were supposed to be. White Christmas feels like a pageant with a lot of cardboard scenery.
Of all the musical scenes, I'd say my lest favorite was "Gotta Dance." It felt really long, which is a bummer because I thought that it had a really cool look to it. But the problem with it was it took me out of the movie. It felt like it didn't quite fit. That and it came after Singin' in the Rain, which is just such a wonderful example of "movie magic"...tough act to follow.
From Mom:
I'm glad that you liked it.
Nothing much has changed in Hollywood as you said. I found the fact that they wouldn't use the less pretty girl with the best voice, as the gold standard in movies.As a matter of fact, Julie Andrews was turned down for the movie version of My Fair Lady for Audrey Hepburn( who had a voice double), even though she had been on the broadway stage as Eliza Doolittle. She wasn't pretty enough!! Ironically Julie won an oscar that year for best actress in a little movie called Mary Poppins!! But I digress.....
I agree with you that this movie had a real feel to it. I really enjoyed the relationship that the 3 main characters shared. I really liked Donald O'connors performanc in this movie too.He always played 2nd banana roles, and I think he was a great dancer more deserving of some leads, but again, he wasn't leading man handsome and that always put him into the best friend, or comic relief role.
Gene Kelly is absolutely amazing in this movie. He really was a "movie star" as far as I am concerned.
He can dance, sing, act, and he directed numerous movies. He changed the way song and dance films were made.This is one of my go to movies when I have a rainy Sunday and want to watch something that totally entertains me.One of my most favorite scenes is Make em laugh. Sheer bliss for a wannabe hoofer!! Glad you enjoyed it...I'm off to watch This is Spinal Tap!!!! Is that a musical?????
From Tony:
Oh yeah, "Make 'em Laugh" was a lot of fun. Such a goofy, physical number.
What gets me about the whole "not as pretty but better voice" thing is that Hollywood's concept of plain or less pretty means not famous. Debbie Reynolds was adorable in this. Way better looking than what's her face! It's particularly admirable how she was able to keep up with O'Connor and Kelly since she wasn't a dancer before this movie (though I've read that Gene Kelly was a real dick to her.)
And here's another thing in terms of how Hollywood and the idea of celebrity are different now than in the 20s when the movie was set: Don tells about how he was born for the screen, brought up to sing and dance by an affluent family but what we see is a very humble, rags to riches sort of story play out over his phoney voice over. I get the impression that, like his fake off-screen romance with Lina, this was something the studio cooked up to over glamorize him to the public. I can't see American's eating that up today. I would think that we wouldn't be impressed by someone who was essentially bred for stardom whereas his real life story--playing dives, getting booed off stage, etc--would be much more compelling to us now. Though I suppose actors were more like property back then, talent owned by studios, so they had to put on whatever mask the studio told them to. Any insight on this?
And no, Spinal Tap is not a musical, though they toy with the idea in one scene.
From Mom:
You're right. The movie stars of yesteryear were totally beholden to the studio they worked for.
They couldn't marry if they were pop idols so as not to lessen their appeal to the groupies.
That's why so many actors were outed for their sexual persuasion after they died. The studios wouldn't allow their private lives to be anything except what the execs made up for them. The child actors became drug and booze addicts because of the rigorous schedules that the studios made them keep . All of their real names were changed in order to appeal to the audience. No ethnic names allowed, whereas now, ethnicity is usually in the actors favor. Nowadays their real life stories are sometimes more important than their body of work. So the rags to riches concept would absolutely fly today as opposed to the being born for the screen concept. It's almost like a wink wink, nod nod,when a child of a famous star goes into the business. Until they prove themself, the general public pooh poohs them saying that Daddy/Mommy pulled strings to get them the part.
Not to mention that yesterdays movie stars made squat for money.And they were under contract for years by the studios,who mandated their every move.
Oh and by the way, I was only joking when I asked if Spinal Tap was a musical. A feeble attempt at humor son!
From Tony:
Oh yeah, "Make 'em Laugh" was a lot of fun. Such a goofy, physical number.
What gets me about the whole "not as pretty but better voice" thing is that Hollywood's concept of plain or less pretty means not famous. Debbie Reynolds was adorable in this. Way better looking than what's her face! It's particularly admirable how she was able to keep up with O'Connor and Kelly since she wasn't a dancer before this movie (though I've read that Gene Kelly was a real dick to her.)
And here's another thing in terms of how Hollywood and the idea of celebrity are different now than in the 20s when the movie was set: Don tells about how he was born for the screen, brought up to sing and dance by an affluent family but what we see is a very humble, rags to riches sort of story play out over his phoney voice over. I get the impression that, like his fake off-screen romance with Lina, this was something the studio cooked up to over glamorize him to the public. I can't see American's eating that up today. I would think that we wouldn't be impressed by someone who was essentially bred for stardom whereas his real life story--playing dives, getting booed off stage, etc--would be much more compelling to us now. Though I suppose actors were more like property back then, talent owned by studios, so they had to put on whatever mask the studio told them to. Any insight on this?
And no, Spinal Tap is not a musical, though they toy with the idea in one scene.
From Mom:
You're right. The movie stars of yesteryear were totally beholden to the studio they worked for.
They couldn't marry if they were pop idols so as not to lessen their appeal to the groupies.
That's why so many actors were outed for their sexual persuasion after they died. The studios wouldn't allow their private lives to be anything except what the execs made up for them. The child actors became drug and booze addicts because of the rigorous schedules that the studios made them keep . All of their real names were changed in order to appeal to the audience. No ethnic names allowed, whereas now, ethnicity is usually in the actors favor. Nowadays their real life stories are sometimes more important than their body of work. So the rags to riches concept would absolutely fly today as opposed to the being born for the screen concept. It's almost like a wink wink, nod nod,when a child of a famous star goes into the business. Until they prove themself, the general public pooh poohs them saying that Daddy/Mommy pulled strings to get them the part.
Not to mention that yesterdays movie stars made squat for money.And they were under contract for years by the studios,who mandated their every move.
Oh and by the way, I was only joking when I asked if Spinal Tap was a musical. A feeble attempt at humor son!
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