New Musical Express
When I was growing up I couldn’t stand movie musicals. Perhaps it was the
‘rebel’ in me; musicals were something “your parents liked” - they were “old
fashioned” or “uncool”, daggy even. They weren’t “real” cinema but fantasy for
the over-romantic and sentimental. Harsh words from a teenager...
But as my tastes have evolved over time I’ve come to love the movie musical –
the colour, the movement, the heightened emotion (be it romantic and/or
dramatic), but most of all the genius involved in telling stories through song
and dance. I’ve rediscovered those from childhood, discovered those from my
parents’ (and grandparents’) childhoods, and even more exciting, welcomed new
movie musicals that have flourished over the last decade. (One of this year’s
best examples Once will be released on DVD early next year).
One film that pushes every button is
An American In Paris (1951), Vincente Minelli’s sublime tribute to “the
art life” as seen through the eyes of ex-GI-turned-painter Jerry Mulligan (the
great
Gene Kelly) and Lise (Leslie
Caron), the singer for whom he falls, much to the chagrin of his
possessive art patron, Milo (Nina
Foch). It’s a musical ‘ménage a trois’ for Jerry between his art, true
love and a city – Paris. The sets are sublime – so are the costumes, and the
dancing takes your breath away – a veritable “courtship ritual” told through
song and choreography, for which Kelly won a ‘special’ Oscar. It’s a film I
find so beautiful and ebullient that it makes me weep every time.
Minelli was famous for many Hollywood musicals including
Meet Me In St. Louis (1944),
Brigadoon (1954) and
Gigi (1958). A year after making
Meet Me In St. Louis,
Minelli and its (super)star Judy Garland married, with daughter Liza
born a year later. Their firstborn went on to become a great musical star in
her own right both on stage and screen.
One of
Liza Minelli’s greatest achievements is
Cabaret (1972), a ‘turning point’ musical in modern cinema. Directed by
Bob Fosse - a theatre director/choreographer-turned-filmmaker – Cabaret fused
theatre with the cinema ‘realism’. Set in pre-WWII Germany, Minelli plays
libertine cabaret singer Sally Bowles, an American ex-pat keen on taking a walk
on the wild side with the local bohemian glitterati and cross-dressing theatre
folk. A spanner gets thrown in the works when she falls for ‘straight’ guy
Brian (Michael
York), a young Brit looking to become a writer. Fosse’s films are known
for their brutal emotional (and sexual) honesty and superb contemporary
song-and-dance numbers that sharply advance story and character development. In
a way Cabaret was
The Sound Of Music (1965) of its day – an exploration of personal
morality and responsibility in face of looming fascism in Nazi Germany.
Fosse brought drama into the musical.
All That Jazz (1979) was another high achievement, a biopic about his
own life as a successful albeit womanising pill-popping alcoholic
choreographer, grappling with life, love and imminent death. Without it, it is
fairly safe to say that there may never have been John Cameron Mitchell’s
Hedwig & The Angry Inch (2001), a musical about a drag queen with a “Ken
Mound”; no Hairspray (1988), John Waters’ original musical starring the
greatest drag queen of them all, Divine, nor Dancer In The Dark (2000), Lars
Von Trier’s journey into the American heart of darkness with Bjork playing a
blind factory worker facing the death penalty. Who would have thought it the
musical would have travelled so far...
- Megan
Megan Spencer has spent way too much of her life in the dark, all for a good
cause though - watching movies as a professional film critic. For the last six
and a half years she has been serving the ever-increasing hunger for film and
DVD reviews as radio triple j's resident film critic, and a year ago joined the
new line up of long-running SBS-TV film review program, The Movie Show.
Every now and then she pops up into the light to make her own films,
documentaries (her latest is 'Fantastic Brutality', a documentary about an
obsessed wrestling fan, to be released next year). She has also written about
film for many publications including J-Mag, Limelight, Inside Film Magazine and
the Age Green Guide.
And the impossible question to ask a film critic: what's her favourite film?
"Blue Velvet would be at the top of the list, so would Fight Club... But then
again American In Paris makes me cry every time."
Megan has also been part of the Foxtel's Project Greenlight Australia as an
on-air panelist and judge.
