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| Nancy |
 Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 7:46 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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Joe Vitus wrote: Nancy automatically becomes a member of the Top Ten Coolest people I know. (I don't have to know them in person if they are cool enough to deserve a place on my list.)
Thanks, Joe! BTW, the line "He had it coming" comes from the original play. Mama Morton says something like, "I never heard of a man being killed but what I knew he had it coming." |
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"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."
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| Rod |
| Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 9:48 pm |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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| I can pay a high compliment to A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum; I laughed all the way through it. A combination of Richard Lester slapstick (this should really have been called The Running, Jumping, And Standing Still Film) and great Stephen Sondheim songs makes a breathless hour and a half. Tries too hard, but I like that more than the current craze for barely trying at all. |
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:13 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Rod wrote: I can pay a high compliment to A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum; I laughed all the way through it. A combination of Richard Lester slapstick (this should really have been called The Running, Jumping, And Standing Still Film) and great Stephen Sondheim songs makes a breathless hour and a half. Tries too hard, but I like that more than the current craze for barely trying at all.
It's one of the least successful musical movie adaptations this side of Carousel. The undisciplined Lester makes a lousy companion to the stageworthy burlesque of the Broadway show. Mostel and company are wasted, and the songs (what there is left of them) sound terrible. |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:36 pm |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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| I had a feeling that would be your opinion, Bill. I disagree. Or at least, I don't care. I'm a film fan, not a musical fan, and Lester the director was having a ball. I appreciated, as a film fan, Lester tipping his hat to the panoply of silent film slapstick (and by casting Buster Keaton especially) and cranking things to a roaring pace. Indeed, maybe a bad adaptation. But that can be a good thing. |
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:15 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Well, I'm a film fan and a musical fan. I've never been a tremendous admirer of Richard Lester. Even when he's at his best (A Hard Day's Night) I'm not nuts about his work. I loathe the much-revered Petulia. And Forum represents Lester at his least effective IMO. In addition to trashing the great Broadway show he made a frenetic movie, which btw wastes Keaton as well. I found the result excruciating. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:27 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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Have to chime in to say I loooove Petulia, but I'm not a big Lester fan, either. I do remember liking Forum when I saw it back in my teens, but haven't seen it since.
I know a lot of Sondheim's score was cut for the movie, but I don't think it's a very good score, anyway ("Comedy Tonight" is the only song I really like). |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:45 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: Have to chime in to say I loooove Petulia, but I'm not a big Lester fan, either. I do remember liking Forum when I saw it back in my teens, but haven't seen it since.
I know a lot of Sondheim's score was cut for the movie, but I don't think it's a very good score, anyway ("Comedy Tonight" is the only song I really like).
I agree it's not a great score, but "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid" and "Love, I Hear" are also wonderful.
The first time I saw Forum was at its very first public performance in New Haven, and "Comedy Tonight" was not even written at that point. The show began with a later-cut song called "Love Is In the Air" which got the evening off on the wrong note, and it all went downhill from there. The ingenue at that performance was Karen Black, who was subsequently fired and went on to Five Easy Pieces, etc.
Later that evening a very, very drunk Mostel was berating the director in a local restaurant. I was there to hear the fallout. What an evening. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:35 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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| Apart from it's dreadful choice as an opening number (George Abbott's fault, by the way), was "Love Is In the Air" a good number? I've always wanted to hear it. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:16 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: Apart from it's dreadful choice as an opening number (George Abbott's fault, by the way), was "Love Is In the Air" a good number? I've always wanted to hear it.
I could sing it for you a capella this morning. It was that catchy. However, on an absolute scale of "good," it was not great, just pleasant. And as an opening number for Forum it was a disaster.
If this discussion goes any further, we should move it to the "Musicals" forum. Forum will change its forum, IOW. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:12 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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| Please? This is why it's there. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:36 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| Go there now for some good dish. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 6:15 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Syd wrote: Joe Vitus wrote: Am I the only person excited that that they've found and restored the original Chicago?
Nancy is. She has the original play.
Where did you hear this?
Actually, several private collectors had it, and there was talk of it being put as an extra on the recent Chicago's dvd, but it didn't happen. But it would be something that I would definitely pick up. |
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:35 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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lady wakasa wrote: Syd wrote: Joe Vitus wrote: Am I the only person excited that that they've found and restored the original Chicago?
Nancy is. She has the original play.
Where did you hear this?
Actually, several private collectors had it, and there was talk of it being put as an extra on the recent Chicago's dvd, but it didn't happen. But it would be something that I would definitely pick up.
I heard something about a screening of it in some city that is nowhere near here. Apparently it's been restored. I'm waiting for the DVD, of course. |
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"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."
Isaacism, 2009 |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:52 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Lady,
They mentioned it in the Oscars, related (I think) to the AFI's film preservation efforts. They showed the title credit image, and it looked beautiful.
By the way, people keep referring to it as a silent, but I believe it's a part-talkie. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:07 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Nancy: I checked out some of the other copies of An Andalusian Dog on YouTube. The German print looks a lot better than the one I found yesterday. You can follow the plot, or rather the lack of one, a lot better. It still has the odd tango music, so apparently that's part of the film. Sad about the dog, though.
PS: I checked on Wikipedia. Bunuel played the music on a record while showing the film in 1929 and added the music to the print of the film in 1960. |
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