#musical film history

[unwelcome-ephestion]

The song that is thought to have the longest title in any musical is from the Stanley Donen picture Royal Wedding, starring Fred Astaire and Jane Powell: How could you believe me when I said I loved you when you know I've been a liar all my life? It's simply joyous to watch, even when you have seen Easter Parade; it's pretty clearly Donen's take on A Couple of Swells, the number which cemented Astaire's brilliance when he came out retirement in 1948. Yet it's not a total repetition; Jane Powell brings a brilliant, bolshy quality, and the physical comedy is played up much more - you can see that this is the man who will go on to make Singin' in the Rain.

What they do share is this particularly sibling-esque quality of performance, rather than a romantic couple - although Garland and Astaire will end up together in Easter Parade, there is nothing romantic in this number, which is much more childishly playful. Astaire and Powell are playing siblings playing a couple, and as a result a similar childish playing-at-adulthood emerges. The staging is also unbelievably similar, even for performances on a stage, and the use of vaudeville double-act types is the same. Donen has, however, certainly upped the Gloriousness of the Technicolour in Royal Wedding! See A Couple of Swells below - both magnificent!

[melomancy]

Kate Bush on ‘Revolver’ (1978)

[wh0-is-lily]

Tina Aumont in, 'I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale,' (1973) Dir. Sergio Martino

[vintagebaby]

thinking about cher in the 60s

[presley4president]

Me core:

[todayinhiphophistory]

Today in Hip Hop History:

The film Beat Street was released June 8, 1984

[blogalahezy]

[daweyt]

“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”

— Fyodor Dostoevsky, from “The Brothers Karamazov”, originally published c. 1879–1880.

[beauty-funny-trippy]

Josephine Baker (in Princess Tam Tam, 1935)

[prettyfr0mtheback]

Hole by Edward Colver 1990

[unwelcome-ephestion]

A much underrated picture of the 1940s is the The Pirate, directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Gene Kelly and Judy Garland. The team is arguably partially the reason the film struggled; it was made during the period Garland and Minnelli were divorcing, and as a result they were in many cases not even on set at the same time. This shows in the film; Garland is magnificent, but the film is really not that interested in her. What the film is instead is a fascinating queering of masculinity - take a look at the above number.

The first number in the show, Nina, is written by Cole Porter - not his finest score, but lovely and arch as always. Kelly's character may be singing about being a ladies' man, but how sexy is his seduction? He knows no one's name, and becomes more and more caught up in ridiculous, unsexy rhyming - neurasthenia is terribly clever, but terribly unsexy! In the meantime, Minnelli's camera is queering the male gaze left, right and centre, lingering over Kelly's body and eroticising it as the male spectator. Minnelli, who was certainly bisexual if not gay, and Porter, who was gay, both relish this play at heterosexual machismo, queering it at every opportunity in the film. Kelly's character is actually an actor, and is of course constantly faking his machismo, as is his love rival, Walter Slezak. Perhaps most funny, however, is that Kelly has absolutely no idea that he's landed himself in the middle of a gay romp of a film; he is playing the heterosexual masculine ideal absolutely, if you'll forgive the pun, straight, and the film is all the better for his lack of awareness.

[melomancy]

Kate Bush in 1979

[wh0-is-lily]

"Touch me. Burn me." - Jeanne

Belladonna of Sadness (1973) Dir. Eiichi Yamamoto

[die-rosastrasse]

I got the dreamiest vinyl album from my favorite movie 🌷

[presley4president]

I’m drooling

[vintage-old-hollywood]

Sharon Tate