I couldn't be happier that the music video has regained its cultural capital in the age of YouTube. There's something about the form that is just magical. Or maybe it's just that it's been the most reliable fix for movie-musical lovers during the past 30 years. You can pretend these 3 to 5 minute show stoppers are but one scene in a larger movie musical, can't you? At least that's what I do with my favorite videos.
So herewith, several favorites in no particular order. If you're wondering what music videos have to do with The Film Experience remember that they're short films and that this year's most celebrated director David Fincher (The Social Network) started that mammoth career by making mammoth music videos for Madonna (among others).
Please to enjoy. And let me know your favorite(s) in the comments.
8 FAV MUSIC VIDEOS OF '10 Why only 8? I ran out of steam. You don't have time to watch 10 anyway.
Brandon Flowers "Crossfire"
In which Charlize Theron kicks much ninja ass. I love the self-effacing helplessness of your rock star hero who just can't stop getting into predicaments from which his hot girl (Charlize) must rescue him. Movie stars slumming in music videos is one of the best things in the world though this video does bring up my constant worry about Charlize: Why is she so awesome without making any movies worth caring about?
Janelle Monáe (feat. Big Boi) "Tightrope"
Those feet. The way they slide, spin, shuffle, dance. It's quite a feat.
Cosmo Jarvis "Gay Pirate".
I heart this so hard. That "Yo Ho" chorus is to die. Plus, it's lit and choreographed cleverly for one take (joy) and it's easily enjoyable both on the surface -- gay pirates! -- and moreso if you want to dig deeper (think don't ask don't tell) which is the best kind of artistic trick.
But there's more: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gaga, and more one-take madness coming...
...not the review kind of "raves" so much as the dance-while-drugging kind.
Come to think of it Black Swan is almost a perfect movie for remixes and mash-ups. While it's rather electric to watch (and hear as remix) I do worry if it's maybe a bit "thin" in some crucial ways for staying power. The narrative focus is as tight as Natalie Portman's neck, which means that in some ways it wouldn't lose much as a short film*. It's pretty much just Nina For The Birds, everything else being out of focus**. You can't always trust your peripheral vision.
*Not that I didn't love it. I'm just thinking aloud. **This is why I don't remotely buy the online enthusiasm for predicting Oscar nominations for the supporting cast, even though I liked most every performance in the film.
In her music video "Uh Huh" Juliette Lewis sashays around with a bouquet of colorful balloons, smiling radiantly. Her mood seems lighter than air. It's an incongruous musical moment in her rock grrrl career -- in the newest video "Terra Incognito" she's back to her old in-your-face provocations -- but the softer side was lovely to see.
And why shouldn't Juliette's mood be lighter these days? After years of touring to build a music career while doing thankless cameos in mainstream comedies, could it be that filmmakers are finally on the verge of rediscovering her unique gift?
Juliette Lewis has taken up more than her share of my actressy headspace ever since I first heard her inimitable voice in the opening frames of Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991). I don't even like narration -- in anything -- and I was instantly enamored.
I met with Juliette Lewis in October at the stylish Crosby Street Hotel in Soho, where she was holding court promoting the Oscar hopefulConviction. The film is still playing around the country (check the listing for yours) and speaking of holding court, Juliette's role is minor but attention grabbing.
Juliette Takes the Stand.
You meet her character Roseanna Perry first as she takes the witness stand. Roseanna's testimony will make things hopeless for soon to be life-sentenced Terry (Sam Rockwell). Later his sister Betty Anne (Hilary Swank) will come calling hoping that she'll recant that damning testimony.
When you only have two scenes, you have to make them count. I wondered if she prepared any differently knowing it was such a minor role. "NO." Juliette replied emphatically, explaining that the smaller the role, the bigger the acting challenge in a way.
Juliette the day we met.
Juliette: How do I tell what's been going on with this character in two scenes? I think with all my roles, I want them to be visceral sort of a live experience. I've been doing live shows for the last five years so I carry that with me but I always want you to get a sense of this personality. It's not necessarily in the words. When she's on the witness stand you see that she's troubled, she's damaged, she's not a very joyful creature. And then the exciting thing is to meet her 18 years later and telling a story of what she's been doing. I hope that you get the sense that she never leaves her trailer, she's been drinking for 18 years and doing drugs --we don't know what kind. If you just took those two elements and had a conversation with that person that would be incredibly complicated and interesting. But then you pile on that she's created a world of her own fiction through guilt and lying and then she's being confronted by the person she's wronged. It's intense and amazing and that's why she bounces off the walls emotionally.
Short answer: I had all these details and all these ingredients that I had to then put together and make an organic person. To me, I was like 'Oh, I get to play one of these characters,' a person that you walk the other direction when you see them on the street. These people who have a very upsetting unsettling energy. I wanted people to feel uncomfortable because she's uncomfortable.
We continued talking about her research. Despite what some would deem a loud performance, Roseanna Perry offscreen sounds like an even bigger nightmare than the one Juliette dreamt up for us. I told Juliette that as a fan I'm always hoping she'll get bigger parts. "Someday," she replied with mock dreaminess. "We'll build it together!"
Nathaniel: One of the reasons I love your second scene is that you are suddenly the star of the movie. If you think about it all the characters are surrounding you and they're living or dying based on what you're about to do. Plus, the punchline is so great. It's like your holding court in the scene.
Juliette: That's amazing. That makes total sense, I love that; it's her show. At the same time there's this oddity that she's receiving guests. 'Oh, guests are at my place. Would you like some wine?'
Nathaniel: She probably doesn't get guests that often.
Juliette: That's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking she talks to her TV.
Juliette went on to describe Roseanna's psyche, sounding almost sad in the process, indicating that as an actress she'd really dug down into the contradictions of someone who is self-serving, who feels a lot of guilt yet won't make amends.
Nathaniel: I imagine as an actor you have to always believe in the truth of your character, even if they're a born liar?
Juliette: ABSOLUTELY. Human beings are so contradictory and colorful and a blend of so many things. She [Roseanna] turns up her own emotions to get affect but she also feels what she feels.
Juliette Lewis as Roseanna Perry
As the conversation shifted away from Conviction, Juliette talked about her year's away from the movies touring to building her music career but despite the devotion to her music career she seemed genuinely happy to be back in the mix of the movies. "I don't know if I've changed or the movies have changed," she explained "but everything has been this sort of delicious experience." Yes, even small roles in Jennifer Aniston movies are deemed delicious so you know Juliette Lewis means it when she says she's glad to be acting again.
When I asked if we could discuss the 90s, Juliette didn't hesitate though she did get a little contemplative about a retrospective "It's so funny when you don't have perspective at the time. You don't know what you're necessarily doing that's relevant or whatever. You sort of learn in hindsight." Nearly twenty years have passed since she first made a big mark on the screen, but her memory of the films seemed razor sharp.
We didn't peruse the films chronologically but jumped around in conversation beginning with Natural Born Killers (1994). It was the first time I'd heard her sing as she paced her prison cell singing "Naturally Born Bad." I theorized on what made that particular performance so special.
Nathaniel: Watching Mallory --- it's like she's hearing music in her head that you can't hear. A radio station that's JUST her frequency. So then when you start singing in that scene it's a natural fit, like the part is coalescing.
Juliette: I love that. That makes sense. That's funny -- for different parts I use music for brainwashing if that's what you want to call it. I was listening to Jimmy Hendrix. It's not so much his voice but the guitar playing. It had so much danger despair torment chaos if you listen to "Voodoo Child" it's everything of that journey, that character. I would listen to that over and over before filming so that was living inside.
We moved from talking about Oliver Stone who she called "brilliant" to Husbands and Wives (1992). One of my personal favorite scenes in Woody's filmography is her scene in the taxicab when her character Rain admits that she's lost Woody's book --- "his manuscript," Juliette corrected me, recalling the scene just as I'd begun to describe it. She had loved working with Woody Allen because he encouraged improvisation. I asked her if she was aware that he was going to leave the camera on her for practically the whole scene. He has most of the dialogue and yet we're watching her.
Juliette: That's crazy that he did that. What a nice director.
Nathaniel: Rain seems so amused by how much she's upset him.
Juliette as the precocious Rain in Husbands and Wives (1992)
Juliette: She is! Young girls... they just drive you nuts, that youthful arrogance, that superiority. I've had a 22 year old call me "honey" and I was just like 'WHAT? I don't think so!' Honestly she likes the attention of her mistake and she likes seeing him get all riled up. It's very flattering for her that he's asking her opinion. The more insecure he gets the more superior she feels -- classic younger girl and older guy. All those things I discover when playing it.
Nathaniel: But did you know it was your scene, that you would hold the camera?
Juliette: I had no idea, no. I thought we were shooting my take and than we shoot his take. I never even thought about that. I didn't really think of it in a heady way. I don't contrive these things so much before hand. I just sort of understand the scene and the character. My goal always is to surrender and be in the moment -- ultimately you're just surrendering and seeing what happens.
One of Juliette's favorite directors is of course her own brother Lightfield Lewis who she has worked with numerous times. Juliette raved about their new collaboration (the video is below, it had just come out a couple of days before the interview) for "Terra Incognito". "It's really visual and has a lot of fighting in it -- for taking your licks and getting back up."
Terra Incognito
"Terra Incognito" is the most recent single from her latest record but I had to tell her how amused I was to see a subliminal insert of the famous thumbsucking scene from Cape Fear in the previous video to "Uh Huh." Did she know that was going to be there?
Juliette: No, I didn't know it. That's my brother. He loves all things pop culture. He's very cinematic. My brother is the movie buff, the filmmaker. All the things that influenced me were all musicals: All That Jazz, Hair, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Grease. No, I didn't know he was going to do that.
She had actually asked him to remove it, fearing that the music fans would be confused. Not all of them knew she was an actress. The conversation about these movie referencing videos sent her into thinking about her different worlds and where they did and did not merge comfortably "It's funny that i'm used to being this underdog in different dimensions." But she believed she was finally finding the balance and merging the two. Does this mean she'd be willing to make a musical?
Juliette: I'd love it. I want it to be super strange though like Terry Gilliam style or Bob Fosse.
Nathaniel: John Cameron Mitchell, maybe. Like a Hedwig sort of energy?
Juliette: YES. I actually met with him. He wanted me to play Hedwig somewhere. Wouldn't that be neat? In the play. Wouldn't that be interesting?
When my time was up -- promotional rounds have tight time frames -- Juliette offered to keep chatting, holding the clockwatcher (i.e. publicist) at bay. "He has a million great questions!" We ended by chatting for a few minutes about Kathyrn Bigelow's Strange Days, her recent Oscar win (Juliette was "over the moon" about it) and the birth of Juliette's own music career by way of P.J. Harvey's songs.
I told her about the first time I saw Strange Days and being as thunderstruck watching her as Ralph Fiennes was from his crosswalk overlook. It was hard not to think of her as a fully formed rock star. This wasn't pretend. At first Juliette rejected the Faith/Juliette comparison and amusingly described her vision of her self with sing-song wit.
Juliette: It was very much Kathyrn's vision of what she was so it wasn't me per se. Faith is really damaged. I'm a much different creature on stage -- I like to think a superhero or a magical pixie -- but, yes, that was amazing. That's when P.J. Harvey entered my life as a musician. I just drank her up. There's nothing like her.
Nathaniel: Well, tome Strange Days was your debut as a rock star; it was the start of the music career before the music career actually started.
Juliette: [Suddenly excited] What I'm not telling you is that it did! I was a closeted songwriters/singer. I was keeping it in because it was the most personal -- too vulnerable. Having to sing for a role made me step out and go 'remember this? You're a singer.' But I still wasn't ready because I was so self critical. I had to go through some changes in my life. I finally did it when I was approaching age 30. A little bit late but i'm making up for lost time.
Nathaniel: Hey, late bloomers... that's fine. I started writing when I was approaching 30 and now I don't love anything else more.
Juliette: Isn't that amazing? It's like 'This is who I was all along and now I finally let it out.'
Uh Huh
Let it out, Juliette. Keep letting that magic out. *
By now you've undoubtedly confirmed for yourself that Brad Pitt is not in David Fincher's The Social Network... Unless you count that "Tyler Durden" Facebook profile on a computer screen in Jesse Eisenberg's room (blink and you'll miss it but I did catch it the second time through).
A Fincher sandwich. Brangelina brung the bread.
If you foolishly expected Brad to pop up for a cameo, you're forgiven on account of your totally understandable great love of David Fincher movies, in which Brad often stars (Se7en, Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). They're friends in real life and only one year apart in age. But for now, no new movie collaborations are on the docket.
<--- Fincher winning an MTV Award for Se7en (1995). It wasn't the first time MTV honored him but more on that later.
Beyond the obvious and uncurious case of Brad Pitt, does the popular director even favor repeat actors? He's not visibly a creature of habit like Woody Allen, previously featured in this new series, but he does reuse actors, like favorite daubs of paint on his auteurial palette. Let's investigate!
The David Fincher Acting Hierarchy
(Quantitatively Speaking)
4 Films.
There's a three way tie for the top honor, each beating Brad Pitt by one film, albeit with much smaller roles than Brad's movie star status would allow.
Richmond Arquette. Yes, that's the least famous member of the Arquette clan (brother to Alexis, David, Rosanna & Patricia). Fincher always gives him tiny roles but some are key: he makes the dread box delivery at the end of Se7en, makes the first two kills in Zodiac and also appears in Fight Club and Benjamin Button.
Bob Stephenson, who you might reconize as a series regular from TV's Jericho or The Forgotten, is part of the SWAT team in Se7en, a security officer in Fight Club and a killer in both The Game and Zodiac.
Christopher John Fields stretches the furthest back with the director, all the way to Fincher's debut feature Alien³ (1992) where he played "Rains" one of the first victims of the acid-blooded beastie. Poor guy. He also appears in The Game as Detective Boyle, Fight Club's dry cleaning man and he's a copy editor in Zodiac.
3 Films.
A man that needs no introduction.
Brad Pitt delivered his two best performances, Se7en (1995) and Fight Club (1999), under the director's guidance. Their third union for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), though a substantial hit, didn't deliver in the same way. It's one of Pitt's duller performances, Oscar nomination be damned, and entire scenes are stolen from him by the make up f/x and the supporting actors.
2 Films.
The Fincher filmography is, we hope, just barely starting its second act. He's currently making his 9th feature (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and several people have now appeared in two. It's possible some of the smaller character actors will show up in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo but we won't know they're there till the credits confirm their existence. We'll take the two-fers in semi-random order...
Holt McCallanyis the tattooed prisoner who tries to rape Ripley inAlien³ (clearly he had never seen Alien or Aliens) and he's also one of Tyler Durden's disciples/bruisers in Fight Club.
Jared Leto Remember that Fight Club line "I felt like destroying something beautiful?" used in connection with the destruction of Jared Leto's dreamy face? Leto and Fincher both obviously took that to heart in subsequent projects, too like Panic Room. (What a strange career Leto has had since the teen heartthrob days.) And think of the visual beating Brad Pitt takes in every Fincher film! Fincher definitely wants to destroy his beauty.
Elias Koteas is one of dozens of cops caught up in the Zodiac caseand he's also in Button.
Rooney Mara is onscreen now in The Social Network and so good in it, too. Like "Mark Zuckerberg" we'll be refreshing our screens until she returns in Fincher's version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
Paul Schulze, is probably best known as Nurse Jackie's pharmacist / lover. He appears in both Panic Room and Zodiac (with hair!)
Charles S Dutton is the prison colony's spiritual leader inAlien³ and a cop in Se7en
Andrew Kevin Walker is the screenwriter of Se7en but he also acts in the film (he plays "Sloth" ... shudder one of the dead bodies). He's also in Panic Room as "Sleepy Neighbor". Hee.
Michael Massee who'd you recognize as a regular on one season of television's 24 or FlashForward appears in The Game as an EMT and in the massage parlor in Se7en. I think he's also in Madonna's "Bad Girl" video, directed by Fincher but I'm not positive on this. (But that'd make him a 2+)
John Getz is Zuckerberg's lawyer in The Social Network andTempleton Peck in Zodiac. Poor man is always shot sitting behind a desk. Does he have legs?
John Casini is one of the cops in Se7en and a "man in airport" in The Game.
1(+) Film
James Rebhorn appears in The Game but he's also in the Madonna video "Bad Girl". Just think. If his date with Madonna had gone well, maybe she wouldn't have gone home with that serial killer!? Fincher sure loves the serial killer trope. And "Bad Girl" sure is an interesting piece in understanding David Fincher; the "angel of death" is visualized as a film director.
Trevor Wright appears in The Social Network but when he was a little kid he appeared in the Fincher directed Paula Abdul video "Forever Your Girl".
1 Film. Hundreds of people share this distinction but the two actresses we'd really like to see David Fincher reteam with are Helena Bonham-Carter who was so against-type revelatory in Fight Club and Nicole Kidman who was supposed to get locked up in that Panic Room but ended up just being a disembodied voice on a phone in the same film.
To come full circle from his music video days, wouldn't it be fun to see three actors Fincher used there in one of his feature films? Why not cast Christopher Walken (Madonna's "Bad Girl"), Elijah Wood (Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl" when he was only 8!) or the egregiously underused Lesley Ann Warren (Aerosmith's "Janie's Got a Gun") in a future movie?
Finally...
We must dedicate this list to the woman who introduced us to one of our favorite directors. David Fincher famously built his visual rep on a series of gargantuan Madonna music videos (Fincher won an MTV Video Award for "Express Yourself" though the big M did not) before escaping to feature films.
Most people went to see Alien³ because it was the third in a franchise. I went to see it because I wanted to see if the man behind the frankly incredible images in Express Yourself, Oh Father,Vogue and Bad Girl had a feature career in him. He clearly did though most critics and audiences were not impressed. That movie needs a critical reevaluation because it was plain as day even then that he was already a cinematic wizard. My suspicion is that the shockingly nasty and merciless tone threw people off and he lost them in the opening shots by killing off Newt. It was always going to be roughly received, no matter how well made, coming after James Cameron's untoppable Aliens (only among the greatest action films ever made) but the tonal shift further chilled that inevitably cool response.
The second woman we reluctantly must dedicate this to is Paula Abdul since she's also a 4 time Fincher graduate. His videos for her aren't as good but he didn't have as much to work with, you know?
This series is about director's actor preferences but we'd like to note that Fincher, like most great auteurs reuses behind the scenes personell as well. Frequent collaborators include composer Howard Shore (3 films), editors James Haygood (3 films) and Angus Wall (4 films), cinematographer Jeff Cronenwerth (4 films), and production designer Donald Graham Burt (the past 4 films).
If you enjoyed this article, pass it on to your [ahem] Social Networks. Wink! Nudge! * *
Happy 62nd birthday to Olivia Newton-John. Rather than celebrate with the usual Xanadu (1980) fixation or the more universally beloved Grease (1978) how about a duet with John Travolta from their flop reunion Two of a Kind (1983)? The third of her movie soundtracks is largely forgotten. I can't remember anything about the film other than that there was some divine romantic comedy intervention involving heaven and resurrection. Heaven Can Wait was a big hit the year that Grease was the biggest hit of all, so maybe it was still in the atmosphere to influence Two of a Kind's dumb story.
The only scene I remember is one in which Olivia was in acting class and her acting teacher thought she was a terrible actress (uhhh....) but then all of sudden while playing a scene she saw a criminal in the theater -- context? -- and started screaming and the teacher marvelled at how genuine her emotions felt! My point is that it was a terrible movie.
Here's the love theme / duet for the movie. Why isn't it one of the schmaltz classics of the 1980s? Even if you don't know the song, marvel at the sheer volume of PINK everywhere you look. There's only one color in this rainbow. Travolta is so very breathy... was it all those fumes from Olivia's hairspray? They look so contagiously happy together.
Though Two of a Kind justly flopped, the movie did give ONJ her one last big hit after a whole slew of them in the 70s and early 80s. It was "Twist of Fate." Madonna was about to change the whole pop landscape and Olivia would suddenly be of the past.
I have a lot of issues with John Travolta as a celebrity but one thing I think is cool about him: even with the gazillions of dollars and the inexplicably enduring bankability, he doesn't shun his past. Here he is with Olivia just a couple of years ago singing "You're The One That I Want" for a Grease DVD party. So here's to longevity and loyalty to one's friends.
When was the last time you watched Grease? How many times have you seen it?
I've updated the foreign film pages to reflect some of our now known contenders: Iraq (Son of Babylon), The Netherlands (Tirza), Romania (If I Want to Whistle, I'll Whistle) and Taiwan (Monga) have all announced. South Korea has narrowed their list down to six films, though most suspect it'll be Lee Chang-Dong's Poetry in the end. Many countries have yet to announce but there's still time. We generally don't know the full list until sometime in October. And some of the submissions won't have even opened in their home countries yet. (Foreign language submissions have to have been released in their home countries between October 1st, 2009 through Sept 30th, 2010 to compete in this category for the 2010 film year.) UPDATE: if you're looking for the current race (2011) that's here.
Romania: if he wants to whistle, he'll whistle, okay?
Taiwan: if he wants to shoot, he'll shoot.
Many countries have yet to announce but there's still time. We generally don't know the full list until sometime in October. And some of the submissions won't have even opened in their home countries yet. (Foreign language submissions have to have been released in their home countries between October 1st, 2009 through Sept 30th, 2010 to be eligible in this category for the 2010 film year.)
So far in the competitive lineups we have two rough sets of twins: two dramas about young male criminals (Taiwan & Romania) and two journey films wherein an older person searches for their adult child with a young child helping them (Iran & The Netherlands). And yes, "Oscar already loves the Iran and Dutch entries sight unseen," he said sarcastically. This AMPAS branch just digs cross generational journeys. A lot. You know they do.
I wrote about the Taiwanese submission Monga very briefly over at Towleroad earlier this year because of some talk show incident wherein they asked the 20something leads, Mark Zhao and Ethan Ruan, to kiss. I can't imagine an American talk show asking Young Hollywood co-stars to kiss. Could you imagine the ruckus if the ladies from The View asked the Twilight boys to lip lock in order to get their trailer shown?
To quote Nomi Malone... "different places!"
Here are the popular boys singing "Tonight Tonight" from Monga (with clips from the movie). It appears to be the theme song though Wikipedia states differently saying that this cover of "Making Love Out of Nothing At All," the Air Supply classic, has that honor. ("!!!" and also "???")
I'll update more Oscar pages tomorrow. In the meantime, if you need more Oscar speculation check out All These Wonderful Things' list of documentary hopefuls. *
Box Office MojoThe Tourist with Depp & Jolie will be opening in 2010. Time to adjust those Oscar charts? Yeah, yeah. I'll try to start this weekend. Rope of Silicon mixes Inception music over Black Narcissus images for a 2010 trailer for the 1947 classic. Neato (if a bit spoilery) Mighty God King P.S.A: Fozzy vs. Pac-Man (?!) I Need My Fix pics from the premiere of The Switch. In a just world Juliette Lewis would be 1,000 times more famous than Jennifer Aniston. You know it's true. Dennis Cozzalio just turned 50 and celebrates with a funny post. (Mmmm, brains.) Go wish him a happy 1/2 century year! I mean it.
Camp BloodTrue Blood "Rolling Stone" cover now made extra gay! DListed Speaking of... Alexander Skarsgard cracks me up. So casual about his scorchingness. What would Daddy Stellan think of all of this? popbytes has my favorite reaction to this whole sockless news. How do you really feel about this "news" Jeremy? Quit hedging! Ginger Williams made nesting dolls of Golden Girls and Steel Magnolias. Wha...? The Entertainment Junkie remembers Lost in Translation and thinks Sofia Coppola's Oscar is a bit of a cheat (in a complimentary way!) BlogStage Jenelle meets Dennis Quaid. I love it when writers meeting their acting idols. Sweet.
Off Screen Tom Scott I love these warning labels to place on bad journalism. My favorite is the press release one. So many blogs are like that. Sigh. Though you can't really stick stickers on a blog. Can you? You wouldn't be able to see your screen when you click away! Just Jared Ricky Martin's memoir is called Me. That's all they could come up with?
And finally, for no reasons other than it made me laugh, excuse me, lol -- and I am the type that reads scifi/fantasy novels -- and I'm in a juvenile mood (sorry!) try this hilarious raunchy ode to sci-fi novelist. NSFW unless you're on headphones.
So I started that 10|25|50|75|100 series a month or two ago because I like a wide variety of years in my film blogging, but you have to restrain yourself somehow. You can't focus on all 100+ years of cinema at once! But yesterday on twitter WonderRobbie reminded me that it was the 30th anniversary of Xanadu today. Since y'all know I love the movie like crazy I figured a quick mention was in order. I've already written extensively about the movie, so let's just take a quick look at a few random progeny. It's had 30 years now to sink deep down into the DNA of pop culture.
Have you seen this parody which mixes the rollerskating musical with ... wait for it... Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby ? That's right. It definitely has its moments though video parodies that stretch over a few minutes, rarely go viral. It's gotta be short, don'cha know? There's an even longer parody staring peeps but... brevity is key for good movie humor. (Perfect example: Kill Bill in 1 minute.)
Now that YouTube has expanded the allowable upload length, even fewer people will restrain themselves. Ah well.
More? Here is sexgod Cheyenne Jackson, former Woody Allen regular Tony Roberts and the hilarious Kerry Butler doing "Don't Walk Away" from the excellent Broadway spoof.
Ms. Butler has actually made a habit of movie characters on stage. She was one of many replacement "Belle"s in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. She nailed "Penny Pingleton" in the original cast of Hairspray and was totally robbed of a Tony nomination. She then struggled a bit with Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors (but then, Ellen Greene owns that role so thoroughly one can only feel pity for anyone who dares approach it now). Finally, she was pure heaven when she essentially sent up Olivia Newton-John as "Kira" in the stage version of Xanadu. She won her first and very deserved Tony nomination for stretching out all those Aussie vowels to ridiculous length and singing her sparkly heart out.
You'd think more people would have covered the songs from the Xanadu soundtrack over the years given that the original screen musical, starring mostly the sounds of Olivia and Electric Light Orchestra spawned so many hit singles. But mostly I could only find evidence of the title song becoming a regular again a few years ago.
To your left is Sarah Blasko doing a gorgeous reworking of the tune for bonus tracks for "As Day Follows Night". To your right is Sharleen Spiteri doing a more traditional cover for her CD, "The Movie Songbook". Xanadu. Xanadu-oooh-oooh. Now we are here. In Xanadu.
And we can't let this go without ONJ's heavenly presence for exit music.
Can you rollerskate like a Greek muse... or do you fall flat on your ass like me? *
It might be the single greatest song of the 1980s. It went a little something like this...
"Let's exchange the experience"... whew. That dance might be the most hypnotic-erotic fully clothed one in any music video, yes?
Everything about this video and song (the latter of which was released in the UK 25 years ago today) is perfect. The song has been covered a gajillion times since its release though oddly, you don't here it much in the movies or on TV. The Kate Bush song that the filmed arts have latched onto and beaten like a dead horse is "This Woman's Work."
To say that Kate Bush is a musical genius is as redundant as saying that right at this moment you're reading this sentence. Many musicians after her were influenced (Tori Amos, Paula Cole, Björk... the list is long) but there will only ever be one Kate. For a super long time when anyone asked me what my favorite album of all time was I would say "Hounds of Love" without having to wring my hands too much over the potentially difficult question.
Was it the hair?
Back in the late 80s I wanted to see a Kate biopic with Mary Steenburgen playing her. And then in the 90s when the great Miranda Richardson starred in Kate's video project The Line, The Cross and the Curve I suddenly dreamt up a whole epic Kate movie again.
Daft English lasses!
Sadly no Kate Bush movie ever materialized and I'd since forgotten that I ever wanted one. But I do! I can even play "Symphony in Blue" on the piano, no joke.
Which pop stars do you most want to see with biopics? Which actress could do Kate justice today?
Next year @ the film experience I hope to look at shorts and DVDs more on account of easy access for all of you -- this year was so discouraging in how hard it was for anyone outside of NY & LA to see the new releases I wanted keep talking about. Maybe next year we shoot for more accessibility.
[soapbox] I can't be the only one that's concerned that the movies --particularly the awards hopefuls -- are veering further and further away from the direction of general pop culture which is all about instant access. Why do the movies keep withholding? --no wonder Oscar ratings keep sinking. I think it's a far more complex problem than "the public doesn't like serious films". I think it's more a problem of "the public likes these movies less and it's really hard to see them even if you're interested in them". After all, who cultivates interest in something they have extremely little access too? Not many people, that's who. Anyway.... [/soapbox]
Here's a look back at the best of music video (everyone's favorite short film genre) for 2008... the form was once dying but the web has started to resuscitate it. Like my best of television list this is hardly comprehensive... I'm sure I missed some goodies. But here's 10 I loved from the year (in fluid but vaguely preferential order)
10 Matt & Kim "DAYLIGHT" and 09 P!NK "So What" Because music videos should understand how to be fun. Is it just my imagination or is P!NK too modest what with the "I'm still a rock star" bit. Isn't she more than "still"... doesn't she get better all the damn time?
08 She & Him "WHY DO YOU LET ME STAY HERE" and 07 Janet Jackson "ROCK WITH U" Zooey Deschanel sings. She makes an adorable rock pixie even if her film career is getting fairly one note --I love this bit from a Yes Man review @ Tractor Facts
Blessed with those wide, striking, chocolate eyes, Deschanel's performance still feels out of sorts, as if she's staring into the abyss of her limited range.
Hee. And in other news Janet Jackson returns (even if it wasn't quite a "comeback") with a nifty one take video. I love that one take gimmick (see also Hitchcock's Rope)
06 Grace Jones "CORPORATE CANNIBAL" and 05 Madonna "4 MINUTES" I've featured both of these videos before and wrote about Madonna's extensively. I went a little crazy but she does that to me. The reaction to Grace Jones has been memorably divisive. Some people think this video is 'creepy and subpar' and others 'utterly astonishing'. But I think we can all agree that it's a good thing Grace is back to haunt us.
04 Radiohead "HOUSE OF CARDS" and 03 Gnarls Barkley "WHO'S GONNA SAVE MY SOUL" I used to occasionally be annoyed with videos that relied heavily on trippy visual effects or conceptual gimmicks (I'm not a fan, for example, of one of the most favored videos of all time "Sledgehammer" but now that so many mainstream artists view video-making as a toss off optional ad for their cds --even Madonna has gotten relatively haphazard about when she'll make them and how much effort gets put in -- conceptual and f/x videos are more thrilling... at least they still seem interested in the form.
02 The BPA "TOE JAM" and 01 Beyoncé SINGLE LADIES Choreography is still king (or queen as the case may be) to the music video. The Toe Jam video feels like a fun-loving lark but you know it was intricately planned work and it's a pleasure to watch. I'm not even a fan of Beyoncé (too disturbingly retrograde in her gender politics for me) but this video deserved all the mainstream attention it got --even as I wished they'd have been more upfront about their debt to Bob Fosse (maybe a "dedicated to" note at the end of the video, single lady?)
And yes I was killing time.
I know why you're here: le cinéma. The Year in Review proper begins tonight (or tomorrow morning?). It's always such a daunting task. Bear with me.
Who knew? This duet (with co-star Leon Lai) is called "You Understand My Love" from the upcoming bio on opera star Mei Lanfang
With the death of music video's prominence as a pop cultural force I had (almost) forgotten about this mode of music video making. Film your singer(s) in less than an hour in one plain setting... maybe with a wind machine. Accessorize the boredom with movie clips. Presto! A 3 minute commercial for your movie is born. Mei Lanfang is from director Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine, Temptress Moon, The Promise). I originally thought his latest would be China's submission to the Oscar but it's not being released until December and the Oscar submissions had to be released in their home country before September's end. Miramax will distribute the film in the US...eventually.
I wouldn't say I'm inordinately drawn to hookers on film, but I do have a thing for the robotic ones. Gigolo Joe (A.I. Artificial Intelligence) and Pris (Blade Runner) loom large in my movie memory bank. I thought of them both last night due to that lyric snippet headlined above from the electro-pop single "This Machine" by Michael Hensley. It doesn't matter what the tune is my friends, I will come up with accompanying cinematic imagery to go with it as I listen, even when it has its own video already. It's like a multiplex in my head whenever there's headphones in me ears.
I met Michael years ago online due to a shared Madonna obsession. He's been plugging away at a music career diligently ever since so I wanted to congratulate him on making his first music video and share it with you.
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