BP Movie Journal 1/12/17

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9 Responses

  1. Philip says:

    I thought the sound mix in the first song of La La Land was just my theater! Glad (I guess) to hear it’s in the movie itself.

  2. Darin says:

    Am I the only one who thinks that the fantasy sequence in LA LA LAND is from Gosling’s point of view? I mean he is playing the music, conducting the sequence. He arrives at a place of peace knowing he would have been happy either way and then lets her go. I don’t know, just a thought.

  3. Dan Roy says:

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  4. Scott Milliken says:

    The Pittsburgh suburb of Mount Lebanon is not pronounced like the country. Not sure if that’s what David was referring to, but it’s further evidence.

    • Steve B. says:

      The city of Lebanon, PA (between Harrisburg and Reading) is pronounced by locals with only two syllables. Leb’nin or Lep’nin. (My father’s side of my family is from there.)

  5. Ryan says:

    Interesting what Tyler was saying about the “bubble” stuff. My assumption was the knock on “liberal elites” was that we were living in a cultural bubble–unaware of “real America” or alternate beliefs, etc. I always found the entire notion to be absurd. Clearly a person in LA or NY exposed to far far more views and different cultures and people than a person in Kansas. But Tyler immediately went to an economic bubble, which definitely gave me pause and forced me to conclude they’re probably right. Democrats ignored that part entirely. Of course it’s completely beyond my comprehension why anyone would think the NY billionaire who never lacked for anything in his life and emblazons his name in gold on everything he owns gives a single solitary fuck about factory workers in Wisconsin.

  6. I suppose the Broadway melody sequence is very arguably out of place for Singing in the Rain, but it is like many flaws in many favorite movies, whose ill effects ebb over time. It actually didn’t bother me the first couple of times I saw the movie, then it did after someone pointed out how much of a digression it was for them, then it ebbed back into place. It helps that I would occasionally watch just that part as a little short film.

    Most of its incongruities were externally imposed. The big sequence at the end of An American in Paris was such a hit that Arthur Freed wanted to do another one, so it was a very last minute addition, and by the time they shot it, Donald O’Connor was already working on another picture. Also, Debbie Reynolds was intended to play Kelly’s dance partner, but she wasn’t good enough. Enter Cyd Charisse (three weeks after delivering a baby – now go watch her again!).

    So we have a 16 minute long sequence in an otherwise brisk movie of short scenes, and it’s missing two of the three main players. It’s supposed to be a lead-in for The Dancing Cavalier, but it does not end in any way suggesting someone getting a clunk on the head and entering a Victorian dream state. And no Jean Hagen? How could it not stick out.

    But for me, at least until I was made conscious of the idea that it didn’t belong, it flowed right into the film, its way made straight by the Beautiful Girl montage, which is just as much of a standout, but is blended into the narrative a little better. After that, Broadway Melody just felt like another such moment, when the film I was watching entered its internal films’ worlds.

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