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Movie Reviews: Getting Vocal
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Dancer in the Dark (dir. Lars von Trier, 2001) - Proof that an actress and director can work together and create mind-blowing film art.despite the fact that neither one of them saw or spoke to the other unless it was while on the set of the film.
Reportedly, lovely songbird-turned-actress, Bjork, became so distraught at one point midway through the shooting that she simply left for three days, threatening to close down the whole production. And there was nothing that legendary Danish film director, Lars von Trier - at times known for his distaste for actors, believing that they were nothing more than necessary evils to the film medium - could do about it.
Thankfully, one of the film's producers stepped in and had the two kiss and make-up enough for the film to be shot.
What ensues is proof that a musical - and a devastatingly serious and somber one, at that - could be made and people would see it, even in the year 2001.
Bjork, in her first and only lead role, gives the type of raw and honest and uninhibited performance that some actors work their whole lives to get to. Amazingly, yet somehow not entirely surprisingly, she one the Best Female Performance award at Cannes, but didn't even garner so much as a nomination for an Oscar.
The Last Waltz (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1978) - Still one of the better and yet lesser known of the Scorsese films, 'The Last Waltz' is a documentary of The Band's final concert, performed at the Winterland in San Francisco.
Scorsese does much of the camera work himself, refreshingly opting to simply show the band members and what they do best instead of trying to find some artistic way in which to film a rock concert. It's the musicians and not the filmmaker who matters here and Scorsese realizes it.
The concert is interspersed with interview footage of the five members as well as short takes from other artists like Bob Dylan (who discovered them when he hired them to be his back-up band - see 'The Basement Tapes'), Eric Clapton (who accepts a guitar duel with Band member Robbie Robertson at one point), Neil Young and Emmylou Harris.
This is a timeless document of a band (The Band, if you will) at the height of their success and excess, brought together to do it all one last time. We should all be thankful that Scorsese has made it possible for us to see it again and again.
All That Jazz (dir. Bob Fosse, 1979) - As unlikely a hit as this may seem, Bob Fosse ('Cabaret', 'Damn Yankees!'), directs and choreographs a musical about himself as a.well, a drug-addled, drunken, womanizing director and choreographer.
An even more unlikely element is the casting of Roy Scheider (yes, THE Roy Scheider of 'Jaws' fame) as the not-so-fictional character of Joe Gideon - a semi-schizo, thinly veiled Bacchanalian re-creation of Fosse (think Jim Morrison meets Hedwig, minus the drag).
One of the most underrated and over-looked actresses of all time, Jessica Lange, gives a heartbreaking performance as Gideon's guardian angel and wife of his dreams.
Fosse truly made a masterpiece with this groundbreaking film. Without it, a movie like 'Chicago' would never have gotten off the stage and onto the screen.
When he's not out on the lake with his Pocket Fisherman, can be found watching movies at Clinton Street Theater.
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