baracine

As a fan of Petula Clark, this was a great occasion for me, especially since I had never been exposed to this blockbuster musical with its heart in the right place from 1968 (the year the movies died as far as I'm concerned). The DVD came out in a package of "Classic musicals from Broadway to Hollywood" (WB) which also includes "The Bells Are Ringing", "Brigadoon" New widecreen transfer, "The Bandwagon" 2-disc set and "Easter Parade" 2-disc set.

IMDb's page: http://imdb.com/title/tt0062974/combined

I found the play it's based on about an Irishman (Fred Astaire) and his nubile daughter (Clark) moving to the American South, trailed by a leprechaun (Tommy Steele) and encountering - gulp - racist attitudes, a bit naive, yes, but I think it was pulled off with great originality and vigour in the manner of "A Midsummer's Night Dream" fantasy, which makes everything quite acceptable. What really bowled me over though was the visual aspect, thanks in large part to Coppola's input. This is certainly one of the last widescreen Technicolor musical spectacles with all the stops pulled to ever grace your local theatre and I loved every atmospheric, explosive, romantic minute of it, expecially the duets between Pet Clark and Don Francks, a truly original song stylist.

Coppola's commentary is candid and reveals a lot about the nervousness of a young man tackling his first big project.

In June of 2004, Pet Clark was in Toronto BTW and Don Francks came out of the rafters - dessed as a hippie, no less - to sing a duet with her. It was an incredible occasion as - without rehearsal - they managed to recreate an impeccable rendition of "That Ol' Devil Moon" (from the film).

The reviews are taking their sweet time coming in on this DVD. Any thoughts?

bboisvert

I'm about halfway through the commentary and he is definitely candid... he spends about as much time talking about missteps that he made than he does talking about other aspects.

He points out that he would have edited this down alot today to make it tighter... something I definitely agree with. (There's not enough material here to sustain a 2.5 hour movie.)

He seems happy with his decision to 'modernize' the material for a late 1960s audience, but that's where we disagree. He calls the original 1940s production "dated", but I think that his additions date the movie version a lot more. Whereas the original production was more "timeless".


Ultimately, I've never been a huge fan of the film. But the commentary is very interesting (especially for Coppola fans), so this is worth a rental at least.

whaaat

Yeah, this should probably be in DVD Talk.

baracine

I think Coppola is being too hard on himself. His film did things Hollywood musicals had almost never done, such as the "vignette" approach to songs, which is partly inspired by the Richard Lester Beatles films and partly from the "Old Man River" song in James Whale's "Show Boat" (1934). A fine example of this is the "Begat" number. But whatever Coppola's inspiration, this is a style that was to inspire all the MTV videos to follow and almost all of the very few film musicals that followed (yes, even "Moulin Rouge", which I hate).

And there's is so much good stuff in this film, I'm glad I don't have to decide where it "should" be cut. The large picture is that the film is a complete evening' s theatrical entertainment, warts and all, with most of the songs from the original Broadway production miraculously intact and orchestrated in a way that doesn't distract from their original intent but makes them sound like they should have been on the sixties hit parade. And thank God they didn't alter the lyrics, which would surely be done today.

The multi-channel music blends wonderfully with the images and many of the production numbers deserve to be anthologized and cherished forever.

I like the use of the wide screen. I like the outdoor scenes that give you a real sense of being there (like Pet and Fred arriving in the deserted village). I like the audacity of the train sequence and of the POV camera. I like the staging segues from musical numbers to dialogue, which are really elegant (e.g.: Tommy Tune disappearing in the well while Don Francks comes up the hill). I like the way the different times of day are shot (morning, noon, late afternoon). I even like the "artificiality" of the night scenes, that wonderful forest set from "Camelot" and what Coppola has done with it, even if all he can think about is how often the sod had to be replaced and how slippery the grass was.

And, of course, Petula Clark has never looked better on screen and has never had such an occasion to "shine" in an American film and show off the acting skills she had been using for some 25-odd years in England, ever since she was a child star, opposite such luminaries as Alec Guinness and Noel Coward.

Somebody pinch me... There's nothing I don't like about this film!

marty888

Another big for this - it is pure magic (no pun intended). I've always thought it was one of the best uses of widescreen, and seeing it again simply reconfirms my thoughts on that.

(I haven't listened to the commentary yet, but everyone's comments make me anticipate it even more!)