Thursday, May 20, 2004
"Why do you want to dance?"
"Why do you want to live?"
"I don't know exactly why... I must."
"That's my answer too."
Just quoting a conversation I had with a friend the other day. If there is one thing in this world that I'm "about" it is dance. Just kidding. Nor is it dialogue from the Jessica Alba movie HONEY. These words come from an amazing movie called THE RED SHOES, which I finally watched last night, and I thought them perfect to begin a brief discussion of some films I happened to watch, oddly enough all about dance, in the same week. I love those quoted words. There is such a passion to them whereby life IS dancing. I can relate being that watching films and listening to music are life to me. Along with THE RED SHOES I watched THE BANDWAGON and a documentary about experimental filmmaker Maya Deren.
I first saw the work of Maya Deren when I was a film student at UC Santa Barbara. It must have been in my experimental film class that I saw her first film, MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON. It was made in the forties and it is literally like watching a dream on film. This documentary was interesting to me because I was able to see clips from her other films that I only had read about as a student. Many of her later films focus on dance and she was able to truly use film to elaborate on her views of the dance medium. She investigates movement and ritual through space and time by her editing and camera movements. I can't do her films justice through my words; you really just need to see them.
THE BANDWAGON and THE RED SHOES both fall into a category I would refer to as "hey, let's put on a show" type musicals. I actually didn't watch all of THE BANDWAGON, just the ending, but I have seen the whole thing before. It stars Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse and towards the end of the film there is a great film noir type dance number. In the film this sequence is taking place during a show on a stage with an audience watching. What I love, and THE RED SHOES also does this, is that the sequence is purely filmic. What you see couldn't possibly be happening on a live stage. It is as if Maya Deren's film techniques have now taken over. Time and space become manipulated as Fred and Cyd dance. The set design is amazing as is the color in the film. Cyd Charisse is amazing as well. How beautiful can someone look? In this dance sequence she plays a femme fatale and she is simply stunning.
THE RED SHOES was directed by Michael Powell. I have seen three other films by him, I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING!, BLACK NARCISSUS, and PEEPING TOM. I recommend that you see any of his films. BLACK NARCISSUS and The RED SHOES have some of the most amazing examples of cinematography that I have ever seen. The color in THE RED SHOES is mind blowing and there is a shot of someone running down a circular flight of stairs that I found to be really impressive. Much of THE RED SHOES deals with a ballet troupe putting on a ballet of the same name and the plot of the film mirrors that of the ballet and the words I quoted at the beginning also bear relevance. As in THE BANDWAGON there is a dance sequence which explodes with all the possibilities of film technique. As I said before, the use of color is quite stunning. It is color which you do not see in films anymore. I have to believe that the recent MOULIN ROUGE was very much influenced by this film. I'm happy that I finally got around to seeing it. Another thing that makes me happy is knowing that there are still more great things out in the world to see and hear that I am yet unaware of.
"Why do you want to live?"
"I don't know exactly why... I must."
"That's my answer too."
Just quoting a conversation I had with a friend the other day. If there is one thing in this world that I'm "about" it is dance. Just kidding. Nor is it dialogue from the Jessica Alba movie HONEY. These words come from an amazing movie called THE RED SHOES, which I finally watched last night, and I thought them perfect to begin a brief discussion of some films I happened to watch, oddly enough all about dance, in the same week. I love those quoted words. There is such a passion to them whereby life IS dancing. I can relate being that watching films and listening to music are life to me. Along with THE RED SHOES I watched THE BANDWAGON and a documentary about experimental filmmaker Maya Deren.
I first saw the work of Maya Deren when I was a film student at UC Santa Barbara. It must have been in my experimental film class that I saw her first film, MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON. It was made in the forties and it is literally like watching a dream on film. This documentary was interesting to me because I was able to see clips from her other films that I only had read about as a student. Many of her later films focus on dance and she was able to truly use film to elaborate on her views of the dance medium. She investigates movement and ritual through space and time by her editing and camera movements. I can't do her films justice through my words; you really just need to see them.
THE BANDWAGON and THE RED SHOES both fall into a category I would refer to as "hey, let's put on a show" type musicals. I actually didn't watch all of THE BANDWAGON, just the ending, but I have seen the whole thing before. It stars Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse and towards the end of the film there is a great film noir type dance number. In the film this sequence is taking place during a show on a stage with an audience watching. What I love, and THE RED SHOES also does this, is that the sequence is purely filmic. What you see couldn't possibly be happening on a live stage. It is as if Maya Deren's film techniques have now taken over. Time and space become manipulated as Fred and Cyd dance. The set design is amazing as is the color in the film. Cyd Charisse is amazing as well. How beautiful can someone look? In this dance sequence she plays a femme fatale and she is simply stunning.
THE RED SHOES was directed by Michael Powell. I have seen three other films by him, I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING!, BLACK NARCISSUS, and PEEPING TOM. I recommend that you see any of his films. BLACK NARCISSUS and The RED SHOES have some of the most amazing examples of cinematography that I have ever seen. The color in THE RED SHOES is mind blowing and there is a shot of someone running down a circular flight of stairs that I found to be really impressive. Much of THE RED SHOES deals with a ballet troupe putting on a ballet of the same name and the plot of the film mirrors that of the ballet and the words I quoted at the beginning also bear relevance. As in THE BANDWAGON there is a dance sequence which explodes with all the possibilities of film technique. As I said before, the use of color is quite stunning. It is color which you do not see in films anymore. I have to believe that the recent MOULIN ROUGE was very much influenced by this film. I'm happy that I finally got around to seeing it. Another thing that makes me happy is knowing that there are still more great things out in the world to see and hear that I am yet unaware of.
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