Though sometimes diffuse, this is an essential addition to any film lover’s library.
The renowned film scholar delivers a lively history of musicals beloved and forgotten.
“The calendar year of 1927 is considered to be the official year in which sound took hold,” writes Basinger (I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies, 2013, etc.), a rare instance of the birth of a genre. This follows a close argument, perhaps at too much length, over just what divides a musical, characterized by a “sudden musical rupture” in the storyline, from movies in which music is incidental. The author is generous in her inclusions, from films like Woodstock and Help! to obvious standouts such as The Philadelphia Story and South Pacific. Still, she notes, “A film is not a musical just because someone gets up and sings a song…or steps up and does a little jig.” Once the parsing is settled, Basinger digs deep into histories of the pioneers—Ernst Lubitsch, Rouben Mamoulian, Fred Astaire, and Busby Berkeley—and the talents who would follow, men and women such as Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews, Mitzi Gaynor, Vincente Minnelli, and Gene Kelly. One constant in Basinger’s narrative is that every few years, critics grimly announce that the movie musical is dead only to be gainsaid by some surprise arrival on the scene—Rocky Horror Picture Show, say, which “made fun of the genre, and combined it with horror, rock and roll, science fiction, and even a touch of porn” and did something altogether novel by converting the audience into performers alongside the folks on the big screen. Today, critics look at musicals a touch skeptically. As Basinger notes, though the recent La La Land was clearly a musical, it was studied not for its numbers but for its approach to social issues of gender and race, with Ryan Gosling starring as “a white man who saves jazz.” Still, it suggests that the musical might enjoy new life among millennial viewers.
Though sometimes diffuse, this is an essential addition to any film lover’s library.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-101-87406-6
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2019
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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