Friday, May 30, 2014

Broadway Melody: 1928/1929

Expecting a full-on musical, Broadway Melody came as a bit of a surprise for me. When I watch a musical, I   think that the performers should be singing frequently, expressing their thoughts through song. But according to Encyclopedia Britannica, a musical is "motion picture consisting of a plot integrating musical numbers", which suggests that any movie with music within the plot is a musical. Broadway Melody includes some musical numbers, but the actors do not use song to express their thoughts. Instead, the music is part of the show within the show.

In Broadway Melody, the story focuses on Eddie and the Mahoney Sisters and their roles in a variety show being performed on Broadway. Eddie writes a song called "Broadway Melody", making a name for himself in the Broadway community. The film starts with Eddie performing this song in a room of musicians and writers; Eddie's new song captures everyone's attention. He is, in a sense, a new star, and with that new-found fame, Eddie tries to influence the producer of the variety show that focuses on his song. Eddie encourages the show's producer to see the Mahoney Sisters and cast them in the show. The Mahoney Sisters, Hank and Queenie, fail their audition but manage to acquire the role through Queenie's looks. The film becomes fairly stereotypical at this point, with the plain, outspoken sister Hank struggling in her place in the show while Queenie begins to rise to stardom with her looks (although Queenie is reluctant to take on this role as a star).

As the show progresses, the film's story becomes more predictable. Eddie, who is engaged to Hank, begins to fall for Queenie. Another producer of the variety show, Jacques Wariner, woos Queenie and eventually wants something from her in return--scandal alert! While the love triangle became more intense, I became less interested in the film. At one point, I wondered aloud what else was up for an Oscar in 1928/1929 since this film didn't seem nearly as Oscar-worthy as Wings (or, more recently, 2010's The King's Speech).

The film itself was just okay. I don't really have a better word for it. I enjoyed the behind the scenes aspect of Broadway showcased in the film--bickering between actors and stagehands--but as for the characters and story, the film was lacking. Hank is endearing in her own way; she's determined to do what's right for Queenie and Eddie, putting their needs before her own, but her extreme love seems too exaggerated, too intense, to be real. Although the film was only 100 minutes, I found myself at 50 minutes in wondering just how  much was really left.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Wings: 1927/1928

Starting my movie watching with a silent movie was easier than I had anticipated. I had never watched a full silent movie before. The closest experience I'd had to a silent film was a foreign film--both require the viewer to pay complete attention to the screen. With other movies, if I need a snack or have to reply to a text, I don't bother pausing the movie, but I had to pause Wings because missing just a few minutes might mean missing a text screen, and without those, I didn't have a full understanding of the storyline.

I will say that I was surprised by how much I could understand just from the music and the actors. The acting was definitely exaggerated: flailing arms, huge screens, dramatic crying. But what is considered over the top in present day film seems right at home in the silent film era. As a viewer, I needed the actors to exaggerate so that I understood how they felt without dialogue. What surprised me about the film the most, though, was how little narration and dialogue I was given. The text slides were sporadic, some with the one response of "OK" from Jack, who is the hero of the film. Despite these limited text slides, I could follow the storyline because of the actors and the detailed sets.

Wings is set during WWI. Jack and Mary are neighbors, and as the girl next door, Mary epitomizes wholesomeness. And naturally, she has a crush on her cute neighbor who is oblivious and thinks of Mary as a sister. Mary has to watch her crush fall for another girl, Sylvia. To further complicate the matter, Sylvia is in love with David, the rich guy. Fortunately for Sylvia, David returns her feelings. As the men leave for war, both take tokens as good luck charms: Jack takes the locket with Sylvia's picture (which was intended for David) and David takes a childhood toy.

As the movie progresses, the men start out as foes at boot camp, resolve their differences after a showdown, and bond as brothers. The plot here seems somewhat formulaic, but the ending is surprising. I figured this movie would end with the heroes returning home, matched up with the girl who is right for them. The actual ending has a tragic element I had not anticipated (but I won't spoil it for you). The shots of the war and the battle scenes between the planes are definitely impressive for the time period. The director and cinematographer did some amazing work filming the planes in motion and battling in the French sky.

The movie is long (144 minutes), but it's worth watching if you're interested in experiencing a silent film, watching a love story set during WWI, and seeing naked men's butts (seriously...full back nudity when Jack and David check in for their physicals prior to boot camp...I didn't realize that type of nudity was acceptable in film during this time).

Up next: The Broadway Melody

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Why I'm Watching the Academy Award Winners

A month ago, I stumbled upon E Weekly's Sirius XM channel, and my commute home became filled with pop culture, a fairly positive experience when compared to listening to the BBC and hearing about world conflicts. Typically, I listen to the show News and Notes on E Weekly, and on this show, one of the hosts (Julia) is watching Entertainment Weekly's 100 Greatest Movies of All-Time. She made a New Year's resolution to do this, and I thought, "hey, that's a really good idea to have an excuse to watch movies." Being a working parent, I don't have much time left in my day to watch movies, but ever since middle school, I've loved the power of film. Transporting myself to another world to view other people's stories is a cathartic escape from life.

So I began thinking about Julia's resolution--maybe this was something I should do. But then the question was how would I select movies to watch? I didn't want to copy Julia (plus there are horror movies on that list and I don't do horror movies...at all), and I didn't want to randomly select movies. I knew if I did that, I wouldn't push myself to watch something new. After thinking about it for a few days, I realized that the Academy Awards was the solution. My goal is to watch all the movies that have been awarded Best Picture by the Academy Awards, beginning in 1927/1928 with Wings, the only silent film ever awarded the Oscar for Best Picture. And I added the idea of blogging to this project because if I was going to watch all these movies, I wanted to have some way to share my experience with others. We'll see how this experiment goes.