One: Could this film's opening have been an inspiration for the syncopated-sound-effects opening of Delicatessen?
The other: I happened to catch The Smiling Lieutenant not long before re-seeing Love Me Tonight. The former, of course, is Lubitsch, but in it Chavalier's way way way more credible a leading man. He's fallible, likeable. Even when he sings, he's not the mimicry of himself that he seems here. How sad to see him turning into what Pepe le Pew justly parodied.
fg
The rythmic opening of "Love Me Tonight" was first used by Mamoulian in the stage version of "Porgy" and again in the opera "Porgy and Bess." "Delicatessen" was referencing any of those prior uses.
shareThe opening sequence could also well have inspired Lionel Bart's Who Will Buy in Oliver.
shareAn earlier film, Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, uses the rhythm of the city (including its gradual awakening at the beginning of the day) to set the mood -- even though it's a silent picture!
shareAnd so did "The man with a movie camera" by Dziga Vertov... That was a time in which such "city symphonies" became popular, Mamoulian though was the first to do that using sound for making a truly musical film.
shareAnd so did "The man with a movie camera" by Dziga Vertov... That was a time in which such "city symphonies" became popular, Mamoulian though was the first to do that using sound for making a truly musical film.
You've added to my film education there. Thanks for telling about that.
Gershwin also attempted this around the same time, I believe for the film "Delicious". The song was known as "Symphony in Rivets" and eventually it was modified into the "Second Rhapsody."
Did I not love him, Cooch? MY OWN FLESH I DIDN'T LOVE BETTER!!! But he had to say 'Nooooooooo'
[deleted]