Sat throught his on TCM yesterday. I was in bed with a cold. I could not believe how ludicrous this film was. Awful songs, ludicrous story and very bad acting. The sets and art direction were the work of a 4 year old. I know a lot of Minnelli's films are 'camp', but this was not camp but sheer infantile. Lurid and ludicrous. Lucille bremer singing Angel was one of the most horrifying things I have ever seen!
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Boy, you must've been REALLY sick. This sadly forgotten film is one of
me all-time favorites, although I can see why it failed. It's fantasy
element is pretty ripe and many have issues with Bremer marrying the
guy who attempted to steal everything from her. But I feel the gorgeous
photography, Minnelli's use of color and Astaire's dancing fabulous.
I also love Frank Morgan. A most unusual musical and the Astaire/Bremer
"Coffee Time" number is one of the greatest ever committed to film.
As for "camp", that's an insult to Minnelli and way off the mark. "Camp"
is John Waters the the '60s Tv show "Batman." While not every
Minnelli film is a classic, he never slid into camp. Learn the meaning
of the word, please.
You're sicker than you think.
Nobody really knows what "camp" is, it's just a word people use to describe a feeling they get, because they want to talk about the feeling as if it was a property of the art they're enjoying rather than as part of their emotional makeup. A lot of Minnelli's work here in this film is surreal I guess you could say, and whether it's campy or gorgeous just depends on the person's reaction to it, how seriously they're taking it.
I do think it's clear that in this movie Minnelli is depicting the cinematic world in a way that's far removed from reality. "Patria" isn't even an imitation of or a stand-in for a real Latin American country; it's an idealized dream environment that the Astaire character has stepped into along with us. The line between the dream sequence and the real sequences is deliberately blurred to enhance this effect. It's very similar to what Minnelli did in "The Pirate", which I think is a better film for a lot of reasons (not the least of which is Garland's obvious superiority to Bremer as a musical talent), or in "Cabin in the Sky." In all these cases, people like to compare Minnelli's style to something like "The Wizard of Oz", but there's a very important difference -- Minnelli isn't even interested in showing us Kansas. He sees the film itself as a dream -- not an interpretation of a dream grounded in reality, but as the stuff of the dream itself. That's what comes out really clearly right away in his first movie, "Cabin in the Sky." The entire universe of a lot of his films is a dream world. Some people might interpret that as "camp" just because it doesn't conform to literal reality as we tend to interpret it in waking life.
Did I not love him, Cooch? MY OWN FLESH I DIDN'T LOVE BETTER!!! But he had to say 'Nooooooooo'
Well said!
Celebrating 70 years over the rainbow!
I beg to differ. Camp IS a word. And it is missused very, very often.
This film is not campy. It surreal.
Celebrating 70 years over the rainbow!
while its not the worst film i've ever seen i now understand why its so hard to find. for an astaire musical it falls short of the mark, not enough of him and not enough dancing either
I've danced with you, I'm never gonna dance again - Lucky to Penny in Swingtime, 1936
Who said camp isn't a word?
"The value of an idea has nothing to do with the honesty of the man expressing it."--Oscar Wilde
Not me....
Camp (Wictionary) "Theatrical; making exaggerated gestures."
(among several other possibles)
"Theatrical" or "making exaggerated gestures" is camp... so does that imply that most of the films that came out before the '50s are considered camp?
"Why do you find it so hard to believe?"
"Why do you find it so easy?"
"It's never BEEN easy!"