It makes the sets a little claustrophobic, I agree, but in those days so many of the big musicals were filmed that way. Look at Camelot: they do a whole song in a "forest" that's a few trees against a wall. Mary Poppins has the same feel. Well what can you do? That was the norm back then.
I could be wrong but do the obvious stage type sets have anything to do with the fact that many musicals, including this one, were first stage plays in theaters on Broadway or wherever? Viewers of My Fair Lady as a stage play would have been accustomed to the "stage set" look of the scenes and might actually have expected them in the film version, as opposed to more authentic outdoor backgrounds. I assume this was a big budget movie so likely not a cost issue.
share[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
Many, many films from the Studio era (of which MFL was the last gasp) had a 'soundstage' look and feel to them, because that's where they were filmed, and this doesn't particularly have a negative effect on our enjoyment of them. What MFL has always lacked for me is air - the interior of Henry Higgins' house is stuffy by necessity and design, but the outdoor scenes - even Ascot - have a vacuum-like feel to them that almost makes me struggle to breathe as I watch. I don't know any other way to describe it.
"'Nature,' Mr. Allnut, is what we are put here to rrrrrriiiiise above!"
[deleted]
There are many "real" exteriors in CAROUSEL, SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, WEST SIDE STORY and THE MUSIC MAN. But reality is often juxtaposed with soundstage settings within the same scene in all these films. Even ON THE TOWN, the granddaddy of "reality" exteriors in musicals, follows its spectacular opening with a patently false soundstage scene.
"We're fighting for this woman's honor, which is more than she ever did."
[deleted]
I have to agree with many of the others here. It's a musical, and the grass roots of musicals is theatre, where they put outdoors indoors all the time, so it's only natural that they would do things a similar way in My Fair Lady, even though they didn't have to. Even the way people were placed and oriented was like that of a theatre production :)
shareEven if they HAD filmed some outdoor shots, that "stuffy" feeling might still be there. Most of MFL takes place in Henry Higgins' house. And if not his house, then Mrs. Higgins' house, or the ballroom. You can't move the action outdoors or to other places without deviating from the stage musical in some significant-and possibly risky way.
If you've seen the original My Fair Lady, "Pygmalion" on film, you'll find that it utilizes most of the same places and locations MFL uses. Actually, the "Ascot" sequence takes place at Mrs. Higgins' house! You'd think the feeling would be even stuffier, but it's actually not. I think the main reason is the film is much shorter.