Jamey Swartskinsey, Marco Garck, Rob Newman, Steven Yao
Dr. Drew Casper
CTCS-190
28th Jan. 2014
An Ode to Cinema: on Singin’ in the Rain
Singing in the rain is a simple and at the same time very profound movie. It is simple because it has a simple storyline of classic boy-meet-girl situation. The casts tend to use a corny, expressive, absurd and less elusive way of performing. It is simple because directors shows the magic and amazement of musicals directly and immediately to the audiences, with palpable movie language. Yet at the same time, you can see the profoundness of the movie by how the directors self-reflexively dissect cinema and motion pictures in the aspects of technology, business, and art form/culture/society. The charming effect of the musical numbers, the stage performance and cinematography that instill in the audiences’ sensation is way beyond the picture’s rather simple appearance. And so we as audiences are strongly touched and hooked by the utter beauty, magic and rhythm of sound and picture during the time the film goes over a brief history of the transition from silent pictures to talkies. And that’s probably why Singin in the Rain is the opening movie of our Introduction to Cinema class. Hence it poses the question: how is Singin’ in the Rain an insightful reflection of the film and cinema.
The story takes place in a fictional major Hollywood studio, Monumental Studio , and during the time when talkies gradually replace silent pictures. (very similar to the fictional Kinograph Studio in the Artist. Interestingly, the Artist commemorates and expressed some sort of melancholy towards the fading of silent movies) The major characters in the movie are actors, actresses, director and also the boss. Through the interactions between these characters, such as the relationship between Lina and Don, Don and Cosmo, and between boss and the rest of the characters, we see the power, jobs and positions within different types of people in Hollywood. Numerous descriptions of the studio landscape give audience a clairvoyance of what’s behind the pictures. This is the business aspect of cinema. One thing notable is that, the character of the boss is portrayed as neutral and slightly positive ( he promotes Kathy and shows a sense of hatred rather than indifference towards Lina when she tries to seize the credit of Kathy in the movie Dueling Cavalier) rather than the figure of a mercenary, egoistic, cold-blooded businessman, which in reality many directors and writers say so. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly also touched on the technology part of cinematic arts. Sound recording and motion pictures with sound is introduced to the boss as a technology in the movie. The farcical and hilarious turmoil during the production of Dueling Cavalier generally demonstrates the early evolution of the talkies.
Aside from the general exhibiting of film business and technology, Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen shows the audiences the magical, emotionally touching and dramatic aspect of cinema, which is cinema as an art/culture form. One of the greatest features of Singin in the Rain is its references of the earlier musical shorts in its own musical numbers. The one that we watched is Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove (1934), released by MGM. This musical short consists of several separate performances, including vaudeville, fashion show, dancing and singing. This is referenced in the musical number “Beautiful Girl”. The original one is dull and quite ceremonial. Every show follows a kind of sequence. The camera movements and angels are monotonous. However, the music is extraordinary and the clothing design is very stylistic. “ Beautiful Girl”, on the other side, fuses all the performances into one four-minute show. By a series of surrealistic and dreamy montage the number “Beautiful Girl” is introduced. A vaudevillian accompanied with a band of girl dancers enters the picture. In the middle of the number enters the fashion show. Unlike the original musical short, there are no motions of the models and no camera switch or movements involved. Models dressed in all kinds of stylistically designed dresses stand still on the stage in different gestures. The background is yellowish white. We see walls on two sides of the stage functioned as a frame which confine the space for the models as if we are watching a slide show of fashion photographs. The musical concludes with the flower shape formation of the dancing band. “Beautiful Girl” dramatizes and redesigns the original musical short version, turns the stage performance into cinematic art. In addition, the movie’s signature number, “Singin in the Rain” further shows the romantic and dreamy charm of musical and “Broadway Melody” blends the social culture into the picture. All the musical numbers in the movie together demonstrate the art/culture aspect of cinematic art, and that is the most amazing part.
Singin’ in the Rain is a celebration, a commemoration of motion pictures, especially the musical genre. It encompasses all the aspects of cinema, and shows them to the population in the simplest, most comprehensive, yet most touching way. The directors Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen instill all the beauty, charm, and grace of musicals in the characters of Don and Kathy. And as Don falls in love with Kathy in the end, we the audiences fall in love with the wonderful art called cinema.
The story takes place in a fictional major Hollywood studio, Monumental Studio , and during the time when talkies gradually replace silent pictures. (very similar to the fictional Kinograph Studio in the Artist. Interestingly, the Artist commemorates and expressed some sort of melancholy towards the fading of silent movies) The major characters in the movie are actors, actresses, director and also the boss. Through the interactions between these characters, such as the relationship between Lina and Don, Don and Cosmo, and between boss and the rest of the characters, we see the power, jobs and positions within different types of people in Hollywood. Numerous descriptions of the studio landscape give audience a clairvoyance of what’s behind the pictures. This is the business aspect of cinema. One thing notable is that, the character of the boss is portrayed as neutral and slightly positive ( he promotes Kathy and shows a sense of hatred rather than indifference towards Lina when she tries to seize the credit of Kathy in the movie Dueling Cavalier) rather than the figure of a mercenary, egoistic, cold-blooded businessman, which in reality many directors and writers say so. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly also touched on the technology part of cinematic arts. Sound recording and motion pictures with sound is introduced to the boss as a technology in the movie. The farcical and hilarious turmoil during the production of Dueling Cavalier generally demonstrates the early evolution of the talkies.
Aside from the general exhibiting of film business and technology, Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen shows the audiences the magical, emotionally touching and dramatic aspect of cinema, which is cinema as an art/culture form. One of the greatest features of Singin in the Rain is its references of the earlier musical shorts in its own musical numbers. The one that we watched is Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove (1934), released by MGM. This musical short consists of several separate performances, including vaudeville, fashion show, dancing and singing. This is referenced in the musical number “Beautiful Girl”. The original one is dull and quite ceremonial. Every show follows a kind of sequence. The camera movements and angels are monotonous. However, the music is extraordinary and the clothing design is very stylistic. “ Beautiful Girl”, on the other side, fuses all the performances into one four-minute show. By a series of surrealistic and dreamy montage the number “Beautiful Girl” is introduced. A vaudevillian accompanied with a band of girl dancers enters the picture. In the middle of the number enters the fashion show. Unlike the original musical short, there are no motions of the models and no camera switch or movements involved. Models dressed in all kinds of stylistically designed dresses stand still on the stage in different gestures. The background is yellowish white. We see walls on two sides of the stage functioned as a frame which confine the space for the models as if we are watching a slide show of fashion photographs. The musical concludes with the flower shape formation of the dancing band. “Beautiful Girl” dramatizes and redesigns the original musical short version, turns the stage performance into cinematic art. In addition, the movie’s signature number, “Singin in the Rain” further shows the romantic and dreamy charm of musical and “Broadway Melody” blends the social culture into the picture. All the musical numbers in the movie together demonstrate the art/culture aspect of cinematic art, and that is the most amazing part.
Singin’ in the Rain is a celebration, a commemoration of motion pictures, especially the musical genre. It encompasses all the aspects of cinema, and shows them to the population in the simplest, most comprehensive, yet most touching way. The directors Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen instill all the beauty, charm, and grace of musicals in the characters of Don and Kathy. And as Don falls in love with Kathy in the end, we the audiences fall in love with the wonderful art called cinema.
Link to Star Night at Cocoanut Grove: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=star%20night%20at%20the%20cocoanut%20grove%20(1934)&sm=3
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