Blogging in the Rain

Victoria Stein and Isabella Healy

Monday, January 27^th, 2014

Intro to Cinema Discussion

       Singing in the Rain, directed by Dan Walkup, is a film that is essential to watch in order to understand the false realities and complex elements that incorporated into the filmmaking process. It was important to start the semester with watching Singing in the Rain because the film depicts the Hollywood lifestyle. The film also leaves us with an understanding that film, like any other medium, is constantly evolving and changing along with time and culture; an example being when Lina Lamont was basically ostracized from the movies when sound came into play and her voice could not be used because it was not right for the screen. The films overall composition is also so precisely done, such as the performance style and visual design, that it leaves us with the understanding that a good film has much to dissect and to analyze. While following the creative romance of Don Lockwood, we also get a behind the scene glimpse into the making of Hollywood movies and what the business is like; like when we got an inside look at the character working intensely on creating The Dancing Cavalier. The films encapsulates what Professor Drew Casper told us on the first day of class regarding film as a technology, business, and art.

       Singing in the Rain also gives us a deeper look at what the different kinds of cinema styles are and how those styles are portrayed. This movie in particular reveals Hollywood’s classical realism where the world is portrayed as homogenous, larger-than-life, and idealized. In the first lecture Casper discusses how film is not always entertainment nor is it always art. Entertainment and art are entirely separate from each other. All art is entertainment but not all entertainment is art and we see this in the movie that shows all different styles of entertainment; musical dance numbers, passionate love scenes, and the glamour of what it means to be in Hollywood. Cosmo’s character even sings about not all entertainment being art in his musical number “Make Em’ Laugh” where he is basically implying that even if you have nothing worth showing, at least try to entertain your audience through childish humor and quirky movement.

       The song we watched during last weeks discussion was titled, “Be a Clown” which appeared in the 1948 film The Pirate by Vincente Minnelli.  We saw a surfeit of similarities between this song and “Make Em’ Laugh.” Both songs are in scenes where the actors are filmed with dramatized gestures, silly, puppet-like movements, and moving about entire space in the scene in order to emphasize the point of in order to entertain an audience successfully, you have to “ham it up.” The similarities in both songs make the scenes more of a performance than a dream because performing used to be about the extreme gestures and over-the-top movement, which is exactly what the scenes entail. The most noticeable difference in the two songs is in “Be a Clown” you see a trio of performers dancing and singing for a small audience whereas in “Make Em’ Laugh” you see one actor performing for his friend. Aesthetically, the films were again quite similar; they use the same film stock, similar camera movements, painted scenery, no special effects, and again, very similar performance styles where actors gestures are goofy yet effective.

       Overall, we enjoyed “Make Em’ Laugh” more because the way the scene was filmed seemed more like a typical, cinematic film. In Singing in the Rain the song is updated, the production is more elaborate, and the scene shows what filmmaking is all about: the distinct use of certain colors, lighting, costumes, set design, etc. We felt like we were watching a play versus a movie during the other musical sequence from The Pirate. Singing in the Rain most likely recycles music in order to make everything more spectacular and to attract a larger audience of people who are already familiar with the music. The film reemphasizes the point that performance and stylization is everything in entertainment; without strong stage/camera presence and strategic use of other visual components, it is very difficult to move or entertain an audience. After watching Singing in the Rain we now have a better understanding of the tedious yet exciting process of making movies.