Sunday 31 January 2010

Art for Art's Sake

Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

"When (500) Days of Summer actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt gamely attempted to re-create Donald O’Connor’s unforgettable walk-on-walls dance sequence for “Make ’Em Laugh” on Saturday Night Live last year, he wound up looking like he might need an E.M.T. during the commercial break. But his desire to perform that particular number—on live network TV, no less—demonstrated just how influential Singin’ in the Rain remains 58 years after its theatrical release. As it turns out, the stars of this Stanley Donen–directed musical suffered even more than Gordon-Levitt. O’Connor spent a week recuperating from exhaustion and carpet burns after he first performed “Make ‘Em Laugh,” and when the scenes were accidentally lost, he did it all over again. And Gene Kelly was suffering from a 103-degree fever when he nailed his splashy performance of the title track in a single take. Not that Kelly or O’Connor ever let the cameras see them sweat. What’s captured on film is a rare, giddy joy—rendered in song and gravity-defying movement—that makes Singin’ in the Rain the greatest musical of all time."

A MGM produziu vários dos mais memoráveis filmes de sempre e cada vez que vejo aquele lião a rugir antes de um filme já sei a beleza que me espera. A MGM ficou para sempre associada à Golden Age de Hollywood e em celebração dos seus 85 anos a Vanity Fair partilha alguns stills dalguns dos filmes mais famosos, de todas as épocas, desta produtra.
May the Lion keep on roaring.