Into the Woods, The Last Five Years, Les Miserables, Rent: in the past few years alone, there have been multiple movie musicals released, often with mixed receptions. Is it possible for musicals to move from the stage to the screen and still retain their magic? What might some challenges be? (i.e. target audience; musical fans perhaps disliking casting when people who are not traditionally "singers" are cast – think Hollywood actors rather than Broadway, cutting songs for the sake of time, sound editing causing the magic of a live performance to be lost, etc.)
Sweeney Todd could also be discussed, since Johnny Depp isn't traditionally a singer, and his delivery is different and not as robust than, say, George Hearn, though arguably the vibrato may not be as necessary on film than it is on a stage. – Emily Deibler9 years ago
It is definitely difficult for musicals to transfer to film. Often times I would agree that it is a failure and mainly because the people that are heavily critiquing the film may have seem the Broadway version and it is impossible to emote the same feelings that are created when watching a musical live onto the screen. However, when I first saw Chicago the film, I think they did a phenomenal job with it and it may be because they kept some of the songs to maintain that live theater feeling in the way it was choreographed and presented. – Naomster79 years ago
The struggle with musicals being transferred to film is that the excitement and raw talent that is present in live theater has been cut. It is just another film with singing and dancing in it and the awe of the story being performed live has died. However, the film Chicago, did a fantastic job of recreating the scenes and musical numbers as they would have appeared while viewing them in Broadway. The film was able to portray all of the talent that goes in to live theater.
I think another to consider as well with this topic, is the concept of if musicals designed for film can be transferred to Broadway? – Naomster79 years ago
Good topic! Although there are a couple of musical movies I enjoyed, I think musical should remain in the stage, with live performances and audience. Using famous actors who have zero musical talent just takes the magic away from it for sure. – Nilab Ferozan8 years ago
I think, as most have stated here, the biggest problem here is the reliance on "big name" actors, as opposed to truly gifted signers who are truly broadway stars. Yet, with that being said. A broadway actor is an actor, but there is a different format of stage acting that takes place that does not always translate well through cinema. This is kind of an odd catch-22. Overtime these beloved musical become cinematic adaptations, we, the audience, typically seem to be left disappointed. My favorite musicals are the ones from the 40's and 50's, when the amalgam between film and musical was a natural genre. – danielle5778 years ago
The trend of showing just about everything in media, even if it seems unnecessary. I'm not talking about censoring, but about limiting the audience's act of imagination to fill in the rest of the picture. What happens when a level of subtlety, implicitness, and mystery is lost? I was thinking of some classic black-and-white films such as M, The Innocents, Nosferatu, The Third Man, Gaslight, etc. whose atmosphere is heavily reliant on what is shrouded by shadow. A lot of suspense, dread, as well as intrigue is created by what we can't see. When many movies now are so well-lit and in high-definition color, has something been lost? It seems like there is a strong desire to expose and reveal as much as we can instead. Has this transition affected how movies are filmed in other ways?
This is a great topic, and I do agree. The unspoken leads to contemplation, inquiry, and suspense. Though people fixate on the evolution of film technology, which is without a doubt extraordinarily impressive, some of basic cinematic concepts that make film so wonderful have been lost--what you are posing here is one. – danielle5778 years ago
Interesting but if you pay attention to independent film(not commercial ones) they still adopt fade to black in their scenes. Maybe not common but it doesnt mean no more. When i 'm writing my script, I would sometimes use fade to black and fade in for transitions. I dont think it is fully abandoned. – moonyuet8 years ago
I definitely agree with what you're saying about independent films. I'm not just talking about transitions, though, but about the general use of shadows or unseen areas in movies. I feel like we as an audience are often granted greater access to scenes we either would not have been shown before or would not be able to view with as much clarity, which is probably especially true in the case of commercial films. I hadn't intended to sound like I was making a generalization about all recent movies, just that it was a trend I had noticed. Sorry for not making myself clearer in that regard. – aprosaicpintofpisces8 years ago
imdb.com has many user-posted lists, and one of them is a list of the 25 Best Actors of the 21st Century. The list below excerpts their top 25, which includes late greats Heath Ledger and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Are there any glaring omissions? Is there anyone on the list who shouldn’t be? Anyone need to move up or down? What makes an actor either worthy of your list or unworthy of this list? For your favorites, please describe their best performances. For your least favorites, please explain their shortcomings. If you want to deal only with the top ten or pick and choose, that’s fine too.
1. Daniel Day-Lewis 2. Leonardo DiCaprio 3. Philip Seymour Hoffman 4. Jack Nicholson 5. Morgan Freeman 6. Russell Crowe 7. George Clooney 8. Javier Bardem 9. Brad Pitt 10. Christian Bale 11. Jeff Bridges 12. Sean Penn 13. Joaquin Phoenix 14. Heath Ledger 15. Johnny Depp 16. Denzel Washington 17. Tom Hanks 18. Clint Eastwood 19. Geoffrey Rush 20. Colin Firth 21. Viggo Mortensen 22. Tom Wilkinson 23. Gary Oldman 24. Bill Murray 25. Don Cheadle
Perhaps shorten the list to a top 5 or a top 10 at the most; otherwise, your work would be overwhelmingly long. – J.D. Jankowski8 years ago
Good point. One reason I included the last sentence of the descrption... – Tigey8 years ago
Is there a more up to date listing? Writing an article about a 2014 listing seems quite after the fact. Otherwise, sounds like a fun article. – LondonFog8 years ago
I think the writer did a great job posting this, but I feel like the list should condense down to top 10 because then it would be able to seek the audience attention. Personally, I don't like Bill Murray!! – mmq28 years ago
How is Tom Hanks #17?--the man is a chameleon!! A relatively solid list, but I would definitely delete Russel Crowe and move Viggo Mortensen way up the list. Also, whomever takes on this topic should only take on part of this list or an aspect dealing with this list. – danielle5778 years ago
Agree on all three counts, danielle577. I still hold a private grudge against Leonard Maltin for panning Forrest Gump. And Hanks' performance in Road to Perdition was one of his best (and perhaps Paul Newman's very best). How about the omission of Forrest Whitaker? James McAvoy? Benicio Del Toro? Jude Law? Laurence Fishburne? My Top Ten is now in triple digits. – Tigey8 years ago
For what it's worth, perhaps the best piece of acting I've seen in a Hollywood movie in years is Matthew McConaughey's lunch scene with Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street. McConaughey would be on my list. – Tigey8 years ago
In June 2012, imdb.com posted its list of 25 Best Actresses of the 21st Century. Any glaring omissions? Anyone on it who shouldn't be? Anyone need to move up or down? What makes an actress either worthy of your list or unworthy of this list? For your favorites, please describe their best performances. For your least favorites, please explain their shortcomings. If you want to deal only with the top ten or pick and choose, that's fine too. Extra love for anyone who can explain, sanely, why Tilda Swinton's not on this list – for her Broken Flowers performance alone (c'mon, you didn't know she was in the film 'til the credits, right?) – gets an e-high five.
1. Helena Bonham Carter 2. Natalie Portman 3. Meryl Streep 4. Renée Zellweger 5. Sandra Bullock 6. Nicole Kidman 7. Hilary Swank 8. Emma Stone 9. Cate Blanchett 10. Jennifer Lawrence 11. Gwyneth Paltrow 12. Scarlett Johansson 13. Kate Hudson 14. Mila Kunis 15. Anne Hathaway 16. Amanda Seyfried 17. Keira Knightley 18. Kristen Stewart 19. Julia Roberts 20. Milla Jovovich 21. Noomi Rapace 22. Octavia Spencer 23. Rachel McAdams 24. Dakota Fanning 25. Drew Barrymore
I feel like Viola Davis should've been included. She always brings such dignity and emotional weight to her roles. – Emily Deibler8 years ago
I have never thought of Anne Hathaway as one of the best actresses of any century. I think her acting is one of an intermingling between trying too hard and arrogance. – sydneelarson8 years ago
One test of an actor is how she looks when playing opposite a great actor. For Hathaway the obvious challenge was The Devil Wears Prada with the incomparable Meryl Streep, one of my favorites, and I think Hathaway was fine. Who knows, maybe working with Streep is playing basketball with Bill Russell, who made his teammates better. A case in point, regarding Streep, might be Kevin Kline's fine performance with Streep in Sophie's Choice. – Tigey8 years ago
I also agree that Viola Davis should have been included in this list, definitely since Emma Stone (nothing against Emma because I love her and she has had some great performances) has made top 10. – NyeMaxwell8 years ago
I feel that Mila Kunis isn't deserving of this list. She isn't a terrible actress, but I don't see her as one of the best. – Jai Modo8 years ago
Mockingjay part 2 has just come out with the last Divergent movie in the line up for release. Write about the top movies that are adapted from young adult novels. How do they stand up in time? Is their target audience broader than young adults? What similarities or differences are there between them? Movies of interest may be the Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner, Enders Game, The Fault in Our Stars, Twilight…etc.Of course, there are more out now than ever and the list does not need to be confined to trilogies, so long as it is adapted from young adult books.
This is very interesting. I really like this topic, especially your emphasis on the target audience, and what makes them stand in time. You could even talk about the Eragon series. – emilyinmannyc9 years ago
Oh God that Eragon adaption was infuriating! I like to pretend it never happened. Thanks for your feedback. – Jordan9 years ago
I feel like there really aren't too many differences in most of the movies you mentioned. Almost all of the movie-adapted young adult novels are in the apocalyptic/science fiction genre. Many of the movies all have the same "feel". I still think this is a good topic though! – Dominic Sceski9 years ago
What an interesting topic! One could even start looking back time and considering older (pre-Twilight) young adult adaptations, before the genre exploded as a "thing." The Harry Potter series, for example, or less "huge" films Inkheart or the Narnia movies. Maybe the question is, why has young adult become SO popular as a genre? – sophiacatherine9 years ago
I think "Twilight" would be a good one to talk about. Along with Harry Potter. Those are two series that come to mind when I think about YA movie adaptations. Especially since their Fandoms are so loyal and unwavering. – diehlsam9 years ago
Too funny, Jordan: my daughter's opinion of the Eragon movie "Ugh. Horrible." – Tigey8 years ago
Who are the ten cinematic creators or performers whose untimely deaths have most deeply affected cinema? What is/are their lasting impact(s) on cinema? Which, if any, posthumous advances in film seem likely to have been achieved by these cinematic legends if not for their early deaths?
I like this topic due to there being so many different direction in which the writer of this article can delve into. I cannot wait to see what people come up with. Very nicely done. – danielle5778 years ago
Critical phrase you've used: " whose untimely deaths have most deeply affected cinema?" How has it affected CINEMA? Not individual people, or the audience, but the concept of cinema itself. Did Heath Ledger's death really affect cienma that much, for example? Was his posthumous Academy Award something that redefined cinema? Not really, others have been awarded posthumous awards before. What about how his death affected "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus"? Several actors took on Ledger's character, and that would've affected the film and is one aspect that I think the writer could look at - how an actor/director's death during filming affected said film. – Jamie White8 years ago
Great point, Jamie. I think my last question especially addresses that point, asking, not what a great performer, etc. that (s)he was, but what direction in cinema appears to have been curtailed or redirected by the individual's death. The answers to that question are challenging since the writer must know cinematic history well enough to trace it and see the changes caused by the contributor's death. – Tigey8 years ago
Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio – a collection of short stories – presents what the authors refers to as "grotesques," people who harm themselves by believing in one truth or ideal while ignoring all others. The eight-Oscar-winning film, "From Here to Eternity," seems to follow the same theme. Which characters in the film are "grotesques?" To what truth or ideal does each "grotesque" cling? What truth(s) or ideal(s) do(es) each "grotesque" ignore? How do these characters suffer for their constrained beliefs? How would each character – if they expanded their beliefs – not only reduce their own suffering, but better their own life, as well as (perhaps) others?
I'll pm you. I don't want to suggest/state too much and steal an epiphany from someone. – Tigey8 years ago
Danielle, I'm assuming my email clarified things, so I marked fixed. If not... oops. I can always try again. – Tigey8 years ago
A recent conversation with a friend about his strange, meaningful dreams led to a conversation about dream theory. Which films, current or not, use significant dream sequences, and what messages do those dream sequences convey? What symbols and metaphors appear in the dreams? What messages are conveyed via this imagery? Which dream theory or theories are employed by these film makers? And, last, how – if at all – does a film maker's cultural and religious background affect her film presentation of dreams? A list of films to consider might include Un Chien Andalu, Spellbound, 3 Women, The Wizard of Oz, 8-1/2, Waking Life, Living in Oblivion, Inception, and Kurosawa's Dreams.
