Sondheim, Burton, Depp and Rickman's "Pretty Women"

I tend to watch great movies with a considerable delay..., but then again, my feeling is that I get to appreciate them much more in this way, aside all the initial hype and the turmoil associated with a new release (an auxiliary gain is that I can discard-- without having to go through the pain of actually watching them-- a lot of movies which were released with high expectations, only to turn out total flops, hence really what remains is above average or, in the best case, excellent). One of these movies is Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd (IMDb, RottenTomatoes), the movie version of Stephen Sondheim's famous musical that premiered only days before I was born (i.e., an eternity ago)-- and which I still promise myself to see on Broadway at some point (or: in London-- Sweeney Todd the musical was rumored to know a revival in London this year-- perhaps with Alan Rickman in the role of Judge Turpin, as in the movie; but, as it looks, this will hardly happen before next year...). In any case, this movie easily gets very high in my top movies all time, at least top 10 (my 25-movie hierarchy put together a while ago has changed significantly since then, as you no doubt noticed if you followed --particularly recent--blogposts set in my "movies" category).

Briefly, this movie broke several personal records among my earlier movie rankings/assessments: i). it is by far my favorite film version of a musical (Chicago was my top choice so far); ii). it is also my winning choice for a dark humor movie (title claimed earlier by Delicatessen); iii). it is my number one Tim Burton movie so far (though I still have to see some of his movies that might challenge that); iv). it is my best Johnny Depp movie to date (and I can safely say that I have seen most productions in which he acted; however, with Depp one can expect any time a new movie which can claim the first place in this ranking; another interesting observation I would make here is that Johnny Depp has that amazing quality of almost always being outstanding in his role, even if the rest of the movie in which he happens to play is mediocre or worse, which happened in a few cases). These opinions were strengthened after watching 'the make of', i.e. a series of interviews available  also on the DVD of the movie, with Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, and several others among the actors and crew, plus the one and only Stephen Sondheim*.

Anyway, the point of me writing this post was to emphasize my possibly favorite scene of the movie (I say "possibly" because this choice might be mood-dependent to some extent), also my favorite piece of music from the soundtrack, the "Pretty Women" duet scene between Sweeney Todd and Judge Turpin (which remained in my memory and would not go away since). Here's the full scene from the movie. Here's an audio version only, with better sound quality. And here's an audio version with lyrics**.

* I thought of Sondheim as a genius ever since I first saw/listened to West Side Story, the Bernstein-Sondheim masterpiece. Among the interviews available on the DVD of "Sweeney Todd" there is one amusing line of Alan Rickman (who, by the way, played superbly Judge Turpin; more generally, the few movies where I have seen Rickman acting--still have to see some of the older ones-- already place him extremely high in my actors' ranking). He confesses that he thought absolutely crazy the fact that the great Stephen Sondheim himself came to listen to, criticize, and encourage the actors--most of whom never sang publicly before and were thus 100% amateurs when it came to musicals.

** There are other fabulous parts of the soundtrack/scenes (after all, the whole thing is superlative, you should not miss anything!). A personal selection: "No place like London", "Johanna" (Antony's version), "By the sea", "Epiphany",  "My friends", "A little priest"-- the latter with a bonus: "A little priest" 2005 live version, with the original Sweeney Todd musical casting of Angela Landsbury as Mrs. Lovett and Len Cariou as Sweeney Todd.

Ah não ser eu toda a gente e toda a parte!

I've watched it most recently via this smart* video rental & online streaming service called Netflix : a true gem of a movie, albeit one of the most underrated cinematographic creations of the past decades (does not have a RottenTomatoes critics' rating!). This is a Wim Wenders meisterwerk, most of the time my favorite (nontrivial; I hold most of Wenders's movies in high esteem). As a by-product, the film is also an effective branding/ marketing tool for Lisboa, and, by extension, Portugal** --in fact, Wenders's original intention had been to make a documentary about the city; suffice to say that Lisbon Story alone would convince me to place Lisboa among my in-no-way-can-miss destinations.  Some highlights: Rüdiger Vogler plays superbly the confused German sound engineer; even though his effective role here is minimal, Patrick Bauchau is perfect as the elusive film director (alter ego of Wenders himself); while Madredeus's Teresa Salgueiro... well, she is just so unique; around them fascinating Lisboa snapshots-- images, sounds, poetry, music, life: what's a key without a kiss?

Earlier on my live discovery of Portugal. Earlier on Madredeus. Earlier on Pessoa.

* not ideal: so far I could find only about 60% of the movies I was interested in watching, with the post-mailed DVD option included. Given my typically unusual choices though, 60% is not that bad. Something like this is badly needed on European soil, too.

** I am going to claim more: this is eventually a great cinematographic statement for and about Europe itself.

Up in the air

It is great, truly great. In fact IMDb and RottenTomatoes do not give it sufficient credit. I was told I would love it, by people who know me, but I didn't just love it: I adored it. One of my favourite scenes is also one of the most brilliant dialogues/pick-up strategies, on screen and beyond. It is a shame the movie did not win any Oscars, given the six (only!) nominations it received. "Superlative" is not doing enough justice to the acting performances of George Clooney, Vera Farmiga or Anna Kendrick, with the film also an example of perfect direction and screenplay by Jason Reitman & co. It belongs right there, in my top 5 all-time favourites.

To top it all, I've seen "Up in the air" just the proper way, up in the air-- during my Chicago-Amsterdam trip yesterday. And, obviously, I write this post from Schiphol's KLM lounge, soon to be up in the air again, this time to Shanghai. "Bingo. Asians."

Merry Xmas!

With credits to Irving Berlin, Bing Crosby, Mark Sandrich, and all the dolls out there.

PS. Recall also a most interesting analysis of Irving Berlin's creativity profile, once you wake up from the hangover :-).

Quote/movie scene for week 14th- 20th of October '07

In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so [...]

Anton Ego, character in the movie "Ratatouille"

Listen to Ego's full review on YouTube -- my selected movie scene of the week-- with the food critic superlatively dubbed by Peter O'Toole throughout the movie. I should also say that Ratatouille (IMDb, RottenTomatoes) just made it to my top 25 movies.

Read previous week's quote.

See previous movie scene of the week.

Song of the day/ Movie scene of the week 20th to 26th of May '07: "The Trial", from "Pink Floyd The Wall"

This is a classic, hence I can (I will!) keep it short, without any intros, but just giving the necessary links. The song I propose for today (nothing is a coincidence :-)), "The Trial", is one of my favourites from Pink Floyd's "The Wall", which is one of my favourite albums from Pink Floyd (wikientry), which at its turn is really in the top of my favourite music bands of all times, as I already confessed.

This post is, at the same time, also about the superb film version of "The Wall" (see also its IMDb entry) and "The Trial" scene constitutes the perfect scene for this week.

To put music and motion picture together, here's the youtube clip of "The Trial." A masterpiece, really. Here's the essence (err... sentence):

Since, my friend, you have revealed your deepest fear,

I sentence you to be exposed before your peers!

Tear down the wall!

Watch also the movie scene of the previous week.

PS. You can watch most of "Pink Floyd The Wall" parts on YouTube (scan among the clips there).

Movie scene for week 13 to 19th of May '07: Al Pacino's 'pro integrity' speech from "Scent of a Woman"

I already selected, a while ago, one other scene of this amazing movie, as part of my "movie scene of the week" blog-category. I therefore will not write anything else about the movie as a whole, but directly propose to you this flawless performance of Al Pacino, aka Colonel Frank Slade, as movie scene of this ending week. Why this scene, why this speech, why exactly now? Well, because I feel that precisely now it's high time we returned to the concept of 'integrity' and to what that precisely entails. It's high time we discussed about courage. About true leadership. About being yourself and taking decisions on your own. About the limit to the compromises one should make, about avoiding an "amputated soul"... About being responsible. About "choosing the path made of principle... that leads to character"... The speech here is better than anything else I know of in pleading for all these.

Thanks to script-o-rama.com, I could find the whole script of the movie (most likely a lot of effort, certainly a great idea, my deepest appreciation!), hence I am also able to display below the most memorable parts of the dialogue from the scene linked above, between Mr. Trask, Charlie Simms and Frank Slade. Whoo-ah!!!

[...]

Frank Slade: Mr. Simms doesn't want it. He doesn't need to be labeled..."still worthy of being a Baird man." What the hell is that? What is your motto here? "Boys, inform on your classmates, save your hide; anything short of that, we're gonna burn you at the stake" ? Well, gentlemen, when the shit hits the fan, some guys run... and some guys stay. Here's Charlie facin' the fire, and there's George... hidin' in big daddy's pocket. And what are you doin' ? You're gonna reward George... and destroy Charlie.

Mr. Trask: Are you finished, Mr. Slade ?

Frank Slade: No, I'm just gettin' warmed up! I don't know who went to this place. William Howard Taft, William Jennings Bryant... William Tell, whoever. Their spirit is dead, if they ever had one. It's gone! You're buildin' a rat ship here, a vessel for seagoin' snitches. And if you think you're preparin' these minnows... for manhood, you better think again, because I say you are killin' the very spirit... this institution proclaims it instills! What a sham! What kind of a show you guys puttin' on here today? I mean, the only class in this act is sittin' next to me. And I'm here to tell you... this boy's soul is intact. It's non-negotiable! You know how I know? Someone here, and I'm not gonna say who, offered to buy it. Only Charlie here wasn't sellin'...

Mr. Trask: Sir, you're out of order!

Frank Slade: Out of order... I show you out of order! You don't know what out of order is, Mr. Trask. I'd show you, but I'm too old, I'm too tired, too fuckin' blind. If I were the man I was five years ago, I'd take... a flamethrower to this place! Out of order! Who the hell you think you're talkin' to ? I've been around, you know? There was a time I could see! And I have seen! Boys like these, younger than these, their arms torn out, their legs ripped off. But there is nothin' like the sight... of an amputated spirit. There is no prosthetic for that. You think you're merely sendin' this splendid foot soldier... back home to Oregon with his tail between his legs, but I say you are... executin' his soul! And why? Because he's not "a Baird man"... Baird men... You hurt this boy, you're gonna be Baird bums, the lot of you. And... Harry, Jimmy, Trent, wherever you are out there, fuck you too !

Mr. Trask: Stand down, Mr. Slade !

Frank Slade: I'm not finished! As I came in here, I heard those words: "cradle of leadership." Well, when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall, and it has fallen here. It has fallen! Makers of men, creators of leaders... be careful what kind of leaders you're producin' here. I don't know if Charlie's silence here today... is right or wrong; I'm not a judge or jury. But I can tell you this: he won't sell anybody out... to buy his future! And that, my friends, is called integrity! That's called courage! Now that's the stuff leaders should be made of! Now I have come to the crossroads in my life. I always knew what the right path was. Without exception, I knew... but I never took it. You know why? It was too damn hard. Now here's Charlie. He's come to the crossroads. He has chosen a path. It's the right path. It's a path made of principle... that leads to character. Let him continue on his journey. You hold this boy's future in your hands, Committee! It's a valuable future, believe me! Don't destroy it! Protect it! Embrace it! It's gonna make you proud one day, I promise you.

[...]

Watch the movie scene of the previous week.

Movie scene of the week 6th to 12th of May '07: Awe-stricken Salieri facing Mozart's genius, in "Amadeus"

Milos Forman's "Amadeus" is for now my absolute favourite (really and really my number 1!) movie of all times (I presented a while ago on this blog my current top 25). The 8 Oscars (and other 3 Academy Awards nominations) , plus numerous other prizes at various film festivals all around the world, that this movie won, are really just the least amount of recognition it deserves. One of my favourite scenes from this masterpiece (and one that in several ways matches this past week...) is the fragment depicting Salieri's (involuntary) reaction of astonishment when faced with perfection, with "absolute beauty", with the divine nature of Mozart's new works (the 'core' part I aim for here starts after approx. 3'30'' in the YouTube clip linked above). A brilliant, simply brilliant acting here by F. Murray Abraham, as Antonio Salieri (certainly deserving the Oscar for his performance throughout all of "Amadeus")! Here's the part of the script rendering Salieri's feeling of pure awe:

Astounding?! It was actually... it was beyond belief. These were first and only... drafts of music. But they showed no corrections of any kind. Not one! He'd simply written down music... already finished... in his head. Page after page of it. As if he were just taking dictation. And music... finished as no music is ever finished. Displace one note... and there would be diminishment. Displace one phrase, and the structure would fall. It was clear to me... that sound I had heard in the Archbishop 's palace... had been no accident. Here, again, was the very voice of God! I was staring through the cage... of those meticulous ink strokes... at an absolute beauty...

But let's get to the music from the core of the scene (and YouTube really helps in here- I just love it!). The music from the scores that Salieri is reading with such marvel is, in chronological order, fragment from: Concerto for flute and harp in C major, K 299 (2nd Movement, Andantino) - listen to all the 2nd mvm. here; Symphony No 29 in A major, K 201 (1st Movement, Allegro Moderato)- listen to all the 1st mvm. here; Concerto for two pianos, No 10, in E flat, K 365 (3rd Movement)- listen to all the 3rd mvm. here, in an awesome performance by Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea!!!; Symphony Concertante, K 364 (1st Movement)- listen to the first part of the 1st mvm. here; and Great Mass in C minor: Kyrie, K 427- listen to this astounding piece here. There is also a 3-CD set that contains all Mozart's pieces (partly) played in the movie (and that I obviously have for quite a while now...).



The movie scene of the previous week.

Movie scene for the week 29th of April to 5th of May '07: The Dance Contest Scene from "Pulp Fiction"

This is the movie scene that best characterizes this (past) week. Dominant (and irresistible) Mia Wallace + ' good for everything' Vincent Vega + maestro Chuck Berry in the background with "You can never tell". The result is one of my favourite scenes from Tarantino's undisputed masterpiece, which is certainly among my top movies of all times.

Movie scene for the previous week.

Movie scene for week 22nd to 28th of April: "Are you a dreamer?", from "Waking Life"

This week goes perfectly with one of my favourite scenes from one of my favourite movies ever, Waking Life. As you might recall, this movie is in my (current) very top 5 and it has high chances of hanging up there for a long while... I also dedicated an entire post to this movie some time ago. The scene I selected for today is "Are you a dreamer?" (after all, a leitmotif in 'Waking Life') and I also wrote down for you the whole dialogue/monologue between (the voices of) the main character - Wiley Wiggins and "the man in the train" - David Martinez:

Hey.

Hey.

You a dreamer?

Yeah.

I haven't seen too many around lately. Things have been tough lately for dreamers. They say dreaming is dead... that no one does it anymore. It's not dead, it's just that it's been forgotten. Removed from our language. Nobody teaches it, so no one knows it exists. The dreamer's banished to obscurity. I'm trying to change all that, and I hope you are too. By dreaming, every day. Dreaming with our hands and dreaming with our minds. Our planet is facing the greatest problems it's ever faced, ever. So whatever you do, don't be bored. This is absolutely the most exciting time we could have possibly hoped to be alive! And things are just starting.

[my emphasis in bold: make it your motto]

More: the music in the background is in perfect harmony with the text: "In dreams" by Roy Orbison. You can also listen to the full version.

Movie scene of the previous week.

Movie scene of week 15th to 21st of April '07: The final fight scene from "Snatch"

A classic. Simply perfect as movie scene for this (just ending) week. There is only one masterstroke that can knock out every hapless opponent as soon as the master decides that it's high time to get over with it - and that KO punch belongs to the 'pikey': Mickey O'Neil destroying Horace "Good Night" Anderson in the final fight scene of Guy Ritchie's superb Snatch (recall that this is one of my all time favourite movies, currently within my top 25).

Movie scene for the previous week.

Movie scene for the week 8th to 14th of April '07: Sean Maguire's 'monologue' from "Good Will Hunting"

"Good Will Hunting" is one incredible movie (remember my movie top 1-25: this one can easily slide in there and is for sure in my current top 30- stay tuned for that, as soon as I'll get some time, I'll post further my top 25-100...). Inter alia, I believe Matt Damon is playing one of his best roles ever as Will Hunting (only matched so far, in my view, by his playing the main role in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" - but there are still movies with him that I must see). But the movie scene of the week is really not one of the many excellent ones that centre on Will Hunting, but one which gets the best out of Sean Maguire, superlatively played by (the usually superlative...) Robin Williams (rewarded with a well deserved Oscar for the acting here). And I chose this scene, one of my favourites both from this movie and in general, because it emphasizes wonderfully my idea of "lack of exposure" (that many people I know suffer from, without being aware of it...). Valid even in the case of pure geniuses, though it's clear that not many can beat Will Hunting :-). Enjoy!

See movie scene of the previous week.

Movie scene of the week: 'Tango dance' from 'Scent of a Woman'

I'll start this blog category today. And I count on YouTube providing me with all the material I want :-). So, each week I'll choose a movie scene (always one of my favourite movie scenes, obviously!) which will always be in a direct or indirect way representative of my perceptions of things, life in general and the like, for that specific week (same spirit as my 'quote of the week' category). Obviously this implies that this particular blog category will be one of the most subjective blog categories. But whatever, this is a very personal blog after all :-).

So, the first movie scene, for the first week, is one scene that would score in my top 5 of all movie scenes ever. Recall that I've ranked my favourite movies, from 1 to 25 for now; evidemment, that is a completely different ranking than actually ranking the movie scenes! Thus, although Scent of a Woman "only" enters my top 30 (and that was a preview: stay tuned, I'll continue with my top 25 to 100 as soon as possible), this one scene from that superb movie enters my top 5. This is the tango scene with Frank Slade (Al Pacino; absolutely deserving not just the one he got, but 10 Oscars for that role!) and Donna (Gabrielle Anwar), on the perfect (here, instrumental only) sound of Gardel's tango masterpiece 'Por Una Cabeza" (see here a beautiful clip with Carlos Gardel himself singing!). Whoo-ah!!!