Top Hat (1935)
Chosen by me for musical week. I've been pretty tired lately so haven't watched this one for many many years so am reviewing from memory so it'll be even more vague than usual.
I really wasn't into musicals for a long time. I didn't get them, but then I did a film and tv studies course at Derby University. We were lucky enough to have a small independent cinema in the building the course was held and we got to see a lot of interesting things there. Over two weeks we saw this and another film (which I will probably cover tomorrow) which simply changed my mind over what musicals were.
I haven't watched this one for a long time so barely recall the plot but what I do vividly recall is coming out of the cinema elated. I dont dance, but I wanted to tap everywhere to 'Cheek to Cheek' - the standout number in this wonderful film.
Astaire and Rogers were a revelation to me, a graceful, charming double act but funny and sparky.
I also realised that musicals were not all that different from something else I had got into shortly before getting to university - Hong Kong action cinema (and even a bunch of westerns). The trappings were different but the effect was the same.
A grand love for movement, a heightened emotionalism, plot can be perfunctory but character can be revealed through the moves they perform rather than dialogue.
The thrills they offer reach the same part of the brain and in many ways are pure distilled cinema.
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