|
Post by Nicholas on Jun 18, 2016 1:22:26 GMT
It’s not an adaptation, but I’ve always thought New York, New York is a truly amazing film. I think what Scorsese evokes is the style of musical that would have evolved had musicals never gone out of fashion: not a 1950s musical in a 1970s world per se, but a 1950s musical after 20 years of political and social change, stylistically true to its roots and thematically true to its era. It’s not pastiche and it’s not post-modern, but it’s not a tribute and it’s not a recreation, and I think that confused people and its lack of success did it in; it must be ripe time for a reappraisal. In a post-Watergate, post-Vietnam, post-Summer-of-Love world of darker, less confident, more morally ambiguous movies, it’s the movie musical of its decade, daring to go to the unsatisfactory, unpleasant and morally grey areas of Coppola and De Palma and, well, Scorsese, but still preserve the sing-song stylings of Gene Kelly or Vincente Minelli, and I think making a great movie. It’s not perfect (it’s no King of Comedy, Scorsese’s absolute peak), but I much prefer it to, say, Mean Streets, and I think it’s a fascinating, wonderful and successful anomaly in the history of the medium. And Liza! But the world goes round...
And another shout to Sunshine on Leith, not just a lovely movie, not just Peter Mullan singing (!), but a really strong and genuinely heartfelt book around the Proclaimers numbers.
|
|