Heaven, I'm in Heaven ...
... and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak ...Finally there is an Astaire-Rogers DVD set! And Amazon has sent me my Astaire-Rogers Collection 1. I am already itching for 2.
So I put in the 'Swing Time' DVD and checked out the extras, which includes a nice highlighting of the dances. Nice to see commentary from the brilliant Hermes Pan.
The humour and genius of this film is something else - the 'Bojangles' of Harlem' sequence is as brilliant as I recall, and as full of joyful mischief. I have suffered through numerous modern 'expressive' dances, and I have yet to see anything that can match this sequence for expressing respect for Bill Robinson, the ability of the world to surprise. The moment when the 'real' dancer decides he has to try to fit in with the 'shadows' is very special. 'Pick Yourself Up' is wonderfully funny and zany. The song 'Just the Way you Look Tonight' is, without the context, a gorgeous Kern-Fields song but in the film it has an additional layer of humour - the irony is deeper because Ginger Rogers is pretty lovely in the sequence even though Astaire has to respond otherwise at the end. 'Never Gonna Dance' I cannot find words for - the take we see is one in which Rogers' feet are claimed to be bleeding - fortunately we do not have to see that.
The commentary is fascinating - there is a leitmotiv of the feet! Must go explore that. Ahh, the incredible richness of the most popular of popular culture.
Hmm - now for the Preston Sturges DVD Collection.....
posted by Alan Adamson @ 4:47 PM
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