MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: SHALL WE DANCE (1937)

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Sunday, June 1, 2008

SHALL WE DANCE (1937)

The seventh Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers pairing retains much appeal, but also shows a considerable fall off from the triumphant TOP HAT, FOLLOW THE FLEET, SWING TIME trio. (Fred's last pic was the Gingerless DAMSEL IN DISTRESS and their follow up was CAREFREE, only a partial musical. see above) Eric Blore is a great comic addition anytime (all hail, Susquehanna Prison!), but who at RKO thought Fred should sing "They Can’t Take That Away From Me" to Rogers, only to dance it balletically with contortionist Harriet Hoctor? (see BARKLEYS OF B'WAY above) The film is positively loaded George & Ira Gershwin standards (even a pocket concert piece, "Walking the Dog"), yet it feels ill-paced & short on numbers, especially after TOP HAT’s pluperfect design. Next time you play this one, take a moment to appreciate just how good Fred is with all those lame jokes & tired comic set ups. "I must go, I must go to Moscow." Wonderful.

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Sunday, June 1, 2008

SHALL WE DANCE (1937)

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A last thought before we go.

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