MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: WEEK-END IN HAVANA (1941)

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Saturday, June 7, 2008

WEEK-END IN HAVANA (1941)

Typically inane, but colorful (make that Techni-Colorful), Fox musical could have used some memorable tunes, but the plot mechanics work out better than usual (at 80 minutes there’s no time for dawdling), and the brief establishing shots of Cuba are a plus. Alice Faye is a Macy’s salesgirl whose busted holiday cruise leaves her in the unromantic (if athletic) arms of ship exec John Payne. The leading roles seem designed for Betty Hutton & Eddie Bracken, but this is Fox not Paramount. Still, they’re game and charming while supporting couple Carmen Miranda & Cesar Romero are in excellent form. Thanks to Hermes Pan, Cesar’s ballroom dance number with Faye makes for a tasty surprise. The big lug can really move around a dance floor!

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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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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

WEEK-END IN HAVANA (1941)

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A last thought before we go.

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