Singin’ in the Rain (1951), choreographed and directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, is a musical and comedy revolving around the American film industry of the 1920s. Starring characters like Gene Kelly's Don Lockwood and Debbie Reynolds' Kathy Selden, the film shows the hard transition from silent to talking films and how the quickly growing Hollywood was affected. The mise-en-scene of this musical is elaborate, including factors like colorful clothing, varying props, character styles, and so on. Singin’ in the Rain’s musical number “Make ‘em Laugh,” performed by Cosmo Brown, incorporates theatrical facial expressions and over-the-top uses of props to elicit a joyous response from Don Lockwood. The “Make ‘em Laugh” scene comes at a time …show more content…
Don takes these words close to heart, as it not only hints his work is insignificant, but it comes from someone he has developed feelings for, Kathy Selden. In the eyes of Don’s lifelong friend, there is no better way to turn this sullen mood around than with a chuckle-inducing performance. This light-hearted idea of Cosmo results in the energetic and spontaneous musical number perfectly displaying his comedic talent. The first element of Cosmo’s solo number that makes it especially quirky is his use of dramatic facial expressions. Moving his face in arbitrary ways not used on a day-to-day basis, such as contorting his mouth in asymmetrical shapes, creates the goofy mood he is aspiring to convey. A great example of these funky physical movements is Cosmo’s sequence of different facial contortions after running into the door on set. He switches between drawing his lips downwards towards the ground and bringing them up towards his eyes in an exaggerated snarl. Not only does his mouth skillfully move through these amusing expressions, but so does his nose. The nose would often move with the mouth, almost acting as one unit pulled by a
(1950), and Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain (1952) tell the story about the film industry’s transition from silent pictures to “talkies,” however, they are drastically different in their themes and genres. Sunset Boulevard is drama, while Singin’ in the Rain is a musical comedy. Billy Wilder takes a darker approach to the transition to sound by depicting an actress, Norma Desmond, played by Gloria Swanson, that is left behind by the advent of sound unable to act. Stanley Donen and Gene
MeccaGrace Allen Dance in Film II Critical Essay: Singin’ in the Rain June 10, 2015 Gene Kelly Dancin’ and Singin’ in the Rain In many of his films, Gene Kelly was not only in front of the camera acting, dancing and singing, but he was behind the camera also, co-staging/directing the musical numbers as well as co-directing the film with Stanley Donen. When working on a film Kelly could be seen as a bit tyrannical at times but his controlling need to make his works perfect pays off in the end and
Eugene Curran Kelly, more commonly known as Gene Kelly, was born August 23, 1912 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was known for acting, dancing, singing, and his choreography. As a child, Gene Kelly played semiprofessional ice hockey, football, baseball, and was involved with gymnastics. He was into anything athletic thanks to his father, who was a huge sports fan and a traveling salesman. Gene Kelly’s major influence was his mother, who only wanted her children to understand and love the arts. She
Considering the film’s budget was $2,540,000, this musical made an impressive profit for its time. This would equate to a quarter of a billion dollars in today’s money. Singin’ in the Rain brought about impressive revenue due to its density and subjectivity. This film could easily be a child’s favorite film due to its eye-catching musicals and light-hearted comedy. But it could also be on adult’s favorite film list due to its
Singin’ In the Rain is a musical comedy film released in 1952 that was directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly (the latter being the film’s main protagonist). It is considered one of the best films of all time as it combined multiple genres into a charismatic musical that was accessible to all age groups, with something to offer for everyone. The film had a romantic element with the love story between Gene Kelly’s character Don Lockwood and Debbie Reynold’s Kathy Seldon. It has great comedic timing
The genre i have studied is musicals. A musical is a film which has musical performances from the actors to express their feelings. The films from this genre that i studied are 'Singin' In The Rain' (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1952), 'Grease' (Randall Kleiser, 1978) and 'Hairspray'(Adam Shankman, 2007). I studied two characteristics of the musical genre (Breaking Into Song And Dance and The Grande Finale) that are shown in the films studied. The identifying characteristics of 'Breaking Into Song
jumping over a couple of couches or running through a rainstorm, then I 'll be very glad to be a song and dance man.”, these words spoken by the legendary Gene Kelly are just one of the reasons why I have come to have a great respect for his acting and singing. Singin’ In The Rain, which was released in 1952 and directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen, wasn’t the only thing I was introduced to that Monday in class, but my attention was brought to an electrifying performer who was amazing at what he did
musical piece that was picked very carefully is ‘good morning’ Music by Nacio Herb Brown and Lyrics by Arthur Freed. This musical deserves to receive proper funding because this musical has received many views and audience. The musical film “Singin in the rain, is a very joyful
musical "Singin' in the Rain" may possibly be one of if not the greatest musicals of all time. With it's tale of the film world of the mid 1920's and its creative underlining love story between Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), it provokes the interest of someone who would not generally be attracted to a musical. It is a classic masterpiece that set the standards that musical films of today will be judged by. It is a classic performance by the great Gene Kelly and displays
screen. One of the most successful musical films even as of today would have to be the film, "Singing in the Rain", which was released in 1952 and directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly. The songs from this musical film were so remarkable that even 'til this day Singin' in the Rain is still on going on theatres and even the famous musical TV show, Glee, covered the song Singing in the Rain. Musicals
cinematic romance possesses because of the scripted dialogue and picturesque settings. Two famous examples of both romantic comedy and the Hollywood couple are It Happened One Night (1934) directed by Frank Capra, and Singin’ in the Rain (1952) directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. It Happened
dancing one of the necessary parts of the whole musical drama. It is her that made people realize the importance of the dancing in The success in Pal Joey started his numerous cooperation with Stanley Donen. Kelly and Fred Astaire were considered as the brain and heart of the drama. His success in Singin’ in the Rain made him known to the world. He was remembered by his excellent dancing skills and natural humor in his performance. He received many awards from Hollywood for his contributions to the performance
Musical masterpieces have been tap dancing throughout the years with its fair share to the cinematic world. These musicals moved out from the live theater halls to grazed the big screen. With the American Film Institute remembering these legendary works, here is a countdown to the top 10 of the most memorable and truly-enchanting movie musicals of all time. 10. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) One of the first movies that top billed by Judy Garland where she was portrayed as the beautiful leading lady
In this essay I ultimately want to address the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Once More with Feeling" (season 6, episode 7). However, I do not want to look at this episode in isolation from the remainder of the Buffy franchise but rather argue that it exemplifies a certain entertainment strategy that courses through the Buffyverse. Now it seems to me that entertainment is either too often denigrated as a specific ideological formation that produces negative effects of audience passivity