This is the first part of my notebook for all the Musicals i`ve seen in my life. An ever-growing list…
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1.New York, New York 1977
De Niro at his best, plus Minelli bringing back that divine Garland touch. It`s mesmerizingly beautiful, dashingly heat-warming, and brilliantly well-portrayed. Wonder why they think it is not coherent?! I feel stunned.
p.s. Minelli version tops Sinatra!
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3.The Young Girls of Rochefort 1967
Finally find a version of this elegant classic (surprise, surprise, I`m living in Iran). What can i say, It was more than i expected. I practically live in his world.
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5.Going My Way 1944
Of all the musicals i have seen this one was really different; Marrying religion and musical is one tough task to be carried. Hopefully, Bing Crosby and Leo McCarey with the ingenious assistance of Barry Fitzgerald achieved it. Amazing Chemistry!
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7.Meet Me in St. Louis 1944
I enjoyed every single song and dance passage of this movie as a musical Idol, with one big exception that i thought it was one of the most dull movies per se I have ever seen in my life.Though i rediscovered some vaudevillian acts, I think i set my bars way too high after all this wait to watch it. Anyway, History Lesson!
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8.For Love’s Sake 2012
With its “Love is a battlefield” motto and some gory pulp scenes, it remains within the same orbit that Mike has always spanned; The same cliche of ensemble of though mother fuckers who kick ass and some nerds who fell in love with them in the most cheesy melodramatic way, with one big exception of Musical numbers who don`t seem catchy enough, but blends in masterfully with wuxia and Asian Pulp here.
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10.The Umbrellas of Cherbourg 1964
The musical masterpiece among the Jacques Demy “romantic trilogy” is an never-ending libretto which goes all lyrical without a simple pause for “the book” all credited by Demy himself. A three act “recitative” opera filmed in fantastic color by Jean Rabier and orchestrated in immortal music by Michel Legrand. It`s where Opera meets Film.
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11.Annie Get Your Gun 1950
The most vaudevillian MGM musical that i`ve ever seen and the most devoted on the idea of circus; The story goes like “As silly as it gets” (thanks to Betty Hutton & Howard Keel) and it has the most memorable number of Golden era “There`s No Business Like Show Business”
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12.42nd Street 1933
I have to confess i never knew Ruby Keeler and had a wiped memory of Dick Powell before this.Furthermore, as much as i adored this archetype of back-stage musicals, i was very uneasy to communicate with the “42nd Street” in the first two-third of the movie. But miraculously, here came Busby Berkely and his ingenious visionary in staging a glamours dance scene, and the amazing shot of tunnel of the legs. What a great Finale.
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13.Show Boat 1936
One of the brilliant combinations of Musical with Melodrama, or rather say a light opera, “The Show Boat” routes back to one the greatest shows of Flo Ziegfeld. It has been appeared on screen three times (once silent 1927, once in 1936) and established some of the classic songs wrote by Rodgers and Hammerstein such as “Ol’ Man River”, “Make Believe”, “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” and “You Are Love”. Irene Dunn is glorious and Allan Jones sings from heaven.
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14.The Broadway Melody 1929
The first among the glorious trend of MGM musical and a talkie debut for two of the iconic stars of silent era – Anita Page & Bessie Love – is one of the most amazing things Hollywood gave birth to it. Gosh, “You Were Meant For Me”!
p.s. Arthur Freed is a wizard, but i didn`t know he was such a great lyricist.
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15.The Band Wagon 1953
Minnelli at it`s best + one of the most fascinating numbers i`ve ever set my eyes upon “The Girl Hunt Ballet”
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16.She Done Him Wrong 1933
Have you seen Mae West`s debut on silver screen? You`ll find a fine fast-talking dame partnered with such a young Carey Grant that you adore. The only Mae west picture i`ve ever saw.
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17.Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942
What a picture, the American spirit of musical unfolds all the way, with James Cagney leading a great song and dance fella “who owned Broadway” once. Michael Curtiz best picture way above “Casablanca” and, and i`m speechless.
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18.The Great Ziegfeld 1936
The Honest biopic of a man who gave us many of the most amazing songs, numbers and melodies to live “Flo Ziegfeld” and some of the most magnificent artists and stars of the Broadway musicals “Anna Held” and “Billy Burke”, with glorifying performance of the one and only “Louise Rainer”, What an Actress! Damn many Don`t Know her today!
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19.Easter Parade 1948
The golden due`s best flick and one of the most memorable musicals of the history. Judy Garland and Fred Astaire are glorious and magnificent as dancing couples who fell in love. It`s impossible to not fell for “Steppin’ Out with My Baby” and “Easter Parade”, plus get your hands to “Mr. Monotony” number.
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20.Gold Diggers of 1935 1935
Long before David Lunch was born, and many years before Bergman came up with the idea of “Film Within a Film” there was Busby Berkeley and his masterful “Lullaby of Broadway” at the end of “Gold Diggers of 1935”. What a Joy!
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21.A Star Is Born 1954
A world-class, subtly intertwined, deliberately dramatic product of cinematic nature, it sure stands above the rates & expectations of a normal revue.
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23.Babes on Broadway 1941
The first encounter with Garland/ Rooney due; not so charming, still pleasant and sometimes entertaining.
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25.High Society 1956
As much as i worshiped the original “Philadelphia Story” i didn’t get why they made a remake! It was flimsy and doll, that famous duet excluded.
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26.Singin’ in the Rain 1952
Have you ever considered how lame would it be to compare your usual doze of use of the word “masterpiece” in describing movies, in front of this Film?
It is lame, don`t bother.
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27.San Francisco 1936
Have you ever came up with a diva called “Jeanette MacDonald”? If no, check her out. And you find every reason Film routes back to opera. She shines she overshadows Clark Gable.
P.S. San Francisco number and Griffith/ Von Stroheim collaboration on Van Dyke`s work are all over the movie
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28.London Road 2015
In a year everybody is dazed and crazy for the grandeur and inventiveness of La La Land, it is hard to point your fingers to something else to describe the new definition of movie musical. But at the end of London Road your keen eye for the go-betweens of Opera, Film, and Stage Musical would be stoned. Truth to be told, I have never encountered with something more subtle, brilliant. It is exquisitely outperforming to the extent that gives this genre a whole new richness, profundity and meaning.
A cine-opera by magical numbers such as “It Could Be Him,” “Cellular Material,” and a documentary in the style of verbatim reportage, you just need a chameleon like Olivia Coleman (and of course Tom Hardy) the new-coming director Rufus Norris is already claiming his reign for the realm that was ruled by Clio Barnard in The Arbor or Andrea Arnold in Fish Tank . The New British Cinema!
P.S. that The Musical Is Back!
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29.Les Misérables 2012
I really adored the attempt to make a musical from a novel everybody knows by heart, but there was something missing: Memorable Numbers , or rather dance scenes. It was a cine-opera which i didn`t like the twist were Javer dies and there is a happy ending.
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31.White Christmas 1954
One of the best Curtiz pictures, full of patriotic acts and memorable numbers from the one and only Irving Berlin. A perfect retro-eye-candy.
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32.Fatmah 1947
One of the most amazing archetypes of Egyptian Musicals, Fatmah starring legendary Umm Kulthum and Anwar Wadjdi, is an amazing case for understanding the variations of pop-corn mainstream cinema in the middle east. The genre, which dates back to 60 years ago, is an art child of Musicals with some overdose of melodrama, and in time got spread in Egypt, Turkey, Iran and India with a single formula, albeit variations, and often called rewardingly as Fim-Misri, Film-Turkey, Film-Farsi.
P..S. That voice is divine.
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33.La La Land 2016
These are my day to day thoughts and after thoughts so far…
Jan 12. I`m crying of joy! Can`t stop my tears… A very serious candidate for the Best Film of the 21st century!
Jan 15. Still can`t stop my tears. All i can think is that revue. Humming the melodies and feeling lovestruck. What have you done?!
Feb 20. Cant` believe just saw an Original 35 mm CinemaScope on Cinestar Original Und IMAX in Berlin. You juts get one shot at resurrecting a Cinema you worship and Chazelle did a great Job!
I just know I feel so good
Don’t you know I feel so good
I just know I feel so good
TonightAfter Oscar Night: I am afraid to confess that, despite such exaggerating claims, Moonlight`s total aesthetic value is nothing versus the deep cinematic appreciation in the opening sequence of that tracking shot in L.A traffic. A sequence which is based on an authentically continental camera work, integrated with a number – which might be signed by Godard himself from The Weekend, or Demy in The Young Girls of Rochefort – and heavily glamourised in Basby Berkley`s style of 42nd Street. I am somehow embarrassed that the genius put in this ballad to avoid the slippery slope of melodrama and Hollywood ending, makes the total movie of “Moonlight” look like a kindergarten kid`s reply for a mathematical equation of “what is the total sum of race + gender issue?”. An Answer which moonlight gives with a vast corporative appetite.
Aug 21. Through all these years of writing about movies i learnt that i can not ignore one fact: Every director get one shot, only one chance in a lifetime to try to resurrect the cinema he adores! That`s right; Only one. It must be too savvy for many people, but i came to realize that it is true. So, when we saw that the Musicals been gone for some years we got that it would be back sometime. Though every miserable attempts in the process from Moulin Rouge, to Les Miserables or Chicago, even smaller endeavors such as Once just turned out as an O.K thing from the recipient or elite part. Still, the fact remained unchanged; Like Jazz, the genre was gone. It sadly belonged to a past era and It needed a total revolution. Damn, Chazelle made it all happen.
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34.À Nous la Liberté 1931
The most amazing french musical i`ve ever seen, and one of the most brilliant sources of inspiration for the all masters, composed by the Grand Maestro Rene Clair. À Nous la Liberté is warm and immortal with some of the most enchanting musical numbers of the history of cinema (including the title song).
Raymond Cordy and Henri Marchand are dashingly heart-wrenching. They portray the dehumanized society of the post first world war with brutally laughable and the anarchistic wit, which added by Clair satiric and ingenious experiment in creating rhythm through the machinery, workers and surrounding to lyricize . No wonder Chaplin` Modern Times was inspired from this movie… It was just not his fault, that comes with what they call the charm of a masterpiece.
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35.Gold Diggers of 1933 1933
One of the finest and most stylish Busby Berkley masterpieces with dozens of breath-taking numbers from Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler and of course the infamous “We`re in Money” from Ginger Rogers
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37.I’m No Angel 1933
Mae West and Cary Grant working swell on this flick, and that court sequence is one of the most hilarious scenes in the history of cinema!
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38.Swing Time 1936
Oh, is there anything more tenderly than Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance? They are the emblem of magic in cinema, swaying around the stage and stunning the viewers. I want to seize the opportunity to quote one of my all-time favorite critics here:
“Godard told us in the 1960s that “the cinema is truth 24 times a second, and every cut is a lie.” Astaire arrived at the same conclusion 35 years earlier. He believed every dance number should be filmed, as nearly as possible, in one unbroken take, always showing the full figures of the dancers from head to toes.”
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39.Flying Down to Rio 1933
I was going to get fascinated by first Astaire-Rogers due, but fell in love with Dolores del Rio….
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40.The Gay Divorcee 1934
How is it possible to be so breathtakingly good and brilliant in what you do?! That is when you are genius.
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44.Follow the Fleet 1936
Well not as memorable as Irving Berlin`s best numbers and Golden due`s best movies, this is more of a propaganda than entertainment… Still liked it…
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46.The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle 1939
The last RKO musical from the king and queen is the most disenchanting one… I don`t know if the term was coined that day but it is all chauvinism except for that kiss… that long long kiss.
Babak Geranfar | بابک گرانفر 
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