Hobie: "God, you, uh, you look, uh ... you look very pretty in this candlelight."
Melinda: "Well, I'm sure anyone would look amazing with all these flickering shadows and all the wine you're drinking."
Hobie: "Right, right, uh ... well, I-I-I'm - I'm drinking because life moves so fast ... so unpredictably. You know, it's-it's over so fast and in the end what is it? Chekhov said a soap bubble."
Peter:"Is there anything more frightening other than the destruction of the world?"
Lloyd: "The knowledge that it doesn't matter one way or the other ... it's all random ... resonating aimlessly out of nothing and eventually vanishing forever. I'm not talking about the world. I'm talking about the universe ... all space ... all time ... just a temporary convulsion."
Woody Allen's musical comedy entitled EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU featured an amusing sequence near the conclusion of the film that takes place on New Year's Eve. Some of the film's characters attend a party in Paris wherein the guests are asked to dress as Groucho Marx or a Marx Brother. During this soiree there is a musical number performed by The Helen Miles Singers. The performers are dressed as different versions of film Grouchos. You can see the HORSE FEATHERS Groucho, the ANIMAL CRACKERS Groucho and a DUCK SOUP Groucho in nightcap and night shirt.
Many dislike Woody Allen's excursion into musical comedy, but THE FUTURIST! loves it. He saw it twice ... well, actually once in its entirety in the theater. Then, one day, while waiting for another film THE FUTURIST! crept into the auditorium featuring EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU and watched the Paris party sequence again. Happy days.
Listen and take delight:
VIVE LE CAPITAINE SPAULDING (HOORAY FOR CAPTAIN SPAULDING) from the film EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU (1996) performed by The Helen Miles Singers
THE FUTURIST! has always had a fondness for movie musicals. HE never really cared for those big brash color MGM spectaculars ... no, he loves those old Fred Astaire RKO films with their funny farcical plots and glistening black and white set direction. The moment the talking stopped and Fred and Ginger Rogers danced and sang to replace the "words" they wanted to say or emotions that needed to be expressed ... that's when the magic began. And even after they stopped and found themselves settled back at the restaurant table or park bench they had started from before the musical magic took over, THE FUTURIST! still felt the effects of that fantasy and feeling.
In 1996 Woody Allen attempted to make a movie musical of sorts ... it was to be his usual mix of various characters, their romantic entanglements and regrets and hope. He purposely cast actors who were not known for singing and then let them sing. They did what Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers did, but in the way the public imagined they themselves would do it if they could ... not as classy, not as melodic, but still with the feeling one feels when watching those old musicals. They feel special and romantic and as if those feelings, whether happy or sad, can enable them to dance on air.
THE FUTURIST! loved this experiment by his favorite movie maker. Oh, it wasn't perfect, not at all, but it achieved what THE FUTURIST! thinks Allen wanted to achieve ... maybe with a few false steps along the way. He recalls that when he saw another film at his local megaplex at the time, he sneaked back to the auditorium that was showing this film. He walked into the darkness and took a seat at the back and found he had crept in at one of the moments he loved the most ... the romantic dance along the Seine between Woody and Goldie Hawn. It's a bit much to call it a "dance", but this sequence expresses most of what THE FUTURIST! feels those musicals stirred in him as a young lad ... the magic mixture of song and dance and film. Goldie literally floats above and around Woody in a surreal moment only the movies can provide. Her lighter than air dance expresses her feelings about love and and her character's regret. It lifted THE FUTURIST!, too. Most movies don't extend their hand to you and take you away on a cloud like they once did ... and when they are over, you find yourself back where you started ... but left with the ghost of a smile.
Listen and watch:
I'M THRU WITH LOVE written by Gus Kahn, Matt Malneck and Fud Livingston performed by Goldie Hawn from the film EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU (1996)
A week of drudgery and dark thoughts can be swept aside so easily.
THE FUTURIST! returned to his abode in Utter Despair and found mail awaiting his discovery. There were two bills needing to be paid, a NetFlix DVD and a postcard from overseas. Overseas?!! The back of the card was the first thing he saw and it was from Scotland. Admirers from the land of kilts and Sean Connery had sent him a postcard. Quite delightful. However, turning the card over and seeing the front (above picture) was even more smile inducing; a picture of Woody Allen as Jimmy Bond, James Bond's nephew (alias Dr. Noah) from CASINO ROYALE (1967).
Ah, Great Britain, Ireland and Scotland. It seems destined to be a land that THE FUTURIST! needs to explore. It is the home of new Internet acquaintances, namely Amber Wilkinson of EYE FOR FILM, the Dr. Who enthusiast man/child David Quin, the comically ever angry Jonnie Marbles, the aptly named Ms. Wozy Hamish and the new home to The Gentleman of Leisure. What kind souls all and how affable.
Yes, a mere 6 inch x 4 inch piece of cardboard with a greeting bearing a film favorite on its front that traveled a great ocean to Utter Despair ... something that small could make Utter Despair a bit brighter.
A taste of Woody Allen's new film showing at the Cannes Film Festival. It's called YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER. THE FUTURIST! considers the below small visual sample a big treat.
"Cloquet hated reality, but realized it was still the only place to get a good steak."
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"Ah, God, how the mind boggles when it turns to moral or ethical considerations! Better not think too much. Rely more on the body --- the body is more dependable. It shows up for meetings, it looks good in a sports jacket and when it really comes in handy is when you want to get a rubdown."
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"A feeling of nausea swept over him as he contemplated the implications of his action. This was an existential nausea, caused by his intense awareness of the contingency of Life, and could not be relieved with an ordinary Alka-Seltzer. What was required was an Existential Alka-Seltzer --- a product sold in many Left Bank drugstores. It was an enormous pill, the size of an automobile hubcap, that, dissolved in water, took away the queasy feeling induced by too much awareness of Life. Cloquet had also found it helpful after eating Mexican food."
