I am not a fan of the musical genre in film. Anyway, I can count three films in the musical genre off the top of my head that I enjoy watching: Wizard of Oz (1939), Charlie and The Chocolate Factory (1971) and Moulin Rouge (2001). And what those films have in common is that they take advantage of the medium to tell the story. Consider in The Wizard of Oz, you had the tornado sequence, the Emerald City and the Wicked Witch’s Castle sets, not to mention the amazing effects (at the time) and the black and white to colorized film transition. They *used* the medium of film in very creative ways to tell the story.
In Charlie and Chocolate Factory, the art direction they used in the film was to truly make it magical. It was shot in Munich, Germany - a beautiful backdrop for the story. Surely the chocolate factory could have not been shown on the stage as it was shown in the film. Amazing special effects and once again, a creative use of the medium.
Finally, I felt Moulin Rouge once again pushed the envelope of the genre. They used extremely modern techniques in editing and digital effects to tell the story. And Moulin Rouge was a very risky film to make, especially considering the last big studio/budget musical film to be released was Evita (1996). Moulin Rouge had a visual style unlike any film in the musical genre as well as the whole modern pop music motif. And Nicole Kidman isn’t hard to look at, either.
But the point is - I like musicals which are written and developed for the screen. I do enjoy the stage musicals but I think that’s where they belong - on the stage. Considering the stark differences between stage and screen, I believe musical adaptations like Chicago do not translate well onto film. Watching the movie Chicago felt like I was watching it on stage, on the screen.
I won’t get into my other criticisms of the film which there are several of. I will say that I now fully realize that The Oscars are a sham - a popularity contest/marketing ploy in which Harvey Weinstein has destroyed what little integrity the awards had in the first place. If only he would promote his films which actually deserve to win awards…
I know Phantom of The Opera is in production and Dreamworks and Miramax (very strange collaboration) have greenlighted Rent. Hopefully, Joel Schumacher will do what he does best and turn Phantom into a bomb and kill the resurgence of musical adaptations. That’s my devious yet wishful thinking.
Oh, a P.S. to this post. I do remember another film, technically a musical which I really enjoyed watching - in fact, I own it on DVD. Dancer In The Dark (2000) caught my attention in the first place because I am a huge Bjork fan. But it is also think it’s a great film and an inspiration (not to mention technical achievement) for working with digital video.
I was just listening to Beck - The Golden Age