Post by Doghouse6 on Feb 24, 2019 2:37:51 GMT
As opposed to directors with identifiable styles, such as a Hitchcock or Wyler, Donen's films were more often than not very stylish, but each in a way that adapted itself to the mood of the material: the energy and urgency of On the Town; the giddy and colorful abandon of Singin' In the Rain; the physicality and exuberance of Seven Brides For Seven Brothers; the good-humored cynicism of It's Always Fair Weather; the sense of bold yet delicate artistry of Funny Face; the mannered but sly reserve of The Grass Is Greener; the stark disorientation of Arabseque; the broken-narrative trajectory of Two For the Road.
I've realized I was within Donen's physical sphere twice in my life. The first was at a double feature revival screening of The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees (two of his great examples of "opening up" properties conceived for the stage), at which he conducted a generous Q&A with the audience. Speaking of "double feature," that was the working title of the film released as Movie Movie (a title I hated) that occasioned the second encounter in late 1977, when I watched him shoot segments of a production number on a WB stage for the "Baxter's Bathing Beauties of 1933" segment of that film's satire of/tribute to early '30s genre pictures.
From the classic MGM opulence of Royal Wedding to the incongruous juxtaposition of fantasism with the arid and earthly locations of The Little Prince, Donen was nothing if not adventurous.
I've realized I was within Donen's physical sphere twice in my life. The first was at a double feature revival screening of The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees (two of his great examples of "opening up" properties conceived for the stage), at which he conducted a generous Q&A with the audience. Speaking of "double feature," that was the working title of the film released as Movie Movie (a title I hated) that occasioned the second encounter in late 1977, when I watched him shoot segments of a production number on a WB stage for the "Baxter's Bathing Beauties of 1933" segment of that film's satire of/tribute to early '30s genre pictures.
From the classic MGM opulence of Royal Wedding to the incongruous juxtaposition of fantasism with the arid and earthly locations of The Little Prince, Donen was nothing if not adventurous.