Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
This amazing and much needed film has filled that hole in my world left gaping ever since Xanadu. I had despaired that American film would ever again ride the simple jouissance of one incredible, candy-colored dance number after another, after another, building and cresting with no obvious destination except "Up and Out"! Goes the glass elevator, through the roof of the chocolate factory, blowing my mind, then and now.
I won't repeat StinkyLulu's on point commentary. One technical query. Is the sound muddy during the Oompa Loompa songs intentionally, in a sort of hyper-erudite reference to the somewhat grungy sound and lighting of 1970s era film? Or was I just watching the film in a crummy theater? I wavered between being disappointed at being deprived of Roald Dahl's priceless doggerel, and enjoying the smart of the wink-wink nudge-nudge reference to pre-MTV music videos, which were usually just performance footage gussied up with cheap 'effects' like the one used in Charlie to clone one actor into an Oompa-Loompa army.
Oompa-Loompa. This words makes me very happy.
posted by Tavia @ 11:56 AM
1 Comments:
Hey hey. The muddy sound is tough to explain. It'll be interesting to hear if it's better on DVD. We saw it in a pretty new/fancy facilitiy & the words were nearly unintelligible. Of course, in the 1971 version, the non-Dahl lyrics are graphically displayed for easy apprehension -- so it may have been part of the general attempt to "smarten up" this version.
And, yes, Xanadu. Ahhhhh, Xanadu. I'm so glad to have someone who can appreciate my shock at how Sedgwickian a triangle the relationship btwn Gene Kelly/Michael Beck/ONJ really was. I love that movie in such a profound way, but even I have to admit that that last number jumps the shark a few times...
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