Retro Reel by Sreepathy, Volume 14

Retro Reel is a column about movies, but not about the latest box-office releases. There will be aspects of review, but the column is intended more as a recommendation of good movies of different genres, with the sense of a retrospective – hence, the ‘Retro’ in the name. In a day and age when movies are projected digitally, the word “reel” may seem retrograde and outdated. Yet, no other word captures the imagery of a movie as “Reel”…Sreepathy is an unabashed movie buff who loves a well-told onscreen story. He has a list of about 450 must-watch movies, and Retro Reel is an attempt to share with friends of a similar bent of mind, some of the best movie-watching experiences he has had. He lives in Naperville with his wife and two sons

Singin’ in the Rain

Joie de vivre !

Leading off a column with a lively French phrase for a movie that’s quintessentially American is ironic. In a country where many folks don’t want to utter “French” and “friendly” in the same sentence, you are better off looking for a Yankee phrase…Remember the wave of frenzied silliness against anything French, back in 2003, when the F-government responded not-so-enthusiastically to the Iraq War launched by the US ? When ‘French’ fries became ‘Freedom’ fries, ‘French’ toast became ‘Freedom’ toast, and so on ? Unbelievable, if you ask me. Though, I wonder if ‘Freedom’ kiss became a part of the national fervor and tasted any better after being renamed ! Anyway, that was pure jingoism, but this movie is pure joy. And, I can’t find a better expression than joie de vivre to sum up the experience of Singin’ in the Rain (1952). So, let’s stick with the French.

Arguably, Singin’ in the Rain is one of the best movies that Hollywood ever made, and the best musical it ever turned out. It’s right there at the top, jostling for space with musical creations such as My Fair Lady, though that was a tad too high-brow, dripping with Bernard Shaw’s acerbic wit and satire on the British aristocracy…Or Sound of Music, which was a tad too serious near the climax, dealing with its political background…Or West Side Story, which was a tad too dark carrying the burden of a social message of its time…Or The Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins, which were a tad too sweet, focusing on juvenile audiences. But, for its sheer fun-quotient, Singin’ in the Rain rises above all those musicals, making it the American Film Institute’s (AFI) most beloved one of all-time.

Though made in 1952, and in sumptuous color, Singin’ in the Rain’s story is set in the cusp of the Hollywood era that saw the transition from silent films to so-called “talking pictures”, when synchronized sound was integrated into black-and-white movies of the late 1920s. Its storyline involves three friends (and a not-so-friend) who make the journey from silence to symphony in cinema… Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly), helped by his best friend Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor), rises from being a stuntman, through the hierarchy of Hollywood’s star-system, to become a huge celebrity star. Don and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) are now the hotshot item-couple of the silent era, with a big fan-following. Their publicized affair in real life is as real as a three-dollar bill – Don can’t stand the shrill, cantankerous, celebrity-craving Lina, though Lina is very much smitten by Don. Into this mix arrives Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), an ordinary but vivacious girl, who outwardly projects an air of ‘I-don’t-care-about-your-stardom’ towards Don, but secretly is his big fan…And as the story traipses along, she completes the triumvirate of friends with Don and Cosmo.

There’s no great plot-driven story in Singin’ in the Rain. Don and Lina’s latest silent movie, The Dueling Cavalier, suddenly runs into competition with the sensation-creating, first ever talking picture, The Jazz Singer. Now, Cavalier’s producer is hell-bent on converting it into a talking picture as well. Apart from all the technological challenges, there’s only one other problem in adding sound to the silence of the movie – Lina’s voice. You see, Lina has vocal chords that would make even the horse’s not-so-popular cousin preen with pride…So Kathy comes to the rescue, with her sweet lilting voice…The entire narrative of the movie is in the fun and frolic of how the three friends (and Lina) go about converting the silent Cavalier into one filled not just with sound, but with music – all of which results in making Singin’ in the Rain itself into a joyous musical.

Every good movie is the work of a good team, but in the case of a musical the performance of the ensemble is even more crucial. The team has to get all the elements just right – the script, the direction, the acting, the visuals, the music, and the dance. Singin’ in the Rain is a great example of a perfect ensemble at work. The fact that Gene Kelly himself was a wonderful actor, singer, and dancer must’ve helped him enormously to co-direct the movie with Stanley Donen. You’ve got to see the charming chemistry that flows between the main characters onscreen. Especially, between the three friends played by Kelly, O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds. And even more so, between Kelly and O’Connor – it’s wonderful to see the effortless, sparkling synchrony between them when they dance together. Watch them at their best in the song “Moses Supposes” – there are some amazingly choreographed sequences in that dance number that are as aesthetic as they are hilarious. The other song that brings down the house is O’Connor’s “Make ‘Em Laugh”, which raises mere slapstick antics to the realm of visual art. And O’Connor, an actor born to do comedy, should get the entire credit for it – he has a body that has you wondering what supple material went into its making, and a face of latex that contorts into a thousand different shapes. Shapes so popular, that even after six decades, Ranbir Kapoor apes them in totality for the recent Barfi. O’Connor’s was truly a face that was made for making faces.

There are many song-and-dance entrees in the movie, but you cannot have any discussion about Singin’ in the Rain without talking about its signature song “Singin’ in the Rain”. The singing is special in this song – Kelly sings from the core of his heart and never gives you the impression that he himself has not just fallen in love and that only his character has. The dancing is special too – he has obviously choreographed the dance, but when you see him perform it, it seems improbable that he is anything but spontaneously creating it. In the song, he uses his only companion – a commonplace umbrella – so exquisitely that it makes you think that the humble instrument should be a part of every romance. Heck, even the rain in the song is special. With limited visual-effects possible in the 1950s, they apparently mixed milk into the water so that the raindrops could be seen on screen to create that scintillating effect. Easily one of the most memorable scenes on screen ever, this song manages to retain its freshness even after multiple viewings – much like the iconic screen moment that Raj Kapoor created when he walked under an umbrella with Nargis on a rain-drenched, cobbled street singing “Pyaar Hua, Iqraar Hua” in Shree 420.

Singin’ in the Rain was made at the peak of a movie era when the richness of a musical piece was measured by its melody, not by its drumbeats or decibels; an era, when dancing was a graceful swaying of the body, not the gyration of its various parts; a time, whose songs and dances quietly filled the spaces and voids created by the unspoken words of the amour and ardor of its stories. If cinema of that kind appeals to you, gather your family, friends, kids (yours, theirs, doesn’t matter) for two hours of clean, exuberant, feel-good fun…

It’ll be mood-altering, I guarantee you that !

PS: ‘Singin’ in The Rain’ is available in the Naperville Public Library.