I can't make love to a BUSH!

Singing in the Rain, is probably my new obsession, is a movie that I would like to rent right now and show all of my friends if they haven't seen it. The entire cast was wonderful, especially Gene Kelley, who I had never even heard of until this movie. And the movie in general had so many different stories that was very entertaining throughout the entire thing.

I thoroughly enjoy watching movies and especially with those which have some singing and dancing. The color and lighting of this movie was extremely bright and detailed. In this video, , it shows a remake of the song by Usher alongside the actual scene from the movie. From this, you can just compare how significant the color was to the director and cinematographer. Even in the other song, when Gene and Donald were giving a suggestion for a song in the movie, the color had so much detail, it was almost as if they were trying to show and signify that this is not a black and white movie, but the time period was set when only black and white films were being released.

The film's story itself, showed the transformation that occurred from silent films to the films when sound came into use, talkies. I thought it was really cool to actually see their point of view, and how such a phenomenon was doubted, while we are so use to the fact that people talk in movies. Also, not only did they show the transformation of silent movies to talkies, but also the transformation of how the sound was recorded, from having the microphone hidden in the bushes to the art of dubbing a sound. I thought it was very ironic, when Donna told us that in the songs that were sung in the movie, which were being dubbed by Cathy Seldon, were actually also dubbed by someone else. I always was aware of dubbing, but this movie gave us the chance to see the actual process on how dubbing is done. I know an Indian actress who has a rough, scratchy voice, and in her first film her voice is dubbed. I never had watched that movie until I knew her as her established self, so when I sat down to watch her first movie, I couldn't finish watching it because it bothered me so much that whenever she spoke, it wasn't her real voice.

I think I enjoyed watching all of the songs in the movie, and especially watching the actors do their intricate tap dancing. My favorite song was Make them laugh, the choreography was just amazing, and the song really did make me laugh! Another song that I loved was Good morning. I also found the lyrics to that song very relative to my nights/mornings. I think it was hilarious how well I could relate to that song. Moses supposes, I thought was the most random song, but yet enjoyable to watch.

The editing and the way the story was put was also really different and amazing to me. The opening scene, where we are introduced to the characters and their world in Hollywood as an audience gave just enough distance for myself as an audience. But when Gene started going into flashback and telling his story, I thought it was really cool that we were unraveling a layer at a time, and getting closer to the characters for who they are and not what they show themselves to be. I also felt a little sorry for his friend, played by Donald, for both of them started their struggle together, but he got left behind in all of the fame, which could be seen on how the reporter treated him. But I thought that Gene was a sincere and good friend, and that both together made a wonderful duo. When Donna told us that Lena's voice was part of the acting, that was a little believable, but more than that it was relieving to know that because I almost felt guilty for laughing every moment she even spoke a word. If noticed, she was really silent the first many minutes of the movie, she didn't speak until later, and that was because she had no other choice. Cathy Seldon was my favorite character after Donald's character. I kind of have that negative point of view on some actors who seem to act the same in every movie, so if you've seen one of his movies, you've definitely seen them all. I also liked how her character grew throughout the film.

On a side note. I was watching an award function the other day, and I found myself more interested on which film won awards in things like editing, directing, cinematography, sounds, and many other categories more than finding out who would be the best actor for the year. This class has already started to change my outlook on film, and I'm glad.

And I thought it would be cool to look at a trailer from the 1950's. So here it is, enjoy!