How cynical can a musical be? Director Herbert Ross and
screenwriter Dennis Potter did a neat job of distilling the
British TV miniseries (also written by Potter, who died last
year) into the length of a U.S. feature film. Steve Martin
plays Arthur Parker, an unpleasant idealist who sells sheet
music (or "songs," as he puts it) during the American
Depression. When Arthur falls in love with schoolteacher Eileen
(Bernadette Peters), he abandons (then returns to) his wife,
who is less accomodating sexually, but does have an inheritance
that Arthur wants to exploit to open a record store. In
glimpses into characters' minds, the actors dance and lip-sync
with canned recordings from the era to bizarre and ironic
results, as when Vernel Bagneris mouths "Pennies From Heaven"
in front of a photographic blow-up of Depression-era homeless.
Later, Christopher Walken (yep) puts on a show-stopping version
of "Let's Misbehave." "I want to live in a world where the
songs come true," Arthur tells Eileen (now Lulu), in a tableaux
drawn from an Edward Hopper painting. "There must be someplace
where them songs are for real." Only in your dreams.
Song, Dance: 5 Movie
Musicals
DEEP FOCUS
http://www.deep-focus.com/dfweblog/
Reviews by Bryant Frazer bryant@deep-focus.com
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