Fred and Ginger on DVD
Filed under: Music & Musicals, New on DVD
At long last, some of the most magical musicals ever made have come to DVD: The Astaire and Rogers Collection (Vol 1! There are more coming? Hooray!) is released today. The set includes Shall We Dance, Top Hat, Swing Time, Follow the Fleet, and The Barkleys of Broadway. Shall We Dance, Swing Time, and Top Hat all feature commentary, and there are making-of shorts, random cartoons, and assorted other goodies on the discs.In Top Hat (my personal favorite by a mile) Astaire is somehow both dorky and debonair; both leering and comforting, while Rogers carries herself with dignity and grace in the face of his endless provocations. Though the most famous scene in the film is the one in which Astiare lulls a pissed off Rogers to sleep by dancing on sand on the floor above her room, the "Isn't This a Lovely Day (to be Caught in the Rain)" sequence is much more impressive. In it, Fred and Ginger find themselves together in a bandstand, both seeking shelter from a thunderstorm. They start out taunting and then answering one another-- I can do anything you can do better, but wordlessly, in dance. Then, suddenly, they're moving together, but it's a dance filled with tension (yes, sexual-- and in a movie from the 30's!), and totally without physical contact. The attraction between them is heightened immeasurably by their refusal to touch; to admit they can no longer resist the other. By the end of the sequence, when they're finally moving together as one, we actually are convinced they belong together. All of this through three minutes of movement, expression, and song-- and without a single explosion.
Even if you're not a fan of musicals or (shame!) the dreaded black and white, it's so thrilling to watch Fred and Ginger together that either Swing Time or Top Hat is worth the $20 it'll cost you to buy a single disc of the set. At the very least, stick those suckers in your Netflix queue.
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