singin in the rain Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you didn't catch it over the weekend, Joseph Gordon-Levitt hosted Saturday Night Live, and kicked things off with a huge recreation of Donald O'Connor's slapstick performance of "Make 'Em Laugh" in Singin' in the Rain. He didn't just sing the song, thank everyone, and let it go to commercial. He performed many of the moves from the film himself, and if you're at all familiar with the scene, you know it's not just simple jive. For a live performance that has no benefit of retakes, it's darned impressive.

Of course, it's yet another example of the actor's impressive talents; that man's got mad skills. It's not too often these days that we get an actor who can be funny, serious, and an impressive live showman all in one package. Heck, the most we can usually get is a funny singer who dances, a mediocre hottie who dances, a funny man who can deliver some drama, or something similar. All of the above? Not these days.

Yet here Gordon-Levitt is, with one of my favorite SNL introductions ever. Movieline described Joseph as having "showman skills so hyperkinetic and gooey that Marc Summers might've Febrezed his screen." But what I want to know is: Could he help revive the idea of multi-talented show-people in Hollywood? Even if you don't like song and dance numbers (which, I admit, I usually don't), it can't hurt for Hollywood to start pressing the importance of a wide skill set. These days most actors are a one-note wonder, and here is JGL tackling every genre with ease while making this girl mourn a cinematic style she's never missed.

Does JGL make you miss the days of that flamboyant business we call show? Check out the original performance and the SNL stint after the jump and weigh in below.

If you're like me, then you have no shortage of classic films to catch up on, and if you're like me, you can't exactly fork the dough over for every special edition issued for said films (and if you're like me, then you abuse parallel sentence structure like nobody's business). Thankfully, Turner Classic Movies and Warner Bros. have teamed up to offer a good fifteen discs with four movies on each of them for about twenty to twenty-five bucks apiece.

Casablanca, Gigi, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Philadelphia Story, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Searchers, Singin' in the Rain, The Wild Bunch, The Dirty Dozen, The Maltese Falcon and much more -- not too shabby, huh? And here I used to think that Warner Home Video was handiest for Stallone-themed packs (because some of us haven't seen Over the Top, okay?).

Between this and their recent initiative to provide custom-burned copies of archival titles, Warners seems to be doing the most of any studio to preserve their library and make it widely available. For about $20, you could get a movie that few people have, or four movies that you ought to own anyway -- or you could just get several copies of Demolition Man. Priorities, people.

The movie Be Kind Rewind is being released on DVD today. Even if you didn't see the movie, you probably remember the delightful trailer, in which Jack Black and Mos Def shoot their own low-budget, low-everything versions of blockbusters like Ghostbusters and Driving Miss Daisy. In addition, another movie about the joy of making movies is still playing in some theaters -- Son of Rambow, where two boys are inspired to shoot their own version of Rambo complete with flying dogs, nursing-home residents bribed as actors, and a fabulous French exchange student.

I can think of dozens of enjoyable movies about moviemaking (and a few clunkers, but we'll ignore them for today). But I decided to focus on seven of the most characteristic films. I didn't include films about screenwriters, because I think those would be fun to list another time, or films about moviegoing like Cinema Paradiso. Instead, I focused on the inspired and sometimes crazed filmmakers. Afterwards, you can tell me which of your favorites I left off the list.

I'm not the most knowledgeable man when it comes to dance, but I'm at least a little familiar with Cyd Charisse. As everyone should be. Next to Ginger Rogers, she was possibly the most iconic female dancer in film history. Even those of us cinephiles who skip out on most dance musicals have at least seen her famous number from Singin' in the Rain (above). A few years ago, when Moviefone counted down the Top 10 Best Dance Scenes, it was #2 (just behind Dirty Dancing).

Charisse has died of an apparent heart attack at the age of 86, and she's hopefully joining old partners Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly for some of the best dance scenes ever seen up in heaven. With the former, she was paired up in The Band Wagon, Ziegfeld Follies and Silk Stockings (for which she received a Golden Globe nomination), and with the latter, she danced in Brigadoon, It's Always Fair Weather, Invitation to Dance and, of course, in Singin' in the Rain.

I know what you're probably thinking: "Geez Chris, enough with the technology stuff already." Even if you do think that, I just feel compelled to bring you these interesting tidbits about how technology helps, enhances or otherwise makes things better for films and filmmakers. This time around, it's not a technique or technology used during production or post-production. In this case, it's a technology used to help give older films the fantastic look of a newborn, just delivered to the theater.

What is this miraculous technology of which I speak? It's called Ultra Resolution and it's pretty exciting stuff. According to a recent article in The Hollywood Reporter, the technique, invented by some smart chaps at Warner Bros., has been nominated this year for a Scientific and Technical Academy Award and has helped in the restoration of several films in the studio's vast library -- including Singing In the Rain, The Wizard of Oz, and one of my personal favorites, The Searchers. According to the article, prints of these classic films exhibited blurring or "color fringing" as well as shrinkage, stretching and other damage. In case you can't tell, that's a bad thing.

These issues were made especially visible by the Ultra Resolution process that involves digitally realigning and sharpening the older film negatives of these classic movies shot on Technicolor three-strip film -- thus enabling a much better restoration than previously possible. Says Chris Cookson, president, Warner Bros. Technical Operations and chief technology officer, Warner Bros. Entertainment: "It not only benefits Warner Bros. and the industry at large, it benefits the movies themselves and the people who love them." Well, I'm one of those people so I say, "Keep up the good work, Chris." Films are an important part of our history and the more that can be done to preserve them, the better.