10 of my favourite movie musical numbers

Some time ago I made a list of my favourite musical moments in non-musical movies. So this list is a natural follower! It also happens to match the first challenge in the new Movie Monday blog. (Note: no animations accepted on the list! Why? It would be filled with Disney songs, and I already made that list.)
 

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10. Time Warp in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

This movie is so insane. It doesn't have a sensible moment in its running time! And I appreciate and respect that. Time Warp is the catchiest and thus my favourite song in the musical, so it has the honour to inhabit the last but not... well, yes, the least position on the list. In a list ranking songs according to their ability to get stuck on your head, this would be number one by a bullet! ... Aaaand just when you thought I would get through with this without mentioning the Glee version, I go and mention the Glee version. Because it's brilliant and Kurt is brilliant and so on and so forth.




 9. My Favourite Things in The Sound of Music (1965)

It's just so very sweet, okay? And so is Julie Andrews, ah!




8. Greased Lightning in Grease (1978)

 I used to love Grease, but then I watched it too many times and now I just kind of unactively like it for the nostalgic value. Still, there's no denying the entertainment value of John Travolta's hips and the always-makes-your-feet-restless value of the beat in Greased Lightning.

7. Good Morning in Singing' in the Rain (1952)

I could've and maybe should've chosen the most iconic musical scene in the history if cinema, but decided to go with this one instead without much ado. I just like the melody and the enthusiastic and cheerful mood of the scene. And the tap dance. Oh, the tap dance.

6.  Can I Have This Dance in High School Musical 3 (2008)

Haha, I think it's appropriate to talk about a black sheep here. Me and High School Musicals go way back, and it would've been unfair and evasive to ignore that fact when making this list. Now, about this particular song and scene. Sometimes I've been joking that I want to dance to this at my wedding, and unfortunately it wasn't always pure joking. I have now accepted that this song will indeed have nothing at all to do with my wedding, whatsoever, but while I'm beginning to forget the lyrics to all the other HSM songs, I still find myself listening to this once in a while. It's quite nice, really. And not half as cheesy as it could be.




5. A Little Priest in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

 Well, first, if there's Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and singing involved, it can't end up being nothing too bad. Sweeney Todd is pretty great, and I chose this scene for its quirkiness, its relevance to the plot, and for the pure joy of watching Johnny and Helena work their magic together.




4. Cell Block Tango in Chicago (2002)

Chicago is sexy and chic and just unresistable. It has many, many awesome musical numbers, but Cell Block Tango is hands down my favourite. Those murderesses just kick ass! After this, no one can say that murder is not an art.




3. Somewhere Over The Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

It doesn't get much more classic than this. Judy Garland, stuck in the dull, colourless Kansas, dreams of a better place somewhere over the rainbow, not knowing that's exactly where she will end up soon enough. Oh, I adore this song.

2. Dancing Queen in Mamma Mia! (2008)

This movie is such a joy. It's the ultimate pleasure without a single drop of guilt. Meryl Streep and the girls dancing around a beautiful Greek island, singing this timeless, feel-good ABBA song, is so much fun - just a thought of it is somehow uplifting and makes a smile sneak up on your face. The best thing is, you don't necessarily have to be young and sweet, only seventeen, to a be dancing queen. It just takes some growing back down.




1. El Tango De Roxanne in Moulin Rouge! (2001)

Moulin Rouge! had to be number one, of course. Deciding on just one song, scene, number, was a much trickier job to do. Your Song, Elephant Love Medley and Come What May finally lost, though only by inches, to the dramatic, thrilling, flamboyant, goosebumps-quaranteed El Tango De Roxanne. Oh, how vividly we feel the heart-rending pain of Ewan McGregor. You just want to give him a big hug. But only after he's stopped singing! Don't you dare interrupt the magic in action.

Movie Moment: six sexy singing murderesses

This week I chose this splendid moment from the splendid film Chicago. The Cell-Block Tango is one of my favourite musical numbers in all the musicals ever made. The six murderesses each tell their story and give  reasons to kill a man, some better than others. It's fierce and smoking hot and the melody gets stuck in your head but you don't really mind. Catharine Zeta-Jones is the star of the number as she is the star of the movie. She kicks ass as the proud, ruthless Velma Kelly.

This is a dose of the kind of girl power you don't see every day!

(And you can't help but wonder... What on earth happened with Nine??)

Nine

Yesterday I asked my sister how she wanted to spend her rare night off. She said she didn't remember how normal people (people with no children) spend their evenings, so we were very unimaginative and rented a movie. It came down to two musicals: Nine and Fame. We picked the wrong one.

Nine (2009)

Directed by Rob Marshall. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, plus all the other Oscar winning actresses in the world.

Long story short: The Italian director Guido Contini struggles with the script of his next movie. And the women in his life.

I'm a big fan of Chicago, so despite all the negative reviews Nine has received, I was ready to like it if possible. Well, I have to say, the reviews are right. Compared to Chicago, it was a disapointment. The story, if there was one, was just blah. It seemed so incoherent, just random singing and dancing sequences one after the other. Like my sister pointed out, someone probably had problems with the script of this film, too. Or that's what it seemed like.

The all-star cast didn't help much, but let's look at them more closely anyway. I often have problems when an actor is doing an accent I know is not their own. It takes a while to get use to it. With this movie I was bothered especially by Day-Lewis and Nicole Kidman's fake accents. But well. My own problem, really. Kidman made me want to watch Moulin Rouge!, because that's what I immidiately associated her singing with. Penelope Cruz was, I have to admit, hot. I always like Marion Cotillard. Kate Hudson's sequence was like a modern pop music video. Fergie was surprisingly good, her "Be Italian" music sequence was the catchiest, and that's when I got the only shivers of the film. (Though me and my sister both kept wondering how uncomfortable it must be for the dancers with all the sand flying at their faces all the time...) Judi Dench's character was my favorite, and her and Guido's dialogues were the best scenes in the poor movie.

I really don't have much more to say. The costumes were nice (though they looked very Chicago-ish (ok, that's not a word)) and some settings too. But well. It might've looked good, but it doesn't compensate for that sorry excuse for a plot. Me and my sister both agreed that we should've gone for Fame. We'll know better next time. Choose the one with no Oscar nominations.

"Directing a movie is a very overrated job, we all know it. You just have to say yes or no. What else do you do? Nothing. "Maestro, should this be red?" Yes. "Green?" No. "More extras?" Yes. "More lipstick?" No. Yes. No. Yes. No. That's directing."

Now it's Stand by Me time! Whoo! I'm ready to relate alarmingly well to 12-year-old boys! Bring it oooooon!