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Cameron H.

Musical Mondays-Week 7-Cabaret!

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Yeah! Tomspanks made the undisputed WORST PICK EVER without any doubt, conversation, or question. No one could ever do worse! No one!

 

 

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I feel like I possibly could with what I'm thinking of, but I'm still debating it. I can't remember how well it meets the criteria we're working with.

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I can't remember how well it meets the criteria we're working with.

For the record (because we had this conversation ages ago, and it's good to throw in a reminder from time to time), the criteria is just "is a musical," and that can be as broadly defined as you like. If you can justify it being a musical, it's fair game. It doesn't have to be amazing, and it doesn't have to be "HDTGM-worthy."

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So I finally watched Cabaret last night. I'm so glad all of you are here because I missed most of the subtleties everyone brought up. Even on the second watching I didn't get 1/10 of what the filmakers intended.

 

I saw Sally as someone who always had to have "drama" in her life. (Drama isn't the word I'm looking for but I can't think of the right word.) She takes the "May you live in interesting times" proverb literally. If she is bored she stirs things up. She pushed things with Brian because he wasn't moving fast enough (or at all) with her. As she said she definitely couldn't see herself cooped up in a little cottage playing nursemaid and dutiful housewife. She needed to be the center of attention. It also seemed like she was afraid of succeeding,. I don't think she even wanted to carry the baby to term and give it up for adoption out of fear she'd like being a mother. That would seem to be, as others have said, why she chose the cabaret. She was a star there and that was easier than making an actual effort where the results were unknown.

 

Brian I saw as trying whatever was put in front of him. If Max hadn't been so charismatic and as forceful as Sally I don't think Brian would have discovered that part of himself. I agree with Taylor Anne that I would have preferred to see a threesome rather than Brian putting the brakes on everything. In that absence I would have rather seen Brian and Max together at some point instead of it being lobbed in the middle of an argument. The only time we see Brian and Max alone is in the beer garden the Nazis take over. Maybe that's my issue with the movie overall. Everything significant was brought in as a side issue to something else. It blunted the impact.

 

I admit I still don't get the MC's character. The nearest I could tell is he was very like Sally, staying at the cabaret and changing the songs to match the encroaching Nazi influence. I also have to wonder at his relationship with Sally given the "flashback" where he openly groped her chest just before going onstage. It seems to me that he actually runs the Klub and probably had a casting couch when Sally came to town. He certainly seems to be more in charge than the bouncer/manager who was beaten. That he was all sneers and leers until the end still makes no sense to me. The end is where the contributions of this group helped me watch the movie. I finally understood the "Are your troubles forgotten? I thought so." and then the reprise of the opening lines. I was going to ask the forum how they knew the club was full of Nazis at the end but then the movie answered that beautifully.

 

I like contrasting the Nazis in Cabaret with Casablanca. In Casablanca the Nazis are there but stand off a little. They are seated in the back where they can see and be seen but not directly affect things without wading through crowds. At the end of Cabaret they occupy all of the first few rows of the club. Is their less forcefulness in Casablanca due to being in non-native land? They were certainly willing to push themselves around in Berlin. I would have thought they'd have even more of a forceful hand in occupied territories.

 

All in all, I'm glad for the pick and that I got to see this again. I'm sure I will watch it more in the future now that I can understand it better. The first time I saw it I was just shocked by it all. Thanks to everyone here I can appreciate what went into it.

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I guess I owe my mother an apology

I apologize for the tone of my post. I didn't mean it as bluntly as it sounded. I was just going to say I even debated posting because I'm not sure it qualifies as a musical. I don't remember any "prop" songs from the show except perhaps Old Man River. (Thanks to whoever posted that screen vs. stage article about Cabaret for teaching me the term "prop songs".)

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For the record (because we had this conversation ages ago, and it's good to throw in a reminder from time to time), the criteria is just "is a musical," and that can be as broadly defined as you like. If you can justify it being a musical, it's fair game. It doesn't have to be amazing, and it doesn't have to be "HDTGM-worthy."

I ran my ideas by Cameron H. Luckily he shot down my initial selection of An American Tail. One song does not a musical make. ^_^

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I ran my ideas by Cameron H. Luckily he shot down my initial selection of An American Tail. One song does not a musical make. ^_^/>

 

I don't remember that...I would be for it :)

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For the record (because we had this conversation ages ago, and it's good to throw in a reminder from time to time), the criteria is just "is a musical," and that can be as broadly defined as you like. If you can justify it being a musical, it's fair game. It doesn't have to be amazing, and it doesn't have to be "HDTGM-worthy."

 

I wasn't aiming for HDTGM-worthy, byt I did promise regret lol

 

I was more thinking of the criteria of the characters singing. I mean, they do sing, but some of it is the songs over footage, rather than onscreen singing. That's what is throwing me off.

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I ran my ideas by Cameron H. Luckily he shot down my initial selection of An American Tail. One song does not a musical make. ^_^

An American Tail has more than "Somewhere Out There," though. I can think of "Never Say Never" and "There Are No Cats in America," but I think there are a couple more as well (although I haven't seen the movie in years). I certainly would consider it a musical.

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I don't remember that...I would be for it :)

An American Tail has more than "Somewhere Out There," though. I can think of "Never Say Never" and "There Are No Cats in America," but I think there are a couple more as well (although I haven't seen the movie in years). I certainly would consider it a musical.

That will teach me to make jokes in a crowd of cinephiles. I didn't pick it Cameron but I think I may have to in a future go-round. I'm happy with my current pick.

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That will teach me to make jokes in a crowd of cinephiles. I didn't pick it Cameron but I think I may have to in a future go-round. I'm happy with my current pick.

 

lol--sorry, I wasn't sure if you were joking or not. My memory can be a bit selective... :)

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I apologize for the tone of my post. I didn't mean it as bluntly as it sounded. I was just going to say I even debated posting because I'm not sure it qualifies as a musical. I don't remember any "prop" songs from the show except perhaps Old Man River. (Thanks to whoever posted that screen vs. stage article about Cabaret for teaching me the term "prop songs".)

Oh no you weren't blunt at all. It very well could be that my Mom knew of the movie and I didn't and I was perhaps a bit dismissive of her when we talked. No need to apologize.

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No need to apologize.

 

Except to your mother! It sounds like you were a real jerk to her.

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For the record (because we had this conversation ages ago, and it's good to throw in a reminder from time to time), the criteria is just "is a musical," and that can be as broadly defined as you like. If you can justify it being a musical, it's fair game. It doesn't have to be amazing, and it doesn't have to be "HDTGM-worthy."

 

 

Do you think That Thing You Do! counts as a musical?

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Do you think That Thing You Do! counts as a musical?

 

For our purposes, yes.

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Do you think That Thing You Do! counts as a musical?

For our purposes, yes.

Depends on how you do it.

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Yeah, I'm not sure - if we start nominating movies that have a couple of memorable songs (American Tail, That Thing You Do!) it's less 'Musical Mondays' and more like 'Movies with Music Mondays'. All of the movies we've had so far have been classically-defined musicals in that they use music to move the plot along. I think it's good to push things a bit but you should be able to justify your choice within the definition of 'Musical Mondays'. A lot of animated movies have music, but they're not exactly musicals. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory have the Oompa-Loompa songs, but I don't think any of us would nominate that as a musical.

 

I'm more than happy to watch whatever, but something like 'American Tail' which has a couple of incidental songs feels like a bit of a stretch to me. I mean, I know we did Beauty and the Beast, but we could easily fill every slot from now on with Disney movies because they're all built to have some kind of musical element, even if it's something like Moana where there could arguably have been a couple more songs, or Zootopia where that one Shakira song comes in a few times. I like doing musicals rather than movies with music, but as I say, I'll watch whatever.

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A lot of animated movies have music, but they're not exactly musicals. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory have the Oompa-Loompa songs, but I don't think any of us would nominate that as a musical.

 

Excuse me?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2pt2-F2j2g

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Oh yeah, right on. Oh, and I forgot about 'Candy Man' and 'Golden Ticket' and all that. Scratch that example. Strike my post from the record, let's do everything and all.

 

ETA - hey, no fair, posting those other videos as I was conceding your point.

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Okay, so how about 'Wayne's World' (with the cover of The Sweet's 'Ballroom Blitz') or 'The Doors' (with all the Doors music)? Are those musicals?

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ETA - hey, no fair, posting those other videos as I was conceding your point.

 

Of course! I didn't mean to rub it in.

 

 

 

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Okay, so how about 'Wayne's World' (with the cover of The Sweet's 'Ballroom Blitz') or 'The Doors' (with all the Doors music)? Are those musicals?

 

No. I put my foot down on biopics.

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