Sweeney Todd — Or Not
December 5th, 2007
Because of a bloody embargo, I can’t yet share my thoughts on Tim Burton’s adaptation of the Sondheim musical, starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Instead, here are clips from twelve musicals I love. Enjoy.
What good is sitting alone in your room?
“Cheek to Cheek”
“Wig in a Box.” I once saw John Cameron Mitchell perform this with the Polyphonic Spree, and it was a perfect fit.
Lars gets his Björk on — in DV!
“Well Did You Evah?” with Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. Some people apparently prefer The Philadelphia Story, but I don’t.
“Let the Sunshine In/The Flesh Failures”
I wish there was a longer clip of “Crash the Party” online. Anybody?
I like the island Manhattan.
The video of “Girls & Boys” from Prince’s woefully underrated second film. Also: Mountains. Wrecka Stow!
Israel in 4 B.C. had no mass communication. Also: Gethsemane.
“Falling Slowly”
The first time I ever teared up over a YouTube clip.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Tim Burton, 2007. N/R
Seetha’s Dance
September 10th, 2006
In 1921, hot off Die Spinnen, Fritz Lang was set to direct an adaptation of Thea von Harbou’s novel The Indian Tomb. But producer Joe May was convinced the two-part melodrama would be huge, so he decided to direct it himself. Almost forty years later, when he had a hard time finding work in Hollywood, Lang returned to Germany to direct a new version of the Indian epic. Both films–Der Tiger von Eschnapur and Das Indische Grabmal–are brightly colored and utterly risible. There’s an awful lot of brown makeup. YouTube happens to have the scene from the ‘59 Tiger in which Seetha (Debra Paget), a dancer who has fallen in love with the European engineer, must prove her loyalty to the Maharaja by dancing with a deadly snake. It’s the best scene in the entire 3+ hours epic.
Project Logic
December 4th, 2005
It wasn’t easy getting out of the house after 11 on a freezing December night, but the Project Logic late set at Blue Note was worth the effort. DJ Logic had a bunch of swingin’ cats sit in who gave the groove a distinctly New Orleanean flavor. The beats chugged on till 3:30am, and by then the tables covered in overpriced drinks had been pushed aside for some seriously illegal dancing (Blue Note doesn’t have a cabaret license.) When we left, the village was covered in the first snow of the season, and in Washington Square Park, giddy NYU kids were running around with the rats.
