ET 16: Singing In The Rain in Singing In The Rain ~

             ‘Expressionism’ stood out very prominently ever since the development of 20^th century modernism. Exclusively in the fields of art, many artists had coped this idea into many portraits and movie makers had transformed their films to be expressionistic. Expressionism genuinely presents the assortment of emotional moods and ideas in distorted way to the audience wholeheartedly from the subjective perspective. Gene Kelly, along with Stanley Donan, sophisticatedly directed “Singing in the rain” movie in a mixture of both expressionistic and musical motifs (colorful, modernized, sound). When mentioning other expressionistic movies that I have watched in my film class such as M or Metropolis, I have realized quite unrealistic settings and locations where the characters play with the ideology of fear. Expressionism can also be found in the famous screams portrait (by Edvard Munch) or even in the use of mysterious shadows to manifest a person’s sensations (like death coming) rather than a physical object in the movie 'M'. Despite all these facts that a person can convey pessimistic or ugly concerns through expressionism, Gene Kelly has successfully created optimistic one through his scene of singing in the rain in “Singing in the Rain!”

The scene curtains on when the two new lovebirds start with their first kiss at the doorstep while it’s raining. I remember the lines of them saying; Debbie Reynolds’ “You are a big singing star now, remember?” and Gene’s “Where I stand, the sun is shining all over the place,” which was very expressing in a meaningful way. Normally, the prop ‘rain’ is used to express sadness, disaster, changing weathers or the dark side of the scene in many movies. Whereas in ‘Singing in the Rain’, the rain itself expresses the release of all weariness and the beginning of a new ‘Don’ in peace with fresh ideas. Don is no longer a boring, muted actor alone now that he has transformed into a big singing star with his newfound love ‘Kathy’. He is now ready for love, ready to change and ready to fight with these dark clouds that everybody is running away from. The sun is now in his heart that he does not ‘run’ but ‘sing’ in the rain with a smile and a glorious feeling! =)

“I walk down the lane
With a happy refrain
Just singin',
Singin' in the rain

Dancin' in the rain
Dee-ah dee-ah dee-ah
Dee-ah dee-ah dee-ah
I'm happy again!
I'm singin' and dancin' in the rain!”

            Gene Kelly singing these lines in the rain, while dancing with his feet, taps and walks, jumping on the light post like a kid makes me remember him singing “Fit as a fiddle” in the beginning with Donald O’Conner. Both of them were wearing stripes and funny looking faces that the audience would love to enjoy. They were young, cute, and free, and they took all over the stage like the normal kids. But Gene becomes a very well known actor that so many girls are dreaming to get him. Thus, of course he’s got these stylish and shiny white coats on when he stood in front of the public; in fact, he wore a phony outfit to be good looking. Now? Everything has changed through this wash-away rain! For this moment, he’s got his nature back. He let his chauffeur go ahead first so that he would simply walk back home. He is wearing a simple brown coat that anybody else could be wearing. He doesn’t mind getting wet and cold through the rain and he is very thrilled to touch the raindrops to his body. He doesn’t mind his expensive shoes getting wet but care-freely he jumped into the puddles for fun like a kid again! Thus, this whole dance and sing act in the rain has made Gene Kelly travel back into his childhood memories. It is so wonderful to stay young forever!

           Discussing the mise-en-scene of this Gene’s singing in the rain scene, the lighting was precisely natural; not too bright, not too dark. Many of the other expressionistic movies that I have mentioned earlier are full of dark shots where people sense the darkness (horror) to the scene. And the color of the people is normally shadowed black in most long shots. Whereas in Singing in the rain, the rainy day was just as same as normal nights with the street lamps on. And there is color on his body, just like we are seeing a very nimble and carefree man down the street without any intense feelings to wonder whether he is a bad guy or not. Besides, his tap dance is terrific. I honestly enjoyed watching him dance since the beginning of the movie. However in this particular scene, we (the audience) can feel the happiness and joy that he wants to tell the whole world by singing and expressing. His dance was fast-paced, taking up a whole lot space, and I can feel that it’s not for-entertaining-his-fans but for himself alone. We can easily feel this because this silly, puerile act always happens when we are dealing with extreme happiness. And this whole scene just expressed it again to us!

            When it comes to choosing expressionistic movies to watch, I would feel very bored as they seem very unusual, intricate to understand and not fun at all. But this “Singing in the Rain” movie is so superb that I would watch it again and again. Many musical movies nowadays are also well known among us like ‘Glee’, but nonetheless, “Singing in the Rain” has become my favorite musical and “expressionistic” movie ever since I watched it! And I love it!

Definition Source:  Garzanti, Aldo (1974) [1972] (in Italian). Enciclopedia Garzanti della letteratura. Milan: Guido Villa. pp. 963. page 241

ET 4: CHARLIE & BUSTER

Famous & People's Favorite comedians of all time!!

                   

              Ever since I was able to look at the TV screens, the very first options that came into my mind to watch were cartoons and comedies. People usually tend to look for these jokes and humors as they are such powerful tools that aid our stress throughout the day, bring up the laughter to light up, or even they were very entertaining things to watch as a kid like me who wasn't able to understand what was the concept of the movie, the dialogues or even what was going on with these characters back then. Two riots, very amusing and the most popular of all time towards millions of people were Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Although they were very much similar towards each other as in comedians and the objectives to convey the humors to the audience, there were spectacular differences that made them very unique and impressive from the various aspects of cinematography.

1) Charlie Chaplin (1889-1997)

Attributes of Persona:  Chaplin reminds me of my childhood clowns, or jokers whenever I see his funny images, something like this. His rounded hat, thick make up, shadowed and liner-ed eyes, and very obvious thick mustache are such clown's features that would already appeal us to look and smile at. What added more is his outfit; the small coat, and big loosing pants, the walking stick and big elf shoes! We can see that Chaplin tried his every best to make his movies hilarious especially from his exclusive look, which was alone amusing, apart from his actions and roles. Charlie indeed made himself the subject of the movies.

Facial & Body gestures: Referring to the movie 'The Cure' that I've watched in Mr. Rey's film class, Chaplin used the exaggerated facial expressions that a comedian could not easily possess. The time when he mistakenly thought he was being flirted by the giant man, he showed his shyness, flirty face, his squeezed shoulders, twisted legs and overall he became a 'female'. He imitated how a real lady would react to this flattering situation that he did express through his face. However, rarely we could see the close-up shots of his face like this, throughout the movie. His far utmost feature was his marvelous body movement especially his duck-like walking which was found out to be quite funny. Moreover, Chaplin used a lot more spaces than any other comedians as his stage for running, falling down, tripping off, jumping and all kinds of bodily movement. Giving an example, the time when he entered the spa as an alcoholic gentleman, we started laughing from the moment he got out from the cart and walked drastically towards the mineral well and fell into it. He was such out of control, which drew our full attention. Later that, the problem started as he tried to enter through the spinning door of the spa and he hurt the giant patient's bandaged foot which eventually broke our silence in the class with laughter seeing that Chaplin had brought all the mess. It is indeed true that we find it very humorous when someone got hurt but not died, though I don't really know the reason why but Chaplin just grabbed that moment. 

Challenges and Situations: When the time comes to encounter the climax of the situation in a story, they are mainly the conflicts or the challenges. The first challenge towards Chaplin in this movie would be the time when he was forced to drink the spring water by the therapist in front of this one charming girl. Even though he wanted to refuse the offer to drink, he pretended to be a nice gentleman in front of her by unknowingly pouring the water out into his hat. Besides, he also avoided the situation to get massaged by the spa therapist, which was seemed to be extremely hair-raising thing for Chaplin to go through. He couldn't fight back, he was such a tiny-boned man who would easily get knocked out by these gigantic men; but well surely yes, Charlie Chaplin was not the type of person who would just sit there quietly and follow the rules. He basically made us (the audience) anticipate how he could finally solve this. Then again, he used his tremendous and gymnastic movements to smoothly slip out of these dangerous situations. Chaplin just tried his every way to escape the challenges and conflicts that would disappoint or piss him off. 

Romance: Charlie Chaplin! I would say such a playboy, filthy rich-gentlemen who could grab a girl's heart so easily in this character. There were no death-concerning problems to approach the girl he liked and finally he was able to be her side just by standing out to be a hero-guy amongst the whole bunch of drunkards. All out of luck and ease, he met the girl, lost her for a moment when she didn't know the well was full of alcohol, and finally got the girl just in a short time.  

2) Buster Keaton (1895-1966)

Attributes of Persona: In contrast to Charlie Chaplin, however, Keaton wore much simpler, more normal persona that everyone else would be wearing which would obviously not identify Buster Keaton as a comedian. I realized him wearing no smiles but just had a serious face throughout his movies and thus, his fans eventually nicknamed him as 'The Great Stone Face" for his deadpan expressions. He didn't wear any funny make-ups, or comical suits that would address him as a comedian like Chaplin, yet he was no less famous than Chaplin either, throughout that era. Keaton mostly played well-meaning looks, slightly foolish regular guy, with or without the mercy of his girlfriends or families but the one who triumphs in the end despite the odds. 

Facial & Body gestures: To be honest, the movie called "The General" that I have watched in previous film class was the only, and my favorite comic movie acted by Keaton. Throughout this movie, we could rarely see Keaton change his facial expressions but maintained his meaningful stone face most of the time. In particular, the time when Keaton showed his only two loves in the world; the girl and the engine, his face illustrated how seriously he had felt towards them. Moreover, when he got rejected to be in an army, his face demonstrated how desolate and hopeless type of person he thought he was. For he, who wanted to prove that he was a brave and honorable man in front of the girl's family, finally was hurt with this rejection. Besides these stunning facial expressions, his stunts were also part of the most controlling factors to make this movie eminent. For instance, missing the bombs that were shooting at him when the train was still moving, secret and sudden fights to the guards at the enemy's camp, or his funny and smart ideas to delay the enemy's train on their return. While Chaplin was just roaming around in a very child-like, and carefree nuisance character in his little own world, Buster Keaton used a lot wider scene set-ups to create stunts and moves, fights and battles to make the movies in addition, to be adventurous, dramatic, and action apart from the romance comedies.

Challenges and Situations: Before I move on to explain about this climax or the turning point of the movie, I would like to write about the most essential period (the build up) for Keaton, which was the time when 'The General' train was stolen. It wasn't very long after Keaton got very disappointed with the army rejection and in a state of melancholy. Again, he was a small young man, just like Charlie Chaplin. He had no strength to fight back these enemies of other state to take back the train. Did he also try to escape? No! He obviously wasn't prepared to face with this challenge but yet, he decided to get involved as this engine was his only love left after the girl neglected him for he couldn't join the army. He realized he was alone following the enemies though he wasn't scared to take the train back no matter how many people were on the enemy's side. I would say, Buster Keaton was a very strong and brave person when the time came to encounter the big problems and he's someone whom a girl can really rely on. Even so, the girl who got kidnapped through the train robbery still had not known about 'brave' Keaton. He still needed to prove that he was a grown up, matured strong man to her and that was the climax plot. The close-up shot of her face, seen through a small hole then had encouraged Keaton who was hiding under the table in doubt to make strong decisions. In the end, he accepted the challenge, settled the conflict by defeating the enemy's army, and brought the honor and success. (It was such a happy ending).

Romance: Very much unlike Charlie Chaplin who got the girl so easily, Buster Keaton had suffered through a lot more which were near-death-situations. The enemies could catch him at that night when he was hiding under the table. Or at most, he could just avoid saving the train to save himself. But Keaton who was kind of honorable and love-able with respect person did not. He tried his every way of chances with his smart ideas without even hesitation. Thus, he finally got his lovely girl, his train, and what more, a general position in the army! What an honor!

Differences & Similarities 

                When it comes to talk about these distinctive factors of these two different movies, roles and characters, situations and climax were totally different, as I have mentioned throughout this page. The movie, 'The Cure' is such comedic and hilarious because we can see Charlie Chaplin in here who is alone funny. Everything that Chaplin did in this movie was funny and how things got messed up since he entered the scene, too. Where else in 'The General', Buster Keaton took "funny" to the situations he met throughout the journey, to the ways that he encountered with them, to the things that were unexpected. Nevertheless, as I have once stated in my introduction, they both were very famous and talented for they had made millions of people to laugh and enjoy throughout the world. They both were not masculine types that most of the ladies' dreaming princes would be, but yet, they both were loved by so many fans, including men, women and kids. They both were small but they did rule the world.

My Pick Up

                   Both Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were truly great actors that I have found out in the centuries' comedies. Charlie was always one of my favorite childhood actors and until now that even I was so crazy I bought his poster once that I stuck on my dorm's door. As I have said earlier, I have only watched one movie about Buster Keaton and that was this "The General." Compared to that, I have watched tens of Charlie's movies and he was such a favorite idol to me. However to be honest, when I compared these two characters but not the persons, I preferred Buster Keaton in a sense, Keaton acted out in more a realistic way and he got these inspiring quick ideas to make decisions which got my nerves on where Charlie was just an old amusing clown. I am not sure I might change my pick up if I have also watched so many of Keaton's. But just these, just for now, just with these movies, I love Buster Keaton more! 

=)