Spare a Thought for Fred Astaire
As first posted on "Dal, Hel & Bel" - Monday, October 6, 2008
Another week has gone by without being able to watch a movie. With my thesis due in a couple weeks, Isabel being sick, and subsequently ME getting sick there has been little time to enjoy a movie. So, I decided to write a little something about my favorite hoofer of the silver screen, Fred Astaire.
To watch Fred acting, singing, or just walking around isn't very impressive. He was a wiry little man, with a large, kind of funny looking head. Goofy, may actually be the best way to describe him. But, oh, to watch him dance. The films Swing Time and Top Hat are truly masterpieces. To watch Fred Astaire dance with Ginger Rogers is to gaze at a great piece of artwork, like Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party". It looks so simple, yet is so beautiful and provocative that one must stare transfixed until the dancing concludes.
To watch Astaire in The Gay Divorcee, Shall We Dance, The Barkley's of Broadway, Royal Wedding, and The Band Wagon are truly magical, but the lesser known Silk Stockings is one of my all time favorite films. It is a remake of the Lubitsch film Ninotchka and stars Cyd Charisse as the Russian agent who becomes entranced with the city of Paris and begins to question her stolid communist orthodoxy. The scene where Charisse changes from her woolen socks to pure silk stockings is one of the most beautiful I've ever witnessed. To watch Charisse and Astaire share the screen together is really something special.
I know that there are many out there who would disagree with me, and herald Gene Kelly as the greatest of Hollywood's leading male dancers. But for all Kelly's dashing good looks, masculine appeal, and exquisite choreography, he just can't match the sheer grace and poetry Astaire imbues in his dancing. Astaire's dancing is made all the more extraordinary when most of his other actions look decidedly awkward. He truly is one of the greats.
Another week has gone by without being able to watch a movie. With my thesis due in a couple weeks, Isabel being sick, and subsequently ME getting sick there has been little time to enjoy a movie. So, I decided to write a little something about my favorite hoofer of the silver screen, Fred Astaire.To watch Fred acting, singing, or just walking around isn't very impressive. He was a wiry little man, with a large, kind of funny looking head. Goofy, may actually be the best way to describe him. But, oh, to watch him dance. The films Swing Time and Top Hat are truly masterpieces. To watch Fred Astaire dance with Ginger Rogers is to gaze at a great piece of artwork, like Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party". It looks so simple, yet is so beautiful and provocative that one must stare transfixed until the dancing concludes.
To watch Astaire in The Gay Divorcee, Shall We Dance, The Barkley's of Broadway, Royal Wedding, and The Band Wagon are truly magical, but the lesser known Silk Stockings is one of my all time favorite films. It is a remake of the Lubitsch film Ninotchka and stars Cyd Charisse as the Russian agent who becomes entranced with the city of Paris and begins to question her stolid communist orthodoxy. The scene where Charisse changes from her woolen socks to pure silk stockings is one of the most beautiful I've ever witnessed. To watch Charisse and Astaire share the screen together is really something special.
I know that there are many out there who would disagree with me, and herald Gene Kelly as the greatest of Hollywood's leading male dancers. But for all Kelly's dashing good looks, masculine appeal, and exquisite choreography, he just can't match the sheer grace and poetry Astaire imbues in his dancing. Astaire's dancing is made all the more extraordinary when most of his other actions look decidedly awkward. He truly is one of the greats.
As a huge Astaire fan, I have to say that it's great that you like him so much too but I really have to disagree about his other movements being awkward! I think that everything the man ever did was graceful; it makes me think of a review of an Astaire tribute show that I saved once...I have it somewhere...oh, here!--which said:
ReplyDelete"What was being probed, discovered, and revealed here was that Astaire didn't just turn it on for the dance numbers; he was always dancing. Even just in conversation, some part of his body -- a raised eyebrow, a rotating hand, an inclined torso -- was dancing. His gait, his carriage, his smallest gestures had the lyrical poetry of finely chiselled choreography."
Anyhow sorry, heheh, if I got carried away; I don't mean to attack or anything. He really is one of the greats, no matter what a person might think on this.
I want to ditto what roseytrebles said. I have yet to see Astaire do anything awkward on film. To see his terrific walk just see the intro scenes of EASTER PARADE and BAND WAGON. He also has the most graceful hands I've ever seen, and they are always in motion when he speaks to add a chorus. I'm glad that you love his dancing-he is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, dancers/choreographers on film. So, thanks for bringing him up to your readers. His films never seem to get old.
ReplyDeleteFred and roseytrebles,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your comments. I certainly do not feel attacked in any way because you have disagreed with me by further heralding Fred Astaire as a masterful artisan. I suppose my choice of the word "awkward" was a bit reckless. I feel you are both correct in your assessment of his graceful and lyrical movements. But, I also strongly believe he was an atypical Hollywood leading man. In my opinion it was his very gracefulness and "lyrical poetry of finely chiseled choreography" that set him apart from the more masculine traits of other leading men, like Gene Kelly. You may further disagree with me, but I feel that one of the things that makes Astaire truly great is that he did not fit the mold of what a leading man was supposed to look like or act like. But oh, to watch him dance. His perfection of movement transcends everything else on the screen. And that is what makes him the best.