Daily Archives: December 22, 2015

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Directed by Stanley Donen
Written by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich and Dorothy Kingsley based on a story by Stephen Vincent Millay
1954/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#294 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Milly: Well, it wouldn’t hurt you to learn some manners, too.

Adam: What do I need manners for? I already got me a wife.[/box]

For us dance fans out there, this entertains despite the dated sexual politics and corn.

Adam Pontipee (Howard Keel) is the eldest of seven parentless brothers carving out a homestead in a remote region of the Orgeon territory.  The housekeeping and cooking isn’t exactly up to scratch, so he decides what they need is some wives.  Adam makes one of his rare visits to town for supplies and starts scouting prospects.  All the eligible ladies are already spoken for.  But, rather miraculously, Milly, the feisty cook at the local saloon takes a long look at the big galoot and decides to marry him on the spot.  After she gets used to the idea of living with seven illiterate ruffians, the marriage works out ok.

Milly begins to groom the other boys to win them wives as well.  They succeed in attracting some girls at a local barn-raising but courtship is not going so fast as they would wish.  Inspired by tales of the Sabine women, Adam decides to simply kidnap the lasses.  With Russ Tamblin as one of the boys and Julie Newmar as one of the brides.

The superb dancing and singing was enough for me to overlook any political incorrectness in this one.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers won an Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Cinematography, Color; and Best Film Editing.

Clip – Barn-raising dance

La Strada
Directed by Federico Fellini
Written by Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, and Ennio Flaiano
1954/Italy
Ponti-De Laurentis Cinematografia
Repeat viewing/My DVD collection
#282 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] The Fool: What a funny face! Are you a woman, really? Or an artichoke?[/box]

Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina are a marriage made in heaven.

Zampano (Anthony Quinn) works as a traveling strongman.  His assistant, Rosa, has died under unexplained circumstances.  So he visits her impoverished family to deliver the news and get a replacement.  This is Gelsomina (Masina) a simple, innocent girl with a charming gift for comedy.  She proves to be a hit in the act, which otherwise consists solely of Zampano unimpressively breaking a chain with his chest muscles.  Zampano is an inarticulate lout who beds Gelsomina when the urge strikes and otherwise treats her like property.  She slowly gets used to her new circumstances but continues to long to go home.

About half-way through the story, the pair run into a circus that features a high-wire act by a performer known as The Fool (Richard Basehart).  The Fool and Zampano have some unexplained longstanding grudge that causes the Fool to taunt Zampano at every opportunity, to which Zampano can only react with his fists.  The Fool and Gelosomina become friendly.  When she questions the meaning of her existence, he suggests that perhaps it is to be there for Zampano because, after all, who else would do this.

Gelosomina is inspired by this advice but then has the rug pulled out from under her by the continued rivalry between the two men in her life.

I love this film and all the performances in it. Masina has one of the great faces of any actress ever and is totally captivating. One could fault the story for making her character a sort of martyr.  I prefer to see the tragedy as primarily Zampano’s.  The story is offering both him and Gelosomina meaning for their lives.  She takes the offer and he rejects it to his utter sorrow.

At any rate, I have no problem with the story.  Fellini tells it with vivid and unforgettable images accentuated by the haunting Nino Rota score.  On this viewing, however, I did questioned whether The Fool was more of a philosopher or a plain troublemaker in the scheme of things.  What I appreciate about these classics is that I can open them up again and again and find something new to think about.

La Strada won the first official Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.  It was nominated for Best Writing, Best Screenplay – Original.

American Trailer