DO THE YAM: ASTAIRE & ROGERS, THE COMPLETE WORKS | By Livia Bloom

“I wanted to be a dancer,” says Fred Astaire, wheezing out a tune on a harmonica with his gangly frame draped casually over a medical couch. “Till I was psychologized.”

Astaire plays doctor—a shrink, of all things—in Mark Sandrich’s Carefree (1953), a little-known screwball comedy gem as antic and goofy as Howard Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby (1938) with dance. And what dance! Accompanied by an Irving Berlin score, Astaire and Rogers are at the top of their game in the tale of a therapist (Astaire) who must find the root of the commitment phobia that plagues his new patient (Rogers). “She’s probably just another pampered, maladjusted female,” opines Astaire into his doctor’s recorder, prescribing her a good spanking. Until he meets her, that is. Then a playful game of one-upmanship, and eventually love, ensues.

In a dance number for the ages, Astaire first tries to impress his patient on the links with a solo pas de golf club. Looking up to make sure Rogers is watching attentively from a balcony, he turns golf into tap dance, and back again.

The scene evokes Astaire’s most celebrated moments partnering with objects, from a coat rack to
a photograph in Stanley Donan’s Royal Wedding (1951). It only takes a single idea and he’s off and dancing with the lanky, effortless and easy grace of Barack Obama at the podium.

But when he and Ginger team up, there’s no coat rack in the land that can compete. Whether she’s biking in shorts or dining in the poofy-sleeved, big-shouldered gowns that seem to float around her like fog, Ginger is funnier and lovelier than ever. Together, their chemistry is undeniable, and their dancing—captured in full-length, full-body shots with the barest hint of editing—is sublime.

The quick pacing, punny one-liners, and wry send-up of psychoanalysis move nearly as quickly as the protagonists’ feet. In order to get his patient to dream, Astaire’s Dr. Tony Flagg prescribes Rogers’ Amanda Cooper a series of nauseating, dream-inducing foods, from seafood with whipped cream to cucumbers and buttermilk. (Happily, this method of treatment gives occasion for a beautiful, slow-motion dream … Read the rest

S21 TO LAUNCH NEW COLLABORATION

By Admin

First Run Features and Human Rights Watch will collaborate to bring films dealing with human rights’ issues to a wider audience. The first of their collaborative efforts is First Run’s release of Rithy Panh’s S21:The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, which opens in NYC at the Film Forum on May 19th.

S21 was a Cambodian prison where thousands were tortured and murdered by the Khmer Rouge after it came to power in 1975; in total, 1.75 million Cambodians were killed between 1975-1979. Director Rithy Panh, who lost his parents and a sister in the genocide, reconstructed the horrors from the testimonies of two survivers and various prison guards.

According to a jointly issued press release: “First Run Features and Human Right Watch will work together to bring the theatrical release of S21 and future titles to the attention of the public and media through joint marketing and advertising campaigns, including First Run’s newly designed Community Website. The collaboration will also culminate in a new line of DVDs from First Run called ‘Human Rights Watch Selects’, where films will be supplemented with extra features, including background information on subject matter, information on HRW as well as how to get involved in the issues addressed.”
… Read the rest