{"id":404,"date":"2017-02-21T08:42:55","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T16:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hollywood-nobody.com\/blog\/?p=404"},"modified":"2017-02-21T14:56:36","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T22:56:36","slug":"smoke-got-in-their-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hollywood-nobody.com\/blog\/?p=404","title":{"rendered":"SMOKE GOT IN THEIR EYES"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I made a terrible mistake the other night.<\/p>\n

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I know. I know.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s hard to believe, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

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After all, there\u2019s virtually no precedent, but unlikely as it may seem, it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

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My inexcusable blunder?<\/p>\n

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I watched The Umbrellas of Cherbourg<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Why?<\/p>\n

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The blame rests solely on the shoulders of the critics who have welcomed La La Land<\/em> as the Second Coming of Cinematic Art, bending their knees in worship of it, shouting hosannas to its beauty and originality.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSoaring and gorgeous!<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Vanity Fair<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cA gorgeous romantic fever dream of a musical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Deadline<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cA film you simply never want to stop watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Playlist<\/em><\/p>\n

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The chorus is almost deafening, and it has been joined by other voices in other rooms–The Hollywood Foreign Press, The American Film Institute, The Directors Guild, The Producers Guild—virtually every professional organization in Hollywood, including the loudest voice of all\u2026<\/p>\n

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\u2026The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which bestowed an almost unprecedented fourteen nominations on this blessed production!<\/p>\n

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Now, as a member of The Writers Guild, I\u2019ve long had a copy of La La Land<\/em> in my hot little hand.<\/p>\n

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It arrived, courtesy of UPS, along with a dozen or so others from producers promoting their wares in their selfless quest for glory, box-office dollars, DVD sales and other ancillary income during the fall\/winter award season.<\/p>\n

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I deliberately held off watching it out of my firm conviction that one should always save the best for last\u2014a conviction that probably derives from my long career as a screenwriter: an acolyte of Syd Field, I invariably build to a climax at the end of each act and save the biggest, best bang of all for the end.<\/p>\n

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During this long period of self-imposed denial, I found myself reading more and more about the film and learned that its writer\/director, Damien Chazelle, was a huge fan of Jacques Demy, that his favorite film was The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, <\/em>that Demy\u2019s masterpiece was, in many ways, the direct inspiration for La La Land<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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So\u2026<\/p>\n

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\u2026when I\u2019d worked my way through all of the other Academy qualifiers, when I had left nothing but La La Land<\/em> unseen, I did what any other red-blooded American film fanatic would do: I decided to watch The Umbrellas of Cherbourg<\/em> as a prelude to my long-anticipated screening of La La Land<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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I would watch the Demy film; I would then watch Chazelle\u2019s homage; I would jump on the bandwagon celebrating La La Land<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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(Note my clever reference to the classic MGM musical starring Fred Astaire, no slouch in the singing and dancing department, someone who could, I\u2019m sure, have taught Chazelle and company a few important lessons.)<\/p>\n

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This strategy of deferred gratification was, as I announced at the beginning of this piece, a terrible mistake.<\/p>\n

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A catastrophic miscalculation.<\/p>\n

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Why?<\/p>\n

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Because from the moment it opens, Umbrellas<\/em> is nothing short of magic!<\/p>\n

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It begins with a wide shot of the harbor, transforming this working-class military port into an impressionistic painting.<\/p>\n

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The camera, accompanied by Michel Legrand\u2019s lush romantic score, pulls back to an overhead shot of a cobblestoned street\u2014a checkerboard awash in rain and color as a rainbow of umbrellas begins to move across it in patterns as precise as the words of a crossword puzzle, their holders completely obscured by these dazzling canopies of cloth.<\/p>\n

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Then\u2026<\/p>\n

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\u2026the first of an endless succession of scenes in which everything\u2014the sets, the props, the costumes\u2014is presented in breathtaking color coordination.<\/p>\n

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In this case, the set is a common auto mechanics garage, and the dialogue\u2014here and in every other sequence in the film\u2014is sung rather than spoken, sung in spite of the utter commonplace of the sentiments expressed, sung to the accompaniment of that amazing Michel Legrand score.<\/p>\n

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The mundane is rendered magnificent.<\/p>\n

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The Umbrellas of Cherbourg<\/em> is as artificial, as stylized as a film can be\u2026and as real, as profound as life itself.<\/p>\n

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It begins with young love–at first yearning and hopeful, then bittersweet and heartbreaking.<\/p>\n

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It ends with mature love\u2014an adult acceptance of reality in place of romance, responsibility in place of headlong passion.<\/p>\n

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And the performances!<\/p>\n

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Oh, my God!<\/p>\n

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The performances!<\/p>\n

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To single out one of many\u2026let\u2019s just say I will love Catherine Deneuve until my dying day.<\/p>\n

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Her charm.<\/p>\n

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Her intensity.<\/p>\n

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Her beauty.<\/p>\n

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Enough.<\/p>\n

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Suffice it to say that The Umbrellas of Cherbourg<\/em> is one of the great, innovative masterworks of cinema.<\/p>\n

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It more than justifies Damien Chazelle\u2019s enthusiasm for it.<\/p>\n

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And it unfortunately reveals La La Land<\/em> for what it really is: a nice little imitation of a great original.<\/p>\n

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A derivative movie with a familiar, stereotypical plot, a mediocre score and a pair of stars who are good enough actors but simply cannot sing and cannot dance.<\/p>\n

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To paraphrase Fred Astaire\u2026<\/p>\n

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They can\u2019t dance. Don\u2019t ask them.<\/p>\n

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More important: Don\u2019t ask the critics anything<\/em> about the movies.<\/p>\n

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They see through a glass very darkly and blow a lot of smoke when they should be clearing the air.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 COMING UP NEXT<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0A BACKWARD LOOK<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 THE BEST FILMS OF A BAD\u00a0YEAR<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"Share<\/a>