Rent, the movie
Nov. 14th, 2005 01:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeSo, I saw Rent yesterday.
Overall I think it's a very strong piece. It does play around with a lot of the numbers, some to good effect, some to not-as-strong. The first three numbers in the show, "Tune Ups" 1 & 2, and the first voice mail--all those are now just dialogue which disappointed me a bit. I think "Tune Up #1" sets the scene so well--right away you know you're in a musical, you're in a whole different universe. So the first number is "Rent"--which is stunning.
It starts off as a duet between Mark and Roger, and then the East Village ensemble joins in and you have hundreds of extra voices screaming "we're not gonna pay/how we gonna pay..." It's incredible. Roger and Mark are on the fire escape and set fire to the eviction notice, throwing it down onto the ground, onto Benny getting out of his Range Rover. All the other East Village denizens do likewise, so the air is full of fire raining down from on high onto Benny. It looks AWESOME. A real directorial coup.
OTOH, "Another Day" is staged rather weirdly--he chases her out of the apartment then runs back to his fire escape to sing to her standing in the street, where Roger, Angel and Tom Collins have joined her, and the four of them are singing "No other hope...no other way" back to him. WEIRD. The shot is held so long, you're going mad trying to figure out what point he's trying to make with it.
"One Song Glory" is filmed as a flashback, showing Mark and April's relationship (which works for me because I find that song less interesting). But--April's suicide is not shown, or referred to (the "Close on Roger...his girlfriend April left a note saying..." is all cut--the only knowledge we have of April is via the flashback). The last shot we see of April is her reading the notice from the health clinic, saying "HIV Positive." I really wish we'd seen the suicide--it gives so much insight into Roger, and why he resists Mimi so vehemently. I've heard they had to cut it to get a PG-13 rating but that makes no sense since there are several scenes where you see people shooting up.
"Christmas Bells" is cut. :( I love that number--I love all of those voices, junkies, homeless people, cops, dealers, Roger, Mark, Angel, all of their voices ascending to God. And I think it really could've worked--I could think of ways to shoot that.
The meetings with the AIDS support group are very powerful. The guy who sings "Look, I find some of what you teach suspect..."--very powerful. Those sequences are great--there's a montage in the second act where the camera is panning over the participants...and one of them fades away. Oh, man. It literally gave me chills. So sad. Angel's death is handles well--during this same montage, you see a shot of Tom Collins holding a shivering Angel on the subway.
The first act takes place over three days--December 24th, 25th, 26th. So "Today 4 U" and "Tange: Maureen" are on Christmas Day, "Out Tonight" is sung on Christmas Night, and Maureen's show is St. Stephen's Day. I think this is definitely an improvement on the show--I always had a hard time with so many events being packed into 3 hours. So Mark sings "On these nights when we celebrate..."
All the performances are very strong--I especially liked Wilson Jermaine Heredia. What a strong, loving, believable performance. I cannot believe he isn't working more--I think if anyone gets a nom out of this, it'll be him. Rosario Dawson does a GREAT job--she looks fantastic and acts the shit of her role. Of course my friend Tracie was AWESOME as well :)
They assign a specific time period to Rent--"December 24, 1989, 9 PM." Which--hmm. For one thing, there's an immediate anachronism--Thelma and Louise came out later. It does let you know why AIDS is so devastating to this community; it was a virtual death sentence then (and is why April killed herself). I just wish they'd been a little more careful about the hair and wardrobe design--it didn't look as though it was '89/'90. Joanne in particular had a coat that was straight out of the Strawberry line, Fall of '05. (I will say I rather liked not having to see a lot of tacky '80s styles, but still. You should do your fashion-dramaturgy.)
"La Vie Boheme" looks great. Joanne and Maureen's fight is cut from that, but they fight plenty later. A lot of Joanne's backstory is cut--there's no voice mail from her parents and you don't know she's a lawyer into well into it, like maybe after "La Vie Boheme." But she gets stuff to make up for it (a long scene at her parents' country club where they sing "Take Me or Leave Me", and the Mark-Maureen-Joanne triangle is more fully fleshed out). OTOH, I wish we'd seen more of Angel and Tom's relationship--it seems a little skipped over.
Overall--loved it. Very, very moving.
Overall I think it's a very strong piece. It does play around with a lot of the numbers, some to good effect, some to not-as-strong. The first three numbers in the show, "Tune Ups" 1 & 2, and the first voice mail--all those are now just dialogue which disappointed me a bit. I think "Tune Up #1" sets the scene so well--right away you know you're in a musical, you're in a whole different universe. So the first number is "Rent"--which is stunning.
It starts off as a duet between Mark and Roger, and then the East Village ensemble joins in and you have hundreds of extra voices screaming "we're not gonna pay/how we gonna pay..." It's incredible. Roger and Mark are on the fire escape and set fire to the eviction notice, throwing it down onto the ground, onto Benny getting out of his Range Rover. All the other East Village denizens do likewise, so the air is full of fire raining down from on high onto Benny. It looks AWESOME. A real directorial coup.
OTOH, "Another Day" is staged rather weirdly--he chases her out of the apartment then runs back to his fire escape to sing to her standing in the street, where Roger, Angel and Tom Collins have joined her, and the four of them are singing "No other hope...no other way" back to him. WEIRD. The shot is held so long, you're going mad trying to figure out what point he's trying to make with it.
"One Song Glory" is filmed as a flashback, showing Mark and April's relationship (which works for me because I find that song less interesting). But--April's suicide is not shown, or referred to (the "Close on Roger...his girlfriend April left a note saying..." is all cut--the only knowledge we have of April is via the flashback). The last shot we see of April is her reading the notice from the health clinic, saying "HIV Positive." I really wish we'd seen the suicide--it gives so much insight into Roger, and why he resists Mimi so vehemently. I've heard they had to cut it to get a PG-13 rating but that makes no sense since there are several scenes where you see people shooting up.
"Christmas Bells" is cut. :( I love that number--I love all of those voices, junkies, homeless people, cops, dealers, Roger, Mark, Angel, all of their voices ascending to God. And I think it really could've worked--I could think of ways to shoot that.
The meetings with the AIDS support group are very powerful. The guy who sings "Look, I find some of what you teach suspect..."--very powerful. Those sequences are great--there's a montage in the second act where the camera is panning over the participants...and one of them fades away. Oh, man. It literally gave me chills. So sad. Angel's death is handles well--during this same montage, you see a shot of Tom Collins holding a shivering Angel on the subway.
The first act takes place over three days--December 24th, 25th, 26th. So "Today 4 U" and "Tange: Maureen" are on Christmas Day, "Out Tonight" is sung on Christmas Night, and Maureen's show is St. Stephen's Day. I think this is definitely an improvement on the show--I always had a hard time with so many events being packed into 3 hours. So Mark sings "On these nights when we celebrate..."
All the performances are very strong--I especially liked Wilson Jermaine Heredia. What a strong, loving, believable performance. I cannot believe he isn't working more--I think if anyone gets a nom out of this, it'll be him. Rosario Dawson does a GREAT job--she looks fantastic and acts the shit of her role. Of course my friend Tracie was AWESOME as well :)
They assign a specific time period to Rent--"December 24, 1989, 9 PM." Which--hmm. For one thing, there's an immediate anachronism--Thelma and Louise came out later. It does let you know why AIDS is so devastating to this community; it was a virtual death sentence then (and is why April killed herself). I just wish they'd been a little more careful about the hair and wardrobe design--it didn't look as though it was '89/'90. Joanne in particular had a coat that was straight out of the Strawberry line, Fall of '05. (I will say I rather liked not having to see a lot of tacky '80s styles, but still. You should do your fashion-dramaturgy.)
"La Vie Boheme" looks great. Joanne and Maureen's fight is cut from that, but they fight plenty later. A lot of Joanne's backstory is cut--there's no voice mail from her parents and you don't know she's a lawyer into well into it, like maybe after "La Vie Boheme." But she gets stuff to make up for it (a long scene at her parents' country club where they sing "Take Me or Leave Me", and the Mark-Maureen-Joanne triangle is more fully fleshed out). OTOH, I wish we'd seen more of Angel and Tom's relationship--it seems a little skipped over.
Overall--loved it. Very, very moving.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-14 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-14 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-14 08:24 pm (UTC)Thanks again for hosting group. It was very healing... :)
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Date: 2005-11-14 08:45 pm (UTC)Yes, we will do the group again soon, I guess in another couple of weeks. I felt like we got a lot done.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-14 08:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-15 03:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-15 04:59 pm (UTC)I thieved it from someone, wish I could take credit for its lewd brilliance.
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Date: 2005-11-14 09:26 pm (UTC)So anyway, thanks!!!
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Date: 2005-11-15 12:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-15 03:38 pm (UTC)Why does it matter if April commits suicide because she has AIDS or dies of AIDS? (I'm assuming that April's dead and didn't just bail.) In either case, Roger lost the woman he loved because of the illness, got badly hurt by the experience, and is going to be reluctant to get involved with anyone else who's going to die on him.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-15 03:44 pm (UTC)