Saturday Was A Fun Movie Day
Yesterday I took Cookie to go see Sita Sings The Blues at The Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville PA. It's the same place where they filmed the 1958 film The Blob and where they conduct a Blobfest every year where they reenact the famous scene.
The movie was great. It's the story of Sita and Rama, written about in the Ramayan. Basically when Rama and Sita were banished from Ayodhya for 14 years to the forest Sita gets stolen by the Demon King, Ravana. He takes her captive on his island Lanka and tells her that she has two months and if she does not give in to share his bed and become his wife she will be chopped up and made into a stew. She gets rescued by Rama but is then rejected by him when the village doubts her purity after being with Ravana for that long. He forgives her but then when they find out she is pregnant he doubts her again and banishes her to the woods. She gives birth to twins, Lav and Kush, in a hut with the sage Valmiki, where they grow up learning songs praising Rama. When Rama finds her again he says she can return only if she performs a last test of her purity.
The movie is made with 1920's songs by Annette Hanshaw. Nina Paley's animation and Hashaw's songs are a perfect marriage.
There are two other features in this film. There is a narration by three characters that are animated by shadow puppets. They are just three folks trying to tell what they know about the story of Rama and Sita. They are very funny. Then there is scribbles animation style which shows Nina Paley's story of love woes with her husband Dave who went to India for a few months for a job but ended up wanting to stay and dumping Nina.
It's a great film and if it's in your area I would say watch it. It's great for everyone and I loved that everyone in the theater couldn't help but laugh out loud, included my Cookie who hasn't stopped talking about the movie.
For those of you in NEW YORK: They will be giving the movies on PBS 13 on Saturday March 7th at 10:45pm on Reel13.
Cookie has been singing the songs all weekend long. Yeah, me too. Can't help it. They are catchy. YouTube has four of the songs and you can watch them in order HERE.
The movie was great. It's the story of Sita and Rama, written about in the Ramayan. Basically when Rama and Sita were banished from Ayodhya for 14 years to the forest Sita gets stolen by the Demon King, Ravana. He takes her captive on his island Lanka and tells her that she has two months and if she does not give in to share his bed and become his wife she will be chopped up and made into a stew. She gets rescued by Rama but is then rejected by him when the village doubts her purity after being with Ravana for that long. He forgives her but then when they find out she is pregnant he doubts her again and banishes her to the woods. She gives birth to twins, Lav and Kush, in a hut with the sage Valmiki, where they grow up learning songs praising Rama. When Rama finds her again he says she can return only if she performs a last test of her purity.
The movie is made with 1920's songs by Annette Hanshaw. Nina Paley's animation and Hashaw's songs are a perfect marriage.
Click to viewThere are two other features in this film. There is a narration by three characters that are animated by shadow puppets. They are just three folks trying to tell what they know about the story of Rama and Sita. They are very funny. Then there is scribbles animation style which shows Nina Paley's story of love woes with her husband Dave who went to India for a few months for a job but ended up wanting to stay and dumping Nina.
It's a great film and if it's in your area I would say watch it. It's great for everyone and I loved that everyone in the theater couldn't help but laugh out loud, included my Cookie who hasn't stopped talking about the movie.
For those of you in NEW YORK: They will be giving the movies on PBS 13 on Saturday March 7th at 10:45pm on Reel13.
Cookie has been singing the songs all weekend long. Yeah, me too. Can't help it. They are catchy. YouTube has four of the songs and you can watch them in order HERE.