Nine
I am a recent Netflix subscriber. Yes, I finally caved. The first movie I put in my queue was relatively random. I was just going through lists and putting on random things I've wanted to see. Hence, Nine arrived in my mailbox yesterday.
Let me say, I really love theatricality, sometimes. Rob Marshall is a theatre director, so he definitely has a theatrical feel to his work. His use of color is fantastic. I have to admit a certain weakness for the silhouette shot, and Rob takes that particular shot many many times in the movie, which would normally be a criticism from me, but Daniel Day-Lewis in marvelous silhouette shots? Yes please!
Honestly, I really like the film. I don't really know much about the musical itself, so it's all new to me, but I really enjoyed it. On an entertainment level, it's visually stimulating, with decent performances (both acting and singing...Kate Hudson, who knew?). On an artistic level, it's shot well, with amazing costuming and a rather riveting use of lighting.
Story-wise, it all centers around Guido (Daniel Day-Lewis), a famous Italian screenwriter and director, and his inability to write the script for his ninth film. There are all sorts of other things happening around him, but at the core, Nine is about a man with writer's block. There are all these people with whom he interacts (wife, mistress, muse, doctor, press, producer, designer) and it's almost like he expects one of the the break the block up somehow. Interesting, but any further description would require the type of analysis that my brain is just not prepared to do right now. I have to admit a certain hesitancy about the fact that all of Rob Marshall's movie musicals seem to have the musical numbers happening outside of reality. Does that mean that he just doesn't pick musicals where the songs are written to move the story as opposed to comment on it? Perhaps. Not that I didn't like the style of it, because I did. He just did the same thing with Chicago.
I really loved the ending, by the way. The shooting, the lighting, the setup, the entrance of Marion Cotillard as Guido's estranged wife...the movement of the final shot. Fantastic.
Anyway, I've got a monster headache and need to sleep for several more hours than I have the last three nights in a row, so to bed and doonas I go.
Let me say, I really love theatricality, sometimes. Rob Marshall is a theatre director, so he definitely has a theatrical feel to his work. His use of color is fantastic. I have to admit a certain weakness for the silhouette shot, and Rob takes that particular shot many many times in the movie, which would normally be a criticism from me, but Daniel Day-Lewis in marvelous silhouette shots? Yes please!
Honestly, I really like the film. I don't really know much about the musical itself, so it's all new to me, but I really enjoyed it. On an entertainment level, it's visually stimulating, with decent performances (both acting and singing...Kate Hudson, who knew?). On an artistic level, it's shot well, with amazing costuming and a rather riveting use of lighting.
Story-wise, it all centers around Guido (Daniel Day-Lewis), a famous Italian screenwriter and director, and his inability to write the script for his ninth film. There are all sorts of other things happening around him, but at the core, Nine is about a man with writer's block. There are all these people with whom he interacts (wife, mistress, muse, doctor, press, producer, designer) and it's almost like he expects one of the the break the block up somehow. Interesting, but any further description would require the type of analysis that my brain is just not prepared to do right now. I have to admit a certain hesitancy about the fact that all of Rob Marshall's movie musicals seem to have the musical numbers happening outside of reality. Does that mean that he just doesn't pick musicals where the songs are written to move the story as opposed to comment on it? Perhaps. Not that I didn't like the style of it, because I did. He just did the same thing with Chicago.
I really loved the ending, by the way. The shooting, the lighting, the setup, the entrance of Marion Cotillard as Guido's estranged wife...the movement of the final shot. Fantastic.
Anyway, I've got a monster headache and need to sleep for several more hours than I have the last three nights in a row, so to bed and doonas I go.