"Singin' in the Rain," an all-time American classic, will be shown at 6:45 and 9:15 p.m. tonight as part of the Dartmouth Film Society's series "Reflections."
This is a unique opportunity for many students to view a work that is a part of our cinematic heritage.
Directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, this film is so famous you may forget if you've actually seen it.
Perhaps you may have experienced it through clips of the film or heard it alluded to in other ground-breaking films like "The Clockwork Orange" and "North by Northwest."
The picture of Kelly swinging on a lamp post, soaking wet and thrilled with life, is perhaps a cinematic reference point. The movie is often cited as the best musical ever made.
It is clearly the musical numbers which offer the most -- the energy, the need for expression, the wonderful choreography. The characters are inspired and delighted with themselves but are still grasping at some balance between fame and intimacy.
Though today it may seem singers become most inspired at the height of their pain, these people were most alive when they were at their happiest.
The best musical numbers represent that rare time when talent, inspiration and strange impulse came together to create something that exists purely in the moment.
There is an interesting story to go along with the outstanding musical numbers as well.
"Singin' in the Rain" takes place in the late 1920s in Hollywood. The careers of the two biggest stars of Monumental Pictures, Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) become complicated when their studio begins to make the transition from silent to sound films.
The screenplay, written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, was extensively researched to accurately tell the story of film stars whose voices were not consistent with their glamorous public image.
The transition is made nearly impossible, and hilarious, by technical difficulties with microphones and recording equipment, as well as Lamont's horrible voice (which up to then had been hidden from the public).
It is Don's love interest Kathy Seldon (Debbie Reynolds, aged 19 at the time) whose beautiful voice, through the use of dubbing, may save the picture. But Lina is jealous of her and becomes desperate to maintain her own celebrity status.
Perhaps the movie is so impressive because it both celebrates and satirizes Hollywood at the same time. It neither denounces nor forgives the superficial practice of celebrity worship and the corruption of studio power.
It starts a dialogue about cinema and all of the mistakes that were made, as well as showing all the beauty that came out of it.
