Now Playing: Roger Miller - Little Green Apples
Topic: Art and Poetry
My pre-ordered dvd boxset of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies came a few days ago. I'm not old enough to have seen any of these movies in the theater but I did see them back in the days of three networks and one independent television channel. That great independent channel had a library of old black and white movies and it was from those days that I'd be able to turn on the tv and see the great old movies of the 30's, 40's and 50's. I grew up watching these movies and I grew up loving them. I mention this because when I see Fred Astaire I know I'm going to see a light hearted, dancing, romantic comedy which will entertain me and really make me feel good. I'm going to be happy.
As I read this review of the box set on Cinematical I am so very glad that I'm not looking at them through the eyes of a movie critic. I'm so very glad that I didn't think to see marriage as "disappointment’s nihilist revenge" or see the character that Ginger Rogers played as "emblematic of a “new kind of woman” " I'm not looking at Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies through a woman's studies degree or a politically correct filter of what I should think was intended or should have been intended of a movie created over 70 years ago. I'd like to think there is still a place for movies to be enjoyed as movies.
Swing Time is light hearted. It's wonderfully light hearted. It's fantasy time with beautifully dressed people who dance for their supper in fantastic art deco inspired sets and who don't get angry when they lose the girl but who pick themselves up and come up smiling. There is magic in these old movies. As the trailer for Swing Time says, Singing! Dancing! Romancing! What more could you want?
Posted by gilbert davis
at 12:24 AM EDT
