Top Hat
What It's About:
Musical star Jerry Travers (Astaire) is practicing a tap dance number in his hotel suite, awakening Dale Tremont (Rogers), the lovely lady in the room downstairs. When she comes up to complain, it's love at first sight for Jerry. He woos her relentlessly, and seems to be making good progress too (especially when they dance). Then, the budding romance gets threatened when through a simple misunderstanding, Dale becomes convinced that Jerry is already married!
Why I Love It:
Forever fabulous, "Top Hat" was the first Astaire-Rogers outing written specifically for them, and is arguably the best of the series (along with "Swing Time"). Though the plot is wafer-thin and more than a bit contrived, the film runs on the divine hilarity of its ensemble players, in particular Eric Blore as persnickety butler Bates, and Erik Rhodes as Beddini, a rival for Dale's affections. Beyond that ineffable Astaire-Rogers chemistry, the real stars are the buttery Berlin score (highlight: "Cheek to Cheek") and dancing sequences that define beauty and grace in motion. Heaven-I'm in heaven!
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Best Movies by Farr
Sit back, relax, and rediscover those classics
The NYC Insider's Guide
for women who aren't kids
In a clear, engaging way, John Farr can synthesize movies and the media like no one else.
After Princeton, he began his career at Ogilvy Advertising, where he branded and sold everything from tissue paper to the “I Love New York” Campaign.
After close to 20 years in the ad business, John left to pursue what he’s always loved most: uncovering and promoting the best of world film, old and new.
In 2003, he helped revive the Avon Theatre in Stamford, Conn., a not-for-profit, landmark cinema, showing the best of independent, foreign, and classic films. In his capacity as co-founder, he interviewed the likes of Robert Altman, Gene Wilder, Tim Robbins, Arthur Penn, and Paul Newman, among others. In 2004, he also began writing the “DVD Detective” column for The Stamford Advocate and The Greenwich Time.
With his own multi-media enterprise, Best Movies by Farr, John now promotes outstanding film via an ongoing lecture series and a website that already features more than 2,000 movie recommendations:
Currently, John is a featured weekly film blogger on the Huffington Post, and also provides branded film suggestions on video to WNET’s “Reel 13” program website (www.reel13.org).
He has been interviewed on Westwood One Radio, WCBS Radio, as well as Air America’s “Ron Reagan Show”, and has also appeared on CNN.
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Dancing Movies for May
May 1st or "May Day" is best known in the northern hemisphere for its maypole dance. This practice, dating back to pagan fertility dances, is still celebrated where young men and women hold colorful ribbons as they dance around a tall pole. It's beautiful to behold and as a tribute to this ancient rite, we focus on movies about dance. We hope these choices will put a spring in your step!
American In Paris
What It's About:
Gerry Mulligan (Kelly) is an impoverished painter plying his trade in the City of Lights. When a beautiful French girl (Leslie Caron) sets the artist's heart aflame, he's beside himself. Only problem is, his close friend Henri, a nightclub singer, is in love with her too.
Why I Love It:
Set to an incomparable Gershwin score, this exquisite film still mesmerizes. Gorgeously photographed by John Alton, and invigorating from first song to last, "American" swept the 1951 Oscars, thanks to the winning talents of producer Arthur Freed, star Kelly, and director Minnelli. The climactic ballet sequence, performed to the title tune by Kelly and Caron, is one of the most dazzling musical set-pieces ever captured on celluloid.
Ballets Russes
What It's About:
This exhilarating documentary profiles the turbulent life and times of the landmark, tremendously influential dance company Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, from its conception by Russian exiles in the '30s to its final curtain in 1962. In interviews with dancers, stage managers, and others, we see how the troupe drew luminaries like Matisse and Dali, Balanchine and Alicia Markova into its orbit, while coping with acrimonious, behind-the-scenes power struggles.
Why I Love It:
Geller and Goldfine's enthralling, transporting portrait of the epoch-defining institution pirouettes with some of dance history's biggest legends, including surviving alumni Yvonne Chouteau, Raven Wilkinson, Marc Platt, and others. Gradually, through their nostalgic, often gossipy reminiscences and the directors' own meticulously assembled archival footage, we come to see how the company's illustrious founders and members lived, loved, fought, and ultimately revolutionized the way the world viewed the art of movement. Even if you've never seen a ballet in your life, the effervescent "Ballets Russes" will sweep you right off your feet.
Dance Maker
What It's About:
A penetrating profile of choreographer Paul Taylor's modern dance company, this film profiles the blissful torture of the modern dance world: the physical exertion involved and their long-term effects, the cut-throat competition, and the absence of financial rewards, all borne for the exhilaration of performance and the chance to work with an acknowledged master.
Why I Love It:
As glimpsed by director-interviewer Matthew Diamond, Taylor is at once a brutal task-master, insecure about his work, and overall, a somewhat remote human being, owing to a solitary early life in foster care. But a pure love of the dance is the unifying, invigorating force for him and his company, and we are the beneficiaries in this candid, behind-the-scenes look at a bona fide artistic institution.
Mad Hot Ballroom
What It's About:
What if there was an after-school program for city kids that taught the finer points of ballroom etiquette, along with flamboyant dances like the tango, the rumba, and the foxtrot? Well, there is in New York City, and Agrelas buoyant doc follows three groups of spunky fifth-graders from home to class to the dance floor as they gear up for a very heated public-school competition.
Why I Love It:
There's enough sizzle in this wonderful doc to power hundreds of preteen dance lessons, especially as the kids Agrela features-Dominican and Italian, uptowners and outer-borough residents-come from many walks of life. Aside from seeing these youths develop into fancy, sophisticated hoofers, one great charm of the film is hearing the budding dancers talk about their lives, aspirations, and (of course!) the opposite sex. With a leg up on rousing, uplifting entertainment, "Mad Hot Ballroom" makes "American Idol" look like vacuous child's play.
.Martha Graham Dance on Film
What It's About:
This stunningly beautiful film collects two of legendary dancer-choreographer Martha Graham's signature performances of the early '60s ("Appalachian Spring" and "Night Journey"), along with an eye-opening, behind-the-scenes visual tour of her teaching methods and creative process ("A Dancer's Work"), narrated by Graham herself. (Note: the second disc features a penetrating PBS documentary, "The Dancer Revealed", that bears watching first.)
Why I Love It:
Was there a more sensual, original modern dancer than Martha Graham? Along with Nureyev, Nijinsky, and Isadora Duncan, Graham was one of the pioneering forces of the 20th-century art of dance and movement. These gorgeous black-and-white films, made in collaboration with TV programmer Nathan Kroll, capture Graham's grace, versatility, and robust presence with all the visual magic that the medium allows. In addition to her breathtaking stage work, Criterion's edition includes interviews with scholars like Deborah Jowitt and Ron Simon, composer Aaron Copland, and other participants in the making of these blissful time capsules. Not to be missed!
Shall We Dance
What It's About:
Entranced by a beautiful woman he sees in the window of a dance school each night as he passes by in a commuter train, strait-laced businessman Shohei (Yakusho) strolls in one night and signs up for a class. To his delight, he discovers an aptitude for ballroom dance, taught by comely instructor Mai (Kusakari). Cutting the rug soon becomes a nightly obsession, something Shohei keeps a secret from his wife, who begins to believe he's having an affair.
Why I Love It:
Delightful from head to heel, this sweet-natured comedy examines the liberation of a buttoned-down salaryman in a society where flamboyant self-expression is a kind of unspoken taboo, especially for the respectable middle classes. Yakusho plays the role of flowering hoofer with hilarious awkwardness and genuine joy, while real-life ballerina Kusakari is luscious as the sexy partner who mentors him for a dance competition. Much of the film's humor arrives in the person of Tomio (Naoto Takenaka), Shohei's co-worker by day and an outlandishly attired rumba specialist by night. For sheer, exhilarating feel-good fun, "Dance" is a hard act to follow.
The Red Shoes
What It's About:
Ballerina Vicky Page (Shearer) is torn between her allegiance to her mentor, ballet impresario Boris Lermontov (Walbrook), and her love for young composer Julian Craster (Goring). Her real-life conflict is set against the ballet of "The Red Shoes," based on the Hans Christian Andersen fable of a girl who slips on beautiful slippers and then finds she cannot stop dancing.
Why I Love It:
Well over sixty years after its initial release, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's best-remembered classic remains one of the most sumptuous Technicolor films ever made. The ballet sequences (choreographed by Robert Helpmann) are breathtaking, but never eclipse the human drama, with Walbrook powerful as the icy Lermontov, and Shearer a red-haired vision, whether still or in motion. One of the great achievements in film, and a must for family viewing, particularly for those with daughters.
