Ask FlickChick Did the actors in Nashville really do their own singing Plus What movie is this and more questions answeredQuestion I recently saw Nashville for the first time and have two questions First the end credits for the songs seem to indicate that most of them were actually sung by the actors and actresses rather than dubbed Were they really singing the songs If so they sounded pretty good to me Second maybe I missed something but why was the singer shot at the big rally -- what did the shooter have against her Thanks -- Marty FlickChick Not did the cast of Robert Altmans Nashville 1975 -- who with the exception of Ronee Blakely had little or no professional music training or experience -- perform their songs but many wrote them as well And almost without exception theyre terrific For me the only truly unconvincing performer is Lily Tomlin who plays white gospel singer Linnea Reese She just plain cant sing and putting a genuine gospel choir b
read more
Favorite line on any show I've seen all week: "Peggy, this isn't China. There's no money in virginity." That's Joan talking, the sexiest secretary in all of '60s New York advertising, once again stealing a scene in AMC's dazzling Mad Men with aplomb. Christina Hendricks, I salute you.It was another intensely enjoyable episode this week, which also grew my estimation for the performance of January Jones (what a name) as Don Draper’s quietly simmering, drop-dead-gorgeous Grace Kelly look-alike wife, Betty. How happy was she when, at intermission at Broadway’s Fiorello!, the ad guy wooing Don to jump agencies to the big time offered her a chance to get back into modeling (with the pause that refreshes). How fooled were we that this was just another ploy to lure Don away from “the tiny store” of Sterling Cooper? Not very. And neither was Don fooled. Betty, however? Very fooled. And very crushed when the opportunity vanishes once Don turns them down.Who can blame her ...
read more
I love talking about movies but Ive never been able to organize movie-night get-togethers So this is the next best thing On Tuesdays Im going to spotlight a DVD and suggest some virtual-discussion startersAs I was watching Bobby last week a movie that by the way I like rather better than most reviewers its reach outstrips its grasp but isnt ambition a good thing I couldnt keep my mind off Robert Altmans Nashville 1975 a model for successful multistrand narratives Its one of my favorite films ever I saw it when it opened at a now-vanished theater called the Baronet I showed it regularly during the five years I taught film historytheorycriticism and after all those viewings it retains the power to chill me with its distillation of the heart-wrenching gulf between ideals and actions between dreams and the grubby day-to-day reality of making it from sunrise to sunset without drowning in the troubles of the world I know what youre thinking You dont really l
read more
Question: I recently saw and loved the movie Crash, and was especially intrigued by the way all the stories intersected and converged. Could you possibly give me a list of some other films whose stories are structured in the same way? Answer: I certainly can: First, for the benefit of readers who haven't seen Crash (2005), its structure is one in which multiple narratives are developed simultaneously and overlay or intersect at key points before converging at the end. Unlike ensemble movies in which there's a main plot and a series of subplots, films like this give more or less equal weight to all the story strands and derive a significant part of their thematic power from the apparently random way in which different characters' destinies come together. To my mind, the greatest of all multiple-story narratives is
read more
