Over & Overs: "Singin' in the Rain" (1952)

by Cláudio Alves

It's been a while since the Over & Overs series has shown up on The Film Experience's timeline, and it's as good a time as any to rectify that. Indeed, revisiting a beloved picture one has seen more times than one can count is the perfect idea for today's celebration. You see, a century ago, Stanley Donen was born in Columbia, South Carolina, the son of a dress shop manager and future movie lover. He'd also be a movie magician, capable of turning the screen into materialized joy, like an alchemist who used the camera to transform and transport his audiences. Though one finds several titles are worth appraising in his filmography, a single picture stands above all others, the musical to end all musicals. It's Singin' in the Rain, of course…

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Barbie Prep: Letterboxd, Watchlists, Oh My!

by Cláudio Alves

We're in the home stretch, less than a week until Barbie arrives in theaters like a shock-pink supernova. The promotion has been near manic in intensity, with the cast showing off their best Mattel cosplay worldwide and Warner Bros. pulling no punches. However, it's not all red-carpet glamour and real-life dream houses, with writer-director Greta Gerwig doing much to excite the global cinephilia by hinting at her Barbie's debt to great cinema of yore. She's been very vocal about the cast and crew watch parties, studying the hyper-artifice of studio classics, and even getting on the phone with Peter Weir to get some tips relating to The Truman Show.

In a recent Letterboxd interview, Gerwig went into a personal watchlist she curated, starting with 29 titles that eventually expanded to 33 during the conversation. It's a vast collection of titles, from 1930s screwball to modern Almodóvar…

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TCM Film Festival: Final Diary - Xanadu

By Christopher James

Have you ever watched a movie and realized it was instantly going to be part of your personality? Last weekend at a midnight screening of Xanadu, I thought I was merely filling a critical hole in my gay camp movie repertoire. The Olivia Newton John 1980 roller skating musical was a bomb when it first opened. Yet, through hit songs like “Magic” and “Xanadu,” the film hung around long enough to become a cult classic. Obviously the term “roller skating musical” doesn’t inspire much confidence in a film’s storytelling prowess. Xanadu isn’t a “so bad it’s good” curio piece. Instead, it’s an ambitious, messy, misunderstood masterpiece about the ebbs and flow of art and taste...

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Almost There: Donald O'Connor in "Singin' in the Rain"

by Cláudio Alves

Reader James Lovelace requested that the 'Almost There' series would examine more films from Hollywood's Golden Era. Indeed, along with his request, he sent a list of pre-1970 suggestions, including the one featured today. Looking away from more recent Oscar snubs, let's start August by considering one of the 1950s' best and most joyous musicals. Though nowadays Singin' in the Rain is often cited as a pinnacle of its genre, back in the day, AMPAS and the public weren't nearly as effusive. The picture was only a modest hit and only scored two Oscar nominations – for its music and Jean Hagen's iconic performance as Lina Lamont.

In a just world, other actors from the classic would have joined Hagen on Oscar night. Chief among them, we have Donald O'Connor, a vaudevillian veteran turned musical movie star…

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Judy Garland @ 100: "Summer Stock"

Team Experience is revisiting nine Judy Garland pictures for her Centennial. Here's Nathaniel R on a troubled moment in time...

Judy Garland's enduring legend comes not just from her rightful title as "The World's Greatest Entertainer" but for her troubled offscreen life. It's not that sadness, addictions, tragedy, and/or an early demise should fascinate the public more than the work itself but the fact is that they often do (see also Clift, Monroe, Ledger, Dean, Leigh, and many other stars throughout history). Judy's struggles only make her incredibly transcendent work in concert halls and movie screens more jaw-dropping; you rarely see anything other than megawatt talent and professional magic. That isn't quite the case with Summer Stock (1950) which makes it an anomaly in her filmography. It's a rare curious glimpse at Garland in-and-out of her magic, like a flickering but gorgeous light. For a time it even threatened to be her final picture...

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