Nine (the movie of a musical of a movie)
Jan. 3rd, 2010 05:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amethyst73One of the nice things about having been on vacation for the last several days has been the opportunity to see a couple of movies while they're still in the theaters. On Wednesday, we saw Nine; we'd wanted to see it anyway, and the showtime made it a quite acceptable substitution for The Princess and The Frog, which was - astonishingly - sold out. We then caught Princess and Frog on Friday. While I have thoughts about Princess and Frogl, I've written sufficiently about Nine to call this an entry on its own. (It's rather longer than ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jab2 's concise summary of the film, I'm afraid.)
There's been a lot of what I'll call controversy (for lack of a better word) about Nine. Some critics have shouted accolades for it, urging it towards a Golden Globe award or two. Others have shouted in irritation and disgust. Who do I agree with? Well, some of both, though I land much more on the 'it's good' end of the spectrum.
Nine comes from the directorial hand of Rob Marshall, director of the Academy Award-winning adaptation of Chicago. Practically the first thing one realizes about Nine is that it's drastically less accessible than Chicago as a whole. As anyone familiar with the Broadway book knows, the plot of Nine is indirect at best. Rather than Chicago's straightforward, extroverted shenanigans of murderess-turned-starlet Roxie Hart, Nine is an introspective study of Guido Contini, a messed-up movie director who has great difficulty facing his inner emptiness, instead attempting to overstuff himself with the experiences of the sexy women that he's known. Nine plays more like a variety show than a continuous, coherent story: Guido acts as the host, serving as the glue connecting a number of eye-catching women doing eye-catching things as they turn about the stage.
Second, the main character isn't particularly likeable, at least in this version. Despite her flaws, Roxie was someone you wanted to have come out on top; this was a woman who had guts if nothing else. I couldn't manage to muster even plain sympathy for Guido, who spends all but the final 5-10 minutes of the film narcissistically catering to his own appetites but ultimately doing nothing.
(As a side note, it's made clear that Guido isn't the only Italian guy busy objectifying women in 1965. When Luisa unexpected appears at a dinner with Guido and assorted colleagues and fans, the Random Priest comments that Luisa is the epitomy of what the Church would prefer to see in Contini's films: the good wife - one who sacrifices everything for her husband. And in the sequence where Contini and his almost exclusively male colleagues are viewing screen tests of various actresses, the other men comment on the women on view with an appreciation of their looks that, one senses, goes beyond what's shown on the screen.)
For the most part, the actresses and actor of Nine do the things they do pretty well. While Marion Cotillard's voice largely failed to impress me, her portrayal of Guido's wife Luisa was wonderful; the transformation she goes through during "My Husband Makes Movies" was thoroughly convincing. Penelope Cruz as Guido's mistress Carla was by turns kittenish and fierce as her master or the script required. (Anyone who claims that the cinematography of her song "A Call from the Vatican" left very little to the imagination is technically correct, but they've clearly never listened to the words all on their own.) Kate Hudson as the new-for-the-movie ebullient reporter Stephanie from Vogue was a lot of fun to watch; it's a pity that composer Maury Yeston didn't give her a better song to sing than "Cinema Italiano." Fergie gives a brutalized performance of "Be Italian" as the prostitute Saraghina, giving Guido and several other boys from the local Catholic school an early lesson in how to make love to a woman. Nicole Kidman as Guido's film muse Claudia and Sophia Lauren as his mama play their too-brief roles with a simplicity and elegance that are in enviable contrast to the showier numbers. Judi Dench is understated yet superb as his costume designer Lilli. I found the cinematographic editing of her number "Folies Bergeres" unpleasantly distracting, but then again I wanted to see the costumes and choreography in a presentation much closer to the actual Folies than Rob Marshall, for whatever reason, wanted me to. Daniel Day-Lewis as Guido gives a masterful performance of a difficult role - and he sings well too. Who knew?
There were some differences between the Broadway book of Nine and the movie script, most of which I wish could have been otherwise. Most notable was the complete omission of the Casanova idea, replacing it with the concept 'Italia,' the film that never was and never will be. While this choice perhaps allowed the director to take more lovely on-location shots in and around Rome than the Grand Canal sequence would have, it deprived the viewer of what could have been a very funny ten minutes or so (not to mention some excellent songs that were cut as a result). The new character Stephanie serves the nice purpose of giving the lost Guido a decision point to turn on within the revised plot structure of the film compared to the show. While the lyrics of her song "Cinema Italiano" provide great character insight, the music is distractingly Latin in feel, and the cinematography has a modern music-video-crossed-with-big-stage-production-number that feels out of place in the film. (Not to mention that even though it's not particularly good, the music is catchy enough that I've found myself humming it regularly since Tuesday.) It would have been so simple to re-insert "Simple" into Carla's last scene; why leave it out? And Huz and I both wonder why Luisa's final, amazing song "Be On Your Own" was not just cut but replaced with the markedly inferior "Take It All." Now I want to go see the stage production.
Looking over the last few paragraphs, I realize that I've made it sound as if Nine has little to recommend it. That's not the case, though. While I think that Nine could have been a better film, it is a very worthy attempt of what must have been a difficult piece to try to film in the first place. Yes, it's worth your time, especially if you're a musicals fan.
jab2 's concise summary of the film, I'm afraid.)There's been a lot of what I'll call controversy (for lack of a better word) about Nine. Some critics have shouted accolades for it, urging it towards a Golden Globe award or two. Others have shouted in irritation and disgust. Who do I agree with? Well, some of both, though I land much more on the 'it's good' end of the spectrum.
Nine comes from the directorial hand of Rob Marshall, director of the Academy Award-winning adaptation of Chicago. Practically the first thing one realizes about Nine is that it's drastically less accessible than Chicago as a whole. As anyone familiar with the Broadway book knows, the plot of Nine is indirect at best. Rather than Chicago's straightforward, extroverted shenanigans of murderess-turned-starlet Roxie Hart, Nine is an introspective study of Guido Contini, a messed-up movie director who has great difficulty facing his inner emptiness, instead attempting to overstuff himself with the experiences of the sexy women that he's known. Nine plays more like a variety show than a continuous, coherent story: Guido acts as the host, serving as the glue connecting a number of eye-catching women doing eye-catching things as they turn about the stage.
Second, the main character isn't particularly likeable, at least in this version. Despite her flaws, Roxie was someone you wanted to have come out on top; this was a woman who had guts if nothing else. I couldn't manage to muster even plain sympathy for Guido, who spends all but the final 5-10 minutes of the film narcissistically catering to his own appetites but ultimately doing nothing.
(As a side note, it's made clear that Guido isn't the only Italian guy busy objectifying women in 1965. When Luisa unexpected appears at a dinner with Guido and assorted colleagues and fans, the Random Priest comments that Luisa is the epitomy of what the Church would prefer to see in Contini's films: the good wife - one who sacrifices everything for her husband. And in the sequence where Contini and his almost exclusively male colleagues are viewing screen tests of various actresses, the other men comment on the women on view with an appreciation of their looks that, one senses, goes beyond what's shown on the screen.)
For the most part, the actresses and actor of Nine do the things they do pretty well. While Marion Cotillard's voice largely failed to impress me, her portrayal of Guido's wife Luisa was wonderful; the transformation she goes through during "My Husband Makes Movies" was thoroughly convincing. Penelope Cruz as Guido's mistress Carla was by turns kittenish and fierce as her master or the script required. (Anyone who claims that the cinematography of her song "A Call from the Vatican" left very little to the imagination is technically correct, but they've clearly never listened to the words all on their own.) Kate Hudson as the new-for-the-movie ebullient reporter Stephanie from Vogue was a lot of fun to watch; it's a pity that composer Maury Yeston didn't give her a better song to sing than "Cinema Italiano." Fergie gives a brutalized performance of "Be Italian" as the prostitute Saraghina, giving Guido and several other boys from the local Catholic school an early lesson in how to make love to a woman. Nicole Kidman as Guido's film muse Claudia and Sophia Lauren as his mama play their too-brief roles with a simplicity and elegance that are in enviable contrast to the showier numbers. Judi Dench is understated yet superb as his costume designer Lilli. I found the cinematographic editing of her number "Folies Bergeres" unpleasantly distracting, but then again I wanted to see the costumes and choreography in a presentation much closer to the actual Folies than Rob Marshall, for whatever reason, wanted me to. Daniel Day-Lewis as Guido gives a masterful performance of a difficult role - and he sings well too. Who knew?
There were some differences between the Broadway book of Nine and the movie script, most of which I wish could have been otherwise. Most notable was the complete omission of the Casanova idea, replacing it with the concept 'Italia,' the film that never was and never will be. While this choice perhaps allowed the director to take more lovely on-location shots in and around Rome than the Grand Canal sequence would have, it deprived the viewer of what could have been a very funny ten minutes or so (not to mention some excellent songs that were cut as a result). The new character Stephanie serves the nice purpose of giving the lost Guido a decision point to turn on within the revised plot structure of the film compared to the show. While the lyrics of her song "Cinema Italiano" provide great character insight, the music is distractingly Latin in feel, and the cinematography has a modern music-video-crossed-with-big-stage-production-number that feels out of place in the film. (Not to mention that even though it's not particularly good, the music is catchy enough that I've found myself humming it regularly since Tuesday.) It would have been so simple to re-insert "Simple" into Carla's last scene; why leave it out? And Huz and I both wonder why Luisa's final, amazing song "Be On Your Own" was not just cut but replaced with the markedly inferior "Take It All." Now I want to go see the stage production.
Looking over the last few paragraphs, I realize that I've made it sound as if Nine has little to recommend it. That's not the case, though. While I think that Nine could have been a better film, it is a very worthy attempt of what must have been a difficult piece to try to film in the first place. Yes, it's worth your time, especially if you're a musicals fan.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 02:32 am (UTC)i should maybe go listen to the music on its own. generally, though, a lot of the "music-video-crossed-with-big-stage-production-number" just felt like it would be better on VH1 with no 'musical' to hang it on.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 06:31 am (UTC)I know what you mean; certainly Cinema Italiano defines the category, but there was some of that sense to e.g. Be Italian too. (My excuse for that is that hey, it's all in his head, kind of like a lot of the Chicago numbers were, which means you can do almost anything you want with the visuals.)