{"id":686,"date":"2004-03-11T19:22:33","date_gmt":"2004-03-12T03:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2004\/03\/11\/the-weirdness-of-singin-in-the-rain\/"},"modified":"2004-03-11T19:22:33","modified_gmt":"2004-03-12T03:22:33","slug":"the-weirdness-of-singin-in-the-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=686","title":{"rendered":"The Weirdness of Singin' in The Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Singin’ in the Rain<\/a> is one of the few classic old musicals I adore. (I love musicals, but I prefer the modern stuff – I’m a sucker for anything Sondheim). I was watching it for the n<\/i>th time the other day, when I noticed yet another example of how deeply weird<\/i> this film is.<\/p>\n

I’m not talking about the totally surreal “Gotta Dance” sequence, which is the most striking example of weirdness (a film set in the fifties set within a film set in the 1700s in a film which is itself set in the 1920s). Nor am I pointing out that the famous “Singin’ in the Rain” dance sequence actually takes place in a downpour made of milk (showed up on the cameras better than water would have). No, I’m talking about an interesting way the script plays with the standard conventions of musicals.<\/p>\n

In musicals, songs come in one of two types: First is the “hey, kids, let’s put on a show” song, in which the character <\/i>performs a song. The second type is the “expression of what’s in my heart” song, in which the actor<\/i> sings, but the character herself isn’t actually supposed to be literally singing.<\/p>\n

In Singin’ in the Rain, for example, the title song isn’t something the main character (played by Gene Kelly) performs on stage; it’s a spontaneous expression of his heart, performed on a rainy street as he walks home.<\/p>\n

Or is it?<\/p>\n

Think of the ending: good-hearted-but-unknown actress Kathy Selden (played by a very cute Debbie Reynalds) is forced to sing hidden behind a curtain, so that evil-but-famous Lina Lamont (played by a wonderfully nasty Jean Hagen) can lip-synch to Kathy’s singing and thus pretend to have a wonderful singing voice. “What are you going to sing?” the bandleader asks. “What song?” Lina hisses to Kathy (hidden behind the curtain). “Singin’in the Rain,” Kathy whispers back. “Singin’in the Rain,” Lina tells the bandleader.<\/p>\n

So the band starts playing “Singin’in the Rain” – clearly, they all know it – and Kathy sings it while Lina (who clearly knows the words and tune) lip-synchs. And I’m left going: Whaaaa?<\/i><\/p>\n

Just a few scenes ago, this song was presented as if it were a spontaneous display of what’s in Don Lockwood’s (Gene Kelly’s) heart. Now, it’s suddenly an old standard – everyone knows it, Lila, Kathy, the bandleader, the entire band.<\/p>\n

Just a nice bit of genre-play in an already wonderfully weird movie.<\/p>\n

(Actually, this particular kind of genre play takes place twice in the movie; in the bit I describe above, and also during the “Good Morning” sequence)..<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Singin’ in the Rain is one of the few classic old musicals I adore. (I love musicals, but I prefer the modern stuff – I’m a sucker for anything Sondheim). I was watching it for the nth time the other … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-popular-and-unpopular-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}