With my dad's birthday coming up in a weeks time,I started to search around for a DVD that he would enjoy.Struggleing to locate a suitable title,I suddenly remembered him mentioning a while ago about being very keen in taking a look at the DVD of the musical Can-Can,which led to me heading down to a seedy nightclub,in the hope of seeing the dance performed.
The plot:
1896: Montmartre.
Being the owner of a nightclub where the illegal Can-Can dance is performed, Simone Pistache uses all her charms to make anyone in power overlook the nightclub,with Pistache's close friend (and lawyer) François Durnais cutting deals with anyone who tries to shut the club.Since having recently joined the high-court,judge Paul Barriere has been searching for a method he can use to clean the decay from the streets.Setting his sights on the Can-Can club, Pistache begins to realise that she must hit some super high-kicks,in order to stop Barriere's plans in its tracks.
View on the film:
Bringing the stage show to the big screen,director Walter Lang and cinematographer William H. Daniels give the title a stylish water colour appearance,which help to give the striking dance numbers a real fairy tale feel.Allowing the stage origin roots to overlap with the movie,Lang disappointingly never allows the viewer to be placed in the middle of the action,thanks to Lang always keeping the camera at a safe distance,which despite making the dance numbers something which can be fully seen,does lead to the central drama feeling rather stilted.
Matching Lang's directing,the screenplay by Dorothy Kingsley, Charles Lederer and Abe Burrows fails to warm the relationship between François Durnais (a smooth Frank Sinatra) and Simone Pistache (an excellent Shirley MacLaine) by attempting to show Paul Barriere (a wonderfully stuck-up Maurice Chevalier) gradually warm to the Can-Can,which the writer's are unable to make be a natural transition for the character,thanks to the ' moral guardian' side Barriere being spread on thickly during the first half,which leads to this Can-Can sadly being unable to finish with style.
The plot:
1896: Montmartre.
Being the owner of a nightclub where the illegal Can-Can dance is performed, Simone Pistache uses all her charms to make anyone in power overlook the nightclub,with Pistache's close friend (and lawyer) François Durnais cutting deals with anyone who tries to shut the club.Since having recently joined the high-court,judge Paul Barriere has been searching for a method he can use to clean the decay from the streets.Setting his sights on the Can-Can club, Pistache begins to realise that she must hit some super high-kicks,in order to stop Barriere's plans in its tracks.
View on the film:
Bringing the stage show to the big screen,director Walter Lang and cinematographer William H. Daniels give the title a stylish water colour appearance,which help to give the striking dance numbers a real fairy tale feel.Allowing the stage origin roots to overlap with the movie,Lang disappointingly never allows the viewer to be placed in the middle of the action,thanks to Lang always keeping the camera at a safe distance,which despite making the dance numbers something which can be fully seen,does lead to the central drama feeling rather stilted.
Matching Lang's directing,the screenplay by Dorothy Kingsley, Charles Lederer and Abe Burrows fails to warm the relationship between François Durnais (a smooth Frank Sinatra) and Simone Pistache (an excellent Shirley MacLaine) by attempting to show Paul Barriere (a wonderfully stuck-up Maurice Chevalier) gradually warm to the Can-Can,which the writer's are unable to make be a natural transition for the character,thanks to the ' moral guardian' side Barriere being spread on thickly during the first half,which leads to this Can-Can sadly being unable to finish with style.