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THE
TOP 5
PROJECT

WEEK NO. 33
Main Page (including links to all past Top 5 weeks)

THE TOP 5 MUSICALS:

view full results       see how points are awarded
Rank Film Points L #1
#1 Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donan & Gene Kelly, 1952) 73 19 7
#2 The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964) 31 9 2
#3 The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) 21 8 1
#4 Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944) 20 5 2
#5 Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000) 14 4 1
tie Swing Time (George Stevens, 1936) 14 5 -
L=How many lists each film appears on             #1=How many number one votes each film recieves

As was no surprise, this week's winner was Singin' in the Rain, by a landslide. Garnering 73 points it far outran second place The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, with 31 points. Coming in third (in a battle) was The Wizard of Oz with 21 points, just beating out fourth place Meet me in St. Louis with 20. Fifth place was a tie and went to Swing Time and Lars von Trier's "anti-musical" of sorts, Dancer in the Dark.

When we did this very topic two years ago, Singin' in the Rain won as well, but not by such a large amount. It beat out second place Dancer in the Dark by just 4 points, 23 to 19. Of course we had a much smaller crowd back then, and very few actual professionals, which is why we have done a second time this week.

Other films that made a strong running were The Band Wagon, The Young Girls of Rochefort, Moulin Rouge, The Red Shoes and Footlight Parade.

Individual lists:

David Sterritt
Chairman, National Society of Film Critics

(chronological order)

  • The Red Shoes (Powell and Pressburger, 1948)

  • The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)

  • The Pajama Game (Abbott and Donen, 1957)

  • TIE: New York, New York and The Last Waltz (Martin Scorsese, 1977-78)

  • The Saddest Music in the World (Guy Maddin, 2003)



Carrie Rickey
Film Critic, Philadelphia Inquirer

  1. Singin' in the Rain (Donan & Kelly, 1952)

  2. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)

  3. The Bandwagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)

  4. Swing Time (George Stevens, 1936)

  5. Funny Face (Stanley Donan, 1957)



David Ehrenstein
Film Critic & Entertainment Writer
Author, Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-1998

  1. Good News (Charles Walters, 1947)

  2. Singin' in the Rain (Donan & Kelly, 1952)

  3. Funny Face (Stanley Donan, 1957)

  4. Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967)

  5. Zero Patience (John Greyson, 1993)



Jeffrey M. Anderson
Film Critic & Freelance Entertainment Writer
Las Vegas Weekly, Metro (Silicon Valley), etc.

  1. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)

  2. 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon/Busby Berkeley, 1933)

  3. Swing Time (George Stevens, 1936)

  4. The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967)

  5. Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly, 1952)

Runners Up: An American in Paris, The Band Wagon, Footlight Parade, Gentlemen Prefer Blondesv, Funny Face, You Were Never Lovelier ...


Christopher Null
Founder, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Filmcritic.com

  1. Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001) - Forget Chicago, Baz Luhrmann reinvented the musical years earlier with this masterwork. If Chicago makes the top five I'll strangle myself.

  2. Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donan & Gene Kelly, 1952)- An undying classic, this musical never flags for a second. The title track is probably the most enduring song in musical history.

  3. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)- You don't even need to turn on the subtitles to enjoy this bittersweet French flick.

  4. The King and I (Walter Lang, 1956)- My favorite Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. Yul Brenner can do no wrong. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

  5. Pink Floyd The Wall (Alan Parker, 1982)- We don't need no education! The best rock opera ever.



Dennis Schwartz
Film Critic Ozu's World Movie Reviews

  1. Meet Me In St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)

  2. Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly/Stanley Donen, 1952)

  3. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)

  4. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)

  5. A Star Is Born (George Cukor,1954)



Film Prophet
Film Critic, FilmProphet.com

  1. West Side Story (Jerome Robbins & Robert Wise, 1961)

  2. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)

  3. Yankee Doodle Dandy (Michael Curtiz, 1941)

  4. Funny Girl (William Wyler, 1968)

  5. Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952)



Michael Parent
Film Student

  1. The Producers (Mel Brooks, 1968)

  2. Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen, 1952)

  3. Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson, 1964)

  4. Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)

  5. This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984)

Runners up: Beauty & the Beast (Kirkdale & Wise, 1991), A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 1964), South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (Trey Parker, 1999), Grease (Randal Kleiser, 1978), Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975), New York, New York (Martin Scorsese, 1977), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975), West Side Story (Robert Wise, 1961), Footloose (Herbert Ross, 1984).


Lucifer Sam
Film Enthusiast

  1. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1953)

  2. The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967)

  3. A Woman is a Woman (Jean-Luc Godard, 1961)

  4. A Star is Born (George Cukor, 1954)

  5. A Hard Day’s Night (Richard Lester, 1964)



Matt Severson
Film Enthusiast

  1. Singin' in the Rain (Donan & Kelly, 1952)

  2. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)

  3. Swing Time (George Stevens, 1936)

  4. Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)

  5. Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972)



Kevin Cassidy
Film Enthusiast

  1. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)

  2. The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)

  3. Singin' in the Rain (Donan & Kelly, 1952)

  4. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donan, 1954)

  5. All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)



Mathew Viola
Film Fanatic

  1. Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952) – What makes Singin’ in the Rain the greatest musical of all time? Firstly, it’s one of the few Hollywood musicals whose story and themes are strong enough to stand on their own, without support from the production numbers. How many musicals can you say that about? Whereas the plots of most musicals were flimsy excuses to string together a series of production numbers, Singin’ in the Rain boasts a knowing Comden-Green screenplay that not only takes sharp satirical jabs at the phony, stuck-up stars, idiotic gossip columnists, stuffy diction coaches, dictatorial directors and money-minded producers of Hollywood, but also hilariously parody’s the industry’s awkward conversion from silent pictures to talkies. It is one of the funniest screenplays ever written, and one of the greatest movies about movies, whether in the musical genre or not.

    It also features the funniest performance in the musical genre: As the silent film star who can’t successfully transition to talkies because of her unfortunate voice, which is a combination of high-pitched screeching and babyish cutesiness, Jean Hagen’s hilarious performance is good enough to place her in the pantheon of great film comediennes; her attempt to pronounce “I can’t stand them” with “I caaan’t stan’m” is alone worth the price of admission, but the rest of her performance, which satirizes the chasm between her refined screen image and the vulgarity of her true self, is equally impressive.

    If that already weren’t enough to set this musical apart, Singin’ in the Rain also happens to have one catchy song and exhilarating dance routine after another, some of which are among the genre’s most memorable moments. Who can forget Kelly and O’Connor fiddling around with each other on a vaudeville stage, or tongue twisting and scampering their way out of a stuffy diction lesson, or, with Debbie Reynolds, greeting the good morning by dancing throughout the house and on the furniture? Or O’Connor making us laugh with his show-stopping, acrobatic back flipping off walls? Or “Gotta Dance” Kelly getting his “Broadway Rhythm” on with luscious legged Cyd Charisse? If there were a hall of fame for musical numbers, all of these would be inducted.

    As star, dancer, co-choreographer and co-director, Kelly undoubtedly made the most significant contributions to the film as a whole and to the production numbers in particular. The heir apparent to Fred Astaire, Kelly continued in Astaire’s tradition of integrating song and dance with narrative, but pushed the approach into more cinematically sophisticated realms. Indeed, just as their dancing styles differed, with Astaire’s elegant grace contrasting with Kelly’s muscular power, so too did their respective approaches to choreography. Whereas Astaire generally took a conservative approach, preferring to stage his dances in long take/medium shot with a stationary camera in order to keep the focus on his footwork, Kelly generally took a more adventurous approach, often employing stylish camera movement, among other techniques, to complement and enhance his exhilirating hoofing. This approach is abundantly evident in the classic title number in which the camera, like another participant in the joyous dance, tracks, pans and cranes in sync with Kelly’s jumps, splashes and spins. It is one of the most ebullient, exhilarating numbers ever, and would be the first inductee into my imaginary musical hall of fame.

  2. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) – MGM’s immortal classic, which remains as enchanting when viewed as an adult as it was as a child, is probably part of our collective consciousness more than any other film. One explanation for this is obvious, as it’s right on the surface for everyone to see and hear: the stunning Technicolor cinematography, imaginative set designs, memorable special effects, colorful costumes, cleverly lyricized songs, and wondrous characters, from dancing munchkins to flying monkeys, create an incredibly vivid, utterly enchanting fantasy world that’s brimming with unforgettable sights and sounds.

    Plus, the performances are splendid, with top honors going to Judy Garland and Margaret Hamilton. Much of the film’s success hinges on Garland’s heartfelt performance. Whether seeing Toto being taken away from her, singing and dreaming about unknown wonders over the rainbow, skipping and dancing down the Yellow Brick road with her newfound friends, cowering in the Wicked Witch’s castle, or saying goodbye to her friends from Oz, Garland’s expressions of anguish, hope, joy, fear, and sadness are always completely genuine, and the natural, unforced rapport she shares with the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion results in one of cinema’s deepest and most moving depictions of friendship.

    As Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch, Hamilton’s dual performances have deservedly entered cinematic folklore. Who can forget old sourpuss Miss Gulch, who memorably represents the bitter, dog-and-child-hating hag we all remember form our childhood neighborhoods, as she furiously peddles her bicycle to the ‘da-da da-da da-da da-dum’ music? Or the Wicked Witch, with her beady eyes, corpse-green face and gnarled fingers, when she screeches and cackles with malicious, goose bump-inducing menace, “I’ll get you my pretty – and your little dog to!” Nobody has more terrifyingly embodied our deepest childhood nightmares than Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West.

    But the colorful fantasy adventure story alone isn’t enough to explain the Wizard of Oz’s uncanny hold on people generation after generation. There’s something deeper going on. The film taps deeply into, on the one hand, universal childhood fears of abandonment, strangers, and unfamiliar surroundings, and on the other hand, adolescent yearnings for independence, friendship, and adventure. Dorothy, on the cusp of the uneasy transition between childhood and young womanhood, finds herself lost and alone in a scary, unfamiliar place, far from family and home; yet at the same time, she’s excited by the wondrous, beautiful new world, and happy to have met helpful and friendly fellow travelers on her journey.

    Garland is again the key to this. Because she was a sixteen year old playing a twelve year old, she had enough perspective on the material, unlike an actual twelve year old would have had, to strike just the right balance between her childish innocence and her adolescent stirrings, which is precisely what the role of Dorothy requires. (We can thank the cinematic gods that Shirley “my dimples are so adorable” Temple didn’t play Dorothy as originally intended. If she had, The Wizard of Oz” would have become mired in a gooey mess of cloying cutesiness). Girls and boys alike deeply relate to Dorothy’s plight, and it may not be a stretch to say that watching The Wizard of Oz as children helped prepare us for the inevitable time when we have to leave the protection and security of “home” and venture out into that scary yet enticing world on our own. Thus, The Wizard of Oz is, finally, a reassuring coming-of-age tale, which teaches us that, like Dorothy, we too can successfully navigate through the yellow brick roads, haunted forests and poppy fields of life, and ultimately take control of our own destiny.

  3. Swing Time (George Stevens, 1936) – By the time Fred and Ginger made Swing Time, their sixth romantic musical comedy together in three years, the couple’s natural rapport was honed to perfection, not only in their dancing, but also in their unusually affecting romantic interplay. Despite the frothy plot, which has even more than the usual quota of misunderstandings, breakups and conciliations, this is probably the only film in the series that has any real depth of emotion; notice, for example, the genuine sadness in Ginger’s expression when she discovers that Fred has a fiancée. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the film boasts one of the loveliest of musical scores, courtesy of Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, which includes the lilting, plucky charm of “Pick Yourself Up”, the touching, gently sarcastic romantic vacillations of “A Fine Romance”, and the lyrical splendor of the Oscar-winning “The Way You Look Tonight.”

    Astaire not only performed superbly in front of the camera, he was also equally as innovative a choreographer as Busby Berkeley in the ‘30s, albeit in a different way. Whereas Berkeley was the creator of visually stunning, but wholly exhibitionist extravaganzas, Astaire was more interested in integrating music and dance with narrative, which served to advance the plot, and more importantly, to give expression to the characters’ emotions. This technique was brought to exquisite perfection in Swing Time, notably in the lovely “Waltz in Swing Time,” a joyous ode to budding romance in which the partners ecstatically leap, whirl and spin in celebration of their love, and the somber “Never Gonna Dance” in which the anguished former lovers desperately attempt to recapture the romantic magic of the leaping and twirling of their waltzing, only to continually separate and then momentarily come back together again, until finally losing contact with each other completely and breaking apart for good.

    One can’t discuss Swing Time without mentioning the extraordinary “Bojangles of Harlem” number, which shows that Fred was not completely averse to staging exhibitionist extravaganzas. Conceived as a tribute to the great black tap dancers, as well as displaying the influence of Busby Berkeley, this tapping tour de force features Fred scampering with amazing quick-footedness, dancing with a twenty-four girl chorus line as though with a single partner, and out-dancing three giant shadows projected on a screen behind him! It might be Astaire’s crowning achievement.

    Thanks to great songs, superb dancing, endearing romance, and amusing comic support from sidekicks Victor Moore, who seems like a live-action version of Elmer Fudd, and the wisecracking Helen Broderick, Swing Time is one of the most entertaining musicals of all-time.

  4. Footlight Parade (Lloyd Bacon, 1933) – Vintage Warners backstage musical has an odd structure: the first part concerns musical producer Cagney’s determined effort to save his production company by staging live musical numbers as a prelude to movies, while the second part climaxes with a trio of extravagant Busby Berkeley numbers. Thanks mostly to Cagney, who’s as energetic as a harried musical producer as he was as a manic ‘30s gangster, the first part is lively, fast-paced and entertaining. And as Cagney’s girl Friday, Joan Blondell, who saves him from a gold-digger, exposes his crooked bosses, and inspires him creatively, is funny, touching and thoroughly charming.

    But the film only achieves real distinction in the last half hour during its three memorable Busby Berkeley production numbers. In the clever, highly amusing “Honeymoon Hotel,” newlyweds Powell and Keeler have their Honeymoon romance continually interrupted by annoyingly intrusive family members, a hilariously mischievous kid, and Powell’s innocent but badly timed encounter with a buxom blonde. In the extraordinary “Shanghai Lil,” Cagney doffs his producer’s suit and dons his dancing shoes while looking high and low for his elusive china doll in a rotgut bar and smoky opium den, where unshaven tough guys and scantily-clad hotties hang out in delicious pre-Code iniquity. But the best number is the eye-popping “By a Waterfall.” As an aquacade of frolicking chorines slide, dive, splash and swim in the water, Berkeley’s camera captures their pretty faces in loving close-up, dives underwater to see their playful somersaulting and paddling legs, and, most spectacularly, views them with an array of stunning overhead shots as they shape themselves into myriad symmetrical patterns. An absolute wonder to behold, Berkeley’s amazing kaleidoscopic choreography was as close as ‘30s Hollywood got to experimental cinema. That the “By a Waterfall” sequence is supposed to be a theatrical number is highly ironic, as Berkeley’s purely cinematic visuals so thrillingly transcend the confines of the proscenium arch.

  5. One Hour With You (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932) – This underrated operetta, in which characters often sing and speak to each other in rhyme, is a delight from start to finish, with Chevalier often directly addressing the camera/audience, thus intimately involving us with his hilarious predicament in which he must decide whether to remain faithful to his wife or indulge in an extramarital dalliance with a flirtatious acquaintance.

Runners-up: Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932), 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933), Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935), Holiday Inn (Mark Sandrich, 1942), Yankee Doodle Dandy (Michael Curtiz, 1942), Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944), A Star is Born (George Cukor, 1954), Funny Face (Stanley Donen, 1957), The Music Man (Morton Da Costa, 1962), A Hard Day’s Night (Richard Lester, 1964), The Umbrella’s of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964).


Doug Pratt
DVD Critic, DVDLaser.com

  1. Les Uns et Les Autres (Claude Lelouch, 1981)

  2. Footlight Parade (Lloyd Bacon, 1933)

  3. Singin' in the Rain (Donan & Kelly, 1952)

  4. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Richard Lester, 1966)

  5. The Gay Divorcee (Mark Sandrich, 1935)



Joel Webb
Film Enthusiast

  1. Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964) - the ultimate 'musical'.

  2. Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000) - What really needs to be said about this one?

  3. The Gay Divorcee (Mark Sandrich, 1934) - Not sure why this is passed over for Top Hat or Swing Time so often.

  4. Yellow Submarine (George Dunning, 1968) - oh...if I could only remember the memories that I had with this one.

  5. The Wayward Cloud (Tsai Ming-liang, 2005) - what an experience it was seeing this in a packed theatre. Few are on par with Tsai these days.

Runners-Up: Une femme est une femme (Jean-Luc Godard, 1961), Marat/Sade (Peter Brook, 1967), Willy Wonka (Mel Stuart, 1971), The Producers (Mel Brooks, 1968) and - of course - The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939). I place the Marx Bros somewhere beyond musicals.


Jesse Richards
Filmmaker

I really don’t like musicals for the most part- I really hate anything Rogers and Hammerstein or anything Andrew Lloyd Webber in particular. That being said, Busby Berkeley especially, Gene Kelly, as well as Fred and Ginger all did some really amazing stuff. I could really watch Busby Berkeley movies all day long and not get tired of it.

  1. The Gang’s All Here (Busby Berkeley, 1943)

  2. Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy & Busby Berkeley, 1933)

  3. Footlight Parade (Lloyd Bacon, 1933)

  4. Singin’ In the Rain (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952)

  5. Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935)



Kevin LaForest
Film Critic, Montreal Film Journal

  1. Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)

  2. Singin' in the Rain (Donan & Kelly, 1952)

  3. West Side Story (Robbins & Wise, 1961)

  4. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Trey Parker, 1999)

  5. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)



Hans Lucas
Film Syudent

  1. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)

  2. Singin’ In the Rain (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952)

  3. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)

  4. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)

  5. Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)

Some Honorable Mentions: Le million (René Clair, 1931), 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933), Hallelujah I’m a Bum (Lewis Milestone, 1933), Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935), Swing Time (George Stevens, 1936), Pinocchio (Hamilton Luske & Ben Sharpsteen, etc, 1940), An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951), The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953, Howard Hawks), A Hard Days Night (Richard Lester, 1964), The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967), All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979).


Khoo Guan Soon
Film Professor

  1. Singin' In The Rain (Donan & Kelly, 1952)

  2. Dancer In The Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000)

  3. Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972)

  4. Easter Parade (Charles Walters, 1948)

  5. Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958)



Jacob Shemkovitz
Film Enthusiast

  1. Dark Side of the Rainbow: The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939 & Pink Floyd, 1973) - Without belittling the original masterpiece that was Oz, Pink Floyd added to the film with an alternate soundtrack (which by itself happens to be one of the great rock records of all time). Skeptics as to the sync's validity aside, this should be considered Pink Floyd's most successful contribution to film (much better than The Wall), rivaling the original soundtrack to Oz while making the most of its brilliant use of color and visual rhythm. the synchronous trip builds up elegantly during the twister and explodes with the color transition into 'Money.' The only flaw is that Dark Side was only composed as a 43-minute album. This film/album combo still stands as a completely different kind of viewing experience, created in 1939, reinvented in 1973, underground until the '90s, and still unparalleled today.

  2. Singin' in the Rain (Donan & Kelly, 1952) - The unmistakable epitome of MGM's Freed Unit productions (and really, it's standing in here for a whole series of great musicals), Singin' in the Rain serves as a vehicle for songs from talkies from the '20s and '30s. Normally I'm wary of Arthur Freed's tendency to "showcase" music from other sources, and there are a couple of borderline-forced moments here. But the plot of the film serves the music well, and the absolute charm and humor of the delivery are what really make this movie work.

  3. Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972) - Bob Fosse pours creative energy into his movie-making, and his perfectionism pays off in Cabaret. The stage background of the story and Fosse himself are indispensable, as the cabaret serves as the flamboyant 'stage,' but Fosse takes several meticulous steps to exploit the film medium's full potential. Dramatic scenes are completely removed from the 'musical,' so not once does a character burst into song and spoil the perfectly constructed mood. And it's a more dramatic mood, perfect for the screen: Weimar Germany's looming danger, emotional searching and sexual tension. Careful editing bring it all together.

  4. The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965) - Beautiful on-location shooting in Austria, fun musical numbers, a great performance by Julie Andrews: The most fun you can have fleeing Nazis.

  5. The Blues Brothers (John Landis, 1980) - A couple of classic SNLers make a movie out of pure passion for the music, and the result is like a moving R&B mix tape with tons of soul.

Runners-up: This Is Spinal Tap, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Stop Making Sense, Rocky Horror Picture Show

Honorable mention: Just about every major Disney movie

Films I haven't seen since I was a kid but that would probably rank: West Side Story, Mary Poppins

Ones I really should see: Meet Me in St. Louis, A Star is Born, those early talkies, ...


Ben Dalton
Film Student & Enthusiast

  1. Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen, 1952)

  2. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1948)

  3. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)

  4. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)

  5. Le Million (Rene Clair, 1931)



Jesse Walker
Film Enthusiast and Managing Editor, Reason Magazine

  1. One Froggy Evening & What's Opera, Doc? (Chuck Jones, 1955-57) - No comment is necessary.

  2. The Music Man (Morton DaCasta, 1962) - A real movie musical, completely liberated from its stage origins, with a sophisticated score and an anti-bluenose streak.

  3. Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935) & Swing Time (George Stevens, 1936) - I never can remember which is which. Doesn't matter. They're both great.

  4. On the Avenue (Roy Del Ruth, 1937) - "Some fellows see the girl that they love in a dream/Some fellows see their love in a rippling stream/I saw the girl that I can't forget/On the cover of a police gazette."

  5. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) -It might not be the best movie musical, but it's the best movie that happens to be a musical.

Honorable mentions: The Blues Brothers ("the Sherman tank of musicals" --Roger Ebert), Phantom of the Paradise (the best rock musical), Singin' in the Rain (it probably should be in the top five, but Donald O'Connor grates on my nerves), the war scenes in Duck Soup, various episodes of The Simpsons, and every kung fu flick that choreographs its kicks and jumps to a lively score. I hate to break it to you, fellas, but you're watching dance numbers.

Best number in an otherwise lousy musical: "YMCA," Can't Stop the Music. I've said it before and I'll say it again: It's like Busby Berkeley on poppers, getting fisted.

Best non-musical number in an otherwise lousy musical: Few films are as overrated as Meet Me in St. Louis. But the Halloween sequence is brilliant.

All-time greatest dance number: Lambeth Walk--Nazi Style.


Mathieu Ricordi
Director

At first a special note to point out the absence of Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which is more a sung melodrama, or film opera, than a musical.

  1. New York, New York (Martin Scorsese, 1977) - Remarkable for how far it takes the director's preoccupation with the male-female relationship (especially vis-à-vis work, art, role playing, success ethic, and power struggle) with the musical numbers being the only joyful release of the high stakes pressure ridden world created- applied with a real fondness for artifice giving the explosive human interactions a new dimension of allegorical myth. It’s also an amazingly rare example of gravitas and depth of feeling in the genre.

  2. Alexandria, Again and Forever (Youssef Chahine, 1990) - An absolute marvel when it breaks off into musical interludes that combine the political crisis' alluded to (but not shown as vividly) in the story with a mixture of traditional pageantry with new age pop (not to mention the different cultural influences that make up the mosaic of Alexandria in its power struggle with American style takeover). These factors give the integration of the musical numbers and their carry through a complexity that manage to exude as much humor as they do pathos and historical repartee.

  3. Chu-Chin-Chow (Walter Forde, 1934) - An exceptional instance of wit in the genre, with many of the musical numbers jesting in hyperbolic fashion with key narrative plot points and code words of this fantasy film that manages to satirize itself as its drawing you into its dream world. Brace yourself for the “Olive Oil” song, you may have to pinch yourself in between laughing fits that you’re actually witnessing it.

  4. Show Boat (James Whale, 1951) - A continuingly soulful reminder of one of the key theme’s in Whale’s cinema, that the way we act is a function of, and an interplay with our surroundings; given a more theatrical and literal rendition here as the main players are actors themselves usually guiding the skill of their performance according to their real life heartbreaks, social malaise, or joyful human connections. The "Ol' Man River" rendition here shows Whale in top expressionistic form.

  5. One From the Heart (Francis Ford Coppola, 1982) - An interplay with the usual excesses of the genre as it creates the perfect hyperbolic representation of greedy capitalistic 80's America, with all of the techno advances made to seem unfamiliarly futuristic. Coppola’s strength here (besides his obvious visual finesse) is that he always presents the characters’ emotional longings on display vis-à-vis there consumerist pressured longings. A bold, pleasurable, and moral experiment that remains very underrated.

And why not the TOP 3 worst?

  1. High School Musical (Kenny Ortega) - The most flagrant and shameless example of the genre’s sometimes regrettable ignorance of social setting and character surroundings. This is the falsest look at High School ever committed to film, and I have never seen musical numbers integrated in such a sloppy manner in regards to the narrative; almost reminiscent of the way the porn scenes were thrown into “Caligula”.

  2. Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann) - If the musical genre has not always been the place to find complex narratives or multilayered characters, it had almost always been able to count on a certain amount of craft and visual wonderment; why then this entry, by a director who has no conception of dance, music, movement, human interaction, space or form. Like watching bad MTV from a blender.

  3. Chicago (Rob Marshall) - See directly above.



Ricardo Luis Alvarez
Film Enthusiast

  1. Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000)

  2. Peter Pan (Geronimi, Jackson, Luske, 1953)

  3. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 1971)

  4. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)

  5. The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)



Kevyn Knox
Film Critic, Essayist + Historian

  1. Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952)

  2. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)

  3. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)

  4. The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger, 1948)

  5. Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000)

Special Mention: Busby Berkeley and his great melange of musicals such as Footlight Parade / Gold Diggers of 1933 / Dames / Gold Diggers of 1935 / 42nd Street / Gold Diggers of 1937 and about a tons worth of others. He was the choreography king when it came to design the most elaborate musical numbers. So great were his films (some co-directed by Berkeley as well) that I could not pick just one to list on the top 5.

Runners-up (in no particular order): The Band Wagon (Minnelli), The Wizard of Oz (Fleming), Love Me Tonight (Mamoulian), The Wayward Cloud (Tsai), Cabaret (Fosse), Gigi (Minnelli), Nashville (Altman), A Woman is a Woman (Godard), The Young Girls of Rochefort (Demy), A Hard Day's Night (Lester), New York, New York (Scorsese), Le Million (Clair), White Christmas (Curtiz)...

*points are given as follows: for numbered lists, first place recieves 5 points, second place recieves 4, third place 3, fourth place 2 and fifth place gets 1 point; for unumbered lists, each film will recieve 3 points; total points are then tallied up and a comprehensive Top 5 list is created


The Next Topic is:
Name The Top 5 Nouvelle Vague Films

e-mail me at kevynknox@thecinematheque.com with your picks for week #34,
no later than 6pm on Sunday, Aug 5, 2007.

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