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Early Monday morning I had this dream: The universe is a Fred Astair/Ginger Rogers movie made in the mid-1950’s. It is shot in black and white and it’s aesthetic looks back to the late-1930’s, rather than forward to the jet age. But it is made on a low budget so a lot of anachronisms slip in. Fred and Ginger bump into each other on a crowded corner on a rainy night somewhere in Brooklyn. Their feet touch. They fall in love at first site. A dance routine ensues. The rest of the movie is a sequence of dance numbers at different places as the night progresses; a diner, a newsstand, in the streets. It is a moveable feast throughout the night. At one point the continuity falls apart and Ginger’s eyebrows change color from shot to shot. In a particularly unflattering shot, there is an extreme close-up of her face that looks slightly ape-ish. More dance numbers. Just before dawn breaks, Fred and Ginger are wonderfully exhausted. After their last number in a street filled with other revelers they hitch a ride on a delivery wagon driven by a pair of chuckling Hasidic Jewish elders. On the bed of the wagon, Fred and Ginger curl up in each others arms and fall into a deep, boundless, symbiotic bliss.
Colby has a new playlist on his blog! |
