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"Measure in Love" Still, I�m glad that I didn�t read reviews or look at any of the press about the movie prior to the release. Strangely, I�m glad that I didn�t listen to the movie soundtrack beforehand, either (although, had I done that, I would definitely have recognized several voices and been clued in). In some odd way, I�m even glad that I didn�t realize it was much of the OBC. That would have led to expectations on my part how things were supposed to sound and feel. I needed to just go, just be there and feel the raw emotion, without anyone else�s opinions or my own expectations to think about. So, here�s what I think about some of the changes in the movie. See, I love musical theater and I�m kind-of a purist when it comes to musicals. Same thing for films made from books. I hate it when a filmmaker takes away my imagination and fills it with his/her ideas, especially when the two clash. With Rent, there was a lot of room for imagination. One of my favorite things about the stage version has always been how sparse the set is. I could see the street, or Roger and Mark�s loft, but it was my own private interpretation of it. That was one of my biggest fears going into the movie: that my sense of imagination would be stolen from me. I didn�t want someone to come in and impose on me what I was supposed to see and feel. I have to say a giant �Thank you� to Chris Columbus because he didn�t do that. Somehow he managed to use images to fill in the backstory without squashing my creativity as an audience member. Another big fear I had was the whole singing and dancing thing. Somehow, in plays, it makes sense that every character on stage suddenly breaks into song and knows all the words plus the perfect choreography. That doesn�t always translate well into a movie. I mean, it works with the Disney cartoons, but when you are looking at real-life people it often comes across super cheesy. Here, it didn�t, mostly. The way the story was told, so that often when a character was singing s/he was alone, was perfect. I don�t know about you, but I honestly do break into song a lot (OK, they are songs that someone else wrote and I�m just singing them, but I still do it a lot at home�and sometimes in my classroom, much to the amusement of my students). And, having the song running but the characters not necessarily singing (One Song Glory, Without You, and What You Own specifically come to mind here) the entire time, but instead filling in the sounds with footage of the past or of time passing�great idea. It made the singing and dancing part fit and make sense. I can�t even put into words how artistically awesome The Tango: Maureen was. Bravo! What a great interpretation of the scene! Changing the order of the first act�hmmm�this really bugged me at first. Let me start with the part I liked right off the bat, which is the placement of Seasons of Love. Genius, really. In the stage show this is an extremely personal song. You have to know and trust the characters before they can stand there at the edge of the stage, vulnerable, and sing to the audience, to you, directly. It fits there. The whole first act is �one magic night,� while the second act covers the following 525,600 minutes of their lives. In the movie, putting that piece first was right. First of all, it�s not as personal. The people aren�t live and in your face. It sets the mood...this is a beautiful story about �a year in the life of friends� and what ways they each measure that passing year. And, it covers the whole singing and dancing thing as well. It�s like it�s saying, �Hello. I am a musical. The cast will be singing to you. Deal with it. Embrace it. Love it. Now, sit back and enjoy it.� Alright, the order�trying to step out of myself, a true fan who has seen the stage show more than once, and into someone new to the story�I think the order makes things flow. I think that, due to the nature of film, moving Rent up to be the first active scene was a good choice. You didn�t need the whole conversation between Roger, Mark, and Benny where he asks for the rent. The camera can zoom in on an eviction notice and the audience can understand what that means. It starts the movie off strong. The audience quickly understands that Roger is a musician and that Mark is a filmmaker. And, by going right into You�ll See immediately the audience is filled in on the fact that Benny is a former roommate-turned landlord who is hitting them up for the rent and trying to change their lives (Is this good or bad? Is Benny looking out for their interests or only his own? That�s for you to decide�although the movie does make him more of a villain than the play does, in my opinion.). Extending the time frame from a few hours to a few days works in the film. I think that it somehow makes you believe in the characters more. Mimi and Roger didn�t meet, feel attracted to each other, fight, and then get together all in one freakin� night like they do in the play. It works on stage. It doesn�t seem as if it would ring true in the movie. Same thing with Collins meeting Angel, falling in love, and introducing her to his friends all in one freakin� night because I don�t know about you, but if I fell that hard for someone the last thing I�d be doing is sharing them with my friends that night! I would definitely have other plans for expressing my love that most certainly would not involve my former roommates! Omissions�well, again one of the benefits of film is that you can show so much more to the audience. The camera can zoom in on an object. You can really see the facial expressions when one character is reacting to another. It opens all of that up so that there are things that don�t have to be stated explicitly. Did I miss things that were left out? Hell, yeah I did. It was hard for me to not hear, �That boy could use some Prozac.� I just flat out missed some of my favorite lines. I got over it, but the first time around they were definitely missed! I thought the omission of, �His girlfriend, April, left a note saying �We�ve got AIDS� before slitting her wrists in the bathroom,� was a mistake. That line, in my opinion, explains Roger�s fear to fall in love again. It expresses so much more than the simple, "she died - her name was April," that we get in the movie. And, the whole fight between Roger and Mark in Goodbye Love before Roger takes off for Santa Fe is a pivotal part of the story. In the stage version, it makes Roger�s return more moving. But again, in the stage version you have Mark singing What You Own alone, then Roger walks onstage to join in�very different from the movie where you are in both of their heads the entire song. I read an interview with Chris Columbus in which he said that they did film the entire song (it was a late cut, that�s why it made the CD), but it didn�t work in the movie. He said that it caused an emotional shutdown for the viewers at that part. He also said that he intends to release it as a deleted scene on the DVD. So, I missed it in the movie, but I know that I�ll be able to see the scene myself on the DVD. I guess I�ll wait until I see it, then, to decide if it was a good or bad choice to cut it. That leads me to the soundtrack. I�ll admit that a few weeks ago, when Jared was rocking out to the movie soundtrack under the headphones at Borders that my initial thought was, �Why on Earth do I need to spend $25 on another soundtrack? I already have all the songs and I love the version I have.� Yeah. That�s what I thought. Then I sat in the theater and heard the songs. I was mesmerized. Moved. Beyond. Belief. I heard lines that I knew backwards and forwards, and they sounded different. They felt different. They stirred up new emotions. In Light My Candle Roger came across so differently. He was more hesitant, more conflicted, more scared. And in Another Day he was firmer, angrier, harder. Why? Is that the interpretation Adam Pascal always intended? Did I miss out on that version of the songs by not ever being lucky enough to catch the OBC on Broadway (although I did get to see one of the OBC members: Daphne Rubin-Vega as Mimi in LA)? Or is this a reflection of where he is today, 10 years later, in his own life and he�s bringing that to the character? I don�t know. Hell, he may not even know. But, Roger has always been my favorite character, so this just hit me in the gut. Hard. When I listened to the OBC recording, I always heard youth and sarcasm in Roger, never the underlying conflict and pain. It was like he was using the sarcasm to cover that hurt, which makes sense, but didn't 100% work for me. This did. In I�ll Cover You (reprise) Collins is singing more from his soul than on the OBC. Again, why? And, does it really matter? What does matter is that this new version of the songs fit so much better with the way I internalized the play. They matched up with what was always in my head. Or they gave a new twist to the way I had always interpreted and this new twist opened up other parts of the show for me. That would be why about halfway through the movie I leaned over to Ryan and whispered, �You do realize that we are going into Borders and buying the CD immediately after we leave here, right?� Good husband, he just nodded. And then was amused at my failed quest for a Roger cover. Fucking Borders. They had 7 different covers�guess which was missing?!?!? On a side note, if you really want to make my birthday special in two weeks, you can get me a copy of the Roger cover for the CD� More on that soundrack: Music has a way of getting inside me and just touching my soul. It is rare that a movie hits me this hard emotionally. And, when one does, it�s all about the dialogue, and perhaps the score, and not about the cinematography for me. A good score completes a film. Well-written dialogue makes a good film great. Either of those has the ability to leave me emotionally raw. Chasing Amy did it. Shakespeare in Love did it. And now Rent. The best part about Rent is that I get to listen to that dialogue and the soul-stirring music over and over. Dialogue�spoken or sung�can be so powerful. There are those lines that stick with you and define a piece of work. Sometimes for me, it�s a line that makes a statement about life, or a line that sums up the plot so concisely. Sometimes, it�s a line that makes me laugh, or strikes me with an amusing double meaning. So, here are some of my Rent favorites from the movie soundtrack: Rent itself. The word has many meanings: to lease, to cause a rift, to be torn from�every time I think about it I delve deeper into the meaning of the show. Rent Light My Candle Life Support Another Day Mimi, Angel, Collins, & Mark: I Should Tell You Take Me or Leave Me I�ll Cover You (reprise) Halloween Goodbye Love What You Own And, of course, I love all of La Vie Boheme�every last crazy word! Thank you, Jonathan Larson. You touched my soul�over and over and over� 0 comments Listening to: Reading: Eating/drinking: Do what to me?!? - April 24, 2007 Wicked funny websearch - April 05, 2007 Trot out the dogs 'n ponies - March 31, 2007 Almost done... - March 20, 2007 Who am I? - March 12, 2007 READ ME |