"Nine" - film version in the works

[dirac]

Penelope Cruz is interviewed about singing her songs in “Nine.”

Cruz's vocalizing is a mystery. She appeared to belt out a traditional ballad in Pedro Almodovar's Volver, but the vocal track was dubbed.

So, how is your singing, Penelope?

"They say it's good," Cruz offers with a shy smile, "and they gave me the part -- so now I have to do it! We're going to be training very hard. I've already been taking lessons, but now it's going to be many, many hours a day. We're going to record with an orchestra and I think that's going to be an amazing experience because I love music."

[FauxPas]

The sad thing about all of this and makes me wonder how much Maury Yeston is really involved is that almost all the roles in "Nine" are very vocally demanding. Guido and Carla in particular really require seriously trained voices with large ranges. On paper Daniel Day-Lewis and Penelope Cruz are good choices for a remake of "8 1/2" but for the musical show? You need a real voice for both parts. Kidman has enough vocal chops for her part but the other people...

As for casting Fergie... the whole idea is to pitch to the executives that you are reaching the teenage MTV crowd, not middle-aged women, homosexuals and aging Broadway fans. Tiny market shares and zero demographics. You also have to write some rock beat new song and have it on MTV and then compete for the "Best Original New Song" at the Oscars. It is just pathetic. Rob Marshall should have more respect for the material. Lots of good, talented people are in the cast here but so did "Lost Horizon".

[dirac]

I’m not inclined to beat the drums of doom just yet. There aren’t any ‘singing stars’ today as there were back when, and large scale musicals are sufficiently expensive and risky undertakings these days that some star insurance is thought to be needed. I have no problem with casting a star and then dubbing if it’s done right (‘Lost Horizon’ is a great example of dubbing NOT done right), but there’s a stigma to it these days.

Even if 'Nine' is not a success, I’d not expect a failure of ‘Lost Horizon’ proportions because the source material is much stronger and Rob Marshall has a far better understanding of what a musical requires than Charles Jarrott. And Day-Lewis and Cruz couldn’t possibly be more at sea than the unfortunate Peter Finch and Liv Ullmann.

[papeetepatrick]

There is one good casting choice--Marion Cotillard, who has some of the most important songs as Luisa. Although till today, I just assumed she'd do 'Folies Bergere' and would be Liliane le Fleur. No, it will be Judi Dench--sounds absurd to me. Cotillard will undoubtedly do well, and she's following great work by Karen Akers in the part and very good work by Mary Stuart Masterson. I agree with most of what Faux Pas said otherwise, though, and wouldn't care to see it. This was too good a property to turn into this same kind of big thing, and I don't really think it was necessary to overstuff it with that many stars who aren't singers.

[bart]

So that's "Fergalicious.". I had rather suspected that this was not the older Fergie, formerly Duchess of York. And now I know it's true.

Thank you, cubanmiamiboy. I guess I'll just resgister my customary HARUMPH, HARUMPH when I hear such songs and wait for the movie to reach the theaters. Sometimes, performers rise to the material, no? Good luck to all!

[dirac]

Cotillard was dubbed in La Vie en Rose, but I'd think she'd be right for this part, anyway - I think she has sung before.

[papeetepatrick]

Oh dear, I didn't know that, so I take back what I said. Maybe she can sing, but they obviously thought she was not able to do the vocals for Piaf. I just looked it up and thought maybe they'd used some Piaf dubbing, but maybe that sort of thing is never done. Anyway, it's several voices who dubbed her. I just checked a YouTube of Kidman singing, and it's a good deal better than I had remembered, but 'Chicago', even if I didn't like it, is a big, garish vulgar thing to begin with (and I had enjoyed it on B'way despite its trashiness). 'Nine' isn't, and it needed somebody not concerned with the usual profits, but rather like Spacey when he made 'Beyond the Sea', somebody in love with it, maybe a European. While it's clear that most of the musicals have to go this big route and only think of bucks, it cannot be necessary for every single one of them to do it, and that's what's happening, and if there's no end on it, it will all be a series of theme parks at the movies every now and then. I expect that will happen, there are no signs it won't. And related, but , that generic version of 'White Christmas' has been announced to finally have a New York run in late November. The little NYT announcement called it a 'new version', but this is the same version that's been playing in different cities since 2000; they crank it up every season. I saw it in Los Angeles in 2005, and it's one of the most dreadful things I've ever seen, and I'm a lot mellower about that sort of thing when I'm out there and relaxing. It conveys nothing of the movie, which is no masterpiece, but has a lot of charm.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Straight to the point: "Chicago": baaaaaad, "Dreamgirls", "Mamma Mia"-(finally saw it)...boooooooooring, and now Fergie...(he,he, let me laugh, as it HAS to be a joke, isn't it...?) Otherwise...

[papeetepatrick]

Straight to the point: "Chicago": baaaaaad, "Dreamgirls", "Mamma Mia"-(finally saw it)...boooooooooring, and now Fergie...(he,he, let me laugh, as it HAS to be a joke, isn't it...?) Otherwise...

The net result is that, sure, they can do that if they claim that's the only way to go, but the musical film as an artistic film doesn't exist anymore if that's the only way they'll do it--and it did exist in past decades, albeit without a huge number of great works. If they're all just loud, they can still sell, but they won't be taken seriously as films anymore. There still do exist smaller good musicals on stage off-B'way, off-off-B'way, and in other cities too, and occasionally something worthwhile on B'way, but they're mostly like big ads for cars or something.

[dirac]

Straight to the point: "Chicago": baaaaaad, "Dreamgirls", "Mamma Mia"-(finally saw it)...boooooooooring, and now Fergie...(he,he, let me laugh, as it HAS to be a joke, isn't it...?)

I'm withholding judgment on the casting of Fergie, myself. We'll see.

Chicago wasn’t bad by any means, it just wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Dreamgirls, for all its faults, had a goddess-in-waiting in Beyoncé, who looked and sounded gorgeous.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Straight to the point: "Chicago": baaaaaad, "Dreamgirls", "Mamma Mia"-(finally saw it)...boooooooooring, and now Fergie...(he,he, let me laugh, as it HAS to be a joke, isn't it...?)

I'm withholding judgment on the casting of Fergie, myself. We'll see.

Chicago wasn’t bad by any means, it just wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Dreamgirls, for all its faults, had a goddess-in-waiting in Beyoncé, who looked and sounded gorgeous.

Oh, Beyonce...yeah, well..sure...pretty girl...true. (Movie still boring, thought..)

[FauxPas]

The big problem with "Chicago" wasn't the stars (Zellweger was a competent singer and dancer and Zeta-Jones started out as a dancer/musical comedy performer on the West End stage) - it was the MTV-style direction. You couldn't see that the dancers could dance because of the hyperactive editing. They would start a movement and then-cut!-another shot!-cut!-reaction shot-cut!-etc. Dancers create dances by linking movements together but I only remember just seeing an isolated kick here or a swivel there from Zeta-Jones. No idea if she can actually still do an entire dance sequence and look credible.

Now "Nine" mostly takes place in Guido's head so that kind of wild editing could work to suggest a train of thought careening around. But I hope Marshall tones it down for this one.

[glebb]

The trailer is on You Tube (sorry I always forget how to do links.)

It's smashing!

Wish I knew how to patiently wait for Nov. 29th.

[dirac]

Thanks for the heads up, glebb. Here's a link.

"Who's singing? Fergie? Uh oh, Nicole looks a little Stepford. The movie’s in black and white? No, it’s in color. Hi Fergie! Marion is laughing. Daniel isn't. Big sets! Big numbers! Kate Hudson looks fantastic! Holy....Can Penelope really do that with her leg? So many ladies and just one man! Everyone with bouffants! Sophia Loren, now with 60% more cheekbones! Oh, it's you again, Judi. Aaaaand we’re out."

I feel sorry for all British actresses of a certain age who aren't Judi Dench. Joan Plowright must be just sick.

[papeetepatrick]

Interesting. As a trailer, it's an ad for the movie, but all the fragments look like ads themselves, whether for chocolate, cars, silk shirts. I didn't see a single moment I thought inspired. Couldn't be dragged to the DVD. Thanks for posting, though.

[glebb]

God I love that trailer. Can't wait!!!

[richard53dog]

The boys running in the reeds and then the dunes remind me of Fellini's setting of the scene with Saraghina in 8 1/2.

[Quiggin]

It's interesting that Marcello Mastroianni / Guido character who first appears in the lovely late-neorealist film, "I Vitelloni," ends up in this bloated mess. The production looks like the bloated and beached fish at the end of La Dolce Vita. What a downfall!

[dirac]

I’m not willing to don the sackcloth and ashes just yet. Judging from the trailer, it looks as if they’re making a big play for straight guys, and why not, I guess.

I have confidence not so much in Rob Marshall as in Day-Lewis, who may have made a flat-out turkey at some point in his life but every picture I’ve seen with him as the star has something going for it even if it's not-that-great. Anyway I, like glebb, will certainly be there. If I could sit through Dreamgirls I can certainly manage this.

[dirac]

Bumping this old thread up in case someone sees the movie, which is opening this weekend. Reviews have been meh but you never know. I plan to go if there's time.

[vagansmom]

Haven't seen the movie yet, but I DID see Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Daniel Day-Lewis, Kate Hudson and maybe Fergie (if so, she was forgettable) on some talk show recently. It must have been the day I was home sick because I never see talk shows; for the life of me I can't remember which one. Maybe "Ellen"?

Anyway, as each star was interviewed, a movie scene of them singing was shown. I thought Kidman's singing was painfully awful. The others were OK.

[dirac]

Thanks, vagansmom. Kidman actually has a pleasant voice and comes off quite well in the picture, which I caught last weekend and liked better than I had expected. (A Rob Marshall movie that doesn't totally suck is a big improvement for this viewer.) More later.

[ballet_n00b]

I'm going to avoid this like the plague; I can't stand Nicole Kidman.

[dirac]

glebb wrote on another thread:

Didn't like NINE much. I saw the original Broadway production, the National Tour (in LA) and the Broadway revival. Loved the original Broadway and Broadway revival productions. NINE was never showy like CHICAGO and I don't understand why they wanted to make a film and yet take out the beauty and try to hip it up. I also don't like musical films in which no one can sing well. I was actually surprised at how well Daniel Day Lewis sang, but the film didn't work for me. I'm sure I'll enjoy it on HBO as I have Mamma Mia and Dreamgirls.

Hi, glebb. I think the expectation for movie audiences is that there's going to be some glitz, so perhaps that was the idea, not to mention some needed distraction from the mediocre score, never much liked by me. But the film is at its best when nobody is singing or dancing, not a good sign for a musical. I thought Marshall toned down the hard sell of his two previous outings, Chicago and Memoirs of a Geisha, to good effect. The presence of stars who can't really sing seems to be the price of getting musicals made in the current industry environment and it may be too high a price to pay. True movie musical stars no longer exist and you couldn't get funding for Nine without a few star names. ("Dreamgirls," with its faux R&B material, could use contemporary stars with real voices.)

Of the women Cotillard has the best role and she comes off very well. Maybe her eyes well with tears once too often, but she is genuinely touching. (She also has the "best" number, insofar as there is one, in "Take It All.")

[Marga]

... for the life of me I can't remember which one. Maybe "Ellen"?

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