Cinema Tuesdays {Some Like It Hot}

According to the American Film Institute, this is the greatest American comedy ever made. I would have to agree with that. Mostly for the punch line and more so for Jack Lemmon's reaction to it.

Set in 1929's Chicago during the days of prohibition, jazz and gangsters, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon play struggling musicians Joe and Jerry. They witness the Saint Valentine's Massacre and are seen by "Spats" Colombo (George Raft who was a close friend to several gangsters) and flee for their lives. Dressing up as Josephine and Daphne, they join an all-girls band which is headed to Florida where they meet Marilyn, who plays Sugar the band's singer. Joe does an impression of Cary Grant in order to romance Sugar as a millionaire with a yacht and Daphne is romance by Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown). But then Spats and his gang turn up in Florida for a mob convention and all hell breaks loose.

The film isn't strictly historically accurate, but who cares. This is a Billy Wilder comedy at it's best!

Another thing I love about this film is that you can tell that Tony Curtis is really playing the sax.

"Look how she moves. It's like Jell-O on springs."

"Just keep telling yourself: you're a girl!"

This is actually the Hotel Del Coronado in southern California, which you can still stay in today.

"We named the oil company after them"

"Zowie!"

Don't you think that for 1959 this dress is terribly daring, even shocking? Actually the whole movie is rather shocking for 1959. You have the romance between Osgood and Daphne, Sugar has stated that she's lived with a few saxophone players, Joe is a womanizer and then you have this dress which doesn't leave anything to the imagination. Some Like It Hot didn't receive approval for the Production Code and was condemned by the League of Decency and was one of the films that contributed to the end of the Code. This is another excellent reason to watch this film.

"I'm engaged"

"Congratulations, who's the lucky girl?"

"I am!"

Best punchline ever! Mostly for the look on Jack Lemmon's face.

Musical Guest {Django Reinhardt}

Remember a couple of months ago during my Woody Allen month for Cinema Tuesdays, I covered Sweet and Lowdown about a jazz guitarist who idolized Django Reinhardt so much that he would faint at the sight of him? Well, I thought it was high time that I write a little post about him. Not only is M. Reinhardt one of my favourite jazz musician, he is also, quite possibly the greatest guitarist ever.

M. Reinhardt is famous not only for his unique style of guitar playing, as a result of a fire which left part of his left hand paralysed (see photo) but also for inventing a new style of guitar technique called "hot jazz guitar".

M. Reinhardt was born into a family of French gypsies and began performing the guitar publicly at a young age. In 1934 he hooked up with the jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli and together they put together the Quintette du Hot Club de France, usually for a jazz band, it had no percussion instruments. The Quintette remains one of the most original and interesting in the history of jazz. If you're not a fan of them, or have never heard of their name before, you will have heard their recordings in countless movies and TV shows. The Quintette performed and recorded throughout Europe until 1948, with a hiatus during the war as M. Grappelli stayed in England but M. Reinhardt returned to France. During my extensive research for this post (Wikipedia) I could not find out exactly how a gypsy jazz musician managed to survive in occupied France but it might have something to do with the fact that some Nazi officers loved his music.

Unfortunately, M. Reinhardt dropped dead of a brain haemorrhage in 1953 at the age of 43 just as he was moving in a new musical direction with the electric guitar. Despite this, he lives on in his recordings and through modern musicians who have been influenced by his style.

What truly makes Django Reinhardt a unique jazz artist and a genius musician is that when listening to other musicians you can hear their personality through their music but when you hear a recording of Django Reinhardt, you can hear his soul.

"Minor Swing" is my favourite.

This is the only video I could find of the Quintette performing

This is an interview with him from the late Forties and the only example I could find of him speaking.

"Djangology" his last major composition.

Any suggestion for which musician you want covered next?