WEST NEWTON CINEMA PRESENTS: MUSICAL MATINEES
Join West Newton Cinema for a musical matinee! Our monthly pick will vary from beloved classics to jazz, from vaudeville to psychedelic rock, brought to you by the imaginative skill of artists able to make scenes look the way great music feels. We’ll feature films from the Golden Age of Hollywood musicals, with surprises that transcend the era and define others. The cinematic brilliance of these films has never left us. In fact, seeing them again, or for the first time, will reinvigorate your love for the movie musical and send you out of the theater tapping your feet.
THE BAND WAGON
Tony Hunter (Fred Astaire) is a has-been movie star, long regarded as a relic of another time. His only chance at a comeback is in a new Broadway show written by his friends Lester (Oscar Levant) and Lily (Nanette Fabray)—but the director, Jeffrey Cordova (Jack Buchanon), seems dead set on making the show as un-commercial as possible, casting Tony opposite prima ballerina, Gabrielle Gerard (Cyd Charisse). Watch the sparks fly with every strike of the heel and turn of the toe!
From director Vincente Minnelli, film musical maverick, The Band Wagon is a delightful tribute to the supreme virtues of a so-called “light” entertainment. The film reaches a higher echelon any time Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse dance together. Its final number—an unlikely tribute to film noir and detective fiction—is a career-best for both performers.