Singin' in the Rain and Dancer in the Dark

I was really excited that we got to watch Singin' in the Rain for this class. It's probably my favorite classic of all time. I've seen it more times than I can count. It was interesting to watch it with my new analytical eye. In class we talked about scenes in which the characters are performing for us. I always thought of musical numbers as an outward expression of internal feelings, so it's weird to think of the dances as geared towards us. But I guess the way that its framed supports this idea- the actors are facing the camera head on, with no characters as an audience. "Moses Supposes" is my favorite instance. It's so true to how actors are when they're messing around off screen. I've seen so many random breakouts of dance and song (except not that well rehearsed). The reading was interesting. I've never thought of sound as having "space." I wrote about the preview scene, but I think the scene in which they are first shooting with the new recording technology is another excellent example. You can look at it two ways: The world of the "Dueling Cavalier" as the diegsis, the acoustical space of the sound room, and the visible space the editers can see is framed by the window they're looking through. Or you can look at the digesis as the world of Singin in the Rain, the acoustical space as the room you're watching it in, and the visible space as what's on the screen. Metafilm movies are interesting to analysis because everything is in double.
I had trouble watching Dancer in the Dark because the shaky camera technique always makes me queasy. It was a rather different look at the conventions of musicals. I'm not sure if I liked it...I like my happy musicals where nothing dreadful ever happens.