Singin' and Dancing Back in Time.: The Sound of Music (1965).

Friday, October 15, 2010

The Sound of Music (1965).

The Sound of Music(1965). Directed by Robert Wise. Cast: Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The film is based on the Broadway musical The Sound of Music, with songs written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and with the musical book written by the writing team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. Ernest Lehman wrote the screenplay.

The musical originated with the book The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria von Trapp. It contains many popular songs: "Edelweiss", "My Favorite Things", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", "Do-Re-Mi", "Sixteen Going on Seventeen", and "The Lonely Goatherd", as well as the title song.

The movie was filmed on location in Salzburg, Austria and Bavaria in Southern Germany, and also at the 20th Century Fox Studios in California.

Maria, who is always in trouble with the nuns, life changes when a widowed navy captain, Georg von Trapp needs a governess for his seven children. Mother Abbess, unsure of Maria's suitability, asks her to take the position on a temporary basis.

Maria finds that the captain keeps his household in strict shipshape order. While the children at first very hostile to her, they warm to her when she comforts them during a thunderstorm . Liesl, who is Sixteen, sneaks into Maria's window, after a secret meeting with the messenger boy. At first she insits that she doesn't need a governess, but, Maria instead offers to be her friend.

Later, the Captain entertains, Baroness Elsa Schraeder, a wealthy socialite from Vienna, along with Max Dettweiler, who is looking to find the perfect musical act for the, Salzburg Music Festival.

The Captain becomes aware that Maria has been taking the children on a boat on the lake. Maria, standing up in the boat, loses her balance the boat capsizes, throwing everyone into the water. He sends the children home and orders her to return to the convent.

When he hears the children singing “The Sound of Music” for the Baroness, he changes his mind. Maria has brought music back into his home, and he asks her to stay. Maria and the children perform a puppet show ("Lonely Goatherd"). Max announces that he has entered the children in the Salzburg Festival.

At a dance held in Schraeder's honor to celebrate her engagement to the Captain, Maria sees eleven-year-old Kurt trying to dance and tries to teach him the steps. The Captain cuts in and he Maria perform the dance perfectly. Maria breaks off and says something about not being able to remember any more. The children perform “So Long, Farewell” to say goodnight to the guests, and the Baroness, jealous of Maria, convinces her to return to Nonnberg. Will Maria ever return to the Von Trapp family?

This is a beautiful musical. From the cinematography,
acting, costumes, music, choreography. The film is family friendly and a sweet story.

Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honours. Andrews was a former British child actress and singer who made her Broadway debut in, My Fair Lady(1954) and Camelot, and in musical films, Mary Poppins (1964), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and The Sound of Music (1965).

Andrews big comeback was in the films: The Princess Diaries (2001), its sequel The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004), and the Shrek animated films (2004–2010). In 2003 Andrews revisited her first Broadway success, this time as a stage director, with a revival of The Boy Friend at the Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor, New York (and later at the Goodspeed Opera House, in East Haddam, Connecticut in 2005).

Andrews is also an author of children's books, and in 2008 published an autobiography, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years.

3 comments:

montyOctober 15, 2010 at 9:28 AM
Awesome post Dawn. One of your best.
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JavaBeanRushOctober 15, 2010 at 4:02 PM
Very nice summary, Dawn.

I've listened to the DVD commentary. In it, Christopher Plummer unashamedly admits that he cannot stand children.

Plummer forgives Kym Karath, who plays little Gretl, because she grew up to be an attractive woman.

What is that all about? :)
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DawnOctober 16, 2010 at 4:30 AM
Monty, thank you.

Java, Sounds like Christopher Plummer, might be one of those male "you know whats". or.. he was just kidding. ;)
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