Tag Archives: Judy Garland

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Song of the Day #6,247: ‘Mack the Black’ – Judy Garland

Just about every Vincente Minnelli film is based on a novel or theatrical show, and he doesn’t have a writing credit on any of them. And yet, by project selection and the shaping of narratives through his direction, he managed to return to some central themes.

One of those is the tension between work and personal life. That makes sense for a man who was married four times and whose one true love was likely his art. That theme shows up early on in Meet Me in St. Louis, when Mr. Smith has the chance to advance his career by uprooting his family. It shows up in his films about Hollywood, which all detail the negative impact of moviemaking on private lives. Lust for Life does the same for a different sort of artist, Vincent Van Gogh.

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Song of the Day #6,238: ‘Over the Bannister’ – Judy Garland

I like to have a movie watching project in the works at pretty much all times. That might mean diving into a genre (like horror, most recently) or knocking out a curated list (I’m currently working my way through Sight & Sound’s top 100 poll). Or it could take the form of a chronological viewing of a director’s whole filmography (as I’ve done in recent years with Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, and David Lynch).

My latest challenge was to work my way through the filmography of director Vincente Minnelli, the versatile aesthete best known for his celebrated MGM musicals. Unlike those other directors, Minnelli was largely unknown to me — I believe I had seen only three of his 33 films prior to kicking off the marathon.

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Song of the Day #4,567: ‘April Come She Will (Demo)’ – Paul Simon

In recent months, I’ve found myself declaring a couple of times that one song or another was officially among my all-time favorites.

That got me interested, during these pandemic times, in creating a definitive playlist of my favorite songs. This is an exercise fraught with peril and subject to repeated second-guessing, but that’s also what makes it fun.

Narrowing such a list to ten songs proved impossible, so I kept at it until I had close to 30, then pared back to 25, which feels like a good number.

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Song of the Day #4,438: ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ – Judy Garland

Continuing my personal ranking of the 25 movie musicals deemed essential by the American Film Institute…

#15. The Wizard of Oz – 1939
(#3 on the AFI list)

The Wizard of Oz is probably the most famous and beloved film on this list, a classic family entertainment that has been watched and treasured by multiple generations.

Watching it for what must have been the first time all the way through since I was a child, its most famous scenes felt instantly familiar. In fact, it was difficult to appreciate it as a cohesive movie rather than a collection of classic pop culture moments.

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