Now that I am in my second semester teaching this film class, I sometimes get that flight attendant feeling. You know, the thing where what you're saying is news to your auditors, but to you it sounds like you're repeating the locations of the safety exits over and over again, in a muffled, Charlie Brown-adult squawk.
So, my account of teaching Singin' in the Rain last spring basically covers what happened again today, only with the added excitement of a tenured member of the department observing me teach as part of my personnel review. Eeeesh. Discussing the concept of bricolage in terms of the musical's mise-en-scene might have been construed by some as pandering to the observer's post-modern sensibilities--and it did seem to go over well--but it was legit, too. The cinetrix did this even when no one was evaluating her.
And I also had a pedogogical secret weapon:
But then I had to blow the kiddies' minds a little. I couldn't help it. See, I was rereading Peter Wollen's bfi monograph on the film last night when I stumbled across a little item I'd somehow forgotten. Debbie Reynolds, who plays the plucky songbird Kathy Selden, wasn't much of a singer--or a dancer--in real life. So the filmmakers dubbed her voice in all those numbers. Yes, even the sequence where we see her looping Lina's songs.
So whose voice is it really? Uh, Jean Hagen's. It's true: that squawking Judy Holliday manquee sings beautifully. So this means that in the big comeuppance number where Lina performs "Singin' in the Rain" live in front of the curtain while Kathy actually "sings" from behind the scenes, both Jean Hagen and Debbie Reynolds are lip synching to Hagen's voice.
Bam! Gotta say, watching the tops blow off the students' heads was just as satisfying the second time around. Now if you'll excuse me, the cinetrix wants to savor the moment a little longer before getting back to work.
