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March 2004, Week 1

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Subject:
From:
Kelly Kessler <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 2 Mar 2004 09:35:28 -0600
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I'm not exactly sure what you mean by set-pieces here, but the 1970s was
definitely a moment in musical film history where sex becomes more explicit
and more complicated.  Nothing is quite as explicit as All That Jazz, but
you do have:

1970 The Boyfriend
1973 Rocky Horror Picture Show
1975 Tommy
1977 Sgt. Pepper
1978 Hair (through sexually explicit lyrics, not actions)


Each of these either have sexually explicit lyrics or visuals.

Kelly


----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurie Stras" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 3:58 AM
Subject: All That Jazz (Bob Fosse)


> Dear listmembers
>
> Bear with me - this does have something to do with film. . .
>
> I'm currently teaching a new course on girl singers in the 20th century,
and
> tomorrow's lecture focusses on representations of sex.  This morning I was
> trying to work out precisely *when* metaphor/slang became dispensable in
> lyrics about sex.  I'm not talking about the 'heavy breathing' stuff by
Jane
> Birkin and Donna Summer, I mean more like Kate Bush's "Feel It" or "In The
> Warm Room," both of which were released in 1978 and both of which are,
well,
> explicit (and in a way, a whole lot more explicit than anything Madonna
has
> ever turned out).
>
> I kind of wanted to place this in context, and I wondered if there was a
> simultaneous moment in mainstream film musical set-pieces (as a kind of
> precursor to video) where visual metaphor was simply done away with, or at
> least became so minimal that there was nothing to "read", or not a lot was
> left to the imagination.  The earliest I can remember was the "Air-otica"
> (?) scene in *All That Jazz* (1979).  Haven't seen the film in over 20
> years, but I can still visualise the number in my head, so it *must* have
> made an impression. . .
>
> Anyone else got any ideas?  Was this really a late seventies thing?  Or is
> it just because that by 1979 I was able to get into 18/R movies, so I was
> experiencing this stuff for the first time?
>
> Thanks in advance
> Laurie
>
> Dr Laurie Stras
> Music, School of Humanities
> University of Southampton
> Southampton SO17 1BJ
> UK
>
> tel:  +44 (0)23 8059 3425
> fax:  +44 (0)23 8059 3197
> http://www.soton.ac.uk/~lastras
>
> Musica Secreta are on Linn Records www.linnrecords.com
> "Were Botticelli's Primavera to burst into song, she would probably sound
> like this." - Independent on Sunday
>
> ----
> Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
> University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu
>

----
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