This is brilliantly edited. So much fun!
Categories
Archives
-
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- “I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- “Some syllables are swords.” — Metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan
- “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- “All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.” — Charlie Chaplin
- “As a cinematographer, I was always attracted to stories that have the potential to be told with as few words as possible.” — Reed Morano
- “Even though I’m writing about very dark material, it still feels like an escape hatch.” — Olivia Laing
- “It’s just one of the mysteries of filmmaking that sometimes you do something that you don’t even think it’s important, then it turns out to be.” — Lili Horvát
- “Ballet taught me to stay close to style and tone. Literature taught me to be concerned about the moral life.” — Joan Acocella
Recent Comments
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Scott Abraham on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Scott Abraham on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on March 2026 Snapshots
- sheila on “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- Jessie on March 2026 Snapshots
- Helen Erwin Schinske on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Maddy on “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- sheila on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Helen Erwin Schinske on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Joseph Pedulla on Susan Hayward Sleeps Raw
- sheila on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” — Christopher Smart
- P Nickel on “The realization of ignorance is the first act of knowing.” — Jean Toomer
- Melissa Sutherland on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” — Christopher Smart
- Bryce on The Books: “Nine Stories”- ‘The Laughing Man’ (J.D. Salinger)
-
Fantastic! Thank you for starting my day with a big smile!
Isn’t it so joyous?? I love how well they’ve put it all together!
Wow. I’m speechless.
(Almost.)
Thanks, I really needed that this morning.
Me too!!
This is so impressive! Whoever made this sure knows their films. I can’t even imagine how long it would take to put this together.
Just wonderful.
OK, so I had to look up the original video. Three weeks of work! It definitely shows.
Also – how the dancers’ movements – claps and steps – even exclamations – are timed perfectly to beats in Uptown Funk! It’s not just a bunch of clips thrown together – it’s been choreographed.
So impressive!!
Yes, indeed, that is what is so remarkable about this video. It certainly would not have the same effect with the sound turned off!
I showed it to my husband last night, and he was impressed as well, but commented that the timing of the films had likely been adjusted to match the beats of the song. When I looked up the original video on YouTube, I was happy to report that Nerd Fest UK (who put this together) mentioned that “none of these clips [were] sped up or slowed down”. So, I was just imagining how this person(s) would have to have an encyclopedic knowledge of Golden Age musicals in order to figure out which films would perfectly match every single beat of Uptown Funk.
They’re all so good, but my favourite is the “Good Morning” sequence from “Singin’ In the Rain”. Just perfect.
HelenaG – thank you for your due diliegence in re: the speed of clips!! I just watched Top Hat a couple days ago – and that scene in the pagoda with the rain coming down – Ginger Rogers in jodhpurs was fresh in my mind and it seemed like just the right speed.
Definitely encyclopedic knowledge of musicals – “Oooh, that gesture will go here – and that one will fit here” …
I love the “Stop” – with all those guys in tuxedos stopping – not sure what that’s from.
Yes! The “Stop” moment was one of those that had me either chuckling or gasping in amazement at how well it was done.
It’s Al Jolson performing “Tonight’s My Night” from 1935’s “Go Into Your Dance”.
https://youtu.be/5VUv8qmVy_0
You’re amazing, HelenaG – thank you so much!!
whenever Gene Kelly smiles I just want to die with happiness.
Right?? He was such a stud!
Delightful!!
A well edited one of these can make my entire week. I love this too because it’s another example of how pop culture, all culture is in constant conversation with itself. The past, present, and future are really one moment and this video is a delightful way of illustrating that. You’ve seen the Rita Hayworth one right?
I love the Hayworth one! She was so phenomenal. I wrote a piece about that supercut – as an excuse to talk about her as a dancer – when I was deep in Hayworth Study for my upcoming essay on “Gilda” for Criterion.
http://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=108229
I love your thoughts on past/present/future! I so agree!
The last review I was assigned at The Dissolve (it was due on the day it closed its doors – still sad about it for all involved – including myself) – was “Tap World” – a documentary about the history of tap dancing – told through current-day tap dancers.
I so recommend it!! Here’s my review –
http://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=104929
And one of the things that was so great about that doc was how these dancers – many of them street kids, growing up rough, tap dancing on a board on the sidewalk – knew EVERYTHING about the great tap dancers of yore. Fred Astaire still inspiring young dancers to push harder, be better.
I’ve often said that even an illiterate ballerina who couldn’t tell you jack-squat about the War of 1812 can tell you about the history of her own profession. (Many actors cannot do this. They have talent, but they have no idea about what was done in the profession before they were born. I went to grad school with some of those bozos.) But ballerinas can tell you everything about Pavlova and why she was so great – even though they never saw her perform. And I love that continuity of history – the understanding that you are part of something big, a movement, a craft, that far pre-dates you. Also, and this is my conservative Edmund-Burkean streak: we have so much to learn from the past! There is so much there to inspire!
Amazing. It feels as if this IS the music they are dancing to. And, yes, it brings these great dancers from the past right into our present.
Awsome! Funk music is great as it is, but with this dancing it has a special meaning. What fun!
(Nothing to do with the dancing post, but I have to make a big cake for an actor next weekend and I’m thinking about many concepts you have given here about acting and trying to translate them into the cake.)
Thank you Sheila! This is just what my day needed.
Cheers