Top Hat

Cinema Classics on DVD Curated Collection


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Top Hat

" There are two numbers in Top Hat where the dancing on the screen reaches such perfection as is attainable. They are by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for "Isn't This a Lovely Day?" and "Cheek to Cheek." Because Astaire believed that movie dance numbers should be shot in unbroken takes that ran as long as possible, what they perform is an achievement in endurance as well as artistry. At a point when many dancers would be gasping for breath, Astaire and Rogers are smiling easily, heedlessly. To watch them is to see hard work elevated to effortless joy: The work of two dancers who know they can do no better than this, and that no one else can do as well."

"Because we are human, because we are bound by gravity and the limitations of our bodies, because we live in a world where the news is often bad and the prospects disturbing, there is a need for another world somewhere, a world where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers live. Where everyone is a millionaire and hotel suites are the size of ballrooms and everything is creased, combed, brushed, shined, polished, powdered and expensive. Where you seem to find the happiness you seek, when you're out together dancing cheek to cheek. It doesn't even matter if you really find it, as long as you seem to find it, because appearances are everything in this world, and ..."

Let the rain pitter patter
But it really doesn't matter
If the skies are gray.
Long as I can be with you,
It's a lovely day.

Review excerpts by Roger Ebert
Song lyrics © Estate of Irving Berlin

Selected for the Library of Congress National Film Registry of American Film.

DVD:

Commentary by Fred Astaire's Daughter Ava Astaire McKenzie and Film Dance Historian Larry Billman
Featurette: On Top: Inside the Success of Top Hat
Comedy Short: Watch the Birdie with Bob Hope, Classic Cartoon: Page Miss Glory

Curator's Comments:
Read Roger Ebert's essay on this DVD Classic.

Director: Mark Sandrich
Black & White
100 minutes
Released: 1935
Rated: NR

Country: U.S.A.
Language: English
Genre: Comedy. Musical, Romance

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