Saturday, August 24, 2013

"The Band Wagon" Is Back...and Better Than Ever!


Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire in "The Girl Hunt Ballet" from Vincente Minnelli's musical The Band Wagon
Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire in
"The Girl Hunt Ballet"
from Vincente Minnelli's musical 
The Band Wagon
It's been called "the greatest of movie musicals" and now The Band Wagon is returning to the big screen.  Join Vincente Minnelli biographer Mark Griffin as he introduces a special 60th anniversary screening of Minnelli's acclaimed masterpiece at the Museum of Modern Art Film Center (11 W. 53 St., between Fifth and Sixth Avenues) on September 5th at 8pm.  Originally released in the summer of 1953,The Band Wagon stars Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse and Nanette Fabray. The film features such timeless tunes as "That's Entertainment," "By Myself" and "Dancing in the Dark" and boasts an Oscar-nominated screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Widely considered one of MGM's finest achievements, The Band Wagon is capped with the sly and stylish private eye spoof, "The Girl Hunt Ballet."  In later years, director Minnelli would single out The Band Wagon as a personal favorite, telling an interviewer, "We all pitched in and it all came together wonderfully."  The critics concurred.  In reviewing a reissue of the film, Pauline Kael conceded, "There have been few screen musicals as good as this one."   For further information on this event, please visit www.moma.org

Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan performing "Triplets" in The Band Wagon (1953) directed by Vincente Minnelli
Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan performing
"Triplets" in The Band Wagon
(1953) directed by Vincente Minnelli