Absolutely the clip exhibits a brighter perspective of life than is realistic. People did not come to the movies to see realism. Filmmakers produced films about life as they thought it should be, or what people expected it to be. The actors and actresses are perfectly dressed and coiffed. Interior rooms are always clean and tidy. Foreigners are portrayed as caricatures. I doubt that the real Anna Held was as silly as she is portrayed here. A star would have experience and savvy. Additionally, no woman who has been with a man as long as she, would have so passively stood by while her man was cheating on her with the frequency that Ziegfeld was reported to have done.
Themes I would anticipate in other musicals of this decade follow suit. Never a hair out of place, no portrayal of genuine suffering, no hunger, no pain, etc. Also, musical numbers seen on film, though they were suppose to be occurring on a theater stage, could never have been accomplished on a stage. They were just too huge and the technical aspects of the numbers would have been much simpler.
Had the film been made pre-code, perhaps there would have been some honesty and realism in the costumes, makeup, sets, and performances of the actors portraying real people.
DAILY DOSE OF DELIGHT #1 (From The Great Ziegfeld)
in MAD ABOUT MUSICALS: THE HISTORY OF THE HOLLYWOOD MUSICALS
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Absolutely the clip exhibits a brighter perspective of life than is realistic. People did not come to the movies to see realism. Filmmakers produced films about life as they thought it should be, or what people expected it to be. The actors and actresses are perfectly dressed and coiffed. Interior rooms are always clean and tidy. Foreigners are portrayed as caricatures. I doubt that the real Anna Held was as silly as she is portrayed here. A star would have experience and savvy. Additionally, no woman who has been with a man as long as she, would have so passively stood by while her man was cheating on her with the frequency that Ziegfeld was reported to have done.
Themes I would anticipate in other musicals of this decade follow suit. Never a hair out of place, no portrayal of genuine suffering, no hunger, no pain, etc. Also, musical numbers seen on film, though they were suppose to be occurring on a theater stage, could never have been accomplished on a stage. They were just too huge and the technical aspects of the numbers would have been much simpler.
Had the film been made pre-code, perhaps there would have been some honesty and realism in the costumes, makeup, sets, and performances of the actors portraying real people.