Astonishingly brilliant dance number!! A big flop in 1945 and killed off Bremer’s Hollywood career. But she was a great match for Astaire in their two films together. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
No, it took a terrible bath and made Fred decide that his next, 'Blue Skies', would be his last. Luckily Gene Kelly broke his ankle, 'Easter Parade' was retooled for Fred, and the third phase of his movie career was on.
Fred said that this was one of the hardest dance routines he ever did. Thanks for posting and putting in the time beats. Such a brilliant number. The music and orchestration, the costumes, the dancers, the set - MGM at its best. We’ll never see it again.
Fred and Gene Kelly met their match with Vera-Ellen. She was absolutely brillant! I think she even out danced Gene in the fantastic Slaughter on 10th Ave. from the film, Words and Music(1948). Vera-Ellen is very underrated.
I just today saw the movie for the first time, and when this number started, and I saw & heard the dancers clapping a 5-pattern while the music kept going in 4, my head just about exploded. The movie overall is a mess, but this number is like nothing I've ever seen, and I came to RU-vid in hopes that somebody had done what you in fact have done. Thank you so much, @Broadway Classixs!
Same here, except I had seen this years ago and never understood its brilliance and sheer difficulty. I've never seen a dance number like this before. It's rhythmically complex and only Fred could pull it off.
@@leprechaunstud582 ...Since time has lapsed both of you may not read my posit. But I think Bremer was underrated as a partner in the ballets in which she appeared with Astaire. And, Lreprehaun, I agree with you 100 percent. "Limehouse "Blues," which is intricated to say the least, shows her emotional range in the dance.
The play with time signatures is simply divine! It’s made to look effortless, but in reality, it’s something of real genius. And when the lead dancers switch to 4/4, it has the feel of the whole movement slowing down, and becoming dreamlike. It’s a completely fascinating piece. Thankyou for posting. (And a shout-out to Geo for sending me here 😉 *styro*🥁)
Broadway Classixs That’s a bit sad… surely choreographers are clever enough today to do something similar (?) 🤷🏻♀️? It’s truly an amazing piece of creative genius. If I were a music/dancing/creative arts/ maths teacher, it’s definitely something I’d show my students! Alas, as a Science Teacher, I’m just not sure I could squeeze it in to a lesson plan, (without a very guilty conscience!)… Maybe it would be a “just because” fun thing, that I do, time permitting 🤗! Thankyou again for sharing this incredible piece of art. I wish more people could see it, or knew about it. (I’ll tweet a link, anyway…) Thanks🤗🐱🇦🇺
"Coffee Time" is another fine example of Vincent Minnelli's brilliant direction! He had worked as a window dresser, photographer, costume and set designer, then as a theater director before arriving at MGM in 1940. Within the Arthur Freed Unit, Minnelli's background and ability culminated in creating art-work on the screen. Photographed in highly-saturated Technicolor, "Coffee Time" is visually stunning in every aspect and represents a style that unfortunately will never be attempted again on film. As the music plays in 4/4 time, the dancers move in 5/4 time, the camera moves overs a black and white, Rio de Janeiro, serpentine-pattern floor, creating an almost hypotonic effect! MGM has been called "The Dream Factory" and "Yolanda And The Thief" is just one of many of its great creations! We must give praise to Louis B. Mayer and Arthur Freed for providing Vincent Minnelli the ability to express his talent and genius on the screen!
I saw this dance scene as a child and was fascinated - but didn't understand the background: Why is it so brilliant? Now, several decades later, it's as clear as daylight! Thank you very much for this wonderful explanation I really don't know any other dance number that plays in 4/4 time, but dances in 5/4 time... Only one word: Great!
I have watched this like 100 times. While I have tried to figure out the dance timing of the dancers vs music, I still don't see it. It's no surprise that no one comments on it. I watch this because of Fred's perfect form and Lucille Bremer's underrated dancing. She was a great partner. The floor IS amazing- it's perfect for the surreal theme of the movie. And this is also a great song. Natalie Cole did a great cover a few years ago. But the timing on the dancers? I give up. I think you see things we don't see.
It's like one of those Magic Eye posters where some people see the hidden picture. I didn't see it then and I don't see it now. Thanks for posting anyway.
Nobody alive now could choreograph a number of such complexity yet of such drive, momentum and sheer entertainment. At most today they just keep people very busy as in the school of Marshall and Stroman. I get so exhausted watching dancers today sweating for nothing. It's like watching people working out in a gym. I wouldn't say this was ahead of its time. It was of its time and then as somebody noted it just disappeared.
Eugene Loring alternates ensemble and duo passages, slow and fast iterations of the tune, a cappella clapping and full orchestration, with balletic and then ballroom maneuvers as the pair grow closer. All this accumulates tension until at 4:04 everything kicks into the swing arrangement and delirious release of the two stars in a grown-ups' jitterbug. As you think that's all, it goes up another gear and the couple end in a pose which assures us they will be united at the plot's denouement. Fred said this was one of his toughest shoots- so much for everyone to get right. Years later Loring refused to work with him again b/c he felt Fred had become too set in his ways and un-co-operative, but they surely clicked here.
@@esmeephillips5888 I'm thinking they had a dance director clapping the 5/4 beat all during filming. I don't know how else they could do it. I wonder if this could ever be done live on stage?
I'm so glad that this dance, sequences of dances, really, by a combination and variety of people who so beautifully used their various gifts that they worked so hard to develop is again to be seen on You Tube. I appreciate it very much. I've never seen a dance scene that has given and continues to give me so much enjoyment. As fine as others are, for me this is the best and I consider it a privilege to be able to see this and I plan to see it many times in the future. This scene is "a thing of beauty" and it is "a joy forever". I am enriched by seeing and hearing this.
Broadway Classixs "Hear! Hear!"--in more ways than one! Stereo makes it even better. Thank you for all your work in preparing and making this treasure available to us.
Couldn't have said it better myself... the epitome of swing era dance numbers. A shame really fine eras of music and art reach a zenith then, POOF... over and done with... about 5-7 years it seems then it changes for better or worse.
Lucille Bremer is really amazing in this clip and so is Fred Astaire. I wonder why this film was a flop commercially. I am sure that Lucille Bremer was a very talented actress; she played the piano in "Meet Me In St. Louis." She had class in both of the two films.
+Bluejeans0701 This was Minnelli and MGM at their most baroque and it was probably too much for the audiences even those who loved Minnelli's films and MGM musicals.Also the story device of a conman exploiting the prayers of a convent girl and pretending to be her guardian angel to steal her fortune I imagine the MGM people found amusing and the general audience found distasteful.This is one of the most incredible musical numbers ever put on film and no matter how many times I see it I can't take it all in.Bremer was a great beauty and terrific talent and I'm sorry she didn't do more films. You see this and I Won't Dance from Clouds and Dancing With the Stars is a horrible tasteless joke.The problem with this clip is that it seems to slightly slow down when Astaire and Bremer are dancing and the chorus starts singing.I wish it would be reposted so that the entire clip was at the proper speed.That floor as the background for the dancing is incredible.So many contrasting images that meld together perfectly.
+vincent parisi I made the clip and nothing is slowed down - the entire clip is at the proper speed. And I'm so tired of people commenting on that floor and saying nothing about the opposing time signatures. That's the whole reason I made the clip.
+Broadway Classixs That's so odd because I saw this at MOMA months ago and got no sense of the slow down during the chorus. Here I sensed it immediately.And probably nobody says anything about the opposing time signatures because most of us are not trained musicians and it's too sophisticated and complicated for us to comprehend. Even with your help! I'm not trying to be snarky but I can't even begin to imagine how the dancers keep the rhythm and perfectly keep the time in clapping. No matter how many times I watch it I can't follow it. It really is amazing. And I'm sorry but the dancing against that floor is brilliant.
+vincent parisi I can assure you that I matched the stereo track to the film exactly, with no change in tempo. I just wish someone would applaud Eugene Loring's amazing time experiment instead of that damn floor!
+Broadway Classixs I believe you and Loring's choreography is so wonderful it reminds me of Balanchine. But I could never figure out how his dancers could remember such concentrated choreography or keep in rhythm either. But like I said the people who would see a movie like Yolanda are not going to be aware of what's going on. Often people who would go to Balanchine though they liked it would have no idea how good it was. Yeah it was great but how good it was? No. This kind of thing leaves me in awe.
I love this dance! I love any movie with Fred Astaire, but this was not very good; not his fault. Lucille Bremer was a fantastic dancer; it's a shame her talent was not put to good use. Her legs are long and beautiful; she is quick and agile and graceful. Thanks for all your work on posting this. Please give more detail on the difficulty of the timing because I find this very interesting.
The final analysis seems to be that the film was an experiment that did not quite hit the mark. But wonderful Technicolor, attractive performers, and "Coffee Time-" a remarkable number which has its corps de ballet joyously perform in cafe' au lait colors during the main chorus, and then part way for its two star dancers to perform almost exclusively in hand clap percussion only, with a rollicking, suspenseful chant of cymbals, against the craziest zebra striped floor you ever saw. Lucille Bremer, so I read, was brought to MGM as their answer to Columbia's Rita Hayworth- the other dancing redhead- but whether or not that is actually true, she did just fine opposite Fred Astaire. A shame she did not do more dance musicals.
I like it best when it slows down around 2:00, it seems more dreamlike. I don't care about the floor and I wish I could dance. If you hadn't pointed out the different times I never would have noticed, I didn't even know dance has its own time signature. Thanks for the info!
Just want to say you did a great job with this video. It's the only *full* video of the actual dance routine on RU-vid, and you note the differences in time signatures well (also amazing that you added the claps back manually!). It gives the effect of the dancers being constantly in dynamic (quick and darting) motions on top of the music. I'd be super curious to know Loring's thought process behind this number (as well as a few other numbers in the film), and how long it took Astaire , Bremer, and the ensemble dancers to get this routine down. This movie is very briefly mentioned in a few books on Minnelli; I might have to check those out and see if they offer any insight.
Excellent analysis of the difference in dance and song time! I KNEW there was something fascinating and mesmerizing about this number, which I love. That is it. I would never have known it
I had a look at the sheet music. The graphics of the orchestral beats should be twice as fast. That said, I find the use of the 4/4 against 5/4 to be really interesting. It must have been hard to pull off, but I think that they succeeded brilliantly.
I think some of the negative comments here might be because of the floor design, which is not only distracting but makes the floor look bumpy. I don't suppose you have a clip of the "Will you marry me" part from the ballet when he bring her to life and she pursues him? It's the cutest thing Fred Astaire ever did.
Así es .Gran bailarina.Bella y buena actriz💕.Pero al parecer las dos películas que hicieron juntos (participaron en Ziegfield Follies)no gozaron de gran éxito. Y luego llegó el reinado de Cyd Charisse.
God - the whole reason I made the clip is because I was tired of people only commenting on that damn floor! The contrasting rhythms are far more amazing.
"An appendage of additional beauty - is a woman's long flowing, twirling skirt. It lends.. an ethereal atmosphere, and air." ~ ADanceArtPerspective (PaulJung)
I loved this particuler dance "Coffee Time" from Yolanda and the Thief. I liked the film too except the quick climax ending. It confused the audience too. It was as if a scene or two was cut out of the film! But MGM would not do a stupid thing like that - would they? I also thought that Lucille Bremer was wonderful and thought that MGM should have kept her and built her up to become one of their own big stars. Maybe because this film did not go over all that big is why ! Who knows ! Fred Astaire was good in this film too even if his character was a little bit 'too corny'. It was great to see the wonderful Wizard of Oz's Frank Morgan also. Vincente Minnelli who directed this film also directed another film that was in this same vein called "The Pirate" with Judy Garland & Gene Kelly and this film was also a flop. Judy's only flop. And I think these films may have been ahead of their time for 1948. Who knows?
@Robert...Thank you for clarifying some questions I had in reserve. First, just how was it that Astaire at one time was considered Box office Poison; and 2) just why wasn't Bremer given credit for being one of the foremost ballet dancers in MGM's stable. The film flop. There's nothing more harmful to the career than a flop at the box office. For when it comes to money, all bets are off. Even the great Kate Kepburn was once considered Box Office Poison.
Do you have a cite for that? Very rare for costume designers to take on the role of scenic designers. BTW, the floor is based on the Ipanema Beach walkways in Rio.
the entire coffee time scene was designed by Tony Duquette for Vincente Minnelli. Duquette was responsible for several ultra glamorous sets for Minnelli films including the Coffee Time sequence, This heart of mine, "Ziegfeld Follies" the Minnelli Finale for "Lovely To Look At", The Fireplace andirons for "Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse, The costumes for Kismet, etc.
I haven't seen this movie. I find this dance a bit uncomfortable/disconcerting. Floor, dance rhythm, and music rhythm. Does this feeling make sense in the context of the movie, or is it just a number for us to appreciate the super dancing abilities of Licille Bremer and Fred Astaire? And thank you for your technical wizardry that you have done with this number.
I am subject to seizures. The floor in this dance routine gives me the feeling as if I'm going to have a seizure. Really. I had to turn this sequence off. Same thing as the blinking bright lights on top of school buses, and disco balls.
Cool. Thanks for this. But don't don't the dancers change the beat briefly just before Astaire & Bremer start their dance? Can you mark out on screen what happens in that transition? (Or am I just losing the beat?)
From my viewing, all the dancers are always in 5/4. But when I try to clap along, I always lose the beat! My guess is that they had someone on set yelling 1 2 3 4 5 for the whole dance. Especially if the music was also playing while filming.
@@123boink you know what I think the director, producer, choreographer, camera men, orchestra and dancers did. They filmed the dancers dancing with an orchestra in 5/4. Then they went back in and rerecorded the orchestra in 4/4 so that the dancers and orchestra were on two different beats. Just like they used to do with pre-recording songs and actors doing lip-sync or with filming tap numbers and dancers going back into "looping" the taps for synchronization.
@@brianoyler706 More likely there was a pianist on set playing the song in 4/4 while the dance captain counted loudly in 5/4. Something like this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FLVvvwMoJ0c.html
If you have seen the film, you know why it flopped. It is a Bemelman fantasy, and fantasy rarely does well with the public; especially one as rarefied as this. It's a shame, because it ended Bremer's shot at stardom, and I think she was terrific.
What do you mean by 'rarefied'? I loved the pairing of Astaire & Bremer, but I did think the plot was rather blasfamous. Can't spell THAT word, but I'm sure you know what I mean. I have another 'so called' review at the top here.
+Broadway Classics; at first, u was a bit agog; 'what's with the timing explanations - and in such detail', them I thought for a moment, and said, you know, 'everyone has to learn beginning siege p somewhere', and i reneger when I was a kid, I had someone explain it to me. Good idea, and a great piece to place it.
The dance itself is terrific, the counter time signatures so effective and interesting. Alas, the movie as a whole is pretty bad, and the set design here awful. That floor and backdrop are so distracting. Lucile Bremer was such a technically perfect match for Astaire. Alas, audiences just didn’t take to her, and she called it quits after about a dozen movies.
@Sascha...Relevance? Whatever. She's out there on the dance floor with one of the greatest dancers of all time. So it don't mean a think if the girl's Freed's friend. She's got the swing!
Tiny Dancer to me Ginger Rogers the chemistry between the two of them although they he did not realise was enormous you're so funny together as well as they were Soulmates that's why they will always be remembered together dancing forever (the wife)
What he is in fact doing is looking to see where his partner's feet are. Making sure they are in syncro with eachother. Though that is not usually the Job of the 'Lead' dancer. (Composer/ Musician in the 70s for Modern Dance & Ballet. Mainly London based companies - London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Ballet Rambert, Royal Ballet.)
