Aleksandra the Great’s Exploits

What a nice way to talk about the weather—it snowed!—and the Rent movie. The streets are perfectly clear; they were clear when I looked outside at 10:30 this morning, but a thin layer of snow settled on the roofs and rooftop furnishings and on the cars that haven’t moved today. Although my weather information service tells me that there’s a 100% chance of precipitation now, it isn’t snowing. I suppose that’s for the best, though. Snow would just be one more distraction to keep me from doing homework.

And now, Rent. My ideas were not settled enough upon first seeing it to post, so I had to wait until I saw it a second time (Friday night as a hall outing). Since we who saw it Wednesday night talked about it so much afterwards, I won’t bother repeating all that we thought. I did think, and the second viewing confirmed, that the film offers a very negative portrayal of Benny. In the play he gets the chance to redeem himself by paying for Angel’s funeral. In the movie, it seems Collins has enough money and doesn’t need Benny’s help. And then, unless I wasn’t able to follow this twice now, Benny just disappears. At least in the play they make it known that Muffy found out about Benny’s affair and had his location switched.

I had a problem the first time I saw it with the fact that Mimi intentionally went to Roger about the candle. The second time I realized why I disliked it, and it has to do with something else that bothers me—the cutting out of several key songs. Before I get to that, though, I think the film did a nice job of showing that Mimi and Angel knew each other before they knew any of the other characters. In the play it’s kind of hard to tell when they met. It seems from the things she says at Angel’s funeral that Mimi met Angel at a different time than everyone else, but there isn’t any proof in the play. In the film, at the end of “Rent,” Angel points his drumsticks up as a greeting to Mimi, so it makes sense that they were friends.

Back to the problems. When would Mark ever have gone to the Cat Scratch Club? He was dating Maureen for a while before the play/movie takes place, and it just doesn’t seem like something a person like Mark would do. And why does he know enough about Mimi to affirm that she’s going to Maureen’s performance? In the play, Mimi doesn’t know Maureen; she isn’t part of their group of friends at all except perhaps if she knew Angel previously. All this is described in the “Christmas Bells” song that was cut, not to mention the humorous bit in which Roger simulates Mimi’s dancing while she’s talking to Mark to tell him what she does.

“Halloween” describes how chance-dependent the last year was. Instead of Mimi’s just needing her candle lit and knocking at any random door, in the film she intentionally goes to Roger. Is that why “Halloween” had to be cut, because Mark’s questions were easily answered? The Mimi-Roger relationship is far too romantic and friendly in “Light My Candle.” Stage Mimi just wants a light, and then she tries to leave. Film Mimi hangs around Roger’s apartment, already suggesting what isn’t supposed to come until “Out Tonight.” And Roger almost immediately gives her his coat! Roger is supposed to be withdrawn and not interested in socializing. What good is staying in his apartment for however long (seven months? a year?) if he’s that chivalrous to the first woman he meets? [When Mimi climbs into his apartment at the end of “Out Tonight” he smiles a little. At first I thought this was going along the same lines that he’s just looking for a nice girlfriend, but I realized that it works well with “Another Day.” He is interested in Mimi, but he isn’t prepared for a relationship, especially not one with another drug addict. Good acting on Adam’s part.]

After the movie on Friday a few of the students and the faculty fellows who sponsored the outing went out for pizza and to discuss the film. Everyone agreed that the Santa Fe part was ridiculous, and some of the kids brought up a Britney Spears music video that looks like it shared the same set.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 4th, 2005 at 5:26pm and is filed under Reviews, New York. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.