"I want my life to be like an 80s movie, preferably with one a really awesome musical number, for no apparent reason."- Olive Penderghast, Easy A

       Reason or no reason, we all love it when actors in films burst out into songs. It's sooo much fun. So this list is dedicated to those fantastic cinema moments.

Note: It's only one song in the films. This is not about musicals.

Marty McFly from Back To The Future is a legend, especially when he starts singing Chuck Berry's classic Johnny B Goode.

"I guess you guys aren't ready for that, yet. But your kids are gonna love it."

I Say A Little Prayer from My Best Friend's Wedding. Rupert Everett is so awesome!!

So technically this is lip syncing, but this scene in Bridget Jones's Diary is as epic as they come. True Renee Zelweger sang brilliantly as Roxie Hart, but All By Myself is a whole another level.

Moon River by Audrey Hepburn/ Holly Golightly. This song is so poignant, and it explains the loneliness that Holly felt, and how Paul saw her.

Can't Take My Eyes Off You by Heath Ledger/ Patrick Verona. If you are a girl, you have and dont deny it, dreamed of this happening to you.

Yes I could have put Knock On Wood- the song she actually sings in the film, but Pocket Full Of Sunshine and Olive Penderghast from now on go hand in hand. I need that damn card.

Oh Annette! God I love her, and her character Nick in The Kids Are All Right. If any actress deserves the Best Actress Oscar this year, except Natalie Portman, it's this screen goddess. Joni Mitchell would be happy.

Jingle Bell Rock from Mean Girls. Every girl knows this song. Period.

It Seems Like Old Times by Diane Keaton/Annie Hall. The character and the film are unforgettable. One of the reasoms we and Alvey Singer/ Woody Allen love Annie so much is because she is an absolute divine singer.

 Baby It's Cold Outside by Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrel. I love this song and this movie and this situation. I love how their voices compliment each other, and how in the end he bangs into the lockers.

Don't Rain on My Parade by Annette Bening/ Caroline Burnham. This just shows how much I love this woman, and she deserves it completely.

It was only fair to put this after All By Myself. Chris O' Dowd brings sorrow and humour together in his superbly lip synced Stay With Me Baby by Lorraine Ellison.

 A Waltz for a Night by Julie Delpy/ Celine. Oh how I love this film and her and this song. Simply gorgeous.

Twist and Shout by Ferris Beuller. You know how mindblastingly uber famous this song and this scene is. I worship it.

Other musical numbers I wanted to put, but could not find videos of are- the french song Kirsten Dunst sings in Marie Antoinette, Here Comes Your Man and Sugar Daddy from (500) Days of Summer, Killing Me Softly with His Song from About A Boy, Can't Take My Eyes of You from Drop Dead Gorgeous and ofcourse Christmas is All Around from Love Actually.

“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying.” ~ Woody Allen

     Curse the person who invented exams, and curse exams for what they do to us. I forgot that yesterday, that is 1st December, 2010 was Allen Stewart Konigsberg AKA Woody Allen's birthday. And not just any birthday, his 75th!

     Now I owe a lot to this wonderful, wonderful man. It was when I saw his film, The Purple Rose of Cairo did I realise how much I really love films, and how they will be my life. I also identify most with his work. He is the king of dramedies and bitter-sweet endings. The perfect mixture of humour and self-loathing is brilliant. And he has made more than 50 films. He is a cinematic legend! His affairs are well-loved and his muses are just transplendent.

      Let's hope he makes his wonderful movies till forever...Happy Belated Birthday Woody!!!!

I rest my case!

MANHATTAN

A girl once had a dream. It was to go to the one place in the whole wide world where all dreams come true- New York. However as she grew older, as it is with everyone and every dream- she decided to wake up
   But then, in a Woody Allen movie-watching frenzy, she saw Manhattan...

"Chapter one: He adored New York City. He idolised it all out of proportion. Uh, no. Make that He romanticised it all out of proportion. To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin... Uh no. Let me start this over. 
                   
"Chapter one: He was too romantic about Manhattan, as he was about everything else. He thrived on the hustle, bustle of the crowds and the traffic. To him, New York meant beautiful women and street-smart guys who seemed to know all the angles...Ah, corny. Too corny for a man of my taste. Let me try and make it more profound." 
                  
"Chapter one. He adored New York City. To him, it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture. The same lack of integrity to cause so many people to take the easy way out was rapidly turning the town of his dreams...No, it's gonna be too preachy. I mean, face it, I wanna sell some books here." 

"Chapter one: He adored New York City, although to him it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture. How hard it was to exist in a society desensitised by drugs, loud music, television, crime, garbage...Too angry. I don't wanna be angry." 
                  
"Chapter one: He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat...I love this...New York was his town and it always would be."

This is just the intro, which lasts for 1 minute and 40 seconds. Shot in black & white, as Woody Allen or Isaac Davis says in the first first chapter. Manhattan is the story of Isaac, a 42 year-old, his 17 year-old girlfriend Tracy, his best friend Gale, Gale's wife Emily, first-Gale's-mistress-the-Isaac's-girlfriend-then-again-Gale's-mistress/girlfriend Mary and Isaac's homosexual second ex-wife Jill and their relationships with each other.

   While I think that all Woody Allen movies are more or less about relationships, based on my limited knowledge, this film was truly remarkable. It's a highly realistic yet romantic piece of cinematic magic, ironic as it sounds. It seemed effortless. It is how I would, or the girl who once dreamt it all like to go to Manhattan and truly live there like how Isaac does in the movie. The witty dialogues, the breath-taking Manhattan views, the brilliant concert background music and the super talented cast- the brilliant Woody Allen, the always spectacular Diane Keaton as the "troubled" Mary, the oh-so beautiful Meryl Streep as the lesbian Jill and Mariel Hemingway as Tracy, whose face Isaac mentions when listing all the reasons which make life worth living.


   There are also those select moments in this film which any real movie-watcher will find hard to forget. The intro obviously, the firecrackers bursting above the tall New York buildings with the background music, the magical scene when Isaac and Mary are sitting on a bench watching the dawn creep on the Queensboro Bridge, the scene when we finally see the Mary's "devastating sexual god-like" ex-husband Jeremiah, the part when Emily is reading out the embarrassing excerpt from Jill's tell-all book, the scene when Isaac confronts Gale in front of the "once-handsome" skeleton, and obviously the end when Isaac runs to Tracy.


   I really hope people go and watch it. I know it's random to write about this after a whole lot of kitty-pictures but this blog is based on my thoughts which tend to be disorganised, confused and... well, random. This film has inspired me to dream about New York again.

Merry Christmas!!!