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From: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: Cuckoos Nest (really films vs. plays)
Message-ID: <9703@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 7-Mar-86 12:57:37 EST
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.9703
Posted: Fri Mar  7 12:57:37 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Mar-86 02:14:38 EST
References: <3946@srcsip.UUCP> <715@hou2b.UUCP> <5128@stolaf.UUCP>
Reply-To: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (Peter Reiher)
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 26

In article <5128@stolaf.UUCP> knutsonk@stolaf.UUCP (Kari E. Knutson) writes:

>Some stage shows I am looking forward to seeing in film form:
>    Cats
>    Chess
>(So I like Time Rice and Andrew LLoyd Webber...:-)

I personally believe "Cats" to be unfilmable.  What are you going to do with
it?  Dress people up in cat suits, like on stage?  On film, that would
almost certainly look ridiculous.  Use puppets or animation?  Probably it
would work out better, but it would cut the audience's link to the characters,
which the show builds up by its knowledge that the audience realizes that
these are people in cat costumes.  Add in the fact that, for practical
purposes, "Cats" has no plot.  It is really just a sequence of numbers,
and relies upon spectacle and dance to make it go.  In film nowadays,
spectacle is a lot harder to do, since the audience has such high 
expectations, and filming dance effectively is a lot harder than you
would think.  I think "Cats" is one of those shows which simply won't
work on screen, because the theatricality of it is crucial to its success.

I haven't seen "Chess", but, from what I know of it, it sounds like a 
much better prospect.
-- 
        			Peter Reiher
				reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
        			{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher