Inspired by MAMO #23

A long damn comment:

Okay, flame on. Well maybe not flame on. My house and I are the market that Rent was made for so I have some thoughts. I saw the stage production as a thirteen year old girl in 1997 and it had a huge impact on my development into a bohemian twenty-something. This re-release was made for all the tween-teens who saw the production and idealized the anti-establishment hippy-queer culture and have now reached the age of the characters they obsessed over. My entire house could sing you the entire score of RENT and every one of us waxed nostalgic on the drive to the theatre (we had to go to a different damn city, but we were determined!)

The marketing for RENT was smart because I do feel like they were playing to my crowd. The songs and images were strategically chosen to pump up the excitement about having most of the original cast back and pull in the RENTheads. One of the reasons that I think it's failing so badly is because it doesn't deliver what it promises.

I'm assuming that neither of you have seen the film because the trouble is that RENT WASN'T shot like a music video. They tried to put the rock-opera format into what Matti Price calls "the true musical"style. They screwed around with the plot and turned former songs into cheesy dialogue in an attempt to make it more like films such as Moulin Rouge where the songs seem to just naturally flow with the dialogue. The prolem with taking the songs out of RENT is that that's the damn meat of it.

The appeal of RENT is that it IS a rock opera about not selling out to the man, and that didn't come across. This movie tried to follow the format of other high grossing musicals and thus ended up looking like a cheesy pile of sell-out garbage. I'm still shocked that so many original cast members agreed to sign on to do this film when it's so obviously counter to the entire philosophy of the musical. I guess as thirty-somethings they've become disillusioned and the man seems much more warm and friendly.

This film would have been far more successful if it had been shot like a long music video because that's the format where it would have worked. The "bursting into song" seemed disjointed and awkward because the story is meant to be constantly in song. The best scene in the entire move is "La Vie Boheme" which was very music video-y and it gave me goose bumps.

I think that they made a big mistake in not playing to the fan base of RENTheads who consider this musical a huge part of their lives and development at human beings (oh we're out there). The word of mouth among fans is what's hurting this film. I've told at least five people (fans and newbies) not to waste their time seeing this film and it's sad because I think the message of RENT is an important one and had it stuck to a more rock opera type format it could have been retold to a whole new batch of young folk who need to learn that love and art can keep your pulse beating whether there is money in your pocket or not. VIVA LA VIE BOHEME!