Oscar winners abound in 'Nine'

Rob Marshall nabs A-list talent for musical

By JON BURLINGAME

STAR POWER: Daniel Day-Lewis is flanked by Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard in tuner 'Nine.'

Can lightning strike
twice? Rob Marshall, who took the seemingly unfilmable Broadway musical
"Chicago" to Oscar-winning heights in 2002, is expected by many to do
the same for "Nine," the Tony-winning musical adaptation of Federico
Fellini's semiautobiographical "8½."

"Nine,"
slated for a November release, stars Daniel Day-Lewis as fictional '60s
Italian cinema icon Guido Contini in the throes of midlife crisis,
along with a bevy of Oscar-winning actresses who alternately attract
and plague him, including Marion Cotillard (his wife), Penelope Cruz
(his mistress), Judi Dench (his producer), Nicole Kidman (his star) and
Sophia Loren (his mother). Kate Hudson (an American journalist) rounds
out the cast.

"Nine" composer-lyricist Maury Yeston was realistic
about handing his baby over to the movies. "It was incredibly important
to understand that film is a director's art, that (Marshall) be able to
adapt this stage musical and make a film independent of an
overcontrolling Broadway author looking over his shoulder," he
concedes. "That's the very first thing I said to Rob."

Still, the
film offered Yeston another chance to extend his lifelong obsession
with Fellini's classic. He began working on the musical in 1973, won a
Tony for its score in 1982 and tinkered with it for the 2003 Broadway
revival. Having worked with Raul Julia in the original and Antonio
Banderas in the revival, he was especially aware of "the impact of what
some of the casting choices might be on the score."

The result was three new songs:

• 
  "Guarda la Luna" (Look at the Moon), sung by Loren. "We were lucky
  enough to have someone who was part of that great period of Italian
  cinema, who knew Fellini, who knew Marcello Mastroianni (Guido in the
  Fellini film)," Yeston says. So he tailored a lullaby specifically for
  Loren's voice (but based the melody on the song "Nine" from the
  Broadway score).
• "Cinema Italiano," for Hudson as a
  Vogue writer in Rome to interview the director. "Italian movies also
  communicated lifestyle and fashion for the world," Yeston says, so
  Hudson sings and dances to a number with "a retro feel, elements of
  '60s pop" that is designed to illustrate to younger audiences how
  important Italian cinema was in that era.
• "Take It
  All," originally written as a trio for Kidman, Cruz and Cotillard but,
  just before shooting, rearranged as a solo for Cotillard, according to
  music supervisor Matt Sullivan. "Heart-wrenching" is how Yeston
  describes the performance by Cotillard (who won an Oscar playing Edith
  Piaf).

"Rob's idea of a musical is that people don't sing
to each other in real life, so he doesn't want them singing to each
other in his reality of that life," Sullivan says. "So we go to a
stage, and this is all happening inside of Guido's mind and his
fantasies. The way he sees his world is through theatrics, through this
music."

Music director Paul Bogaev's biggest job was working with
the actors and preparing them to record the songs before shooting.
Cruz, for example, was auditioned for the film star but wound up as the
mistress; Cotillard auditioned for the producer but was cast as the
wife.

Bogaev conducted a 50-piece orchestra in London over three
weeks in late 2008. "Rob didn't want it to be too slick," he recalled,
telling the brass section to play it rough, "like the Sicilian wedding
band in 'The Godfather.'" Italian film composer Andrea Guerra ("The
Pursuit of Happyness") has agreed to write the underscore.

Much
of the speculation about "Nine" has dealt with star Day-Lewis: Can he
sing? "He's got a wonderful voice," Bogaev says. "He had never done
anything (musically) except sing in choirs, but he works harder than
anybody." Bogaev worked with him every day for weeks prior to recording.

But
Day-Lewis is nothing if not a Method actor. One day during shooting at
London's Shepperton Studios, "Rob and I got called into Daniel's
dressing room, which was designed as a 1960s film director's office,"
says Sullivan. "He's smoking a cigarette, in full outfit and in
character, and he's telling us how he would like to see this number
that he's performing. And he's talking to us as Guido Contini. It was a
really surreal experience."

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Ainda me pergunto por fiz este post. e, a melhor resposta será talvez tenha que deglutir alguns sapos, mas estou convicto que não pois Fellini, Nicole Kidman e musicais estão nas coisas que menos gosto no cinema talvez por isso pode ser que seja qualquer coisa de tão diferente que talvez me engane...