It's been far longer than I have anticpated since I put my pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard.
I have actually been in a dilemma as to what to write about - that is how much is going on right now. I have been torn between all the weird karmic things going on in my life and my first 'gig' as an Extra. And both (as usual knowing me) have provided me with a lot of comedy material that is waiting to fall out of my brain and onto here for my own masochistic need for humiliation and of course, for your amusement.
But then I had my mum come to visit on the Granny Express. And mums' have a knack for swooping in and changing everything, don't they?
~
It was Jean's birthday a few weeks ago, getting well into her 60's now, but still not managing to look a day over 40. We are ALL praying fervently that we got her genes. So we decided to bring her to London to watch a show with Future Cinema - Bugsy Malone at the Troxy for her birthday. It was an utterly amazing show they put on. The gorgeous art deco cinema was opened up to a roomfull of bundling, bouncing, cajoling actors. Romping around in 20's gear, boxing matches, chase scenes over the bannisters and terraces, sultry songs, razzmatazz dance competitions, mad-cap silent movies, and all the characters running around in real time, real life. The day couldn't get any better. We had gone to the matinee and trust me, I was the biggest kid there. Then when I couldn't possibly get more excited; they showed the film. Then when I thought I couldn't possibly get more excited; we had a SPLURGE FIGHT!
I could have literally died right there. Happy.
~
So let's fill you all in...
This was a liii-ttle bit of a double-edged "gift". For those who know me - I needn't say a word. For those who don't know me so well... Here's a clue....
I AM OBSESSED WITH BUGSY MALONE
I can recite it word-for-word, sing it note-for-note, describe the clothing in every detail, "Bangles De Bell, you look teeerrible", I can do the dancing with my eyes closed, and lord help the person who ever hands me a custard pie - they will get it returned back in the their face!
I have absolutely no doubt that Bugsy Malone forms part of my acting DNA. And I believe that for most of our generation, and even those below and beyond, it is a movie that burrowed its way into your brain, like it or not. I defy any of you to NOT know a song from the movie...
You are singing one now aren't you?
That moment when you first watch THE BEST FILM EVER and it's being acted by people like you! Your age, your height, your brand new teeth that don't quite fit your face yet, that ears that your Gran promises you will "grow into", your puppy fat, your almost teenage training bra breasts, your awful hair that just will not behave and just be straight/curly how grown-up hair is. All those child-to-teenage bodily awkwardness's, made to look so slick, so glamorous, so polished, right down to their manicured gloves...
With make-up, and moustaches (the boys anyway), slicked hair, the hats, the dresses, the suits, the dancing, drinking fancy jewel coloured green and red drinks "on the rocks", the attitude, the peddle cars, the gangsters, the Splurge guns. YOU truly could be Tallulah, Fat Sam, Velma, Baby Face, Bangles, Dandy Dan, or Bugsy... Nobody wanted to be Blousie, did they?... Seriously! But I will get to that later.
It wasn't about being a kid and wanting to be that person or that person when you grow up. You didn't have to wait! You were able to be those characters right now! Forget having to be at school wearing the awful itchy red gingham dress and the woolly red tights given to you at christmas, that no longer fit you in July, so that you spend all day with the crotch area around by your knees. The matching ribbons for your hair for school. The stupid plaited hairstyle your mum has given you to try and control this unruly hair, that then reveals those massive Spock ears, giving everyone at school the gift of being able to tease you alternately between your hair and your ears.
When you got home, the gingham was off and the fancy dress was on, the video was in the VCR faster than the fat kid with an ice-cream in the sun.
"My name is Tallulah..."
And school was forgotten in an instant.
You could charm men (okay, boys... and not the boys in your class - ewwwww!) with your dulcet tones and ruby red lips. Run a gangster racket with your pack of hoodlums. Become a singer, or a dancer, or find prize-fighters. Or cheat your way into eating 8 banana boozer specials and 6 beef spitfires.
"You could have been anything that you wanted to be..."
This is why life is like Bugsy Malone, or should I say, life should be like Bugsy Malone.
We should always try to make life glamorous. In Bugsy, even the cleaner Fizzy can tap dance beautifully. This was the depression era, and yes this isn't a historical project here, but the essence of always trying to create a sense of beauty and glamour in your life is still important. Like Fat Sam, trying to make things look normal as things fall apart within his empire. I am not saying we need to cover up the bad times, but it can help to make the best and put the most positive, and glamorous spin on what we do have.
We should all dress like we are in Bugsy Malone. The clothes themselves also seem to be having somewhat of a revival too. Maybe it's more likely down to the new Great Gatsby film. However, I it still contains that same sense of theatricality & glamour to the art of dressing up, that I find particularly appealling in Bugsy.
We should all dance like Tallulah - at least once in our lives.
My friend, who will remain nameless, her crowning moment of glory has to be the drunk "Tallulah dancing" on a stage up against a wall. I am positive this did the trick with her then and now partner... and we a have little Tallulah, her daughter, as proof this works!
We should all have friends like in Bugsy Malone. From an acting perspective, the characters in this film are fantastic. There are so many real characters who all have such a depth to them. Which is rare for about 80% of all adult movies, let alone a childrens' movies. From a kids perspective, I spent my time watching this and identifying all my classmates as each of the characters. And as an adult, I could pick out the Tallulah, the Fat Sam,the Fizzy in my friends circle right now. And this movie is great, what you see is that there is no real star, you are rooting for them all, even Dandy Dan by the end. They all have their distinct characters and they all need one another to get along in the their world.
But the theme alone is enough for me.
Life should be like Bugsy Malone.
From Fizzy the cleaner, to Leeroy the boxer, even to Blousie Brown, the loaf of bread, ok, sorry I mean singer. You really could be anything you wanted to be, even the kids starring as adults in a movie. If you have the desire and you have the drive, to even keep coming back tomorrow, then you could be anything that you wanted to be.
I think that as adults we forget sometimes. We forget that child inside, our inner Bugsy, our inner Tallulah. Who are ballsy, funny, creative, gutsy, and not afraid to be exactly who they are. We get caught up in our own little "rackets", people telling us we can't, Fat Sam telling us he's too busy to listen, or we shouldn't, or that's not the way things are done. Our little battles, our feuds, our fears, our own stupidity or grandiosity. Sometimes, we need that piano moment, you know the one...
de de-de de de
de de-de de de
dum... dum... dum...
"We could've been any-thin that we wan-ted to be...
and it's not too late to change"
We can be anything that we want to be, if we have the dedication of Fat Sam and Fizzy, the ingenuity to find a means to an end like Bugsy or Tallulah, friends like Knuckles, and Velma, and a big heart like Leeroy and Blousie.
"You give a little love and it all comes back to you. You know you're gonna be remembered for the things that you say and do"
We need have our dreams, we need to try and live our dreams and we need our friends to help us get there.
And yes, you may have guessed, Blousie is not my favourite character... Maaan, the girl is so bland - exactly like a stale loaf of bread, always moaning and whining (sorry was that her singing?). And way too reliant on a man to deliver her dreams. But her dreams are the same as mine, "I'm going to Hollywood!"...
And if I get to meet Scott Baio in the flesh then I have hit the double jackpot!
