> Has anyone seen the movie Songcatcher? I saw it last night &
absolutely
> loved it. It is a story of a woman musicologist in the 1900s who
goes to
> visit her sister living in the Appalachian Mountains & discovers
their
> beautiful music. A simple & powerful story on many levels. No
overdubbing of
> songs in this movie...everyone sings their own. The most amazing
performance
> was the young 13 year old (?) girl. She was very authentic, yet she
is
> trained in opera & lives in NYC!!!
Synchronicity strikes again, Kate! I just saw this movie yesterday.
I have to say, though, that I thought it was pretty clichid and could
have had more depth to it. They had a good idea for a story but
didn't develop it very well, imo.
Still there were a lot of good things in this movie. The actors were
almost all excellent. Janet McTeer plays the musicologist and she was
great! And Aidan Quinn has beautiful blue eyes and with that full,
dark beard....oh baby!
But I was looking for Iris Dement most of all. I knew she sang on the
soundtrack but I didn't know she was actually in the film until I saw
her name in the credits. She has one brief scene where she sings
'Pretty Saro' and the sound of that voice just cuts right through me!
Her voice seems made for this kind of material. There is also a
beautiful version of 'Barbara Allen' played over the closing credits
sung by the incomparable Emmylou Harris.
The music, the scenery and the acting make this movie worth seeing,
imo, but the script is somewhat lacking. If you don't mind that,
though, by all means go see it! It's better than the usual special
effects sex & violence fodder that clutters up most movies these days.
Mark in Seattle
