# Let's list some "stagey" movies. Also, why make stagey movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 5, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291 "2015-07-05T02:35:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/1 "2015-07-05T02:35:59Z")
I will not define stagey and further than to say watching the movie feels more like watching a play than watching a film. Perhaps y’all can help me out with some of the elements that make a movie feel that way. A lot of the movies that feel stagey were based on plays, so not too surprising, I guess. But it doesn’t have to be that way. _Driving Miss Daisy_ was based on a stage play, and it doesn’t feel “stagey” at all. And not all the stagey movies are based on plays. Maybe they come out stagey because either the writer or the director is more used to working on stage productions. Maybe the creators designed the movie to be stagey for artistic reasons. Maybe it’s a matter of budgetary constraints. What prompted the thread is the movie [Nightwatching](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446750/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), starring Martin Freeman as Rembrandt. Sounded potentially good to me, but I found it to be stagey in a most egregious way. (It is very self-consciously so. Most of the scenes are filmed in stage sets with the floorboards readily apparent, and scenery being wheeled in and out.) So what are some other stagey movies out there? Does it bother you to watch a movie like that? What elements make a movie feel stagey? And why make a movie stagey? Seems like you are not taking full advantage of your medium. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/2 "2015-07-05T02:39:23Z")
“What elements make a movie feel stagey?” Lots of dialogue, long scenes, limited locations, the cast breaking out into a song and dance number. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/3 "2015-07-05T02:45:36Z")
It’s been a while since I saw them, but I thought Le dîner de cons (aka The Dinner Game and the basis for Dinner for Schmucks) and La Cage aux Folles (the basis for The Birdcage) were both very “stagy”. Not surprising as both were based on stage plays. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/4 "2015-07-05T02:46:28Z")
An awful lot of that happens in the editing room. The original cut of Star Wars was awful. It looked like a low-budget BBC soundstage costume drama (which . . . okay . . . it sort of was). Bits of that original cut are in the documentary that came with the boxed set of DVDs. Lucas saw it, hated it, started over with somebody else. Plenty of black-and-white movies feel that way to me. A Streetcar Named Desire comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/5 "2015-07-05T02:55:09Z")
I saw [Irma la Douce](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057187/) for the first time a few weeks back, and was not surprised to find out afterward that it was based on a stage production. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/6 "2015-07-05T03:00:46Z")
Very broad acting seems to be another common feature of “stagey” movies. ---
**Author:** ![CatastrophicFailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@CatastrophicFailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CatastrophicFailure)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/7 "2015-07-05T03:13:35Z")
[Look Back in Anger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jt9ZXgTOEE) (1989 version with Kenneth Branagh) feels like a play, as does Glengarry Glen Ross. (Of course, they are both based on stage productions.) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/8 "2015-07-05T03:21:31Z")
[Wait Until Dark](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062467/?ref_=nv_sr_1) was based on a stage play. Play and movie were obviously going for a severe claustrophobic feel (also fear of the dark). Haven’t seen it in a looooong time, so that’s all I have to offer. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/9 "2015-07-05T03:24:44Z")
[Glengarry Glen Ross](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glengarry_Glen_Ross) was a play written by David Mamet. He may have a few things on this list. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/10 "2015-07-05T03:27:09Z")
I recently saw Hitchcock’s _Rope_. It was interesting, and I liked it, even though it probably was ultimately a failed experiment, as Hitchcock himself admitted. Anyway, it takes place entirely on one set, it’s filmed to look like one long unbroken shot, and the acting is very stagey, or maybe I’d say sort of mannered. It’s worth watching. But I think it fits the OP’s criteria for a stagey movie. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/11 "2015-07-05T03:27:09Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > [Glengarry Glen Ross](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glengarry_Glen_Ross) was a play written by David Mamet. He may have a few things on this list. You beat me by three minutes In that film is the average viewer supposed to know the land is desert/swamp land they are selling ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/12 "2015-07-05T03:30:28Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > Plenty of black-and-white movies feel that way to me. A Streetcar Named Desire comes to mind. An awful lot of older, hence B&W, but talking, films look that way, because the sound was recorded in real time. The sophistication for dubbing didn’t exist. Also, location shots were impossible, so even outdoor shots were on backlots, or sets built on soundstages to look like the outdoors (think, the forest scenes in the 1941 _The Wolf Man_). Lots of silent films made great use of location shots and big, open spaces, but the first talking were very contained. Compare “The Mother and the Law” segment of _Intolerance_ in 1916 with the famous car-train race, or the beautiful outdoor shots in the 1926 _Way Down East_ to _Bachelor Apartment_ in 1931 or more importantly, _Blackmail_ in 1929. _Blackmail_ began as a silent, and was changed to a sound film after many establishing shots had already been filmed. So it is a mix of silent and sound footage. The silent footage is big, and outdoors, location shots, while the sound scenes are, as you put it, “stagey.” Not only are they boxy, and on small sets, with one exception (which is still indoors) but the camera moves very little, because it’s movement would be recorded on the track. The one scene with lots of camera movement is technically a sound scene, on one of the sound sets, but there is no dialogue, and the microphones are all shut off. It’s a fascinating film, and a very good one, from early Hitchcock, when he was still in England. _Streetcar_ is meant to look cramped, because we are supposed to feel like the characters are trapped by the limitations of the choices they have made, and Blanche by her own mind. If fact, throughout the film, Blanche’s world is closing in on her, and the sets do a good job of reinforcing this. I’ve seen it on a big screen, and the symbolism is much more obvious. _Deathtrap_ looks stagey, to give a more modern example (1982), but I think the intention is to reproduce the “play within a play” irony of the stage script. We’re supposed to feel like we’re watching a play. It makes the twist at the end work better. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/13 "2015-07-05T03:53:03Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > An awful lot of older, hence B&W, but talking, films look that way, because the sound was recorded in real time. The sophistication for dubbing didn’t exist. Also, location shots were impossible, so even outdoor shots were on backlots, or sets built on soundstages to look like the outdoors (think, the forest scenes in the 1941 _The Wolf Man_). A few months ago, ABC had an hour-long special about _The Sound of Music_. It was hosted by Diane Sawyer and they traveled to Austria to show some of the original locations (e.g., the real house in which the Von Trapps lived) and the filming locations. At one point, they interviewed Julie Andrews, and she described the filming of the opening scene when she sang the title song. She said something about how there were giant speakers in the trees blaring the music as she sang. I was amazed; I assumed the music was added later and her singing recorded in a studio. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/14 "2015-07-05T04:02:45Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > A few months ago, ABC had an hour-long special about _The Sound of Music_. It was hosted by Diane Sawyer and they traveled to Austria to show some of the original locations (e.g., the real house in which the Von Trapps lived) and the filming locations. At one point, they interviewed Julie Andrews, and she described the filming of the opening scene when she sang the title song. She said something about how there were giant speakers in the trees blaring the music as she sang. I was amazed; I assumed the music was added later and her singing recorded in a studio. I would assume that the speakers were blaring so that she could lip-synch the singing. Same as you would do for a rock video. Song is already recorded, you are lip-synching in the video. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/15 "2015-07-05T04:05:13Z")
[Stalag 17](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_17) seems stagey on occasion, with so much of the dialogue and action taking place in the prisoner’s barracks. I wasn’t surprised to see that the movie was based on a Broadway play. I was surprised that the play was based on actual life in an Austrian prison camp. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/16 "2015-07-05T04:15:52Z")
_Noises Off!_ – which makes sense since it’s based on a stage play about putting on a stage play. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/17 "2015-07-05T04:44:08Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > A few months ago, ABC had an hour-long special about _The Sound of Music_. It was hosted by Diane Sawyer and they traveled to Austria to show some of the original locations (e.g., the real house in which the Von Trapps lived) and the filming locations. At one point, they interviewed Julie Andrews, and she described the filming of the opening scene when she sang the title song. She said something about how there were giant speakers in the trees blaring the music as she sang. Also [The Sound of Music (1965) - Trivia - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059742/trivia?item=tr0764504) > [@](#): > > During the filming of the opening shot of Julie Andrews taken from a helicopter, Julie Andrews relates that although she tried digging her heels into the ground and bracing herself, on every take she was knocked over by the powerful helicopter downdraft. After more than a dozen takes, she attempted to hand-signal to Robert Wise to have the helicopter make a wider pass, but the response she got was a thumbs-up - he was finally satisfied with the shot. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/18 "2015-07-05T04:55:11Z")
Speaking of Hitchcock, “Dial M for Murder” is a very stagy movie. Most of it is filmed in the flat of Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) and his wife Margot (Grace Kelly). Come to think of it “Rear Window” would also fit the bill, no? ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/19 "2015-07-05T05:12:11Z")
The Breakfast Club? ---
**Author:** ![dofe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@dofe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dofe)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/20 "2015-07-05T05:32:13Z")
Dogville probably counts as “stagey,” but it’s done so very [deliberately](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogville#Staging). > [@](#): > > The story of Dogville is narrated by John Hurt in nine chapters and takes place on a stage with minimalist scenery. Some walls and furniture are placed on the stage, but the rest of the scenery exists merely as white painted outlines which have big labels on them; for example, the outlines of gooseberry bushes have the text “Gooseberry Bushes” written next to them. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291.md?page=2)