“My Fair Lady” would seem to fit the bill with lots of deliberately stagey scenes. They even have rows of people moving in from “off stage” to take up places before the action starts, on occasion.
One From The Heart was filmed entirely on a soundstage deliberately trying for a non-real look. Coppola also did transitions from one scene to the other using stage tricks like scrims, fading the lights down in front and bringing them up behind the scrim.
A lot of movies based on stage plays – especially single-set stage plays – go out of their way to try to get away from that feeling. So the 1972 version of Sleuth very deliberately has scenes away from that living room that was the only location for the play, moving from Wyke’s garden at the beginning, setting scenes in the library, and Marguerite’s bedroom, and in the cellar. (Interestingly, the 2007 version, with screenplay by Harold Pinter, feels much more “stagey”, in that it stays mostly confined to that single set – even though Pinter’s script was NOT done as a stage play.)
They added a “Roadhouse scene” to the movie Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (as Mad magazine gleefully pointed out in its satire)
1776 takes place almost entirely in the Hall at Philadelphia “and in places in John Adams’ mind” (as the stage directions state), but for the film they moved a few scenes out of doors (although several of them were played in front of ac curtain when its played onstage, simply implying a different location).
Some movies just didn’t care to significantly change location – look at Inherit the Wind
Twelve Angry Men actually started as a TV play before becoming a movie, its single-set location being dictated by the limitations of TV production in the 1950s. Gore Vidal’s Visit to a Small Planet was the same way. Both were easily adapted to single-set stage plays afterwards.
I think Reservoir Dogs fits the bill. I remember like 5 sets, and the bulk of the action taking place within the warehouse with a lot of dialog.
Something most people (including many reviewers) don’t realize: It was the garage of a funeral home, not a warehouse.
I can’t see how Rear Window would work on stage.
If you go to Connecticut in October, you can find out. Hartford Stage is presenting Rear Window from October 22 through November 15.
Frost/Nixon
In classic “I scrolled down to the bottom just to see my answer posted” fashion, I’m going to have to agree with you.
Sylvester Stallone did a comedy named Oscar which I thought was hilarious but which was completely and mercilessly panned by critics. (I think this is the most out of line I’ve ever been with the consensus.) I do recall it looking very much like a film based on a play. (Something like Noises Off.–the whole plot takes place in a single house, lots of people ENTERING and EXITING, you know that kind of thing?) But no, it’s not.
Are you sure? IMDb has in the writing credits “Claude Magnier (play)” among others. Maybe it wasn’t a play that was ever produced. It’s one of my favorite Stallone movies and I’d assumed it was based on a play as well.
I think I have a different idea of what “stagey” means. While a lot of the suggestions were originally stage plays, the movies feel like movies to me. Maybe small movies with limited sets - but still movies. They don’t feel like someone just taped a play. They use film conventions and staging rather than theater conventions in their style. (I’m sure I don’t know enough about film to say
To me, Mamma Mia felt like someone taped a play. Sure, some of the scenes were outside, but especially with the crowd scenes and musical numbers, the blocking felt very, very much like it belonged on a stage rather than taking advantage of what they could do with a camera.