Adding t0 Kalasdad’s post – yes, she did all her own singing and the “voices”. Little Voice was written specifically for her by a friend as a way of showcasing the incredible aptitude she has for mimicking those great performers.
It was originally a stage play called “The Rise and Fall of Little Voice”. As they were trying to get it made into a film, it took so long to get backing that Jane Horrocks never thought she would actually end up playing the part in the movie.
Back to the OP:
In The Thing Called Love, River Phoenix played and performed all his numbers. He and Dermot Mulroney both wrote songs that were performed in the movie (the filck was about aspiring young songwriters). I don’t remember the song that Dermot wrote, but I think River’s was called “Lonestar State of Mind.”
Wow! I’m impress by the number of responses. Sorry I didn’t post sooner than this, but after I started this thread I couldn’t get to the internet for awhile.
Many of you are asking about what to include in this post, but I don’t really care so much about what you all discuss here. I just thought that this would an interesting and broad thread topic.
Having said that, I think that movies like The Commitments are what really interest me. I am trying to think of other movies that did the same thing, casting unknown (or at least relatively unknown) musicians to play musicians in a film, usually fictional.
Having said that I want to reiterate that I like to hear about other movies that don’t quite fit the bill. I love the Beatles movies and I liked alot of Moulin Rouge. This is really a free for all about movies that have cool music.
(On that note, I recommend the space musical American Astronaut. It is a lot of fun and I hope it becomes a cult classic. I don’t imagine you 'll find it in many video stores.
Wow! I’m impress by the number of responses. Sorry I didn’t post sooner than this, but after I started this thread I couldn’t get to the internet for awhile.
Many of you are asking about what to include in this post, but I don’t really care so much about what you all discuss here. I just thought that this would an interesting and broad thread topic.
Having said that, I think that movies like The Commitments are what really interest me. I am trying to think of other movies that did the same thing, casting unknown (or at least relatively unknown) musicians to play musicians in a film, usually fictional.
Having said that I want to reiterate that I like to hear about other movies that don’t quite fit the bill. I love the Beatles movies and I liked alot of Moulin Rouge. This is really a free for all about movies that have cool music.
(On that note, I recommend the space musical American Astronaut. It is a lot of fun and I hope it becomes a cult classic. I don’t imagine you 'll find it in many video stores.
In keeping with being a method actor, Robert De Niro actually learned to play saxophone for “New York, New York”. Sources vary as to how much De Niro saxophone playing is actually heard in the picture, but apparently, there is some, and some reviewers claim he played all of it. I remember seeing it with a sax player who said that some of the sax work was crappy enough that it probably WAS De Niro having learned sax just for the movie.
In “Once More With Feeling”, the justly famous musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Whedon had planned to have the voices dubbed, but the cast members convinced him to let them do their own vocals. And, they did a quite decent job, although Allyson Hannigan begged off with singing only a token phrase, and Michelle Trachtenburg did a ballet number instead of singing. All the rest, plus a couple of cameos from the show’s producers, did their own voices.
So if we can mention TV, I’ll chime in with the episode of Quantum Leap, in which Sam leaped into the life of a Broadway musical singer. Scott Bakula did his own singing in that. I particularly liked the parody version of the quest song from “Man of La Mancha”
The first film that sprung to my mind was “Once” (2006). Glenn Hansard and Markita Irglova perform all their own songs. It’s one of my favorite movies.
The movie Topsy-Turvy is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen about music and creativity I’ve ever seen. It’s about the creative team of Gilbert and Sullivan and their musical The Mikado. Most of the cast sings and does a fine job of it.