{"id":8222,"date":"2010-04-02T06:00:35","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T10:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=8222"},"modified":"2010-03-30T22:54:21","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T02:54:21","slug":"frantastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=8222","title":{"rendered":"Frantastic!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fran-jeffries-pink-panther\"It\u2019s a little early for me to get all old-fogeyish about the movies, but there\u2019s at least one thing I think is largely missing from our cinema these days. It\u2019s tough to name it exactly<\/em>, because it can take many forms\u2014in screenwriting, in performance, in set design, in direction, or in music\u2026it can pop up anywhere as a singular element within a particular film, or it may be the overriding aesthetic of a picture in its entirety.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u201d has made sporadic comebacks in mood by way of the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair<\/a>; Duplicity<\/a> <\/strong>gave it a shot; Steven Soderbergh\u2019s Ocean\u2019s Eleven<\/a> series tried it on for size in fits and starts, while Soderbergh\u2019s comic thriller Out of Sight<\/a>,<\/strong> I say,<\/strong> has it in spades. The Austin Powers series<\/a> made a mint out of spoofing it, but that satire\u2019s a little weaker for this newest generation of moviegoers, since its un-ironic form had long since vanished from the scene by the time they came of age in the multiplex.<\/p>\n

What in the world are we talking about here? What is \u201cit\u201d?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll call it: cosmopolitan sensuality<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Maybe the John Doe character from Se7en<\/strong> inadvertently offered an explanation for the absence of this quality best when he said that if you want people to pay attention in the modern era, \u201c\u2026you can\u2019t just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer.\u201d Cosmopolitan sensuality<\/em> doesn\u2019t bash you over the noggin so much as massage it. Really, though\u2014who isn\u2019t looking for an enticing psychic rub these days, what with all the forces of chaos in contemporary life rattling around inside the collective consciousness?<\/p>\n

Here, as my representative example, is the absolute essence<\/em> of cosmopolitan sensuality, captured in a single scene. Actress\/singer\/model Fran Jeffries<\/a>\u2014perhaps even better known for removing her clothes in Playboy<\/em> than for appearing in them\u2014dons a way-hot, black\u00a0catsuit\u00a0of sorts to perform \u201cMeglio Stasera (It Had Better Be Tonight),\u201d one of Henry Mancini\u2019s signature musical themes in Blake Edwards\u2019 1964 comedy classic The Pink Panther<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The girl. The setting. The music. The choreography. The willingness to stop a movie\u2019s forward trajectory dead in its tracks simply to revel in the magnetism of a gorgeous gal and the lush pleasures of a song with sex on its mind (if not explicitly in its lyrics).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Frantastic, baby!<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a little early for me to get all old-fogeyish about the movies, but there\u2019s at least one thing I think is largely missing from our cinema these days. It\u2019s tough to name it exactly, because it can take many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":8227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-staff-notes"],"yoast_head":"\nFrantastic!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Frantastic! 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