Why would a famous movie director beg a pop music star for a chance to make a four-minute video? In the past, it was usually the pop star who tried to talk a big director into working for him, but Stanley Donen, celebrated for such films as Singin' in the Rain, Two for the Road, and Charade, is not alone in seeking the MTV route.
In recent years, the pairing of top movie directors and popular musicians has flourished. They include John Landis and Michael Jackson; John Sayles and Bruce Springsteen; Brian De Palma and Bruce Springsteen; Tobe Hooper and Billy Idol; Spike Lee and Miles Davis; William Friedkin and Barbra Streisand; the late Andy Warhol and the Cars; Paul Bartel and Christine McVie; and George Miller and Tina Turner. Martin Scorsese, whose film, The Last Waltz, is the standard by which movies about performing musicians are judged, has recently completed a music video featuring Michael Jackson.
In March 1986, while producing the Academy Awards show, Donen got in touch with pop singer Lionel Richie, nominated for an Oscar for Best Song for his theme from White Nights, to ask him to take part in the program. Richie invited Donen down to his recording studio to talk about it. That was when Donen heard Richie's new song, "Dancing on the Ceiling."
"I asked him," Donen later told Billboard magazine, "if he was aware that I had done a film with Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling (Royal Wedding, 1951). I don't think he was, but by the night of the Oscars, I think he'd found out."
'Dancing on the Ceiling'
None of this is unusual, but what happened next is. At the Oscar ceremony, Donen asked Riche if he'd decided on a director for the music video to accompany "Dancing on the Ceiling." When Richie said he was still considering several, Donen asked if Richie would think about him for the job. Four hundred thousand dollars later, Donen's visualization of "Dancing on the Ceiling" premiered on MTV, the 24-hour-a-day cable television network. The song shot to number one in the charts within weeks. Shortly thereafter, Richie and Donen began work on their next video together.
"Just basically, experimentation" is the major reason for filmmakers' interest in videos cited by Steven Apple, executive editor of Video Insider Magazine. Apple noted that some of the best music videos have been those directed by film directors, since they have a sensitivity to character and story lacking in directors who have come up only shooting videos. And at the same time, the short films allow the directors to try out visual ideas they might hesitate to use in a feature film, where the stakes are so much higher.
For a director like Donen, accustomed to working on the light, fanciful movie musicals of the forties and fifties, the video medium, featuring extensive dancing and singing, was an excellent chance to return to what he likes to do best. In the short film describing the making of "Dancing on the Ceiling," Donen notes that there is no difference between the video and a production number from one of his movies, except that one will be shown on TV, and another in theaters.
At 62, Donen is one of the older film directors working in video. Many of the
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