Burlesque movie

Burlesque (film)

Burlesque
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Steven Antin
Produced by	Donald De Line
Written by	Susannah Grant (revision)
Screenplay by	Steven Antin Diablo Cody
Starring	Cher Christina Aguilera Eric Dane Cam Gigandet Julianne Hough Alan Cumming Peter Gallagher with Kristen Bell and Stanley Tucci
Music by	Linda Perry Sia Furler Samuel Dixon Christina Aguilera Diane Warren C. "Tricky" Stewart Claude Kelly
Cinematography	Bojan Bazelli
Editing by	Virginia Katz
Studio	De Line Pictures
Distributed by	Screen Gems
Release date(s)	November 24, 2010
Running time	119 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$55 million
Gross revenue	$104.292.307

Burlesque is a 2010 Golden Globe award winning musical film directed and written by Steven Antin and starring Christina Aguilera and Cher. The film was released on November 24, 2010 in North America.

Cher and Aguilera contributed to the soundtrack album, with Aguilera contributing to eight out of the ten songs with Cher taking the remaining two. The album was released in the USA on November 22, 2010. The song 'You Haven't Seen The Last of Me', penned by Diane Warren and sung by Cher, won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 2011.

Plot

Alice (Ali) Rose (Christina Aguilera) is a young, hard-done-by girl who works in a bar in a small town in Iowa. Her boss hasn't paid her for two months and she has finally had enough. She takes what he owes her from the till and decides to leave for Los Angeles to follow her dream of singing. After a fruitless day of searching for jobs in her new home, she winds up at a burlesque bar and becomes enthralled with the whole concept. She tries to persuade Tess (Cher) to let her go on stage but Tess won't hear her out. Ali meets the friendly bartender Jack (Cam Gigandet) and starts to waitress for him because she knows this is where she belongs.

Later, Tess auditions Ali and hires her as a dancer to replace a newly pregnant dancer named Georgia (Julianne Hough). One night, Nikki (Kristen Bell), the most famous dancer in this bar, gets drunk and is not allowed to perform by Tess, so Ali takes her place. Nikki cuts the music out of jealousy, but Ali impresses everyone with her own voice. She becomes the new star of this bar and earns it a reputation.

Ali had some dates with a successful businessman named Marcus (Eric Dane) before she realizes that her true love is Jack, whom she has to share an apartment with after her hotel room is robbed. Meanwhile, running out of money, Tess is worried that she has to sell the bar to Marcus, who intends to tear down the club and build a skyscraper. Finally, Ali helps Tess solve the problem by selling the air right of this place to another businessman. Tess has financial resources and Ali stays at the bar as its most valuable star.

Cast

Production

"Of course, me being me, I had to give her one tiny bit of advice. It was in the scene in which Tess says, "OK, I'm going to build the show around you." There was a close-up on Christina, and though she had a beautiful look on her face, I knew she had more to give. I went up to her and said, "Christina, this is the moment you've been waiting for all your life. Not your character's life, but yours. It's now or never." Moments later I watched her pull years of tears out of those baby blue eyes. Yeah! I know this beautiful child can go as far, and as deep, as she wants to go. I'm proud of her and I am proud to be in this film with her."

Cher on scenes with Aguilera.

Aguilera made her theatrical film and musical debut as the lead character, a "small-town girl with a big voice," who finds work at a Los Angeles neo-burlesque club, inspired by Bob Fosse's Cabaret and European Burlesque entertainment. Burlesque started shooting on November 9, 2009 and ended on March 3, 2010. Cher also co-stars in the film, her first film role since her cameo in 2003's Stuck on You and first musical film. She plays Tess, a former dancer who struggles to keep the nightclub open and serves as a mentor to Aguilera's character, Ali. Aguilera's love interest is played by Cam Gigandet, Stanley Tucci as the nightclub's manager, and Alan Cumming, Kristen Bell, Eric Dane, and Julianne Hough rounded off the cast. Dianna Agron makes a cameo as Jack's fiancee, Natalie. Antin wrote the script, and Diablo Cody (Juno) revised it. which was later revised and edited by Susannah Grant. Burlesque is one of Screen Gems' most expensive movies, with the exception of the Resident Evil films, with costs of $55 million.

Music

Musical Numbers

1. "Something's Got a Hold on Me (Christina Aguilera)" - Ali and the Burlesque Lounge Troupe
2. "Welcome to Burlesque Tango/My Drag" - The Burlesque Lounge Troupe
3. "Welcome to Burlesque (Cher)" - Tess and the Burlesque Lounge Troupe
4. "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend (Marilyn Monroe & Jane Russel)" - Nikki, Georgia and the Burlesque Lounge Troupe
5. "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend (outro by Christina Aguilera)" - Ali
6. "Long John Blues (Megan Mullally)" - Nikki
7. "Wagon Wheel Watusi (Elmer Bernstein)" - Ali
8. "Ray of Light (Madonna)" - The Burlesque Lounge Troupe
9. "That's Life (Alan Cumming)" - Alexis (DVD Blu-Ray Special Feature)
10. "Tough Lover (Etta James)" - The Burlesque Lounge Troupe
11. "Tough Lover (Christina Aguilera)" - Ali
12. "But I Am a Good Girl (Christina Aguilera)" - Ali
13. "Guy What Takes His Time (Christina Aguilera)" - Ali
14. "Express (Christina Aguilera)" - Ali and the Burlesque Lounge Troupe
15. "Jungle Berlin (instrumental)" - Alexis and The Contorsionists
16. "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me (Cher)" - Tess
17. "Bound To You (Christina Aguilera)" - Ali
18. "Show Me How You Burlesque (Christina Aguilera)" - Ali and the Burlesque Lounge Troupe

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album features ten tracks: eight performed by Aguilera including Express; and two performed by Cher which are her first original recordings in 7 years. The soundtrack includes a mix of original and cover songs. Both the ballads from the soundtrack - Bound to You performed by Aguilera and You Haven't Seen The Last of Me performed by Cher - were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. Cher's You Haven't Seen The Last Of Me, which was written by Diane Warren, won the Award.

Release

Marketing

The theatrical trailer was attached to screenings of Step Up 3D and Easy A. The first TV spot premiered during the season 2 premiere of Fox's Glee on September 21, 2010. A third TV spot also aired the following day during Dancing with the Stars, later followed by another during MTV's Jersey Shore. Several teasers have been released for promotional purposes including the Etta James's "Something's Got a Hold On Me". This was then followed by the track "But I Am a Good Girl" which was released in November 2010.

Aguilera performed "Bound to You" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and gave an interview and performance on Conan. Aguilera also gave an interview to show host Chelsea Handler to discuss the film and other subjects. On November 19, 2010, Aguilera also gave a television interview to Ellen Degeneres. She then performed a track from the soundtrack, the Etta James' track "Somethings Got a Hold On Me". Aguilera performed "Express" at the American Music Awards of 2010 and "Show Me How You Burlesque" at the Dancing with the Stars finale. She also performed "Express" on the final of the seventh series of The X Factor which received criticism and complaints for the raunchy content.

Home media

The DVD and Blu-ray were released in North America on March 1, 2011. A Blu-Ray/DVD combo has been released as well.

Reception

Box office

Burlesque was released on Wednesday, November 24, 2010; it opened in 3,037 theaters in the United States and Canada, during the Thanksgiving week. It was the third highest grossing film during its first day, getting $2.86 million; and by the end of the week it had grossed $17.3 million, $11.9 million of which were from the weekend alone, ranking the movie in fourth place behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Disney’s Tangled, and Megamind. The week after Thanksgiving, Burlesque experienced a substantial decrease on ticket sales; in spite of this, the movie managed to climb to the top three of the highest grossing films of the week, earning another $9.65 million ($6.1 million on the weekend), to a total of $26.98 million for its first twelve days. As of February 6, 2011 it has grossed a total of $39.4 million in North America, and (as of Feb. 20 2011) $49.8 million in foreign countries to a total of $89.4 million worldwide. On March 3, Wall Street Journal reported that the film is racing towards a $100 million gross worldwide.

Critical response

The film has received mixed reviews from critics. The film holds a negative 37% rating with an average score of 4.8/10 on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 140 reviews. Metacritic, however, said the film received mixed or average reviews, and gave the film a weighted average score of 48%, based on 38 reviews. The Hollywood Reporter thought that Alan Cumming was underused but called the pairing of Aguilera and Cher a "stroke of genius". Stanley Tucci's performance received praise from Entertainment Weekly and Empire thought the dance numbers were thrilling. Time Out New York labelled the drama "perfunctory" while Roger Ebert said that "the movie has a limited cast of broadly drawn characters, used to separate song-and-dance numbers".Variety observed that the film "wants to be Cabaret, but lacks the edge and historical context to pull it off". The New York Times said that the story line "had already gathered dust by the time [of] the 1933 musical 42nd Street".

Awards and nominations

Awards
Year	Award	Category	Recipients and nominees	Result
2010	NewNowNext Awards	Best Future Feature		Won
	Houston Film Critics Society Awards 2010	Best Original Song	"You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" Written by Diane Warren, performed by Cher.	Nominated
	Satellite Awards	Best Original Song	"You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" Written by Diane Warren, performed by Cher.	Won
	Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards	Best Original Song	"You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" Written by Diane Warren, performed by Cher.	Won
	St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards 2010	Best Music		Nominated
2011	Critics' Choice Awards	Best Song	"You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" Written by Diane Warren, performed by Cher.	Nominated
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy		Nominated
		Best Original Song	"You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" Written by Diane Warren, performed by Cher.	Won
		Best Original Song	"Bound to You" Written by Christina Aguilera, Samuel Dixon, Sia Furler, performed by Christina Aguilera.	Nominated
	GALECA Dorian Awards	Campy (Intentional or Not) Film Of The Year		Won
	Golden Reel Awards	Best Sound Editing: Music in a Musical Feature		Nominated
	Costume Designers Guild Awards	Excellence In Contemporary Film	"Burlesque" Michael Kaplan	Nominated
	GLAAD Media Awards	Outstanding Film - Wide Release		Pending

See also

References

External links

• Official website
• Burlesque at the Internet Movie Database
• Burlesque at Allmovie
• Burlesque at Box Office Mojo
• Burlesque at Rotten Tomatoes

Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlesque_(film)