Through the Woods

Swingtime

Just as stylistic or more so than Top Hat, which was filmed only a year and a half earlier, this film made at the peak of the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers duo is probably their best.

Less cutesy than Top Hat, Swingtime’s dance numbers are heartbreakingly lovely. The stakes are raised, as they are no longer dancing as a protestation of joy, but because their very existance depends on it. As Astaire twirls Rogers on the balcony through incredibly intricate spins, she throws out her arm in supplication. But quietly fades away.

It’s as if they are truly Never Gonna Dance again.