Today would have been Bob Fosse's 82nd birthday if he hadn't smoked and sexed himself to death while choreographing dirty musical numbers and flirting with angels of death in Nineteen-Seve... oh wait, I'm thinking of Joe Gideon, his All That Jazz altar ego. Fosse died of a heart attack at 60 in 1987. He's best remembered today as the most important choreographer of the 20th century this side of Martha Graham, totally affecting everything that came after him. But he was also a brilliant film director and in the realm of cinema he rarely gets his due. When great actors die young they often become legendary. When great directors die after just a handful of movies, not so much... especially if they made their mark in the musical genre.
Fosse acted and danced in other movies but these are the six filmed entertainments he directed. All are worth seeing and two are among the greatest films ever made.
Sweet Charity (69) | Cabaret (72) | Liza With a Z (concert telefilm, 72)
Lenny (74) | All That Jazz (79) | Star 80 (83)
How many have you seen? If the answer is less than six, do yourself a huge favor, and put them on your rental queue. Have a Fosse completist festival at home. You won't be disappointed. And maybe you'll even wonder why he's not lumped in with the biggies when people talk about the great 70s directors. I know I do.
I like Rob Marshall's Chicago (2002) just fine but it's hard not to think about what Fosse's version would have been like. And if they do remake Damn Yankees like they keep saying they will, will they keep his awesome choreography, or chuck it and go with unskilled dancers in the big roles?
God... it's so great when you can see entire bodies in dance scenes. Almost no filmmakers understand this anymore.
If you've seen all of Fosse's films, why not a double feature of Damn Yankees! (1958) and All That Jazz. Think about it: In the former you can watch Fosse and the legendary Gwen Verdon together (like in the scene above) and then in the latter you can watch Roy Sheider and Leland Palmer pretend to be them, acting out their very difficult relationship with Oscar calibre aplomb.
As a takeaway please enjoy Bob Fosse doing a minute of Fosse-isms in 1953's Kiss Me Kate.
Incidentally, that musical was in 3D. I actually saw it in 3D the very first time I saw it at a special showing in the 80s (there was a mini 3D fad ... i think it lasted about a year and half round about 1984 or something?). I'm reading that 3D might die out again and am crossing my fingers that history repeats itself. I like my movies flat. The best performers burst out of the screen in multiple dimensions anyway. You don't need glasses to witness those miracles. Now if only they'd give me film grain back... if anyone ever tries to clear the grain from Cabaret it won't even remotely beCabaret, you know? *
MattCanada here with another week of homo classics. Since I started writing this weekly column about a month ago, I have focused on films which have not been Oscar contenders and not featured the actresses which Nathaniel, me, and all the readers of this website respect (read: worship in a cult-like fashion). So on to Cabaret!
Liza Minnelli's Oscar winning role as Sally Bowles may well be the gayest Oscar win of all time. Now I am not a big Liza fan, actually I actively dislike her in anything else, but in Cabaret she gives one of the most amazing performances in the history of cinema in the greatest movie musical of all time. Not to be hyperbolic or anything, but Liza's Sally and Cabaret are earth shatteringly good. Liza is hardly the only reason to love Cabaret. You can get almost as much pleasure out of Joel Grey and Marisa Berenson's performances, as well as Michael York's Dietrich-esque bone structure. The Kander and Ebb songs are musical standards by which all other songs should be judged, and Bob Fosse's direction is flawless and endlessly inventive. The costume design, art direction, cinematography and editing are all incredible*. All of this make Cabaret one of those rare films where all of its components brilliantly fit together.
There are two recent Oscar wins that I want to compare to Cabaret and for different reasons. The first is the Best Picture win for Chicago. The film takes so much from Cabaret that it would be inconceivable visually without its superior precedent. The most blatant rip-off (or homage depending on how you see it) is "When You're Good to Mama" complete with the dancing behind the curtains from the end of Sally and The Host's performance of "Money Makes The World Go Round".
"Money Makes the World Good to Mama"
Both films are based on Kander and Ebb musicals, and therefore they have similarities which evince the auteurist credentials of the songwriter and lyricist. To a certain extent the seminal importance of Cabaret makes it unavoidable for Chicago to heavily reference it, but the visual similarities from Marshall's to Fosse's film are there. Chicago's Best Picture win, and its heralding of the return of the musical, can in many ways be seen as a celebration of Cabaret's brilliance.
The second recent Oscar win for which Cabaret provides a useful comparison is Jennifer Hudson's Best Supporting Actress win for Dreamgirls. Liza Minnelli's performance is musically flawless and provides two showstopping moments, the Torch Song "Maybe This Time" and the iconic closer "Cabaret". Jennifer Hudson's performance in Dreamgirls is musically astounding and her rendition of "And I Am Telling You (I Am Not Going)" is the highlight of the film. However, the difference lies in the performances which surround these musical moments. While Liza combines comedy, melodrama, and pathos in the service of conveying the the complex range of human emotions, Hudson can barely deliver her lines in character. Hudson deserved a Grammy, a performance like Liza's deserves the Oscar.
<--- 'beedle dee dee dee dee, Two Ladies':Michael York and Helmut Griem
Cabaret and Liza's Sally have become an ineluctable part of gay culture. Cabaret is the first critical and commercial success to deal with homosexuality in an understanding and mature fashion, making it a part of the texture of the film.
Its importance for the post-Liberation gay community of the Seventies I can only guess, but its continued reverence in gay culture would indicate that it was pretty important. Recently Kristin Chenowith performed "Maybe This Time" on Glee, showing the continued cultural cachet of Cabaret and its appeal to a gay audience (Glee + Chenowith + Cabaret is as camp as it gets).
"Maybe This Time" through the years. With Kristin Chenowith, Liza Minnelli and Natasha Richardson
While most Oscar wins for Actors playing gay characters are solemn and maudlin enough to make a funeral or Senate Hearing seem enjoyable, Liza brings humour and gravitas to a performance which is a highlight of gay cinema and the pantheon of Best Actress winners.
Lady Lucky: Liza won the competitive Oscar that had always eluded her legendary mother Judy Garland 'The World's Greatest Entertainer'
*Editors note: Cabaret holds the record of the most awarded movie to have ever lost Best Picture (the 1972 winner was The Godfather) winning an incredible eight Oscars, including three of the big six. Strangely, it was not nominated for costume design. Star Wars and A Place in the Sun are the runners up with six Oscars each. *
Next year @ the film experience I hope to look at shorts and DVDs more on account of easy access for all of you -- this year was so discouraging in how hard it was for anyone outside of NY & LA to see the new releases I wanted keep talking about. Maybe next year we shoot for more accessibility.
[soapbox] I can't be the only one that's concerned that the movies --particularly the awards hopefuls -- are veering further and further away from the direction of general pop culture which is all about instant access. Why do the movies keep withholding? --no wonder Oscar ratings keep sinking. I think it's a far more complex problem than "the public doesn't like serious films". I think it's more a problem of "the public likes these movies less and it's really hard to see them even if you're interested in them". After all, who cultivates interest in something they have extremely little access too? Not many people, that's who. Anyway.... [/soapbox]
Here's a look back at the best of music video (everyone's favorite short film genre) for 2008... the form was once dying but the web has started to resuscitate it. Like my best of television list this is hardly comprehensive... I'm sure I missed some goodies. But here's 10 I loved from the year (in fluid but vaguely preferential order)
10 Matt & Kim "DAYLIGHT" and 09 P!NK "So What" Because music videos should understand how to be fun. Is it just my imagination or is P!NK too modest what with the "I'm still a rock star" bit. Isn't she more than "still"... doesn't she get better all the damn time?
08 She & Him "WHY DO YOU LET ME STAY HERE" and 07 Janet Jackson "ROCK WITH U" Zooey Deschanel sings. She makes an adorable rock pixie even if her film career is getting fairly one note --I love this bit from a Yes Man review @ Tractor Facts
Blessed with those wide, striking, chocolate eyes, Deschanel's performance still feels out of sorts, as if she's staring into the abyss of her limited range.
Hee. And in other news Janet Jackson returns (even if it wasn't quite a "comeback") with a nifty one take video. I love that one take gimmick (see also Hitchcock's Rope)
06 Grace Jones "CORPORATE CANNIBAL" and 05 Madonna "4 MINUTES" I've featured both of these videos before and wrote about Madonna's extensively. I went a little crazy but she does that to me. The reaction to Grace Jones has been memorably divisive. Some people think this video is 'creepy and subpar' and others 'utterly astonishing'. But I think we can all agree that it's a good thing Grace is back to haunt us.
04 Radiohead "HOUSE OF CARDS" and 03 Gnarls Barkley "WHO'S GONNA SAVE MY SOUL" I used to occasionally be annoyed with videos that relied heavily on trippy visual effects or conceptual gimmicks (I'm not a fan, for example, of one of the most favored videos of all time "Sledgehammer" but now that so many mainstream artists view video-making as a toss off optional ad for their cds --even Madonna has gotten relatively haphazard about when she'll make them and how much effort gets put in -- conceptual and f/x videos are more thrilling... at least they still seem interested in the form.
02 The BPA "TOE JAM" and 01 Beyoncé SINGLE LADIES Choreography is still king (or queen as the case may be) to the music video. The Toe Jam video feels like a fun-loving lark but you know it was intricately planned work and it's a pleasure to watch. I'm not even a fan of Beyoncé (too disturbingly retrograde in her gender politics for me) but this video deserved all the mainstream attention it got --even as I wished they'd have been more upfront about their debt to Bob Fosse (maybe a "dedicated to" note at the end of the video, single lady?)
And yes I was killing time.
I know why you're here: le cinéma. The Year in Review proper begins tonight (or tomorrow morning?). It's always such a daunting task. Bear with me.
My Krak(owski) addiction is acting up again since I took in the NY City Center production of Damn Yankees over the holiday weekend. The ridiculously talented Jane Krakowski dares invite comparison to the legendary Gwen Verdon ...and survives.
For those of you too young to know about Gwen Verdon, she was Bob Fosse's chief muse (Leland Palmer plays a version of her in Fosse's auto-biopic All That Jazz, 1979 --click for my retrospective). She created Lola for the stage and transferred her to the screen as well in the 1958 movie musical. Damn Yankees is a comic spin on Faust wherein a crazed baseball fan makes a deal with the devil to help his beloved losing baseball team beat the Yankees. "Lola" is the devil's #1 home-wrecking right hand girl. It's essentially a supporting role but the kind of supporting role that dominates a show. Lola gets the most and the best numbers. Jane Krakowski was working her ass off throughout the new production (running until July 27th), and having a ball with the complicated Fosse choreography.
The production isn't without its rough patches [cough* Sean Hayes is horrible. He can't decide whether to do "JUST JACK" or not ] but the ensemble is great. Cheyenne Jackson plays the Hell bound baseball star and his voice is in better shape than ever. Jane, though, was the dazzling bright spot of the show. She's making a habit of that even if she isn't getting the A list fame her entertaining generosity warrants. She was always a treat on Ally McBeal as "Elaine" working innumerable varations and vulnerability into what would have been a one note role. And then there was Nine, (pictured right) in which she brought down the house with her cooing orgasmic rendering of "Call From the Vatican". The movie version (coming next year --more on that very soon) is going strictly A list in casting. Penélope Cruz snagged Jane's TONY winning role. We know Cruz can do sexy but there's no way her singing is as good. And can she make her seduction wickedly funny as well as sizzling hot? She'll need to bring her Volver A game if she hopes to stop the show movie.
Can Penélope Cruz make seduction hilarious?
Anyway, just for fun here's a very old video of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon discussing "Whatever Lola Wants" and performing some of it too.
Whatever Lola wants... Lola gets And little man, little Lola wants you!
How about Nathaniel. Can Nathaniel get what he wants? It's simple: an Emmy nomination for Jane Krakowski for 30 Rock.
She's one of the 10 finalists for supporting actress. Nobody on 30 Rock makes me guffaw as loudly and that's saying something since its the funniest show on television.
the 10 finalists Bold means I'm rooting for them though it's basically a respectable list of ten, don't you think? Kristin Chenoweth, "Pushing Daisies" , Conchata Ferrell, "Two and a Half Men" Jenna Fischer, "The Office" Jane Krakowski, "30 Rock" Judith Light, "Ugly Betty" Elizabeth Perkins, "Weeds" Amy Poehler, "Saturday Night Live" Jean Smart, "Samantha Who?" Holland Taylor, "Two and a Half Men" and Vanessa Williams, "Ugly Betty"
I'm not naive enough to think Jane is ever going to get a big film career (her current movie part is a dance instructor in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl) but her profile should still be higher for all that she keeps giving in television, on Broadway and very occasionally on the movie screens, too (her last decent film role was Alfie, 2004 though she had a relatively indecent one in Pretty Persuasion, 2005)
one of the 25 greatest musical numbers of all time
Ann Miller isn't picky. In Kiss Me Kate (1953) she's a maid who wouldst marry and she'll take with no qualms any Tom, Dick or Harry... any Harry, Dick or Tom. (Not their real names... that'd be Hortensio, Lucentio and Gremio I think. Movies where actors are playing actors playing roles are so confusing)
If you're not picky, however can you decide?
Harry promises riches "and if thou wouldst attain the upper brackets... marry me." Dick is poor but "if for love unending thou arst pining... marry me" I'm not sure what Tom is promising --he's still "spraying his decaying family tree" er... -- I guess it's class "to give a social lift to thy position ... marry me"
Bianca (Miller) finally tips her hand before the dance break in the middle of the song...
Any Tom, Dick or Harry, Any Tom, Harry or Dick.
Dick, dick, dick, A dicka dick, Dick, dick, dick, A dicka dick, Dick, dick, dick, A dicka dick, Dick, dick, dick, A dicka dick!
The men sing with her! Just how interested are they in Bianca anyway? And then they launch into what has to be one of the most thrilling tap and clap numbers ever performed.
Still even after Bianca has chosen her man later in the movie (Dick) they're still quite a lovey-dovey quadrangle. It's probably the friendliest love quadrangle in all of the movies. I have to say: Ann probably made the right decision choosing Dick. In the "From This Moment On" sequence very late in the film, Harry reveals himself to be none other than...
Bob Fosse himself! Trying out his signature moves for the first time on film. Ann Miller chose well. She could've ended up a character in All That Jazz and Fosse didn't treat the ladies that well, don'cha know. [see previous All That Jazz review].
Tom, Dick or Harry? A question (and a musical number) for the ages.
Here's a couple videos to enjoy if you're in the mood. To your left, the "Tom, Dick or Harry" number from the movie. To your right, "Bianca" (it starts a little ways in) by Michael Berresse (Lucentio in the 2000 Broadway revival), who I met the other night (thus, this movie being on my mind) and who is one of my favorite stage performers. He's got a role in the new Russell Crowe movie so maybe we'll talk to him again soon for the podcast
Reader Request -Every Monday. I realize it's Tuesday - shut up! I wrote this for Glenn but in the attempt to write about it (abandoned many drafts, rewatched it too much) I decided it needed to be part of my canon after all. And there's also a Fosse blog-a-thon goin' on... or so I've heard. Must check that out when I find moment to breathe. So I guess this is three posts in one*
All That Jazz, written and directed by Bob Fosse, lift its title from the famous opening tune of Kander & Ebb’s stage musical Chicago. That show’s original Broadway production was directed, co-written and choreographed by Fosse himself in 1975. The director undoubtedly felt a certain ownership of that signature opening tune. He may not have written the song but is there any doubt that he lived in those whoopee spots, breathed in cold gin, inspired pianos hot. Did you hear that Fosse’s queer for all that jazz?
The title of this picture is apt and also thoroughly meta which makes it in 1979, ahead of its time. Riffing on a former Fosse triumph is just the beginning of the self-indulgence. Though Fosse did make one more film after it (Star 80, 1983) All That Jazz was his last triumphant hurrah as one of the most influential cultural figures of his time. True to the director’s showbiz bravado, he trained Jazz’s lens on the last hurrah of its fictional director Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider). To Fosse’s credit no fiction is forced. The director repeatedly presents his alter ego in reflected doubled images cheekily underlining the Gideon/Fosse oneness. This is a warts and all autobiographical picture of Fosse’s own larger than life persona -- his life, love, work and legend. Joe Gideon is not a character. It’s a stage name.
Now, to the stage. (Read the full article) * *it had better be since it's 1796 words long and still I feel like I barely scratched its surface. This movie is impossible!
The arrival of a blog-a-thon used to be an event. Now they're starting to feel like a Wednesday if you know what I mean. Or even a Groundhog Day eternal loop. I don't mean to be overly negative. I love blog-a-thons: fun to host, satisfying to participate in, enlightening to read... but I think something has gone awry. Eddie provides a well known easy to use 'blog-a-thon calendar' and still nobody seems to be checking with this handy resource before announcing their dates. Either that or they're not thinking about how much potential participation and readership they're losing and/or costing each other if they overlap. There's only so much time in a week. Blog-a-thons are way better if there's time to interact with the ideas being presented. Isn't that their 'whole goddamn raison d'être'?
Consider this upcoming clusterf*** of a fortnight in November.
6th-11thPure Comedic Moments -not strictly a film blog-a-thon 7th-9thFilm & Faith -great topic. Wide enough for variety but also interesting specifics 10th-11th Bob Fosse - deserves one...and all that jazz 15th-21stAkira Kurosawa - big filmographies fill a week 19thQueer Film -another broad worthwhile topic
I'd love to participate in all but at this point I'll be lucky to even find the time to read more than one all the way through. I'm not sure what the solution is other than to ignore most of them but that is a disappointing realization. After all, one of the best things about the 'thon phenom is when a topic pushes you out of your comfort zone, prodding you on to learn more about a topic you're unfamiliar with or asking you to think harder or more creatively about a topic you know and love.
December is not drowning in them... yet.
Dec 16thIt's a Wonderful Life Bringing the 'thon back to its one film origin Dec 27th- 30thEndings -the good, the bad, the ugly... get spoiled
Before you know it it'll be 2008 and StinkyLulu will host another of these --Stinky hasn't announced it yet but you know it's coming. And how fun was that back in early January? Very. I'm already curious to see who will make the "class portrait" this year, aren't you? Last year's results were surprising.
Sweet Charity (69) | Cabaret (72) | Liza With a Z (concert telefilm, 72)
Lenny (74) | All That Jazz (79) | Star 80 (83)
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