Bob Fosse, Posterized

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 be Cabaret, you know?
*

Birthday Suits: Oscar-Snubbed

Today's birthday list doesn't make me feel celebratory so much as oscarighteously furious. Perhaps I should explain. It's only the four first birthday boys whipping me into a golden frenzy. Then things calm down.

Claude, Ann and Dick

Todays Birthdays 11/10
1889 Claude Rains, never won an Oscar. This despite being a great screen actor, whose filmography reads like a catalogue of Golden Age greatness. He's an actor who made indelible contributions to not 1, not 2 but 7 Best Picture nominees, a number that doesn't even reflect films like Notorious, Now Voyager, The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man, Mrs. Skeffington or The Greatest Story Ever Told. He didn't even get an honorary statue!
1925 Richard Burton, never won an Oscar. This despite winning exactly as many nominations as Liz Taylor won husbands.
1928 Ennio Moriccone has never won an Oscar. This despite being a world reknowned composer, being worshipped by film fanatics and revolutionizing how people scored Westerns.
1932 Roy Scheider never won an Oscar. This despite giving one of the truly great performances of an entire decade (All That Jazz -- more on that great film) replete with them. And it was a biopic performance no less! All That... plus Jaws and The French Connection.

(whew) officially done bitching about Oscars... for now.

1944 Tim Rice, clever lyricist of movie songs you know and love (or loathe) from their ubiquity
1949 Ann Reinking, sometime actor, great dancer
1955 Roland Emmerich, world (and cinema) destroyer: Day After Tomorrow, 10,000 BC and 2012. Ugh
1960 Neil Gaiman, prolific brilliant author. Go, Coraline!!!
1977 Brittany Murphy acts "I hope not sporadically"
<--- 1977 Won Bin (or Bin Won if you prefer) actor, gorgeous creature, star of two recent Korean Oscar hopefuls: Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War and this year's buzzy Mother
1978 Eve, rapper, fledgling actress, Hurl Scout
1982 Heather Matarazzo, actress, Anne Hathaway foil, out lesbian, Dawn Wiener
*

Breakfast With... Joe Gideon

Alka Seltzer, Dexedrine, eyedrops... a cigarette in the shower. You're ready to go!

Roy Scheider in All That Jazz (1979)

It's showtime, folks

This is not a healthy energy-strong breakfast. Where does Bob Fosse /Joe Gideon get all that energy? Man cannot live on sex, drugs and jazz hands alone.

Links: Barrowman, Tomei, Scheider and more

Variety breaks the news that I broke over a month ago on my first podcast: Marisa Tomei will play the female lead in the next Darren Aronofsky movie, The Wrestler. If you missed my interview with Marisa -click here for listening options
Topless Robot action figures of The Princess Bride --many many years after the fact...
Towleroad a love scene for ScarJo and Penelope Cruz (you know, like, together) in Vicky Christina Barcelona?
Glenn Kenny, Stale Popcorn, David Poland and Kim Morgan all have nice pieces up on Roy Scheider (RIP). I hope you'll read my retrospective tribute to All That Jazz if you haven't already. Scheider didn't win the Oscar for it but damn if that's not one impressive "biopic" performance.
PopWatch Slezak proposes a great script-doctor fix for Juno

And look at this cool campaign featuring John Barrowman (Torchwood --are you watching that? It's good) over in the UK. It's some damn good advice. Too bad this campaign isn't international

[source]

All That Jazz (1979)

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!