Here's three more Fosse dances. That's Gwen Verdon above, from the film version of "Damn Yankees." There's a couple of classic Fosse moves here which Gwen didn't get right, but it doesn't matter because she projected tremendous appeal. Geez, being a star dancer is tough. In addition to knowing how to sing and dance and act, you have to somehow acquire charisma and a personal style.
Here's (above) "Rich Man's Frug" (pronounced like the fru in "frugal) from "Sweet Charity." It's not one of Fosse's best efforts but it's full of good ideas and it's an interesting clip to study. Watch it and try to answer the question, "Exactly what went wrong?" I'll take a stab at an answer.
For me there's a story problem. The dance lacks context. We need to see all this weirdness through the eyes of a character we care about. Shirley McLane should have been part of the number, an innocent clumsily trying to pass as a big city sophisticate.
Camera placement was also a problem. Fosse was a master at staging and photographing big ensemble numbers for the camera, but even he didn't pull them off 100% of the time. Nobody does...it's the nature of the business. There's a youTube interview where Fosse talks candidly about the problem and you can see that the very mention of the subject gave him the shivers. What do you do when the public demands a home run every time you're at bat?
Here's when Fosse got it right...a big ensemble number that works flawlessly.
6 comments:
Eddie, I think this is the kind of harc-cover book evr cartoonist should have on their coffee table.
It's photos of dogs shaking themselves dry in slow-motion. Now that's a book!
http://www.demilked.com/dogs-shaking-heads-shake-carli-davidson/
Joshua: Haw! Haw!!! Thanks...those are great! I bookmarked the site.
I whole heartedly agree with you about Rich Man's Frug, in it's general context of the film. The film is terrible, although the play itself is not much more than a likable piffle. The dancing is characterless, and you are correct in your assessment of what might have helped.
THAT SAID, and on it's on PURELY visual merits (not enough when all is said and done), the thing about it that appeals to me is it's cartoonish staging and timing. But then again, I've always liked film/corporate visions of contemporaneous trends. This is about as phony a vision of the '60's (even if the movie was touted as "The 'In' Movie of 1970") as they come--distilled and caricatured with Fosse's precise wit and charm.
Anon: True, so true! Corporate depictions of what's on the street are sometimes hilarious and Fosse's take was still charming and witty.
I love Broadway but it had trouble adapting to the rock and roll sensibility.
"Sweet Charity" was Fosse's first feature film as a director. It's a great look at a choreographer in transition, taking what he'd learned staging musical numbers on Broadway and moving into a very different medium. What's stunning about Fosse is the speed of his film learning arc. Everything that doesn't quite click in "Charity" works like gangbusters from that point on in every other film that he made. It was on his very next movie, "Cabaret" that he took the Oscar for directing. Then he pulled off a great monochromatic drama in "Lenny" and eventually topped it all with the groundbreaking musical "All That Jazz" in which he went so far as to accurately predict his own death, set to music. It's as if Bob Fosse shot from workmanlike to master status after getting just one film under his belt, a feat not matched by many on this earth.
Anon: Fascinating! All That Jazz was one of the best dance films of all time. I saw it six times when it debuted in the theaters.
I think I'll watch Sweet Charity again, just so I can figure out where things went wrong. I'm not out to criticize Fosse, I just want to understand the obstacles that even gifted dancers/filmmakers face in a situation like that.
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