The Frame

Bob Fosse is a truly a triple threat in the world of show business movies. He’s an excellent dancer, an incredible and groundbreaking choreographer, and a very fine director. He doesn’t appear in All That Jazz, which sort of eliminates the first one, but Joe Gideon as a character is a stand-in for Fosse in the pseudo-autobiographical story. Gideon is a charismatic, highly-strung Broadway director/choreographer who is also working on making a film. The film is not going well, nor is his love life (his ex-wife is working in his current play, while his long-time girlfriend is constantly wishing he didn’t pay so much attention to the chorus line), and soon his overextended lifestyle catches up with him. Meanwhile his inner turmoil and boundless creativity explodes in dance number after dance number, notably the rehearsal scene involving a risque number that has the show backers sighing “Well, there goes the family audience,” and the series of dream/hallucinogenic dances that accompany his impending death. It’s very powerful on a narrative level, but even better, it’s the best opportunity many of us will have to see Fosse choreography performed under his supervision, and to see his long-time partner Ann Reinking dance. Fosse melded the Broadway dance style with ballet and jazz more completely than anyone else has before or since; his style may take some getting used to–it’s built on nuance and minimalism rather than showiness–but it’s well worth it, and the more I see of it, the more impressed I get.
Superior