A Few Words About A few words about...™ All That Jazz -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[lukejosephchung]

Received my copy at home today of this from Amazon...will be giving it a spin this weekend...so excited to have this in my library at last!!! Thanks for the rave review, Robert...

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

$19.99 at Costcohttps://twitter.com/felixemartinez/status/504666417082671105

Damn. The Big Chill and Broadcast News, too. Could've saved some serious bucks.

 

[trajan]

Just a thought-- Does anyone else think that the revision number towards the beginning goes on way too long. Also-I think there is too much footage from the film he is making. Otherwise I love this film.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Just a thought-- Does anyone else think that the revision number towards to beginning goes on way too long. Also-I think there is too much footage from the film he is making. Otherwise I love this film.

Let me speak to the latter....

I believe there is much of the comedian footage shown because later in the film,
it becomes the dialogue overlay for Joe Gideon's decline towards death. It is used
as more of a setup for what is to come.

I always think that if and when I ever have a heart attack, I am going to hear that
comedian's "I'm Dyiiiiiiiing" playing through my head.

 

[Martin_Teller]

"Revision number"?

 

[trajan]

"Revision number"?

Its the number with the half naked performers dancing while Fosse shines a flashlight on them. I think the number went on too long.

 

[Tom Logan]

Its the number with the half naked performers dancing while Fosse shines a flashlight on them. I think that number was overkill.

Overkill how?

It's been at least a decade since I saw the movie, but my recollection is that not only was that scene compelling and intended to be sexy, but that it's also a crucial character moment when Fosse's (ex?)wife, who, watching the transformed choreography, realizes again how maddeningly talented Fosse is.

But it may very well have gone on too long; I don't remember since it's been so long. This will be remedied as soon as the blu-ray arrives (24% off today at Amazon, btw.)

 

[Will Krupp]

I just order

This will be remedied as soon as the blu-ray arrives (24% off today at Amazon, btw.)

I just ordered mine for $24.45!

 

[Matt Hough]

Its the number with the half naked performers dancing while Fosse shines a flashlight on them. I think that number was overkill.

He's speaking of the "Airotica" number.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

I just order


I just ordered mine for $24.45!

Here's hoping for us internationals that Amazon starts stocking this title itself .. its third-party seller in this instance won't ship overseas!

 

[FoxyMulder]

Here's hoping for us internationals that Amazon starts stocking this title itself .. its third-party seller in this instance won't ship overseas!

Yeah, everytime i read about a Criterion sale i get jealous as i cannot take advantage of it.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

The Fosse interviews included (Tomorrow show, South Bank show, etc.) really do convey an amazingly congenial and likeable guy. Very self-effacing. Course he could have been Mr. Hyde on the proscenium.

Also, watching this film again in a great print, I am reminded there's not really much of a story, but the genius of the film is in the choreography of images and the editing. It's no wonder that's the big Oscar it won. It's also no wonder the film took so long to finish once it was already shot. If he had today's editing technology, his studio probably would have been a lot happier with the time schedule. But you see that he shot these dance numbers FOR DAYS ON END, and then had a ridiculous amount of material for the editor to choose from. But the cutting is just a marvel to behold. But there really is no story other than a very entertaining meditation on work, passion and death.

 

[haineshisway]

The Fosse interviews included (Tomorrow show, South Bank show, etc.) really do convey an amazingly congenial and likeable guy. Very self-effacing. Course he could have been Mr. Hyde on the proscenium.

Also, watching this film again in a great print, I am reminded there's not really much of a story, but the genius of the film is in the choreography of images and the editing. It's no wonder that's the big Oscar it won. It's also no wonder the film took so long to finish once it was already shot. If he had today's editing technology, his studio probably would have been a lot happier with the time schedule. But you see that he shot these dance numbers FOR DAYS ON END, and then had a ridiculous amount of material for the editor to choose from. But the cutting is just a marvel to behold. But there really is no story other than a very entertaining meditation on work, passion and death.

While he may have indeed shot the musical numbers over many days, unlike today's brainiacs who haven't a clue how to shoot anything let alone a musical number, he designed the dances for the frame, every shot. Yes, he gave the editor lots of choices, but it wasn't arbitrary footage. Today (I won't name names) they set up twelve cameras and shoot the numbers and make it in the editing, with the number being all ABOUT the fast cutting. Think Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly set up twelve cameras and handed it over to an editor?

 

[Mark-W]

Sadly, my Costo did not have ATJ when I looked through their cache of Criterion titles.

[2 HOURS LATER UPDATE]: Even though they had the stand alone blu-rays in the Blu-ray section at my Costco, I went back today because seeing some had it motivated me to REALLY hunt, and I found the dual editions were stashed on the DVD side of their shelving, which I do not typically dig through. I found ALL THAT JAZZ!

$19.99 at Costcohttps://twitter.com/felixemartinez/status/504666417082671105

 

[FoxyMulder]

Today (I won't name names) they set up twelve cameras and shoot the numbers and make it in the editing, with the number being all ABOUT the fast cutting.

Oh go on, you know you want to.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

While he may have indeed shot the musical numbers over many days, unlike today's brainiacs who haven't a clue how to shoot anything let alone a musical number, he designed the dances for the frame, every shot. Yes, he gave the editor lots of choices, but it wasn't arbitrary footage. Today (I won't name names) they set up twelve cameras and shoot the numbers and make it in the editing, with the number being all ABOUT the fast cutting. Think Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly set up twelve cameras and handed it over to an editor?

I get what you're saying. In the extras you see how he was very meticulous about how to shoot the dance sequences a certain way avoiding any traditional just shoot the proscenium master, and it also wasn't just about getting coverage.

Unlike.... Glee.

 

[Martin_Teller]

Its the number with the half naked performers dancing while Fosse shines a flashlight on them. I think the number went on too long.

Ah, "Airotica"... I've never heard anyone refer to it as "the revision number" before, but I can see why you would.

I'll be honest, I've seen ATJ probably a dozen times, it's in my top 20 films of all time. But "Airotica" still bores the hell out of me. The music and choreography are the least compelling in the movie for me, and I think it's too self-important to be anything but silly. I appreciate its place in the film, and how it comments on his empty sexual conquests and fear of intimacy. But yeah, that scene just doesn't do it for me, and I've tried really hard to like it as much as others seem to.

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

I have never seen this movie, due probably to a misguided prejudice against song and dance films in my youth. They're not my bag, baby. Fortunately, I've come to my senses in the past decade.I came into "All That Jazz" after at least having seen the excellent "Cabaret," so I had at least some frame of reference with regards to Bob Fosse. And of course Roy Scheider was always great.That said, this one blew me away. The coroner's autopsy revealed "Fosse on the retinas, with significant manifestation of jazz hands palsy in the extremities."

 

[Dick]

While he may have indeed shot the musical numbers over many days, unlike today's brainiacs who haven't a clue how to shoot anything let alone a musical number, he designed the dances for the frame, every shot. Yes, he gave the editor lots of choices, but it wasn't arbitrary footage. Today (I won't name names) they set up twelve cameras and shoot the numbers and make it in the editing, with the number being all ABOUT the fast cutting. Think Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly set up twelve cameras and handed it over to an editor?

I agree that musicals are poorly edited these days. The chaotic rhythm that Richard Lester used for the musical numbers in A FUNNY THING HAPPENED TO ME...have now become standard. You rarely get to view choreography played out in a just a few shots, as was the way musicals used to be edited. Watching Astaire and Kelly and Charise and all of those wonderful MGM performers dance in shots composed for head-to-toe coverage and very few cuts allowed us to witness the full craft of these amazing talents. Now, thanks to Baz Luhrmann and his ilk, we are lucky if we get to see ten seconds of a number before there is a quick edit, from faces to thighs to midriffs to feet to ass to breast, etc. This creates a kinetic sort of rhythm that young audiences might think is cool and contemporary, but where are the full-length legs? That's where the dancing action is!

Properly filmed and edited dance choreography is pretty much a thing of the past.

 

[GlennF]

I agree that it is sad that we are very unlikely to see dance numbers the way they used to be filmed. One factor of course, is cost. It takes a great deal of time to rehearse these numbers to be able to film in longer takes. Adam Shankman, the director of HAIRSPRAY says as much on one of the extras on the SINGING IN THE RAIN Blu-ray and how, while he would like longer takes, it is pretty hard to get them with the rehearsal time there is. On IMDB, for example, they mention that the cast of OLIVER! rehearsed for 6 months before they started filming. Whether that is accurate or not, I cannot say, but obviously it was quite a while. Costs seem to prohibit this..especially since musicals are a risky business at the box office.Ironically, the one who started all the cutting (but knew how to do it) was Fosse himself. That is partly what made his movies so exciting compared to other musicals. Now it has been taken into overdrive so if a shot is held more than a few seconds it is a miracle.