Bob Fosse broke ground as a dancer who permeated the golden age of Hollywood, first by dancing, and then by choreographing (He represents the choreographer as movie director.). One may remember how he stops the action toward the end of Kiss Me Kate to announce his arrival and the expanse of his vision. One might also see him consumed by his vision in his last movie, Star 80. In addition to understanding that the moving camera is another dancer in the choreographer’s control, he announced in his movie All That Jazz, the degree to which he used film editing to highlight nuances. Overall he seemed to function independent of his collaborators. In his movie, All That Jazz, he suggested that he broke off from his collaborators (such as its songwriter) to steep his production of Pippin in the tradition of burlesque, and make it a resounding success. As the work of many visionaries in the 1970's grew darker, so too did Fosse’s. Consider that the original Broadway production of All That Jazz, in 1975, did not succeed until a later revival. It is unfortunate that his passing concluded his own development of his work. A personal disappointment in the recent development of musical cinema is that one of his former dancers(?) Rob Marshall became the "go-to" movie musical director in his place.

The legend of Fosse as auteur received a dramatic re-evaluation in a recent comprehensive television series, Fosse/Verdon, wherein he became a poster child for the dying cult of personality.

 

 

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