Friday Minute
No. 66 | April 2, 2010

“City” Flickers

Our theme this week
Films named after U.S. cities

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   San Francisco (1936)
Tuesday         —   Nashville (1975)
Wednesday    —   Atlantic City (1980)
Thursday        —   Fargo (1996)

Chicago (2002)

The city
Founded:  1833
Named For:  Miami-Illinois word shikaakwa meaning “wild onion”
Nickname:  The Windy City; The Second City; City of Big Shoulders
Population:  2,853,000

 

The movie
Release Date:  2002
Director:  Rob Marshall
Cast:  Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly
Oscar Summary:  13 nominations, 6 wins including Best Picture

Has the movie gotten better over the years?  I don’t recall being especially impressed when the film was released.  I thought it was fine for what it was—an entertaining but hardly groundbreaking musical.  I was not so happy to see it take the Best Picture honor that rightfully belonged to a better film, The Pianist.  But after a recent look, I liked Chicago better than I remembered.  It’s quite well done.

Two women—one a star (Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly), one not (Renée Zellweger as Roxie Hart)—meet in jail after each is arrested for murder.  The film follows the journey of these two rivals through the corrupt criminal courts, where they gain spectacular attention in the press, and finally to their triumph in show biz.  Richard Gere does fine work as the glib defense lawyer.  Queen Latifah is the prison matron.  John C. Reilly is Roxie’s forgotten husband.  Many hands were involved in the production, from director Rob Marshall to music man Danny Elfman.  Much credit for its success belongs to the team of composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb, whose musical opened on Broadway in 1975, and its revival in 1996.  (More than 5,500 performances later, it’s still running.)  Yet the film has the unmistakable trademark of another man, one who died fifteen years before the movie was made.  Bob Fosse shared book credit for the musical and was responsible for the choreography.  You see his influence in every number, every scene, every bite of the satire.  Fosse was due to direct the film version of Chicago before he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 60.

Despite the good performances, I still believe that Hollywood shorts itself when casting film actors for musicals.  In its heyday Hollywood had an incredible roster of singers and dancers under contract.  Now that talent works on the stage.  I would bet that talent would graciously appear in a film if only Hollywood asked.  But film people, it appears, prefer to stick with film people, so with the exception of Queen Latifah, you have lead actors in Chicago who aren’t singers and dancers doing the singing and dancing.  To their credit, they’re all competent, or better.  But what’s missing is a chance to see the unique stylings of some of the world’s great entertainers.  When the right talent meets the right material, you may see a performance for the ages.  As good as the film may be, that’s not what you get with Chicago.

That other distinction
As noted above, Chicago won the Academy Award for Best Picture, the only one of this week’s films to earn that honor.   But as mentioned in the Monday Minute, it does share a distinction with those other films.  If you’re still guessing, here’s your answer:  this week’s films are the only movie titles named after U.S. cities that were nominated for Best Picture.  That qualification pared down our list of eligible titles to a convenient number:  five.  I like when that happens.  It also explains why we didn’t get to Philadelphia.  Surprised?

Extra credit:  Are any other Best Picture-nominated films also the names of U.S. cities?  At least one.  Elizabeth, New Jersey, is a fine town but it has nothing to do with Elizabeth, the 1998 movie about the Virgin Queen (and no, the city wasn’t even named for her).  It doesn’t qualify for this week’s theme.  Same goes for The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, Alaska.

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Chicago
“All That Jazz”

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Chicago
“Razzle Dazzle”

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Chicago
“Mr. Cellophane”

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Quote of Note
“It’s showtime, folks!”
—Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider), All That Jazz (1979)

…58…59…60.