CHICAGO

2002

Rob Marshall

Chicago is based on a a play called Chicago (1926) by a reporter named Maurine Dallas Watkins who had covered the trials of two women who murdered their boyfriends in Chicago in 1924 and were acquitted.

The original play (a comedy) opened on Broadway in 1926 and ran 172 performances. It was made into a silent film in 1927 and then as a film with Ginger Rogers called Roxie Hart. Also appearing in the film are a number of famous performers Adolph Menjou (mentioned in Sunset Blvd.). Spring Byington, Phil Silvers (Bilko) William Frawley (I Love Lucy). Nigel Bruce (Dr. Watson)

In 1975 a musical version appeared on Broadway with Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera and Jerry Orbach. Revived in 1996 it starred Ann Reinking, James Naughton (The Devil Wears Prada), Bebe Neiwirth (Jumanji) and Joel Grey (Cabaret) as Amos

Finally the 2002 film stars Renée Zellweger, Richard Gere and Catherine Zeta Jones and John C. Reilly as Amos based on the 1975 version and the revival in 1996.

The film is one of the musical crime films .

PROBLEMS OF MUSICALS

Definition:

Musicals are performances in which characters sing and dance where such behavior would not occur in real life. Consider films like Oklahoma, Carousel, as opposed to films like With A Song in my Heart or Interrupted Melody both of which are bio-pics about singers.

How does one make a transition between speech and singing in a musical?

Do the other characters perceive the singing as singing or speaking? (West Side Story love duet?)

How to decide when to sing? One rule: when speaking isn’t emotional enough, sing; when singing isn’t enough, dance.

In terms of crime film the film deals with murders, prisons, trials and consequences. Think about what the film says about these and the CJ system (and in fact about life in general).

How does the film do it? The film has a complicated structure to it and the cuts and rhythm of the film are rather tricky. Right from the start the film sets up some complex interactions between two separate “worlds” of the film. What can you say about the worlds? (Roxie’s fantasy) Pay careful attention to the cutting.

Erving Goffman The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life was one of the first book to treat interpersonal interactions as the subject of sociological study. Goffman treated it as a kind of report in which he frames out the theatrical performance that applies to face-to-face interactions. Goffman felt that when people contact one another, they eachl attempt to control or guide the impression that others might make of themselves. They do this by manipulating as much as possible the setting, and their appearance and manner. Both people are doing this at once and trying to control the situation to their best advantage. Each tries to give and get information about the other.

Goffman also believed that all participants in social interactions are engaged in certain practices to avoid being embarrassed or embarrassing others. This led to Goffman's dramaturgical analysis. Goffman saw a connection between the kinds of acts that people put on in their daily life and theatrical performances.

In social interaction, as in theatrical performance there is a front region where the “actors” (individuals) are on stage in front of the audiences. This is where the positive aspect of the idea of self and desired impressions are highlighted. There is also a back region or stage that can also be considered as a hidden or private place where individuals can be themselves and get rid of their role or identity in society.

Basically Goffman's sees a relationship between performance and life in less a metaphoric way that other writers have. He sees interaction virtually as an artistic performance with each person controling variables that an actor performs on a setting which is constructed of a stage and a backstage; the props in both settings direct his action; he is being watched by an audience, but at the same time he is an audience for his viewers' play. It some senses it reverses the idea that plays imitate life and seems to hold that life imitates acting..

For Goffman, the person acting in a social context can choose all the variables (stage and props, costuming etc.) to have a specific impact on the audience. The idea is to keep a stable image as different contexts arise. This is done mainly through interaction with other actors..

Goffman recognizes that there is a culturallyagreed upon definition of the situation in a given interaction, which allows for interpretation. In interactions/performances, the parties interacting may be both audience members and performers at the same time. The actors generally trying to make impressions that reflect well upon themselves, or at least create the image of themselves they are looiking to have..

After The Film

Much of the story of any good film is told visually. Note for example at the beginning of the film Velma rips her sister’s name off the poster. We SEE the gun and SEE her hide it and we SEE her wash the blood off her hands. At the end of the sequence we see the police enter we we know she has committed a murder, probably her sister and is being arrested. All of this without any dialog to explain it.

The film deals with two “worlds” – a kind of fantasy world and a real world. The film moves constantly between them. The fantasy world is a “show business” world. Since one of the problems of musicals is the introduction of the music into an otherwise real world, in this film, the music tends to be restricted to the fantasy world, so people singing is not so jolting. Most of the fantasy world shots are pretty much Roxie’s point of view, but so is much of the film. Consider Roxie viewing the scene between Mama and Velma through the crack in the medicine cabinet wall

Links are made between the two buy editing – there is a good deal of cutting which gives the film pacing. In addition in the opening shot there are many shots with parallel action. While this occurs throughout the film, it is perhaps most evident in the opening shots where the director needs to prepare the audience in some way for what is to come. Notice particularly hand movements and other “cuts on form and cuts on action” that link the two (similarly notice the crossing of the and the movement of the ballerina putting on powder with the powder puff.

When the police interrogate Amos, the flashlight beam in his face becomes the equal of the spotlight in the performance Roxie is doing singing about her husband.

The use of symbols is also apparent – red scarves for blood, and a white one for innocence. There is even a green one which substitutes for money that Mama pulls from blouse where she inserted the money in the shot immediately preceding this one.

The tap dance number – fancy foot work

There are many places where the visual contradicts or enhances the verbal. "Tell us in your own words" (and then Flynn mouths the answer with her)

"All I Care Abut is Love" (while it is plain from the visual, all he cares about is money.

Notice the way Cellophane Man is interrupted by Flynn saying "I didn't see you there"

The move into the music occurs in several ways: one is to have the sounds of the “real” world inspire the music (the drops of water in the sink and the footsteps in the jail establish the rhythm for “Jailhouse Tango”; some songs have a lead in that is played under the previous scene which links the two and allows for a transition; some songs have a semi-sung/semi spoken opening (Sprechstimme) like “Cellophane Man”.

The idea that Billy controls everything is seen in the song where becomes the ventriloguist (and becomes literally the "mouthpiece" for Roxie) and literally pulls the strings of the newspaper reporters. The idea that everything is “performance” is clear and parallels the ideas that literary analysis can be applied to real life (modernism and post modernism are both originally methods of artistic analysis)