Episode 57 – 'All That Jazz' & Bob Fosse

From the stages of Broadway musicals came one of the most adventurous and innovative editorial directors, and that adventurousness peaked with Bob Fosse’s 1979 autobiographical film. On this episode is the esteemed editor Keith Fraase, discussing:

• the 8½-inspired sub-genre of directors making autobiographical movies about them making movies;

• the Fosse/Verdon mini-series;

• Sam Wasson’s book from which it’s based;

• Fosse’s streak of Cabaret through Jazz as a model of the American musical maturing on film;

• how the hell a Broadway choreographer learned to edit like that;

• and how the answer actually makes sense.

Also:

• how legendary editor Alan Heim felt constrained by the shooting style;

• Fosse’s influence on Michael Jackson;

• Keith’s foundational love of the Jesus Christ Superstar film;

• and how engaging in an autobiographical production doesn’t quite solve ones problems in life.

Keith Fraase has edited such narratives features as Knight of Cups, Song to Song, and Chappaquiddick, along with the documentaries Voyage of Time and Long Strange Trip. He lives in New York City, NY with his family.

All That Jazz is not currently streaming or available to rent online, but is on DVD and Blu-ray from Criterion.

Episode 53 – Mike Nichols' Audio Commentaries

The best way we thought to celebrate the great writer Mark Harris’s new book Mike Nichols: A Biography, a book about the famed director filled with the instructive anecdotes he used as tools for directing actors, was to find the best examples the public has to those anecdotes in Nichols’ own voice. In the DVD audio commentaries for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, and Catch-22, all conducted by audio commentary-innovator Steven Soderbergh, Nichols masterclasses his way through his celebrated first three films as director. On today’s episode, Ted Haycraft is back to discuss:

• how innovative it was for a commentary to have Nichols to discuss his perceived failures on Catch-22;

• if these first three films were indeed his peak, his reputation on New York stage and on film as the “Michael Jordan” of directing actors;

• how he runs a rehearsal;

• and what particular directing questions and techniques he reveals in these commentaries.

Also:

• Last year’s oral-history biography Life Isn’t Everything: Mike Nichols, as Remembered by 150 of His Closest Friends by Ash Carter and Sam Kashner;

• Nichols’s editor Sam O’Steen’s great book on editing Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America’s Favorite Movies;

• Soderbergh’s other incisive commentaries for his and others’ films;

• how Elizabeth Taylor inspired a scene on a toilet in Catch-22;

• if The Graduate is the Citizen Kane of the American New Wave;

• and where Nichols stands among that New Wave.

Ted Haycraft is film critic for Evansville’s WFIE-14 and co-hosts Cinema Chat on its Midday show. He can also be found on Cinema Chat’s Facebook page.

The Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? commentary is available on Blu-ray from Warner Archive. The Graduate commentary is available from Criterion on DVD and Blu-ray. Catch-22’s commentary is available from Paramount on DVD.