All That Fame:Alan Parker's FAME/Bob Fosse's ALL THAT JAZZ

 FAME.

Irene Cara, LeRoy Jones, Richard Belzer, Linda Allen. Dir. Alan Parker, MGM/UA, 1980

The first thing that must be said of Alan Parker's sleeper hit of summer '77 is that, if you're new to it and expect the TV version's "hey kids let's put on a show" vibe, or the later remake, think instead of Bob Fosse's '79 ALL THAT JAZZ. Parker's FAME, & Fosse's picture, are films-with-music moreso than traditional H'wood productions. If that's at once unappealing, I urge that reader to withhold judgment until I'm done loving it.

By 1980, my parents deemed me old enough to see an occasional R-rated movie with them, but not FAME. My folks, half a generation out of a working poor life, saw in me an advertising man, maybe a newpaper editor. But not an actor. I had mentioned a desire to audition for Cincinnati's School for Creative & Performing Arts (SCPA, pron. SKUHPAH) which had gone over badly. Not taking me to see FAME nipped more such questions in the bud. I grew up with a guy who shared the same desire - his mom shamed him out of auditioning, making it personal between them.

I don't know for sure how he reacts to FAME but, once I understood singing & dancing didn't advance the plot, I watch every scene in the NYC version of SCPA with longing, yes, & regret, sure, but I also marvel at Alan Parker's self-assurance as a filmmaker, the way he frames & composes his shots in ways not always obsessed with principal cast or with making them look good. His edits floored me, at times, smash cutting from a woman rehearsing to a drama class screaming in simulated horror. Every shot & sound cue of FAME feels somehow organic & spontaneous yet meticulously storyboarded.

Not unlike Mr. Fosse's legendary roman a clef of his own life from '79. As if CABARET & LENNY had not indicated it, Fosse could make a compelling, engrossing, visually striking, film as anyone in the '70s, however he did it. Any great praise I can lavish on Parker goes for Fosse, too.

Yet Fosse's genius with the camera, his erotic & surreal production numbers, even his portrayal of showbiz's sordid side, focuses on him & the great tragedy that a talented guy wants to die, no matter whom he hurts. Parker's picture, an ensemble piece, shows no shortage of sordid & desperate, but there's a human cost incurred & examined, whereas Fosse's stand-in, Bob Gideon, see in terms of himself.

That's not to say ALL THAT JAZZ, the 2nd R-movie I saw, is even a little less than great, but there's an Updikean quality of Joe Gideon. His romance with Death - played with coquettish guile by Jessica Lange - precludes all but impotent remorse for the daughter, ex-, & girlfriend who've become his psychic hostages.when tribulation or worse afflicts a character in FAME, it affects peers, friends, parents, et al. Conversely, a picture about young creatives cannot be all students going homeless or illiterate. It has to celebrate their evolution & emergence as artists, as young adults choosing the less traveled path, and winning, and Parker doesn't stint on the small gains that are also massive wins.

Three years after FAME, Parker explored a more eccentric, fragile kind of youth in BIRDY, another 'picture that found a cult following." In both cases, Parker makes a quiet argument he belongs in the discourse on great directors of kids. Hughes has strengths, as does Heckerling & Coolidge, but why are we not bonkers about Alan Parker? Toss in the earlier BUGSY MALONE & later ANGELA'S ASHES & you've got commentary-fodder for the next 4k Ultra reissue.

It may also seem I have a slight preference for FAME over ALL THAT JAZZ. There will always be moments when I want to see Roy Schieder cull an open call to George Benson's "On Broadway," but there will be more when I get that same energy & a shitton more joy from the latter.

ALL THAT JAZZ
Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange. Dir. Bob Fosse, 1979