FilmJerk Favorites

A group of unique directors and the essential works that you've got to see.

||| Buster Keaton |||
Buster Keaton

If you like Chaplin you will absolutely love Keaton, who is widely acknowledged for being one of the greatest directors of all time, a great screen legend and one of our finest actors, as well as one of the three top comedians in silent era Hollywood, and a true pioneer for the independent filmmaker; producing, controlling and owning his films.

Offered as one of three films in the Buster Keaton Collection, The Cameraman is Buster at his deadpan funniest. After becoming infatuated with a pretty office worker for a Newsreel company, Buster picks up a movie camera and sets out to impress the girl, which makes for some very interesting, visually groundbreaking and cleaver footage, capturing the essence of what it was like to be an innovative cameraman.

Based on a true incident, “The General” is a classic of silent screen comedy. Keaton is a Southern engineer whose train is hijacked by Union forces, which leads to a classic locomotive chase and some truly impressive and hilarious stunts, some of which could only be produced by CGI today.

Sherlock Jr is one of the comic's most inventive efforts (introducing a concept oft repeated) depicting a movie projectionist entering the film he's running in order to solve a jewelry theft. Known for doing his own stunts as well as filling in for his costars, Keaton actually fractures his neck on screen as the water from a basin flows from a tube and washes him onto the track.

Recommended by CarrieSpecht

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All That Jazz on the big screen!

By CarrieSpecht

July 29th, 2006

Presented by the American Cinematheque at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica Sunday, July 30 at 7:30 PM If you think musicals are all about fairy tales and happily-ever-afters, then you’ve got to broaden your definition and here is the film that will help you do just that.

All That Jazz on the big screen!

All That Jazz is not your parents’ musical. (Then again, depending on your age, it might have been, but it’s definitely not for children.) All That Jazz is an intense, surrealistic, and brutally honest autobiographical production with brilliantly conceived and dynamically executed musical interludes. This glittery self-portrait was directed and co-written by the legendary showman of choreographers, Bob Fosse.

Unlike what many may consider the usual musical where people irrationally and suddenly break out into song, All That Jazz mixes the oldest school tactics with fantastical cutting-edge concepts. Like the early days of musicals, the story here centers on an actual stage production of a musical, allowing the rehearsals of the stage numbers to naturally exist within a traditional narrative format. In addition to this classic structure, Fosse inventively used fantasies and hallucinations for the practical presentation of the other musical numbers that seamlessly intertwine with the rest of the film (how else would you introduce a musical number set during open-heart surgery?).

Fosse mirrors the details of his own life as he tells the sordid story of Joe Gideon (played by Roy Scheider), a demanding musical director who is trying to balance his work with his hectic personal life. In a bold and revealing portrayal, Fosse bravely shows Gideon as a life-long chain-smoking womanizer with a consuming drug habit.

At the moment Gideon is overwhelmed with choreographing a new show, auditioning dancers, and editing a feature film about a standup comic (Fosse directed the biopic Lenny about infamous comedian Lenny Bruce). Without chemical fortitude Gideon wouldn't have the energy to keep up with his girlfriend (played by then real life girlfriend Ann Reinking), his ex-wife (based on actual ex-wife Gwen Verdon), or his pre-teen daughter. When the Angel of Death begins to stop by for regular visits, Gideon soon realizes he is about to pay a high price for his insane lifestyle.

The dazzling dance sequences are fabulous and luminous, running the gamut from Vegas-inspired surgical procedures to erotic airline-themed numbers that border on soft-core porn. Top it off with a young and ethereal Jessica Lange as the Grim Reaper and it’s not such a bad way to go. All That Jazz is a spectacular example of the magnificent heights the underrated musical genre can attain. Orchestrated by a well-honed creative mind, the musical is far from dead, but rather, its future lays in the capabilities of its untapped possibilities. Bob Fosse was leading the exploration when his own dark angel called for “show time!”

Recognized for its excellence, All That Jazz was honored with Academy Awards in four categories including Best Costume Design, Best Score, Best Editing and Best Art Direction. The film was also nominated for Best Actor, Director, Movie, and Cinematographer, losing out to Kramer vs. Kramer for the first three categories and Apocalypse Now for Cinematography. Earlier in the 1980 award season Fosse shared the Golden Palm at Cannes with Akira Kurosawa’s Kagemusha. Roy Scheider was also nominated for a Golden Globe, but lost out to Peter Sellers for his performance in Being There. Other cast members include Peter Allen, George Benson, John Lithgow, CCH Pounder, Wallace Shawn, and the outrageously talented Ben Vereen.

My rating: A