... AND THE ECSTACIES OF FOSSE'S VISION The Michigan Daily-Thursday, March 20, 1980-Page 7 i~By'All Ti By CHRISTOPHER POTTER While voicing my considerable reser- gations last May about Woody Allen's "Manhattan, I ventured the notion that :-"the only measure of the justness of an artistic ego'trip is whether the artist :ossesses the sheer creative talent to :get away with it." Though Manhattan was a charming, -tenderly funny film, its director's obsessive self-pitying angst ultimately soured and suffocated the ample pleasures of this not-quite- audacious-enough work. Allen's film emained a daring. gamble that suc- eeded only as far as his innovative abilities either raised or preferably eclipsed his earthbound psyche. And now as a kind of surpassing af- tershock half a year later, we get Bob Fosse's All That Jazz, the quintessen- tial let-it-all-hang-out look-at-me- everybody cinematic conceit. The film epically dwarfs Allen's rather subtle ego with what has to be the most naked exercise in narcissism ever thrust at the moviegoing public. And by God, he pulls it off! Be it a blistering personal testament or the ultimate psychological con job, All That Jazz is an overwhelming, fabulous en- rat Jazz' is all brilliance tertainment. Though Fosse's attempt at self-canonization may be pure, bit- tersweet blarney, his creative muse has remained hard and glittering as a diamond, turning his film into a breathless celebration of glitter, of piz- zazz, of all that he does best. HOW CAN a story about a self-styled autobiographical saint who's hounded literally into the grave by a com- bination of overwork, dissolute habits and blood-sucking peers be enter- taining? All That Jazz succeeds by fulfilling its one mandatory requirement z it rigorously cleanses itself of the slightest trace of whining, righteous self-pity. "Well, so it goes," is the film's abiding gospel, "let's do it up in style, anyway," becomes its ringing aesthetic motif. To that degree Fosse's film is a daring, wholly uncompromising work. Manhattan's Issac Davis cries out sub- tly but maudlinly to be loved, to find sanctuary in a back-stabbing world. Jazz's Joe Gideon knows his life is a mess, yet he never rants over the in- justice of it all. He's coolly aware we don't know where the bullshit stops and the truth begins." But undiluted bullshit can stay interesting for only so long. We want at least a breath of truth, an ounce of introspection that doesn't evaporate the moment it comes off the screen. THERE'S NOT a single moment in All That Jazz that might induce one to shed tears, however mighty the film's potential for morbid soap opera. Fosse's tale is acted out on a kind of grand fantasy level even in its "realistic" moments, which are somehow always a degree or two above and apart from-the here and now. Jazz. in effect becomes a joyous metaphysi- cal wake, often sarcastically bitter but always forgiving, always touching the gentle, self-deprecating joke in the myriad dualities of existence. All That Jazz is a celebration of style as philosophy, of the means justifying the end, and what style Fosse brings to his film! Jazz simply roars through its two-hour running time - leaping, twisting, churning through cinematic rhythms which never miss a beat. Fosse's opening audition sequence is a miracle of choreography, cinematography and editing, in which his dancers seem almost literally to take flight like ethereal, alien creatures. His subsequent "Airotica" dance slowly metamorphasises into a misty, bubbling cauldron of liquid sen- suality. Fosse seems always to possess the right instinct, the innate sense of proportion; even his death-fantasy sequences, which are basically parodies of standard musical produc- tion numbers, take on a comic class through their own ungainliness. Jazz maintains a fairy-tale aura of nocturnal show business and those it breeds. There's scarcely an outdoor shot in the entire film, as though its protagonists agrophobically dread leaving the safe purple-blue confines of their theaters and apartments. Theirs is a nocturnal love-hate world from which there's no escape; however much Fosse may despise the life, like a hooked junkie, he cannot do without it. OCCASI6NALLY he overdoes the duality: A sequence cross-cutting Gideon's open-heart surgery with scenes of his show's avaricious producers discussing how much - in- surance money they'll collect if Joe passes on seems gratuitously mar- tyrish. The many interludes in which Joe commiserates his past sins with a surreal angel of death take on a hipster- mea culpa artificiality, and Jessica Lange, as the angel, is neither sinister nor spiritual enough to let her charac- ter take compelling form. Yet the sheer dynamic verve of All That Jazz sweeps away these few ar- tistic lapses. Fosse has looked cockeyed into his own soul and dredged out one of the most genuinely offbeat master- works in the history of film. The secon- dary definition of "jazz" is insincere; yet never has insincerity been explored with such enthralling fidelity. NEED A SECOND CHANCE? If you want to continue your education, no matter what your age, study money can be yours. Interested? Ask the financial aid admin- istrator at the school you plan to attend, or write to Box 84, Washington, D.C.20044 for a free booklet. APPLY YOURSELF-TODAY. Education after high school ~~ can be the key to a better life. 61 +United States Office of Education WRCN e o Q Late ,Sh ow! P --Fri & Sat 1 At G ... Mdn ight + Will your school be next? AP Photo THIS SEDATIQD ELEPHANT in Kenya is being used by artist Mihail Simeonoiv to make a life-sized cast of the animal. Simeonoiv hopes to sell 10 bronze casts for $250,000 apiece. NEW YORK SCULPTOR MAKES MOLD: Big bull elephant gets plastered OL PEJETA RANCH, Kenya (AP)- New York sculptor Mihail, trying to make art history as the first to cast a live elephant in bronze, found a big bull in the bush yesterday, had him drugged, and made a mold from life as the sedated pachyderm lay amid thorn trees on this game preserve. "It's easy. I feel very relaxed," the *culptor said as he stood on the elephant's ear during the two-hour moldmaking process, after which the groggy animal wandered back into the wilderness. IT WAS ONE of Kenya's most bizarre wildlife expeditions, but one the sculp- tor hopes will serve a good cause. The idea has stirred controversy here, however.. The artist, whose full name .is Mihail Simeonoiv, wants to sell 10 giant bron- ies for $250,000 each to governments and corporations eager to demonstrate their regard for animals. The net proceeds, about $2 million, would be spent on conservation projects by 15 trustees from art, publishing and wildlife-preservation circles in Europe, Kenya, and the United States. The 50-year-old sculptor hopes to have the studio and foundry work in New York completed in three or four Months. Mihail had the cooperation of Kenyan game officials in carrying out the mold operation. SALT LICKS lured at least 11 elephants to an area near the preser- ve's main house overnight. Mihail, game wardens, and others set out in jeeps and trucks after dawn, and two light airplanes and a low-flying helicop- ter helped herd one bull elephant to within range of a government Veterinarian, who shot a sedative dart into his leg. After the elephant dropped to his knees, men from the sculpting safari pushed him over on his side. Water was mixed into a quick-setting powder and buckets of it were carried in relays to the animal, where Mihail and his assistant slavered it over the hide. Then they peeled the conipound off in numbered sections, still flexible but showing all the skin wrinkles. Mihail said he would make permanent plaster of Paris impressions from the mold later in the day. MIDWAY THROUGH the 'process, men attached ropes to the five-ton animal's feet and, with a truck tow, rolled him over onto his other side. After the modling team withdrew, the elephant struggled to his feet, stood quietly for some minutes and ambled off, feeding on thorn trees. He appeared unhurt, but some Kenyan zoologists had warned that in- ternal organs might be harmed by rolling the elephant's great weight back and forth. One letter-writer complained in a Nairobi newspaper beforehand that Mihail's "misplaced feat" was not art, "for it would appear only to be an ex- pensive and unnecessary demon- stration of anesethesia and foundry skill." TONIGHT CINEMA GUILD PRESENTS THE BURMESE HARP (KON ICHIKAWA, 1956) TONIGHT The haunting and poetic story of a young Japanese soldier in Burma during the final days of WW 11 who attempts to atone for the sins of war. Ichikawa's first international success. Japanese with English subtitles. OLDA&D $1.50 7:00&9:05 FRIDAY: THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE L Poetry Reading WITH JOSEPH BRODSKY AND LYN COFFIN THURSDAY, March 20-7:30 p.m. GUILD HOUSE, 802 Monroe REFRESHMENTS NO ADMISSION CHARGE 'OLD &NEWre REAMS- Frirtw MaI rrch > -