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Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Fosse: A Celebration of the Choreography of Bob Fosse (2001)

Fosse: A Celebration of the Choreography of Bob Fosse (2001)

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Released 20-May-2003

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Documentary Menu Animation & Audio
Scene Selection Anim & Audio
Interviews-Cast-Subtitles - 5
Rating Rated E
Year Of Production 2001
Running Time 118:08 (Case: 127)
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (53:03) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Matthew Diamond
Studio
Distributor
Thirteen
Warner Vision
Starring Ben Vereen
Ann Reinking
Case Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI $34.95 Music None Given


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

Live like you'll die tomorrow, work like you don't need the money, and dance like nobody's watching.

    I like musicals a lot. Some have very little in the way of dancing. Some have spectacular dancing. Some of the musicals with spectacular dancing were choreographed by a gentleman by the name of Bob Fosse.

    Bob Fosse's influence on the choreography (and direction) of the modern musical is impossible to judge, but no one will dispute that he was a major figure in this arena. You've heard of some of his work, I'm sure: Sweet Charity, Cabaret, and Chicago should be enough of a list. He even made an awesome musical film, All That Jazz, out of an exaggerated version of his own life. I was amused in researching this subject to find that I already have DVDs of some other films containing Bob Fosse's work: Kiss Me Kate (featuring Fosse's first, albeit brief, choreographic appearance on film), The Pyjama Game (only out in R1 so far), and even How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (also only out in R1 so far). There are even recognisable sequences from his films shown in montage in Bring It On (and a character who is a wannabe Joe from All That Jazz).

    I can't describe Bob Fosse's style, save to save that it tends to be exuberant, stylish, witty, sometimes sexy, and uses the whole body. There's a tendency for props, hats, gloves, canes, and even cigarettes to appear.

    Bob Fosse was not an unrecognised genius. I believe he remains the only director to have won an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony all in the same year (1973). Quite an achievement.

    So that's the man.

    Now, what's this? This is a tribute to him. Bob Fosse died in 1987. This tribute was prepared as a stage performance in 1999, originally masterminded by Gwen Verdon (who was married to Bob Fosse), but also driven by Ann Reinking and Ben Vereen. I have to say that Ann Reinking is showing her age; Ben Vereen is, too, but on him it looks good.

    This tribute show contains recreations of many of his most famous dance numbers. The dancers are impressive, young and more than competent. It is kind of ironic to think that not one of them would have been alive when Fosse first appeared on screen — well, Ann Reinking and Ben Vereen were alive, but still children. The re-creations are recognisable, and well-performed, but there were pragmatic considerations (like set design!) that dictated some changes.

    There are several numbers from Chicago and Dancin', as you might expect. There's a dramatic sequence from Pippin. They could hardly leave out Hey, Big Spender from Sweet Charity. The big number they chose from Cabaret is Mein Herr (not the one I'd have chosen).

    They did remember to include a short sequence from Kiss Me Kate (From This Moment On); Steam Heat from The Pyjama Game; and a medley from D*** Yankees.

    There's an interesting take on Neil Diamond's Crunchy Granola Suite, and the oh-so-familiar Mr Bojangles.

    There was one number I felt certain would be left out: the Air-otica sequence from All That Jazz (if you remember the movie, you'll remember that sequence...). I was wrong, although it is rather shortened.

    And there are several more numbers — there's a heck of a lot of dancing in this performance.

    Perhaps the most amazing part of this disc is the fact that the director resisted the temptation to make it look like a music video — the camera holds a single shot for seconds at a time! And we get enough long shots to appreciate the dancing as a whole. Excellent work!

    If you are a fan of Bob Fosse dance numbers, this is well worth seeing.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. Given that this was shot for New York TV in 2001, it's quite likely that this was the original and intended aspect ratio.

    The image is very good for a filmed stage performance. Close-ups are sharp and clear. Long-range shots are fairly clear, although they sometimes show halos (probably due to the stage lighting). Shadow detail is surprisingly good, which is important given that the majority of the sets and costumes are black — there are several shades of black, ranging from a simple charcoal through dull black, deep black velvet, the occasional black lurex (shot through with sparkles), and some black see-through panels, plus black stockings and tights. Film grain is no problem (I have a sneaking suspicion this may have been shot on high-definition digital video). There is what looks like low-level noise on some of the earlier shots, but I think it's really posterisation on the backgrounds — note that this is not always present — some of the backgrounds come out a simple solid black.

    Colour is very good for a stage show — the coloured lighting means that we don't get natural-looking colours, but I am confident that we are getting an authentic reproduction of what was seen on-stage. There are no obvious colour-related artefacts.

    There are no film artefacts, but that may well be because this was shot on digital video.

    There is some aliasing, but the worst of it was due to shooting through a fine net curtain, and it's only for a few seconds. There is some fairly noticeable aliasing on the hat-bands of the boaters worn in the I Wanna be a Dancin' Man sequence, but it could have been far worse — the wardrobe department turned out the dancers in cream-coloured vertically striped seersucker suits (try saying that fast!), but the suits don't alias. There's no significant moire. There are no MPEG artefacts, except for one incident at 62:49, which looks like a layer change (it's not) — the image freezes, but it's momentary — it could just be a bad cut.

    There are no subtitles on the feature, but there aren't many words. There are subtitles on the extra, in several languages — I watched the English subtitles, and they are very good.

    The disc is single-sided and dual layered, formatted RSDL. The layer change comes at 53:03. This is far from a good layer change — it's a fraction of a second late, causing a freeze at the start of a number, rather than falling between two numbers as it was clearly meant to.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in Dolby Digital 5.1 or Linear PCM stereo. I listened to the Dolby Digital soundtrack, and sampled the Linear PCM. I was expecting the LPCM soundtrack to be superior, but it wasn't. The Dolby Digital 5.1 has been engineered superbly, given a brilliantly immersive experience that sounds like one is sitting in the front rows of the stalls (you know, those expensive seats we never get because they go to people with a lot more pull...). The LPCM, on the other hand, fails to provide the immersion — it's just flat. I strongly recommend listening to the Dolby Digital soundtrack on this particular DVD.

    The lyrics are uniformly clear, which is quite impressive. The performers are wearing fine boom mikes for a lot of the singing, and these work surprisingly well and are close to invisible. There are no obvious audio sync glitches.

    The music has been drawn from a wide variety of sources, as you'd expect. The orchestra does an excellent job of playing the diverse music.

    The Dolby Digital soundtrack uses the surrounds most obviously for the applause (oh, yeah, we're in the audience, alright!); but they are used subtly and effectively to deepen the soundstage, too — the music is gifted with real ambience. Lovely stuff. The subwoofer isn't used much, but it does get called upon occasionally to support some deep notes and the occasional percussive effect — that's all we need from it.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menu

    The menus are all animated with music. It is easy to navigate.

Interview (8:22)

    This is a short, but interesting, sequence of interview snippets with Ann Reinking, Ben Vereen and Dana Moore, reminiscing about Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon. I loved the story about the first time Ben Vereen saw Bob Fosse.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 1 release of this disc sounds to be almost identical to this one. It does include a dts soundtrack, which might be nice to have, but it was released by Image Entertainment, which is an ominous sign (they tend to make rather cheaper discs). It's a single-layered disc, which I'd usually hold against it, but the R4 dual layer disc has a lousy layer-change. Honestly, I don't know which one to recommend.

    If we disregard the two moments when the image freezes, then the R4 is a good choice. I can't tell if the R1 is better — sorry.

Summary

    Fosse: A Celebration of the Choreography is a deserved tribute to a genius, presented fairly well on DVD

    The video quality is very good, save for two brief moments.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    The extra is worth having.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Tony Rogers (bio-degrading: making a fool of oneself in a bio...)
Monday, August 04, 2003
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-S733A, using Component output
DisplaySony VPH-G70 CRT Projector, QuadScan Elite scaler (Tripler), ScreenTechnics 110. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE
SpeakersFront Left, Centre, Right: Krix Euphonix; Rears: Krix KDX-M; Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5

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