The Sheila Variations

All That Jazz: a couple words in praise of Erzsebet Foldi

First of all: A great post about the opening sequence. He really breaks it down, why it's so damn good.

I love All That Jazz. I saw it when I was a kid, at Edwards Hall up on campus - I have no idea why I was allowed to go - my parents must not have known what it was about, or how dark and sexual it was, and I am not sure what on earth I could have gotten out of it at the time - I was quite an innocent - most of it went over my head. I remember being scared of the strippers tormenting the young kid, I remember not understanding at ALL the complicated relationships he had with the women in his life ... It all seemed a bit ikky, frankly, like: why doesn't he get married?? What is he DOING? I was 12 years old. But I became obSESSED with the film. The dancing, yes - and the look at backstage on Broadway - what auditions are like, etc. - the movie has a gritty you-are-there feel to it that I found totally intoxicating. Also, there's a young girl in it - his daughter. She is also a dancer, she loves her daddy, she has a couple of funny numbers, she's the only innocent thing in the movie. And she was my "way in" that first time I saw it. Not him, not Ann Reinking, none of the grown-ups. It was the little girl in the leotard. As far as I was concerned, she was the lead of the film. I became obsessed with her. I even remember her name: Erzsebet Foldi ... that name was so magical to me. Of COURSE she was in a movie. Her name was Erzsebet Foldi!! What ELSE was she gonna do? I wanted to know how she got in the movie, who was she, did she go to school, what was her life like ... I wanted to dance around in that apartment in the movie, carrying a battered top hat. It's funny: I see the movie now, and it's a pretty bleak freakin' picture. The sheer joy of movement remains the same - but the overwhelming feeling of the film is desperation, darkness, and despair. (Like the stand-up keeps joking about in his routine we keep seeing through the film.) I see a lot more there ... now that I'm an adult, and know a bit more about the world. The compromises we make, and the compromises we refuse to make. How messy love can be. How great it can be. What sex is like. How we hurt each other. How we hurt ourselve. All of that stuff that really MAKES the movie ... went completely over my head when I first saw it. But that girl dancing around in her black leotard ... that sweet-faced girl scolding her father, watching him work, lying on the floor doing her homework ... Man. I understood HER. I even wrote a couple of short stories starring Erzsebet Foldi, just to deal with my obsession. I imagined myself into her life - and to be honest, it wasn't Erzsebet Foldi's life - not really - it was the life of the character in the MOVIE I was really interested in. So I tried to fill out the details. I think I still have some of those stories somewhere. Dingy rehearsal halls, the brash and grime of New York, dance bags, battered upright pianos ... that's the world I wanted to live in. Thanks, Erzsebet Foldi. All That Jazz was your only movie. I loved you! In a small way, watching her performance in that film opened up my eyes a bit. Because we were the same age. Her life was nothing like mine. Yet she seemed happy and normal and like we could be friends. She didn't think her life was weird. There are many different ways to live, not just one. The glimpse of her life in that film was one that attracted me enormously. It scared me, too - because none of it was familiar. Why wasn't anyone married?? (etc.) But it called to me. And since I was focused on Erzsebet Foldi, and not the adults ... it seemed like an okay world to me. It was subversive, yes ... these were not normal citizens, they were artists, freaks. And I wanted to be one of them. And that was going to be okay.

Below is the clip that launched the 1000 ships of my imagination. Love it!!!