Razzle Dazzle revisited: A fresh look at the film work of Bob Fosse

The angular, stylized movements of his work as a choreographer and dancer have become familiar to the point of parody. Beginning July 28 with a screening of “All That Jazz” and running through Aug. 26, the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s curated series “Fosse, Fosse, Fosse! “Bob had the ability to make you want to deliver the impossible,” said Alan Heim, who won an Academy Award for editing “All That Jazz” and also collaborated with the filmmaker on “Liza With a Z,” “Lenny” and Fosse’s final film, “Star 80.” “He was tough, but that kind of generosity makes people loyal and you just want to deliver the best you can do,” said Heim. The film style is a different story.” Shirley MacLaine first encountered Bob Fosse when she was a teenage chorus dancer in “Me and Juliet,” in which Fosse’s second wife, Joan McCracken, was a star. And of course it comes from some kind of internal, self-contained attitude.” It was MacLaine, who by then had become a screen star, who demanded that Fosse be allowed to make his feature directing debut with 1969’s “Sweet Charity.” In playing the title role for the film, MacLaine was taking on a part played onstage by Gwen Verdon, Fosse’s third wife.