Bruce Wagner - Dead Stars

Blame it on the bossa nova…

Morbidly curious, he skimmed the text. She talked about her Japanese garden, the one “never photographed” because she considered it a “sacred space.” She said she hired — hired! — a Japanese priest to come have sake ceremonies and move rocks. He laughed out loud and one of the passing nurses said, Hope it’s a good one. O yeah, O yeah, it’s really really good.

“Already back then,” she shared with her interviewer, “my interest was to grow organic vegetables & fruits. On the weekends, we used to go in the garden in our pjs & pick strawberries, for healthy shakes”——o ha! o ho!

He recounted the story to Dr. CK but what once was funny, turned. He could taste the bile rising.

“I didn’t come here to talk about my former wife.”

“You’re doing a pretty good job.”

“Ha!”

“Talk about anything. No restrictions. Better yet, you won’t even be billed. Though that may depend on how long you stay.”

“I’ll put you in touch with my business manager. I don’t think your files are current.”

“Talk about the oak trees. Or we can just sit & navel gaze.”

“I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours.”

“I don’t think mine is particularly alluring. I’m not so sure it ever was.”

Time to get into it.

“Bob Fosse was a patient of yours, wasn’t he?”

“Oh yes — back when I was still in New York. And after I moved my practice, but not so much. He did thank me from the podium when he won the Oscar.”

“Really?”

“For Cabaret .”

“I didn’t know that. That he thanked you. Nice.”

“Oh yes. You know that he beat out Francis for The Godfather . Bob beat him, can you imagine? & Francis was my client as well… awkward. His daughter called not long ago. Sofia. She invited me to a Hollywood screening of her movie. I thought that was darling. She’s a brilliant girl. A darling.”

“I’m thinking about doing a remake of one of his films.”

“Oh?”

“Fosse’s.”

“Yes, I gathered that. Which one?”

“All That Jazz.”

“To produce? To act in?”

“Both. But this one, I think I’d direct.”

There. Got it out.

“Good for you! That movie could use a director.”

He laughed. He’d forgotten about her right-on critical eye.

“Do you know my favorite of his? Star 80. It’s a terribly hopeless film — his best too I think, by a longshot. It took extreme courage, & a lot of therapy to get him there. To that place where he could strip away all those extras, those bells & whistles he used, to dazzle . What’s his name, Eric Roberts, Julia’s brother. My God, what a performance! Then he disappeared, didn’t he? I saw him on one of those awful celebrity rehab shows. He was marvelous , & so was the Hemingway girl. My God, what Bob teased out of her! She’s no Meryl Streep, you know. Quite an amazing work. Bob stripped everything away. Only emptiness & savagery were left.”

It was a pleasure listening, as long as she was talking about someone else. For the Tribe, debriefing Dr. Calliope after a private screening of their latest was far more stressful than waiting for reviews in Variety or the Times .

“All right. So. You want to do All That Jazz . To play the part Roy Scheider took — I’m assuming! And you plan to direct.”

“Yes.”

“What, then, is the problem, Michael?”

“I don’t know if it’s a problem . It’s more a concern .”

“You’re mincing words, playing with language.”

“Look, Calliope, I’m just — unsure about it. I’m wondering if I’m biting off more than I can chew here! You know I ask myself, Is this really how I want to spend my time?”

“Well, I don’t know. Is it?”

“Do I want to spend my time making another movie?”

“You’re making movies all the time. Aren’t you?”

“I’m acting in movies. I’m not producing and directing .”

“You ask if that’s how you would like to spend your time. What else would you be doing? With your time?”

“I mean, instead of with the kids, & Catherine. You know how consuming that is, Calliope. This isn’t just ‘another movie.’ I don’t even know if I can pull it off! And I worry about the content, not just for Catherine, but for Dylan and Carys. I mean, you know suddenly the old man’s making a movie but it ain’t Pirates of the Caribbean . ‘Then, what is it, Dad?’ ‘Well. . remember when Daddy had that little health scare? Well, uh, in this movie, kids, well — y’see — Daddy dies!’”

They laughed.

She took a deep breath, & straightened her spine, readying to speak. Michael girded himself for feedback, the fingers on one hand moving like an anemone’s in a light current.

“A sensitive, talented man — a producer and director — a man who has it all is dying . Does that sound familiar, Michael? Of course, you’re not dying, not now, at least not more or less than the rest of us. Let’s just say your aptitude for both antipodes —life & death — is presently running at a higher pitch , it’s keener than most. Your appreciation of extinction has lit a fire under you; it has humbled , but not tamed. I’m sure it crossed your mind that Jazz might be too on the nose , you people in Hollywood used to love that phrase, do they use it still? Perhaps on one of your sleepless nights, I assume you’ve had many, you may have surmised there was something distasteful about the choice, the idea of it, something too flamboyant . The reachiness of it may have confused & depressed you.”

Reachiness. Jesus. Dead on.

“That, I think, is its brilliance. Is it a risk? An artistic risk? Of course it is. What isn’t? You wouldn’t seriously be thinking about it if it weren’t. So: the proof is already in the pudding. If you had sat there and told me you wanted to remake Star 80 , then I’d say you had a problem. A big one. Because Star 80 is already perfect, in its own way. But I think you could do something spectacular with Jazz. Not just because it’s a goddawful movie. It’s dreadful . It’s a horror! As it happens, I watched it not too long ago & it fell flatter than a pancake. Cheap and egotistical in every wrong way. But his intentions were honorable, his intentions were brilliant . Bob was brilliant. The concept of the film is brilliant . I know what he was doing, he told me so, Bob strove to make his 8½ but all he got for his money was an ego bath , you know, flapping his wings in the water, all that chain-smoking and ‘It’s showtime! ’ inanity. A tacky cabaret, a cartoon treatise on sexing & workaholism, completely uninstructive & utterly, radiantly charmless . He was frustrated with his therapy. I was too; he never worked very hard with me. Wouldn’t put in the time, not till toward the end. Jazz was ’79, Star 80 was ’83. He died in ’86 I think, maybe ’87. And because of this frustration , he wanted Scheider to die at the end, so Bob could live! Bob thought that would be enough, you see we hadn’t done our real shadow work at that time, he truly thought if he could kill himself off in the film he wouldn’t have to do the hard work of looking at his life & where he came from & why he was so hell-bent on destroying himself & those around him, those he loved — he refused for a long time to do the kind of work I did with you, the work we did together . By the time he was ready, you see it was almost too late. Now if Jazz had been a better movie , maybe Bob’s plan would have worked! Oh, I shouldn’t have said that. I think I’ve been too hard on him… excuse me, Michael”—she looked heavenward—“& forgive me, Bob. I’m not sure I’m looking in the right direction, but do forgive me! He was brave, I will say that, oh yes, I will say that without tergiversation .