|
Busby Berkeley (November 29, 1895 – March 14, 1976〔(Palm Springs Cemetery District, "Interments of Interest" )〕), born Berkeley William Enos, was a Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley devised elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berkeley's works used large numbers of showgirls and props as fantasy elements in kaleidoscopic on-screen performances. ==Career== Berkeley was born to stage actress Gertrude Berkeley. Among Gertrude's friends, and a performer in Tim Frawly's Stock company run by Busby Berkeley's father Francis Enos (who died when Busby was eight), were actress Amy Busby from which Berkeley gained the appellation "Buzz" or Busby"〔(Amy Busby portrait gallery; New York Public Library ) Retrieved April 28, 2015〕 and actor William Gillette, then only four years away from playing Sherlock Holmes. Whether he was actually christened Busby Berkeley William Enos,〔Spivak, Jeffrey, ''Buzz, The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley'' (University Press of Kentucky, 2010), pp. 6-7.〕 or Berkeley William Enos, with "Busby" being a nickname, is a not unanimous〔〔(Holywoods Golden Age )〕 - the "Child's names" entry on his birth certificate is blank.〔 In addition to her stage work, Gertrude played mother roles in silent films while Berkeley was still a child. Berkeley made his stage début at five, acting in the company of his performing family. During World War I, Berkeley served as a field artillery lieutenant. Watching soldiers drill may have inspired his later complex choreography. During the 1920s, Berkeley was a dance director for nearly two dozen Broadway musicals, including such hits as ''A Connecticut Yankee''. As a choreographer, Berkeley was less concerned with the terpsichorean skill of his chorus girls as he was with their ability to form themselves into attractive geometric patterns. His musical numbers were among the largest and best-regimented on Broadway. His earliest film work was in Samuel Goldwyn's Eddie Cantor musicals, where he began developing such techniques as a "parade of faces" (individualizing each chorus girl with a loving close-up), and moving his dancers all over the stage (and often beyond) in as many kaleidoscopic patterns as possible. Berkeley's top shot technique (the kaleidoscope again, this time shot from overhead) appeared seminally in the Cantor films, and also the 1932 Universal drama film ''Night World'' (where he choreographed the number "Who's Your Little Who-Zis?"). His numbers were known for starting out in the realm of the stage, but quickly exceeding this space by moving into a time and place that could only be cinematic, only to return to shots of an applauding audience and the fall of a curtain. As choreographer, Berkeley was allowed a certain degree of independence in his direction of musical numbers, and they were often markedly distinct from (and sometimes in contrast to) the narrative sections of the films. The numbers he choreographed were mostly upbeat and focused on decoration as opposed to substance; one exception to this is the number "Remember My Forgotten Man" from ''Gold Diggers of 1933'', which dealt with the treatment of soldiers in a post-World War I Depression. Berkeley's popularity with an entertainment-hungry Great Depression audience was secured when he choreographed four musicals back-to-back for Warner Bros.: ''42nd Street'', ''Footlight Parade'', the aforementioned ''Gold Diggers of 1933'' and ''Fashions of 1934'', as well as ''In Caliente'' and ''Wonder Bar'' with Dolores del Río. Berkeley's innovative and often sexually charged dance numbers have been analyzed at length by cinema scholars. In particular, the numbers have been critiqued for their display (and some say exploitation) of the female form as seen through the "male gaze", and for their depiction of collectivism (as opposed to traditionally American rugged individualism) in the spirit of Roosevelt's New Deal. Berkeley always denied any deep significance to his work, arguing that his main professional goals were to constantly top himself and to never repeat his past accomplishments. As the outsized musicals in which Berkeley specialized became passé, he turned to straight directing. The result was 1939's ''They Made Me a Criminal'', one of John Garfield's best films. Berkeley had several well-publicized run-ins with MGM stars such as Judy Garland. In 1943, he was removed as director of ''Girl Crazy'' because of disagreements with Garland, although the lavish musical number "I Got Rhythm", which he directed, remained in the picture.〔Hugh Fordin, ''The World of Entertainment: The Freed Unit at MGM'', 1975〕 His next stop was at 20th Century-Fox for 1943's ''The Gang's All Here'', in which Berkeley choreographed Carmen Miranda's "Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat" number. The film made money, but Berkeley and the Fox brass disagreed over budget matters. Berkeley returned to MGM in the late 1940s, where among many other accomplishments he conceived the Technicolor finales for the studio's Esther Williams films. Berkeley's final film as choreographer was MGM's ''Billy Rose's Jumbo'' (1962). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Busby Berkeley」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|