“Style is the new content”

Above, Kate Hudson's “Cinema Italiano” number from Nine (2009). I hated Rob Marshall's film of Chicago, mostly for his new style of ‘choreography’ — non-dancers filmed from the waist-up ‘dancing’ via flash cutting. I’m surprised how many otherwise intelligent people fell for that. Nine is an improvement — not a vast improvement, but an improvement nonetheless. Marshall still doesn’t realize how much of dancing is conducted below the waist. (He could probably make a movie of Riverdance using still photographs.) Nor does he acknowledge the old school of movie choreography — dancers dancing full frame to a camera that follows them. But this kind of stupidity is rampant, like a disease — check out any TV reality program and observe meaningless images of people with stunted IQs staring pensively for the cameras, rapid cutting somehow suggesting they’re lost in thought. How profound it all must seem to the susceptible mind. Anyway, Nine has its flaws, but Penélope Cruz is always worth watching, and Nicole Kidman looks magisterial. Sophia Loren, one of my life-long icons, unfortunately appears ready for a remake of Catwomen of the Moon. As for Kate Hudson, I’ve always thought of her as hard-looking, something of a hatchet face; here, however, she’s gained a few pounds and looks fabulous. I found myself replaying her “Cinema Italiano” several times.