" If you can't be famous... be infamous." With a $40 million dollar budget and box office sales of $2.074 million within the first weekend of opening, its no surprise that Chicago is nominated for 13 academy awards and wins 6. This comical musical was carefully filmed so the film kept its originality of being a musical. In this screenplay the director has more control over what he wants the audience to seen as opposed to the audience catching a mistake at a play that can't be edited out. Most musicals have lots of light and action but you can only see the actor's emotion from where you are sitting. Director Rob Marshall and Producer Martin Richards created many scenes with close-up shots, dark lighting at times so you connect with Roxie Hart or Velma Kelly. In Chicago you may not have killed your boyfriend by means of jealousy or killed your husband and sister because of jealousy but you certainly can relate to the different emotions that the two women go through in order to get her fame.
Roxie
Williams as Roxie Hart in Chicago
Roxie Hart (film)In a part from Chicago there is a scene where Roxie Hart meets the actress of her dreams that is in vaudeville acts in night clubs, once Roxie has gotten to jail for her crime. Coincidentally Velma Kelly is put in jail for a similar crime as the audience finds out, by a sing and dance performance so are many other women. The film opens up with a big jazz band performing in dark nightclub with shots of backstage and a woman preparing her self but only capturing her hands or legs. The woman makes it to the stage just in time to perform and as she performs many shots are taken of the audience and of a new character.