“Chicago ” – The Price Of Fame

Chicago  is one of those musicals that never get old. It has been performed countless times and has even inspired films. The Chicago theatrical version, directed by Rob Marshal, won six Academy Awards. The two big awards went to Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress, Catherine Zeta Jones. The film was a huge hit and received critical acclaim. It contains numerous musical scenes and the cabaret-  style aesthetic iscaptivating from the start. But what is going on behind the scenes of this film?

The film Chicago   is based on the musical of the same name and this musical didn’t come from anywhere. It is an adaptation of a 1926 play written by journalist Maurine Dallas Watkins. She worked for the Chicago Tribune newspaper   , covering the murders that kept the city busy. Sensational journalism began to play a big role, and the murderesses became real celebrities – it was Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner and both of them had murdered their lovers. 

After the musical was performed, there were some film adaptations, the first in the days of silent films. Chicago  later became the musical we know today, and then the movie we want to focus on today. 

Women in Chicago in the 1920s

Let’s travel back to the 1920s, to Chicago, to the north of the USA. It is the period between the two world wars and before the Great Depression. It’s the jazz era, the flapper era, and women had just been given the right to vote. Some of them are now starting to become financially independent and many changes awaited them.

Let’s just think of how radically women’s clothing changed. They got rid of their corsets and adopted a style that made the feminine curves less prominent. The skirts got shorter and so did the hair. Some women began to drink, smoke, make music and go to places that were previously reserved for men. As a result, these women’s hopes and dreams went further than the stove and the status of the perfect housewife … The 20s were definitely a time of change for women. Unfortunately, the path was not always easy to walk and it did not take long before they encountered resistance.

Chicago  is a spectacular musical that reflects all of these dimensions really well and presents them to the rhythm of jazz. The main characters are two women in their 1920s. They live very different lives, but have similar hopes and dreams. Their paths cross in prison.

Velma Kelly

Velma Kelly is a singer and dancer at the Onyx Club in Chicago. She is an absolute star and starred in a show with her sister Veronica. The two sisters have always done the show together and their performance is a real sensation. But one day Velma comes to the performance too late and alone. While she is performing, the police come to arrest her for the murder of her sister and husband. She found out that the two of them had slept together, which is why she killed them. Velma goes to jail and there she meets Roxie Hart.

Roxie Hart

Roxie Hart is an ambitious young woman from Chicago, where fame was everything. She gets by with the help of her husband, Amos Hart. He has a good heart, but is not the brightest and does not have big dreams. But Roxie strives to become famous and perform in the popular clubs in Chicago. She is so ambitious that she would do anything to make her dreams come true.

At that point, Fred Caseley shows up. He promises Roxie to speak to his contacts and put her on a show if she sleeps with him. So the two start a secret affair. Until Fred has had enough of Roxie and confesses to her that he made a bet to get her to bed. He never really had any contact or interest in her. In a rage, Roxie shoots Fred and he dies. Roxie goes to jail for her crime, where she meets Velma Kelly.

§Who says murder is no art? §

Roxie Hart

Chicago – pure theater

At first the two don’t get along very well. Roxie has always admired Velma and would do anything to get close to her. Velma doesn’t seem to care and she completely ignores Roxie. But their roles change when the press picks up on Roxie’s case. All the attention makes Velma pale in the shadow of Roxie. So Velma begins to do what she can to get at Roxie, who she now ignores.

Roxie’s dream is finally coming true: she is famous and she goes further than Velma Kelly. Fame is everything in Chicago and as the saying goes, “Any press is good press.” Roxie was a nobody before she went to jail. But the murder makes her a celebrity. Therefore, she is convinced that after jail she will be showered with offers and become a great musical star. Roxie regards the murder she committed as the gateway to her dreams. 

Velma, on the other hand, was already a star when she committed the crime. Although known across town before the murder , she loses her luster the moment Roxie wins hers.

In Chicago  it comes to the dangers of fame and excessive ambition. At one point in the film we see a fascinating argument between the two murderers. They both have the same lawyer, Billy Flynn; they are both very successful in the media, and both of them are awaited with great anticipation in the city.

The press

The press plays an important role in the film. When you watch you realize how much power and influence she has to manipulate. Sometimes what’s in the press is enough to make us love or hate a person. We are quite uncritical about this and let ourselves be carried away by the lust for sensation. This is evident very early in Chicago – even little girls want to be like Roxie Hart.

The law

The same is true of the law. The lawyer, Billy Flynn, is a man with no morals who never loses a case. He doesn’t care whether a client is innocent or guilty. For him, only his $5,000 fee counts. For Billy everything is just theater and he plays his part perfectly. He trains his “actresses” and releases them. But that means innocents die and criminals get set free. Justice is not the same for everyone.

money

Money is also an important figure in the film. It’s important not only to Billy Flynn, but also to Mama Morton, a corrupt prison guard.   There is no morality in Chicago . The journalists just want news – “fresh blood” – and the rest doesn’t matter. And that’s not only the case in films, but unfortunately also often in real life. There are many examples of murderers who have become famous, such as Charles Manson.

Roxie and Velma are slowly realizing that they don’t benefit from being enemies. They realize that if they worked together, they would get more. In the end it comes, as it should be in sensational journalism: the moment of fame was just that, a moment. In no time at all, people forget what they were interested in.

Fame, press, justice and money are all themes in the film. They are like the props for real theater: a piece about Chicago, to the sounds of jazz.

“It’s all a circus, kid. A circus with three rings. These lawsuits – the whole world – everything is show business. But kid, you work with a star – the greatest! “

Billy Flynn, Chicago