Fame (1980 film)

In 1976, talent manager David De Silva attended a stage production of A Chorus Line and noticed that one of the musical numbers, "Nothing", had made a reference to the New York High School of Performing Arts.[3] The musical inspired him to create a story detailing how ambition and rejection influence the lives of adolescent students.[5] In 1977, De Silva travelled to Florida, where he met playwright Christopher Gore. He paid Gore $5,000 to draft a script titled Hot Lunch, and provided story ideas involving the plot and characters.[5] De Silva took the project to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which acquired the script for $400,000.[1]

Director Alan Parker received the script after the release of his previous film Midnight Express (1978).[1][3] He met with De Silva in Manhattan, New York, where the two agreed that Parker would draft his own script,[3] with Gore receiving sole screenwriting credit.[5] Parker also enlisted his colleague Alan Marshall as a producer.[3] Gore travelled to London, England, where he and Parker began work on a second draft,[1] which was significantly darker than what De Silva had intended. De Silva explained, "I was really motivated and interested in the joy of what the school represented for these kids, and [Parker] was really much more interested in where the pain was in going to the school, and so we had our little conflicts based on that area."[5]

Parker signed on as the film's director in February 1979,[1] and relocated to Greenwich, Connecticut to begin pre-production. While working on the script, he interacted with many of the students attending the Performing Arts school.[3] Several of them invited Parker to attend a midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) at the 8th Street Playhouse. Parker attended a weekend screening with Marshall, and the enthusiastic crowd inspired him to write a similar scene for the film, during which the character Doris Finsecker dances along to the "Time Warp" musical number.[3][6] During filming, Parker noticed that a pornographic film showing on 42nd Street was titled Hot Lunch, and was informed that the title was "New York slang for oral sex."[3] In response, MGM offered several working titles before Parker named the film Fame after the 1975 song performed by David Bowie.[1][3]

Although Parker had promised to hold auditions at the High School of Performing Arts, the school was initially advised by the Board of Education to prevent the students from working on the film, fearing it would affect their studies.[3] It was later announced that filming would occur during the summer when the students were not attending school. Parker distributed casting call advertisements at the Performing Arts school and the High School of Music & Art.[1][7] He and casting directors Margery Simkin and Howard Feuer spent four months of the film's pre-production auditioning young performers. They held an open casting call at the Diplomat Hotel on 43rd Street in Manhattan where more than 2,000 people auditioned for various roles.[3]

Of the many students that Parker met at the Performing Arts, only Laura Dean, who plays Lisa Monroe, was cast in a principal role while others were cast as extras.[3] The school's drama teacher Jim Moody plays as Mr. Farell, and its music teacher Jonathan Strasser appears as a conductor.[7] Music composer and actor Albert Hague secured the role of music teacher Mr. Shorofsky, as Parker wanted a veteran musician to play the part.[8]

Irene Cara, a former student of the school, was cast as Coco Hernandez.[9] Parker was not impressed with Cara's musical audition, until after her recording sessions with the film's composer Michael Gore.[3] Gene Anthony Ray, who plays Leroy Johnson, was also a Performing Arts student but had been expelled from the school for disruptive behavior.[10] Simkin had discovered Ray breakdancing on a street corner in Harlem before asking him to audition for a role in the film.[3]

Lee Curreri, who was cast as Bruno Martelli, learned of the production while attending the Manhattan School of Music.[11] During his audition, Paul McCrane performed an original song he had written, "Is It Okay If I Call You Mine?". He was cast as Montgomery MacNeil, and the song inspired Parker to include it in the film.[1][3] Barry Miller, who achieved critical acclaim for his supporting role in Saturday Night Fever (1977), was cast as Ralph Garci, an aspiring actor and standup comic of Puerto Rican descent.[12]

Maureen Teefy, an established actress of Irish descent, was cast as Doris Finsecker, a shy and uptight Jewish girl.[13] De Silva disagreed with her casting, stating, "... I'd envisioned [Doris] as a 16-or 17-year-old Barbra Streisand from Brooklyn, and when [Parker] cast this Irish actress that was a trouble ... that was my only reservation; I really had envisioned she was a young Barbra Streisand, a Jewish girl."[5] Parker and the casting department had difficulty finding an actress for the role of Hilary Van Doren. Antonia Franceschi, who was previously a background dancer in Grease (1978),[14] secured the role based on the strength of her audition.[3] Meg Tilly appears in her acting debut as a dancer. In his first credited screen role, Peter Rafelson, son of Bob Rafelson, plays as a musician and vocalist.[1]

Producer David De Silva on 46th Street during principal photography in 1979.

Principal photography began on July 9, 1979, with a budget of $8.5 million.[3][4] Parker described shooting in New York City as a less than pleasurable experience due to the intense summer weather conditions.[3] He also faced difficulties with U.S. labor union representatives who disapproved of the British crew members working on the film without permits.[1] In order to gain work permits, Parker made an agreement with the unions that allowed local laborers to work on the film.[1][3][4]

During filming, the crew and several cast members objected to cinematographer Michael Seresin and camera operator John Stanier's European style of single-source lighting, which involved the use of incense burners.[4] In response, representatives of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) halted the production, and forbade Parker from using smoke on the set.[3][4]

The filmmakers had originally planned to shoot the film at the Performing Arts school, but were denied by the Board of Education over the content of the script.[1][3][7] After consulting with Nancy Littlefield, the head of the New York City Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting, Parker was granted a meeting with the Board's members,[7] who explained that they were concerned with the script's profanity, sexual content and depictions of drug use, as well as his depiction of Turkish prisons in Midnight Express.[1][3] After the filmmakers expressed interest in moving the production to Chicago,[15] Littlefield reviewed abandoned-city properties and discovered two unused schools,[1] Haaren High School and Performance Space 122.[3] Both schools were converted and used for all the interior scenes.[3] MGM spent approximately $200,000 transforming Haaren High into a sound stage, with carpentry shops and production offices.[1] The location was used to shoot the film's finale, a graduation ceremony. The sequence was filmed in four days, and employed 400 extras and 150 student musicians.[6]

The exterior of the school was shot using the left wing of the then-abandoned Church of Saint Mary the Virgin building almost directly opposite the real school on West 46th Street in Times Square.[16] The Rocky Horror Picture Show midnight screening sequence was filmed at the 8th Street Playhouse located on 52 West 8th Street, New York. Sal Piro, president of The Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club, appears as an emcee at the screening.[3] Parker later hired Steadicam inventor and operator Garrett Brown to film Doris and Ralph's dialogue scene in a New York City Subway station.[3] Montgomery MacNeil's apartment was located on 1564 Broadway, at West 46th Street in Manhattan.[16]

The "Fame" musical number was filmed on 46th Street in three days, with eight choreographed routines, 150 student background actors and 50 professional dancers. The dancers performed to the Donna Summer song "Hot Stuff", as the song "Fame" had not yet been written.[1][3] Before the sequence was filmed, Stanier left the production for personal reasons. During filming, Seresin chose to operate the camera himself for several hours before International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) representatives visited the set, and advised Parker that a cinematographer was forbidden to operate a camera, and that the production would be shut down permanently if he did not hire an operator from their union.[1][3] The following day, the New York Police Department demanded that the cast and crew take a 4:00 p.m. curfew due to complaints of traffic blockages.[1][3] In addition, the dancers demanded extra pay for performing stunts on top of taxicabs.[1][4] Principal photography concluded after 91 days.[3][4]

The music was composed by Michael Gore. Parker had originally approached Giorgio Moroder, who had previously worked on Midnight Express, and Jeff Lynne, the lead performer of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), both of whom had declined.[3] The musical numbers were performed practically on set, as Parker wanted to avoid dubbing during post-production.[3] The song "Hot Lunch Jam" was heavily improvised. Parker explained, "This song evolved from an all day session involving groups of kids from all disciplines, as we cobbled together the song with everyone chipping in their contributions."[3] The filming of the "Fame" musical number inspired Gore to write an original song inspired by Donna Summer.[3] He and lyricist Dean Pitchford spent one month writing the lyrics. Pitchford improvised the lyrics "I'm gonna live forever", inspired by a line of dialogue from the 1964 play Dylan.[17][18] During the recording sessions, Luther Vandross acted as the song's contractor, in charge of the backup vocals. He improvised the lyrics "Remember, remember, remember", and performed it with backing vocalists Vivian Cherry and Vicki Sue Robinson. The song was later incorporated into the filmed dance sequence during post-production.[3]

Parker wanted the film to end with a huge musical number that would showcase every character. While drafting the script during pre-production, he was partially inspired by the ELO song, "Eldorado".[3] Parker turned to Gore and Pitchford, requesting that they write a song would combine the film's three musical elements: gospel, rock and classical.[6] The resulting song, "I Sing the Body Electric", was named by Pitchford after the same-titled poem from Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" collection.[3][18]

The film was released on VHS and Laserdisc in March 1981, by MGM/CBS Home Video.[22] In 1986, the distribution rights to the film were transferred to Turner Entertainment, which acquired MGM's pre-May 1986 library of feature films.[23] Currently, the rights are owned by Warner Bros., after its parent company Time Warner acquired Turner's library of MGM films in 1996.[24] The film was released on DVD on June 3, 2003 by Warner Home Video. Special features for the DVD include an audio commentary by Parker, a branching video featuring interviews with Parker and several cast members, a making-of featurette, a short documentary on the High School of Performing Arts, production notes, and the theatrical trailer.[25] As a tie-in to the home video release of MGM's 2009 remake,[26] Warner Home Video released the film on Blu-ray on January 26, 2010.[27] The Blu-ray presents the film in 1080p high definition, and contains all the additional materials found on the 2003 DVD release, including a CD "soundtrack sampler" that previews four musical numbers from the soundtrack album.[27]

On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, Fame holds an approval rating of 84% based on 31 reviews, with an average score of 7.21/10. The website's consensus reads, "Just because Fame is a well-acted musical doesn't mean it flinches against its surprisingly heavy topics."[28] Although initial reactions among film critics were mixed, Barry Miller received critical acclaim for his performance. Jack Matthews of the Associated Press wrote "Barry Miller bolts from the screen with a performance that will etch itself into the viewer's mind for a long time to come"[29] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, writing, "When the kids perform, the movie sings, but their fictionalized personal stories are melodramatic drivel."[30] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader wrote, "The film is cut at such a frenzied pitch that it's often possible to believe (mistakenly) that something significant is going on."[31] Variety magazine wrote, "The great strength of the film is in the school scenes – when it wanders away from the scholastic side as it does with increasing frequency as the overlong feature moves along, it loses dramatic intensity and slows the pace."[32] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three-and-a-half stars out of four writing, "Fame is a genuine treasure, moving and entertaining, a movie that understands being a teen-ager as well as Breaking Away did, but studies its characters in a completely different milieu."[33] William Gallagher, in his review for the BBC, wrote, "Alan Parker manages to make this a fairly horrible story even while it remains entertaining. You come away from it with all your preconceptions about the glamour of showbusiness wiped away and you can't help but admire the characters who get through."[34]

Fame garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories, with particular praise for its title song performed by Irene Cara. It received four Golden Globe Award nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Cara), and Best Original Score (Michael Gore). At the 38th Golden Globe Awards, the film won the award for Best Original Song ("Fame").[35] At the 53rd Academy Awards, the film received a total of six Oscar nominations, including Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Sound.[36] The songs "Fame" and "Out Here on My Own" both received nominations for Best Original Song; it marked the first time in Academy Awards history that two songs from one film were nominated in the same category.[37] The film won for Best Original Score, while "Fame" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.[36]

In 2009, MGM and Lakeshore Entertainment produced a remake of Fame directed by Kevin Tancharoen, and written by Allison Burnett.[54] The remake followed the premise of the original film, depicting the lives of several students as they attend the New York City High School of Performing Arts. Debbie Allen was the only cast member from the 1980 film to have a supporting role, appearing as the school's principal. The film was notable for its lighter tone, in contrast to the earlier film's gritty subject matter.[55] Released on September 25, 2009, Fame received generally unfavorable reviews from mainstream film critics.[56][57][58] It was a modest box office success upon release in the United States, though it fared better internationally, grossing $54.7 million worldwide.[59] Parker voiced his disapproval of the remake and described it as an "awful" film.[3] Maureen Teefy also criticized the film, stating, "They're using the same formula, but it doesn't have the same substance. It's not staying true to the grittiness and authenticity of the original."[13]