
King of Jazz (Blu-ray)
(The Criterion Collection, 3.27.2018)Created at a time when sound and color were still novel and new additions to the filmgoing experience, King of Jazz was an attempt to push cinema as far as it could go in 1930. From beginning to end, there is a vivid sense of the medium's potential being discovered onscreen. Relentlessly idiosyncratic, eccentric, and odd, this film offers an embarrassment of cinematic riches, ambitious flourishes that were almost unthinkable at this early point in film history. To cite just one example, King of Jazz anticipates the intensely symmetrical dance choreography of Busby Berkeley, not to mention the proto-psychedelia of his 1943 directorial triumph, The Gang's All Here. While it should be noted that this is an extremely jumbled, chaotic revue, offering little narrative to pull you through the proceedings, the film's episodic approach is somewhat fortunate in light of the restoration challenges involved.
With several brief segments missing, freeze frames, dissolves, and other techniques are used to bridge the gaps, but since the film has a completely fragmented approach -- as new sequences are introduced, they almost register as new films -- there's no sense of a flow being disrupted. (Similar techniques were used, to more distracting effect, in the restoration of George Cukor's A Star is Born.) The net result is a fascinating time capsule that's capable of relaying its essential charms -- in small or large doses.
The wide assortment of extras on this disc have a chaotic, all-over-the-map quality befitting the film they reference. In addition to a booklet that offers a helpful overview of the film's history, a commentary track, 44 minutes of video essays, five minutes of deleted scenes, a pair of live action shorts (from 1929 and 1933), and two Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons, this disc offers a pair of interviews that are probably the best place to start and/or stop, depending on how much time you have for King of Jazz extras.
In his 17-minute interview, jazz and film critic Gary Giddins -- who also appears on the commentary track -- discusses the history of symphonic jazz and the career of the film's star, bandleader Paul Whiteman. He also concedes that the film's jokes are pretty weak, but makes a case that they're redeemed by all that cinematic bravura. The 19-minute interview with musician Michael Feinstein covers some of the same terrain, but he also gets into Whiteman's clashes with George Gershwin. Unlike his sparring partner, Whiteman is virtually unknown today, but King of Jazz makes a persuasive case for devoting at least 98 minutes to his lively legacy. -- Jonathan Doyle