Chapter 235: The Experience of Holding It In

The scene had already shifted to Roxie Hart's home. After sleeping with the furniture salesman, she was still dreaming of stardom, only to have her fantasy shattered by cold, hard facts. The salesman told Roxie straight out that it had all been a lie. He shoved her to the floor and mocked her, asking what she could possibly do about it.

Many in the audience shook their heads. It wasn't out of dissatisfaction, but because deep down, they agreed with the film's mockery of Roxie. Although the plot was incredibly familiar, the satirical edge was much sharper on the big screen, especially since the director had established her character so simply.

The woman was attractive, charming, and sweet, yet she had fallen for such a cheap trick. It showed not only her desperate thirst for fame, but also her sheer stupidity.

When a stupid woman was enraged, she acted with even less regard for the consequences. Roxie pulled a pistol from a drawer and shot the furniture salesman.

Shooting a con man was satisfying for the audience, and Roxie's subsequent fate was easy to guess. At first, a few people felt a little sympathy for her, but that quickly vanished.

Because Roxie's musical number had begun.

The police arrived at Roxie's home, questioning her and her husband, Amos, separately. The scene shifted back to Roxie's fantasy as her first song, Funny Honey, began to play.

Roxie deceived her husband, claiming she had only shot a burglar, and convinced him to take the blame. When she saw that she was fooling the police and could play her kind but somewhat dull husband like a fiddle, her song and smile revealed a trace of pity and the tiniest sliver of affection.

Although Roxie's face showed affection, the audience watched her with mockery. Duke hadn't used any complicated techniques; everyone could easily see that this was a stupid, ignorant, yet constantly smug woman entirely blind to the reality of her situation.

"She doesn't deserve any sympathy!" a viewer in the audience couldn't help but remark.

The smug Roxie was simply obnoxious.

In this sequence, Duke used a parallel shot resembling a first-person perspective. Singing alone by the piano, Roxie seemed to be pouring her heart out to the audience, confessing her true feelings about her husband. Many viewers felt as if they had been pulled into the silver screen, having a direct conversation with her.

One kind but slow-witted, the other stupid and ignorant—how could such a pair ever fool the cops? The police quickly saw through their trick. When Amos learned that the deceased was a furniture salesman who visited frequently, and likely a lover, he gasped in shock. The scam fell apart.

Just moments earlier, she had been singing her husband's praises, but once the truth came out, the coquettish Roxie immediately changed her tune. Her song filled with mockery and hatred.

'She really is vain and stupid to the extreme!' the audience couldn't help but think. 'Even if her pretty face and exposed thighs are captivating, they can't cover up her vicious, vulgar side!'

Roxie was taken away by the police, even being told that the gallows might be waiting for her. The second musical number ended there.

"Handled quite well!" George Lucas nodded from the front row.

He knew Duke. Musicals were not his specialty, but when it came to the use of lighting and color in the scene, even Lucas himself might not have done a better job.

The second musical performance was entirely Roxie Hart's inner monologue. On a stage illuminated only by a spotlight, Roxie sang as warm light hit her body, as if projecting the future she imagined for herself.

But when her husband realized the dead man was her lover and began to testify against her, the visual style abruptly shifted. Cold tones took over, and blue lighting struck Amos.

Lucas could see that even though a warm-toned chandelier hung above Amos's head, his entire body was bathed in cold light. He figured Duke had done this intentionally to heighten the theatrical effect, and more importantly, to reflect Roxie's state of mind regarding her husband in that moment.

When Roxie was taken away by the police, the overall visual took on a black motif, exceedingly gloomy. Aside from a sudden camera flash, the lighting remained extremely dark.

'Duke is using a typical Gothic style—gloomy, terrifying...'

Just as George Lucas was thinking this, Roxie was sent to prison. Sitting there waiting for the warden to appear, the musical sequence introducing the female warden—born from her imagination—began.

Likewise, the scene's colors and lighting remained sharply distinct.

"The biggest difference is the primary use of passionate, fiery red tones!" Lucas nodded as he watched.

Such a color palette perfectly matched the style of the musical number.

The Black female warden was as domineering as the red tones the moment she appeared. During her introductory musical performance, she was illuminated by intense backlighting, which, combined with her swaggering momentum, fully displayed an oppressive, commanding aura.

Just like the previous song, it was simple and easy to understand. The warden's lyrics explicitly told everyone that as long as they bribed her, she would treat them well.

George Lucas noticed that in the montage cutting to the reality of the warden leading Roxie to her cell, there was an ultra-low-angle shot. Peering through a layer of iron bars, the faintly visible image revealed the female lead's heavy anxiety.

After the song's climax, the final shot abruptly transitioned from a passionate red hue to a cold, deep blue background. This hinted that the pleasantries and temptations were over, and what truly lay ahead was a cold, dark life behind bars.

In the prison, Roxie also saw Velma, whom she had always envied. From the warden's transactions with Velma and her cold words toward Roxie, she gradually began to sense the difference in their treatment.

Gloomy lighting could not illuminate the prison's darkness; pure and beautiful singing could not cleanse the world's corruption; clear tears could not wash away the filth inside the iron cages.

The fourth musical number, the Cell Block Tango, also made its entrance. This was the breathtaking "Bestial Beauty Dance," which used song and dance to lay out the backgrounds of the six prison murderesses.

While the setting for this number came from Duke's design, the choreography was meticulously arranged by Lily Fred.

Amidst the highly infectious and visually striking high-energy song and dance, the six sisters angrily recounted their histories one by one. Through their inner monologues and realistic spoken exchanges, and against the contrasting backdrop of cold, glamorous tones and dismal grays, the vicious, wild, and innocent multiple personalities of these women were fully revealed!

"A very smart director, and a very clever technique!" Whitley couldn't help but sigh as she watched the six-person dance.

She had always wanted to see how musical theater actress Mia Valentine would perform in the film. Privately, she also wanted to compare her against the film's two female leads; after all, as a theater critic, her stance naturally leaned toward Mia Valentine.

Mia Valentine did indeed have a solo as well as a group dance, but there was simply no comparison. The director clearly didn't want her stealing the show—during her solo, the shots were entirely from a forty-five-degree side angle, and during the group dances, she was simply faded into the background...

However, Catherine Zeta-Jones's performance here caught her eye. The woman's singing and dancing were highly explosive, and coupled with her outstanding looks, it was only natural that Duke Rosenberg had chosen her as the female lead.

There was one more thing that pleasantly surprised Whitley: the silk scarves in the hands of the six actresses acted as the perfect finishing touch.

Against a deep blue background, the overhead lights constantly shifted between blue and red. The lighting was always cold when the female prisoners told their stories, but the moment the song reached its climax—the scenes where the women killed—the overhead lights instantly turned a bloody red. At the same time, using red silk scarves as props to signify the murders seemed to reveal that even stunners could kill.

There was only one exception: the Hungarian female prisoner. Her beautiful, romantic melody and dance, along with her white silk scarf, marked her as the only one wrongly accused, yet she ironically became the first female prisoner in Illinois to be executed by hanging.

The beasts in the cage were all sexy beauties. They walked onto the stage one by one, spreading their legs and dancing a passionate, almost savage Spanish-style dance. It made the audience's noses bleed and their hearts race. Following the dance, the light, and the shadows, they unconsciously agreed with the conclusion of these female beasts—men were always like this; once they thought they had you, they no longer cherished you.

This musical number finally pushed the film to a climax. When the scene switched back to the prison, warm applause erupted from the back of the theater and quickly spread throughout the entire venue. The applause didn't stop until Roxie, facing the gallows, learned from the warden that the lawyer, Billy, could save her.

And so, the individual with the biggest name and greatest box-office appeal among all the cast and crew—Tom Cruise—made his official entrance. Simply by walking through the prison, without doing anything to look cool or handsome, he sent a wave of admiring gasps from young women rippling through the theater, as if they had been waiting for this moment for far too long.

Next came a group dance featuring Tom Cruise. He was young and handsome, and he showed off rather impressive singing skills. Led by his supporters, this musical number also earned a round of applause upon its conclusion.

"Is this still Tom Cruise?" Allen looked at Kunitz strangely. "I feel like something's different. It seems like his acting is much better than before."

"You idiot, don't forget that the one directing him is Duke!" Kunitz said, as if it were only natural. "Even if he were a pig, working with Duke would turn him into the most outstanding pig in the world, let alone Tom Cruise."

Tom Cruise's acting had made a breakthrough, and he worked quite hard on his singing and dancing. To a certain extent, it could be considered a brilliant performance.

Many in the audience felt the same way. The Cruise in Chicago was no longer the Cruise of the past. At the very least, when people first saw him on the big screen, they didn't immediately think the character's name was Tom Cruise.

The lawyer he played, Billy, was the most significant male character in the entire piece; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him the male lead. This lawyer was highly skilled, cunning, treacherous, and snobbish. He was closely connected to the press and knew how to pander to and manipulate the media. After Roxie hooked up with him, the good guy Amos stepped forward once again, raising a sum of money in hopes of winning the case.

Even though the money wasn't enough, Billy still took the case, using the media to mold Roxie into an innocent, kind, and beautiful woman.