The Apple is one of the most legendary cult movies of all time—this disco dystopia, in which a singing duo from Saskatchewan get perverted by the Satanic music industry, is a legendary study in excess. But Nigel Lithgoe, the film’s choreographer, really believed he would get an Oscar.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Apple-Cath...
These days, Lithgoe is best known as the producer of American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, the latter of which he also judges. But he recently gave an in-depth interview to Yahoo! Music about the film, in which he reminisces about the fact at the time in Berlin, you could buy hard drugs over the counter, and all the dancers were on heavy drugs. “It was like herding cats.” He also reflects on the film’s legacy:
I mean, it’s laughable now. And it’s fun to make fun of it. But at the time, it was really, really depressing on some days. Very, very stressful. It was not such a pleasant process, making that film. It wasn’t pleasant memories, let’s just put it that way.
We didn’t really like the script. I mean, we really didn’t. But the music we thought was terrific at the time. Certainly the use of strings and the real violins and everything was just terrific and felt very inspiring to me.
All That Jazz came out the same year and went to the Cannes Film Festival with The Apple, and All That Jazz was actually in the Cannes competition. And I kept thinking, ‘My God, am I really going to have to go up onstage in Hollywood and apologize to Bob Fosse for picking up the Oscar for Best Choreography?’ I was so dumb – because they don’t even do an Oscar for choreography.
Edited to add: The choreography in this movie is kind of insane, and does in fact deserve an Oscar, even though the movie in general is a disaster.
There’s tons more at the link, and it’s well worth reading. [Yahoo! Music]
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