AC/AL/N 1979 123m Eng N/A CAST: Roy Scheider, Ann Reinking, Leland Palmer, Jessica Lange, Ben Vereen, Cliff Gorman, Erzsebet Foldi, Deborah Geffner, Sandahl Bergman & John Lithgow CREDITS: Director: Bob Fosse; Screenwriters: Robert Alan Arthur/Bob Fosse; Producer: Robert Alan Arthur; Director of Photography: Giuseppe Rotunno; Production Designer: Philip Rosenberg; Editor: Alan Heim; Costume Designer: Albert Wolsky; Music: Ralph Burns THE SYNOPSIS New York City. Life is a non-stop cabaret for Joe Gideon (Scheider)--choreographer/filmmaker/husband/father/drug addict/philanderer/alcoholic/chain smoker extraordinaire. When Joe’s not choreographing Broadway’s next big musical, he’s in the midst of editing the next big comedy-concert film, starring acerbic comedian Davis Newman (Gorman). When Joe’s not doing that, he cheating on his dancer-wife Audrey (Palmer) with scores of dancers and ignoring his young daughter Michelle (Foldi) as well. Does this make Joe a bad guy? Not according to the radiant Angelique (Lange), who is smitten with Joe. Too bad she’s just a figment of his own indulgent imagination! Joe’s dancer-girlfriend Katie is smitten with him as well--but is getting fed up with his constant philandering on her; this time with hot legs (but mediocre talent) dancer Victoria Porter (Geffner). Joe draws the ire of his wife, girlfriend and the trio of show backers when he casts her in the lead after she sleeps with him. Oh, that Joe! Between the pill-popping, chain-smoking, constant humping and his actual professional duties, Joe finds the time to have a few heart attacks, which gets him thrown into a hospital by all of his loved ones. As his illness blankets his very existence, Joe’s visions become more frequent--with Angelique cozying up to him more and more as his visions turn into flashy musical numbers. When lucid, Joe still likes to party hard. This behavior pushes Joe towards the inevitable. The show’s backers hastily hire Joe’s replacement, arrogant show director Lucas Sergeant (Lithgow) and the editors of Joe’s concert film must finish the cut in his absence. It all doesn’t matter, as Joe prepares for the greatest last act performance of his life--and all of those in it are there to send him off into the arms of Angelique--a.k.a. the angel Of Death. It’s showtime, folks! THE CRITIQUE The late, great Bob Fosse’s mostly-autobiographical tale is a flashy, entertaining, delectable (and ultimately searing) portrait of the glory of creativity and the deep, dark recesses of one man’s various addictions. ALL THAT JAZZ is a kinetic musical that captures the razzle-dazzle of its creator’s soul while dragging us through the plethora of addictions that would ultimately envelop him--and in reality, snuff out his life in the same manner (the 60-year old Fosse died of a massive heart attack, on a Washington, D.C. street in 1987). Other critics have labeled ALL THAT JAZZ as, among other things, excessive and indulgent. Truer words have probably never been spoken. However, what makes the movie work so well are precisely those two adjectives; for they represent but two aspects of Fosse--or at least the ones he chose to share with the rest of us via celluloid. Through his own filter (in a script he co-wrote with the late TV scribe, Robert Alan Aurthur), we witness Fosse’s alter-ego Joe Gideon and observe all of the facets that make a male human being...a male human being. As personified by the late, great Roy Scheider (a fellow Jerseyite, no less), we both love and loathe Joe Gideon. Appalled by his excesses and his occasional cruelty--yet still attracted to his bacchanalian ways, we live through the character--doing things that most of us would ordinarily never consider and/or attempt. Well, that was my Freudian moment! Anyway, Scheider steals the show in this sweaty Oscar©-nominated performance (he lost out to Dustin Hoffman in Kramer Vs. Kramer). Tall, sinewy, obsidian-clad, full of testosterone and sporting a wickedly-pointy Vandyke beard, Scheider is a brilliant delight. And yes, his beard deserves its own credit, SAG card and Oscar© nomination too! The supporting cast holds it own, considering that Scheider all but sucks up the oxygen in just about every minute of the film’s 123 minute running time. Lovely dancer (and Fosse protege) Anne Reinking brings some depth to her role as Gideon’s put-upon-but-loyal girlfriend Katie Jagger. In a case of art imitating life, Reinking was one of Fosse’s girls (as was future Oscar©-winner Jessica Lange, looking simply illustrous here as the Angel Of Death). Acclaimed dancer/actress Leland Palmer carries the burden of playing Gideon’s wife Audrey--purportedly based on Fosse’s real wife, the late, great dancer/actress Gwen Verdon (whom some of you cats out there might remember from such classics as 1958’s Damn Yankees & 1985’s Cocoon). Come to think about it, Fosse dated many women in his life--though he and Verdon never divorced. Hey...I’d better ask my mother and make sure that she didn’t date him too! Also of mention are the late Cliff Gorman in the movie comedian role based on Fosse’s tumultuous relationship with Dustin Hoffman (as the late Lenny Bruce) in Lenny (1974); sexy dancers Deborah Geffner, Jennifer Nairn-Smith (another Fosse ingenue) and Sandahl Bergman (best known as Ah-nuld’s warrior squeeze in Conan The Barbarian); the always enjoyable John Lithgow in a thinly-veiled representation of competing stage director/choregrapher Michael Bennett (the late creator of the very popular A Chorus Line) and the multi-talented Ben Vereen as TV personality O’Connor Flood--an annoying, yet prescient character who figures greatly in Gideon’s “final performance.” Behind the lens, director Bob Fosse maintains an assured sense of direction in the face of baroque self-analysis. The man had a command of the visual medium and this movie--above all of his others--showcases it best. Much credit must also be shared with his brilliant Italian cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno (Amarcord/Popeye/Wolf)--whose sparkling, Oscar©-nominated cinematography both razzles & dazzles (unfortunately, Rotunno lost the award to that other equally-brilliant Italian cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro--who lensed Apocalypse Now). Happily, ALL THAT JAZZ did manage to snag 4 Oscars©: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (what would today be known as Production Design); Best Costume Design; Best Film Editing (editor Alan Heim has a cameo in the movie as Gideon’s editor); and Best Music Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score (a category no longer awarded). The movie deserves its awards, as it is a sterling example of talent behind the camera as well as before it. In my opinion, the movie’s nexus--and the key to its ultimate success--is in its lively albeit over-the-top finale dance number. Representing Joe Gideon’s final dance-off into the Hereafter, it is choreographed like a disco-dazzle, music & dance number--replete with glitter, a live audience, naked women, Ben Vereen and Roy Scheider (with wicked Van Dyke goatee in tow). The very end sequence is the finale’s pièce de résistance, consisting of a one-shot dolly track of Joe Gideon heading towards the arms of Death (again personified by the radiant Jessica Lange), a smile on both their faces. This is (in my humble opinion) easily one of the greatest and most powerful tracking shots ever performed in cinema--so full of beauty and serenity. It is an Expressionistic shot, much like the brilliant ending of Sunset Boulevard (1950), where crazed silent film star Norma Desmond (as delectably played by the late, great Gloria Swanson) slowly walks towards the camera, radiant soft focus and all (albeit that was a static shot--but you get my drift, right?). Same concept in Fosse’s ending, but in color. The late Ralph Burns’ scoring of “Bye Bye Love” (and sung by Schieder & Vereen) gives ALL THAT JAZZ its tragic-yet-humorous theme in a nutshell. Ultimately, Rotunno’s glittering lensing, Heim’s razor-sharp cutting; Fosse’s direction/choreography and the talents of the cast involved makes the end number a classic to be remembered. If I had to kick the can, that would be the way to do it! Kick up the disco music!! Send in the naked women!!! If there is anything negative that can be said about ALL THAT JAZZ, it is that the movie is dated (1979 looks and feels like 1979) and that it is biased about its subject. Thankfully, Fosse pulls no punches about his own life and we are left with a motion picture chock-full of great performances, songs and technical nuances. No remake is necessary! THE BOTTOM LINE ALL THAT JAZZ is a classic, Oscar-winning musical that boasts sterling acting, great production values, crisp editing, sparkling cinematography and the even-keel direction of the late, great Bob Fosse--a firebrand whose cinematic alter-ego burns up the screen. While dated, the film holds up as a superlative example of how they used to make ‘em. Somewhere, Fosse is dancing his way through the Afterlife--with a twinkle in his eye, a bounce in his steps and a gal in each arm. It’s showtime, folks! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_filmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenplayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenwriterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Awardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_Actors_Guildhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televisionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie_camerahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_directorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematographerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_designerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costume_designhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_editinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_editing#Film_editorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_scorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie_camerahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequence_%28film%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_%28film%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_shothttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_shothttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Expressionismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_%28film%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_filmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_focushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_%28film%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_scorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_editinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmmakingshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4shapeimage_2_link_5shapeimage_2_link_6shapeimage_2_link_7shapeimage_2_link_8shapeimage_2_link_9shapeimage_2_link_10shapeimage_2_link_11shapeimage_2_link_12shapeimage_2_link_13shapeimage_2_link_14shapeimage_2_link_15shapeimage_2_link_16shapeimage_2_link_17shapeimage_2_link_18shapeimage_2_link_19shapeimage_2_link_20shapeimage_2_link_21shapeimage_2_link_22shapeimage_2_link_23shapeimage_2_link_24shapeimage_2_link_25shapeimage_2_link_26shapeimage_2_link_27shapeimage_2_link_28shapeimage_2_link_29shapeimage_2_link_30shapeimage_2_link_31