Cinema Revisited: All That Jazz (1979)
Directed by Bob Fosse. Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Leland Palmer, Ann Reinking, Cliff Gorman, Ben Vereen, Erzsebet Foldi, Michael Tolan, Max Wright, John Lithgow, Sandahl Berman. Released December 20, 1979. Running time: 123 minutes
Theater director Joe Gideon opens his day by chugging alka-seltzer, putting in eye drops, popping some Dexedrine, and then it's "showtime."
"All That Jazz" is Bob Fosse's semi-autobiographical musical drama about the time (in 1975) when he was doing post-production on his film "Lenny" while also directing rehearsals for the Broadway musical "Chicago" (the title of this film is taken from one of the musical numbers of that show). Roy Scheider turns in the best performance of his career (yes, surpassing "Jaws") as Gideon, the overworked, determined, passionate theatrical and film director. His insights as a director, and as a choreographer; his fickleness as a lover; his shortcomings as a parent to his devoted young daughter, are all layers of his character that are sufficiently explored. The film is structured with the Felliniesque approach of combining reality with fantasy (its cinematographer is Fellini's man Giuseppe Rotunno), with Jessica Lange as the angel of death visiting Gideon in his dreams as he assesses his life.
Other than Fosse's approach to the narrative structure, the film's basis is not much different than other putting-on-a-show sagas as far back as "42nd Street" and "Footlight Parade" (both 1933 Busby Berkeley productions). In the former, for instance, the harried and overworked Warner Baxter puts on one last show, and the final shot of him leaning against the theater as patrons exit commenting favorably to each other is one of the most rewarding endings in all of musical cinema. Gideon is as much of a taskmaster, just as harried and overworked, and, because he has his hand in so many other projects, is fraught with even greater stress. He seems to handle it in stride, but the film's bravura final musical number concludes with him zipped into a body bag.
The film has a manic feel with its cutting from the highs and lows of auditioning, the struggles of rehearsing, the creative challenge of film editing, and any attempt to maintain some semblance of life away from work. Gideon's chief fear appears to be succumbing into mainstream mediocrity, and that extends to marrying and settling down, despite his daughter's yearning for a more ordinary life.
There are several amazing set pieces in "All That Jazz." Along with the aforementioned closing number, the opening is just as exceptional. With George Benson's version of "On Broadway" as its soundtrack backup, the film offers a montage of auditions, including those who are accepted and those who are rejected. With no dialog, each actor conveys varied ecstatic or disappointed reactions with Scheider as the link that holds them all together, facing each one with confidence or remorse. Another highlight is the whimsical song and dance that Joe's daughter and girlfriend (Ann Reinking) do at home to the tune of Peter Allen's "Everything Old is New Again;" a tune that exemplifies the 1970s-era interest in nostalgia. And it is nostalgia that informs both Gideon's Broadway show ("Chicago" is set in the 1920s) and his film (Lenny Bruce's heyday was the 1950s).
Performances by Ann Reinking, Ben Vereen, Jessica Lange, Leland Palmer, and Erzsebet Foldi are outstanding and add to the substance of the film (this was Foldi's only movie). Reiking and Lange were both actual relationships Fosse had while still married to Gwen Verdon (they separated but never divorced -- when Fosse died of a heart attack at 60 in 1987, he collapsed in Verdon's arms).
For persons with an interest in the theater, "All That Jazz" has everything, including dealing with producers and financial backers. Its central character is a 70s-era update of every passionate theatrical director in movie history, exhibiting a coolness and stoicism of its own era, but one that leads to a fatal heart attack. Sadly, that is the fate of Mr. Fosse himself.
"All That Jazz" is also, at times, unconventional, uncompromising, exhilarating, heartbreaking, and amusing. Released at the end of 1979, it effectively caps one of the greatest decades for American cinema.