All That Jazz review

All That Jazz (1979)

By Oggy

Think of ten different ways to say, “It’s showtime!” Now think of ten more. Roy Scheider, who plays a choreographer/director/editor/sex addict had to do that and more in the lead role of All That Jazz. Scheider plays choreographer/director/editor/sex addict Bob Fosse’s alter-ego Joe Gideon in this satirical (and surgical) examination of the ups and downs encountered by a creative genius. The film can easily be categorized as a man coming to terms with his mortality, but it has more to do with the sacrifices made by entertainers for the sake of entertainment. Gideon’s own morning ritual includes Dextroamphetamine pills, Vivaldi Concertos, and cigarettes in the showers. Gideon then stares at his reflection and says with infinite vulnerability and variation, “It’s showtime!” The rest of his waking hours defy definition, though I would suggest All That Jazz is a combination of Cinema Paradiso, It’s a Wonderful Life, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and The Sound of Music. A bizarre cinematic cocktail? Well, it’s a bizarre movie.

Cinematographer Guiseppe Rotunno, who often worked with Federico Fellini, captures some exceptional images while Fosse ignores the conventional framing at every turn. But I believe it is editor Alan Heim who steals the show. Heim was charged with the task of coordinating multiple musical numbers with Fosse’s vision of the journey from life to death. Sound easy? Well, it might have been easier than it looks simply because Heim had so much material to work with. I counted at least five different plot threads going on simultaneously. Gideon is editing a movie about a stand up comic, he is dating one dancer while staying connected to his wife and kid and cheating on his girlfriend with another dancer who is in the new Broadway musical that he is directing. He is also having attacks of angina, doubt, pain, guilt, love, lust, and longing. To top it off this is all taking place during the infinity that Gideon undergoes heart surgery! These threads all take place simultaneously and are miraculously interrelated and cross-referenced. Did I mention that many of these threads involve impressive song and dance routines performed in context? Basically, there is more directing, acting, writing, and creativity going on in the first ten minutes of All That Jazz than in every film from 2006 combined. Now, some of that directing might seem presumptuous and some of the acting may be too theatrical and some of the writing may grab for laughs and some of the creativity is inclined to minutiae, but if you are willing to be taken for a wild ride then All That Jazz will give you that and more.

The screening of All That Jazz is part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Great To Be Nominated series. The series honors films that were nominated for, but did not win the Best Picture. All That Jazz was nominated for 9 Oscars and won 4 categories. Alan Heim won the Oscar for Best Editing while Ralph Burns won for Best Music, Original Score. Kramer Vs. Kramer, the more accessible and topical film took home the Best Picture award. A little picture about boats and helicopters called Apocalypse Now was also nominated in 1979.

More information about the series screenings, held through August at the Academy’s sumptuous Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, can be found at http://www.oscars.org/events/index.html

Tickets are available to the public. VIP cast and crew are commonly asked to take part in post-screening discussions.