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All That Jazz

starring: Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Leland Palmer, Ann Reinking, Cliff Gorman
directed by: Bob Fosse

: All That Jazz
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0024543018797
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Region Code: 1
Release Date: August 19, 2003
Running Time: 123 minutes
Sales Rank: 15210
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: 1979



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Editorial Review:

Description:
Part tragic, part comic, this outrageous look at life in the fast lane in the Academy Award-winning musical about Bob Fosse's excessive life in show business. Played by Roy Scheider, Fosse's alter-ego drives himself over the edge and soon finds he is caught between a recurring fantasy about his death and the reality of a near-death experience. Dazzlingly presented, this electrifying story about the perils of pushing yourself too hard is filled with Fosse's legendary song-and-dance choreography.

Amazon.com:
Choreographer-turned-director Bob Fosse (Cabaret, Lenny) turns the camera on himself in this nervy, sometimes unnerving 1979 feature, a nakedly autobiographical piece that veers from gritty drama to razzle-dazzle musical, allegory to satire. It's an indication of his bravura, and possibly his self-absorption, that Fosse (who also cowrote the script) literally opens alter ego Joe Gideon's heart in a key scene--an unflinching glimpse of cardiac surgery, shot during an actual open-heart procedure.

Roy Scheider makes a brave and largely successful leap out of his usual romantic lead roles to step into Gideon's dancing pumps, and supplies a plausible sketch of an extravagant, self-destructive, self-loathing creative dynamo, while Jessica Lange serves as a largely allegorical Muse, one of the various women that the philandering Gideon pursues (and usually abandons). Gideon's other romantic partners include Fosse's own protégé (and a major keeper of his choreographic style since his death), Ann Reinking, whose leggy grace is seductive both 'onstage' and off.

Fosse/Gideon's collision course with mortality, as well as his priapic obsession with the opposite sex, may offer clues into the libidinal core of the choreographer's dynamic, sexualized style of dance, but musical aficionados will be forgiven for fast-forwarding to cut out the self-analysis and focus on the music, period. At its best--as in the knockout opening, scored to George Benson's strutting version of 'On Broadway,' which fuses music, dance, and dazzling camera work into a paean to Fosse's hoofer nation--All That Jazz offers a sequence of classic Fosse numbers, hard-edged, caustic, and joyously physical. --Sam Sutherland



Customer Reviews
Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Belongs in Every Broadway Musical Lover's Film Collection
Bob Fosse's thinly-veiled autobiographical homage is everything a movie musical should be -- lively, ... Read More


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Self-indulgent brilliance
Fosse's "All that Jazz" is one of my all time favorite movies and I don't generally enjoy big production ... Read More


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Lotta singing, lotta dancing, a fair bit of drugs and sex... it's like life, only snazzier!
Or should that be jazzier? Very entertaining film, but it's not all fun and games. There's definitely some ... Read More


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Awesome, in every sense of the word.
All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)

Even at the tender age of ten, I was already both a ravening cinephile ... Read More


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - All That Jazz Rocks!
Seldom seen on TV, this is a rather dark view of behind-the-scenes Broadway. It's an autobiographical movie of the choreographer/director ... Read More

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Copyright ©2003, Mark Carey.