grantss Great drama on the life and death of an artist (loosely based on Bob Fosse's own life, without the death part, of course, at that point). Original plot, which demonstrates the decadence, pitfalls and back- stabbing of showbiz. Very original direction by Bob Fosse, complete with musical dream sequences and time jumps. A bit too innovative sometimes, as it can be confusing.Roy Scheider acts out of his skin in the lead role. You can actually imagine Scheider inflicting the damage to himself that the movie portrays, so convincing is his performance. He was unlucky to lose the Best Actor Oscar to Dustin Hoffman for Kramer vs Kramer.Supporting cast are good too. Jessica Lange's part is not overly major, but All That Jazz did revive her career after King Kong almost killed it. Interesting to see John Lithgow in an early role.Great movie.

inioi I remember watching the movie back in 1982, and what stuck most in my mind was the recurring scene of Roy Scheider facing the mirror with the eye drops and dexedrine tablets saying: "It's showtime folks!"Bob Fosse made a overview about his life, in which recognizes that he is not taking the right path. Even so, he is still being able to succumb to the stream of indolence. It is as if he had no choice but to surrender to his self-destructive attitude.The film also has a transcendental view: he knows he is going to die soon. The role of "Angel of Death" is played by Jessica Lange, who listen his final statement. Despite of his misbehaviour, she does not judge him. This causes a strange feeling in the viewer: empathize with him notwithstanding what we have said.Anyway, what we have is an honest, well-directed and gripping musical autobiography. 9/10

AMar_rom All that Jazz is such a good film. It is about the life of an accomplished theater (stage) choreographer Joe Gideon. We see him in his professional endeavors on a day-to-day basis but also his personal life as well with his family and lovers.Gideon is a hard-working professional unforgiving to others and also to himself and is also a very gifted one and he knows it. He is not a perfect individual (he cheats his wife) but still loves her as well as his mistress. He is a man of passion and he is aware of the fact that we have a finite time (before we die) to leave our mark on this life.Roy Scheider gives the performance of his career in this film. The final song 'Bye bye Life' and choreography (10 minutes before the closing credits) that Gideon 'sees' in his bed in the hospital is captivating.

chaos-rampant For about half the duration, I thought this was going to be a masterpiece, a bit of late but considerable innovation for the musical. All the way back to Busby Berkeley in the 30's, the musical was a film about our film being put together, this was already a worn-out trope by the time of this. But there were clear demarcations in those days, between a life you agonized about in terms of creative love and the big stage where all of it was magically danced right.So I thought the experiment, a very interesting one, was the same template - a film about both a film and a Broadway show - but blurred lines between stages and dance spliced in the small moments, not the perfect dance, but the one that is human and flawed. It has all sorts of new cameras capturing that, or thought to be new then on this blockbuster level. It has Welles. It has Altman's roaming eye. It has Nouvelle Vague. Cassavetes. Kubrick. All of it blends in one style that is pretty cool to watch. It is visual jazz in the sweep of improvisation.So the first half of this is just a beautiful melange of sometimes cold intimacy being confessed inbetween poise, and the poise is as spontaneous as the people improvising feelings, making it up as they go along, as we all do. But Bob Fosse was an egomaniac, so it was not enough to give snippets of life being danced into motion, a rehearsal of life. It had to be a big show. It had to razzle-dazzle us.The problem is that Fosse is just not, as a thinker, a cinematic jazzman. The second half is maudlin, crass (thinking he will shock), obvious, self-important, ordinary in that frivolous way that passes caprice as insight. It seems like someone is out to impress instead of being content to evoke.The good thing that came out of this is that it probably inspired Dennis Potter to write his own autobiographical musical of sorts, The Singing Detective, a beautiful work of much more earthy imagination.But apparently the French were impressed. The film won at Cannes.