All That Jazz

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For other uses, see All That Jazz (disambiguation).

All That Jazz
Image:All That Jazz.jpg All That Jazz film poster
Directed by	Bob Fosse
Produced by	Robert Alan Aurthur
Written by	Robert Alan Aurthur Bob Fosse
Starring	Roy Scheider Jessica Lange Leland Palmer Ann Reinking
Music by	Ralph Burns
Cinematography	Giuseppe Rotunno
Editing by	Alan Heim
Distributed by	20th Century Fox Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	Image:Flag of the United States.svg December 20, 1979 Image:Flag of Australia.svg July 17, 1980
Running time	123 min.
Country	Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States
Language	English/Spanish
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All That Jazz is a 1979 musical film directed by Bob Fosse. It is a semi-autobiographical fantasy based on aspects of Fosse's life. The screenplay is by Robert Alan Aurthur and Bob Fosse. The original music score was composed by Ralph Burns.

Tagline: All that work. All that glitter. All that pain. All that love. All that crazy rhythm. All that jazz.

1 Synopsis
2 Casting and autobiographical elements
3 Responses
4 Main cast
5 DVD availability
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Choreographing and casting for dancers for his next Broadway show, while editing his severely over budget and over schedule Hollywood production about a standup comic is getting to Joe Gideon. He is a workaholic choreographer and theater director who chain-smokes and chain-sleeps with all of his dancers. Without a daily dose of Vivaldi, Visine, Alka-Seltzer, Dexedrine and sex, he wouldn't have the energy to keep up the biggest show of them all - his life. His girlfriend Katie Jagger, his ex-wife Audrey Paris and daughter Michelle try to pull him back from the brink, but it is too late for his exhausted body and stress-ravaged heart. Decades of overworking and constant tremendous stress have gotten to Gideon. In his imagination, he already flirts with an angel of death named Angelique.

Gideon's condition gets worse, as after a particularly stressful script rehearsal with the penny-pinching backers, he is taken to a hospital with chest pains and admitted with severe attacks of angina. Joe tries to take it in his stride and walk straight back to the rehearsal, but is ordered to stay for three to four weeks to rest his heart and recover from his exhaustion. The show is postponed, but Gideon continues his antics from the hospital bed. Champagne flows, endless string of women frolic around and the cigarettes are always lit. Cardiogram readings don't show any improvement - Gideon is playing with death. As the paltry reviews for his feature film (which has been released without him) come in, Gideon has a massive coronary and is taken straight to coronary artery bypass surgery.

The backers for the Broadway show must decide now whether it's time to pack up or replace Gideon as the director. Their matter-of-fact money-oriented negotiations with the insurers are juxtaposed with graphic scenes of open heart surgery. They realize the best way to recoup their money, even make a profit, is to bet on Gideon dying - which would bring in a profit of over $500,000 - not bad in the crazy unpredictable world of showbiz. Meanwhile, elements from Gideon's past life are staged into a dazzling sequence of set-ups - himself directing from the hospital bed, while on life support. Realizing his death is imminent, his mortality unconquerable, Gideon has another heart attack. In glittery musical numbers, he goes through the five phases of death - anger, denial, bargaining, depression and acceptance. As death closes in on Gideon, the fantasy episodes become more hallucinatory and extravagant and in a final epilogue that is set up as a truly monumental live variety show featuring everyone from his past, Gideon himself takes center stage.

[edit] Casting and autobiographical elements

Image:Scheider all.jpg

Roy Scheider as Joe Gideon

The film's structure is often compared to Federico Fellini's 8½, another thinly-veiled autobiographical film with fantastical elements.^[1]^[2]

Roy Scheider plays Joe Gideon, a chain-smoking, pill-popping, womanizing, workaholic, alcoholic, choreographer and director. The film was inspired by Fosse's own manic effort to edit his film Lenny (about Lenny Bruce) while simultaneously staging his musical Chicago (although the show and issues depicted are more in line with Fosse's experiences with Pippin).^{[citation needed]} The ending of the film essentially predicts Fosse's own real-life fate.

Besides Scheider, the film stars Leland Palmer as Gideon's ex-wife (based on Fosse's real-life wife Gwen Verdon); Ann Reinking as Gideon's girlfriend (essentially playing herself); Cliff Gorman as a comedian in a film Gideon is editing (based on Lenny Bruce); Ben Vereen (who had played the starring role in Fosse's Pippin); and Jessica Lange as Angelique, a Felliniesque personification of Death. Cliff Gorman's character is "Davis Newman," roughly based on Dustin Hoffman, who starred in Fosse's 1974 film Lenny. Gorman had played the title role in the original production of "Lenny".

Gorman's role as a difficult and self-obsessed actor playing a notorious stand-up was seen by many as a personal rebuke to Dustin Hoffman, the star of Lenny. Gorman had originally played Lenny Bruce, winning a Tony Award in the Broadway play that inspired the film, and had been considered favourite to take the lead role but was instead passed over for a "name" actor, Hoffman. However, that theory is undercut by the fact that Fosse also directed Lenny.^{[citation needed]}

Gideon's rough handling of chorus girl Victoria Porter closely resembles Fosse's own treatment of Jennifer Nairn-Smith during rehearsals for Pippin.^[3] Nairn-Smith herself appears in the film as Jennifer, one of the NY/LA dancers.

Julie Hagerty had a small role in the film, but her scenes were cut from the final version; the role would have represented her film debut. She was dating Fosse around this time and accompanied him to the 1980 Academy Awards. She would subsequently make her film debut in the 1980 farce Airplane!.

[edit] Responses

Reviewer Leonard Maltin called the film "self indulgent"^[4] (Maltin also compared it at the same time to Fellini's 8½).

All That Jazz was nominated for several Oscars, winning for Art Direction, Costume Design, Best Editing (Alan Heim) and original score. It shared the 1980 Palme d'Or with Kagemusha at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

In 2006, this film ranked #14 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals.

[edit] Main cast

Actor	Role
Roy Scheider	Joe Gideon
Jessica Lange	Angelique
Leland Palmer	Audrey Paris
Ann Reinking	Kate Jagger
Cliff Gorman	Davis Newman
Ben Vereen	O'Connor Flood
Erzsebet Foldi	Michelle Gideon
Michael Tolan	Dr. Ballinger
Max Wright	Joshua Penn
William LeMassena	Jonesy Hecht
Deborah Geffner	Victoria Porter
John Lithgow	Lucas Sergeant

[edit] DVD availability

The film is available on a DVD edition released in Region 1, Region 2 and Region 4. The DVD features a scene-specific commentary by Roy Scheider, and interviews with Scheider and Fosse.^[4]