All That Jazz

All That Jazz

Bob Fosse was the most famous choreographer in the world, so naturally you would think that would be enough for him. Instead, he decided to direct films and made Cabaret, an iconic movie that's in the AFI top 100 films of all time, and won just about every Oscar except for best picture (its only competition being a little movie called The Godfather). Two years later he made Lenny, a film about outlaw comedian Lenny Bruce, which was also nominated for best picture (but lost to a little movie called The Godfather Part II). Five years later, Fosse created his greatest masterpiece: All That Jazz, which Stanley Kubrick called "the best film I think I've ever seen." Coppola released Apocalypse Now the same year. Both movies lost the best picture award to Kramer Vs. Kramer.

This is the most self-indulgent film I've ever seen in my life, and I absolutely loved it. The only negative comment I have is that some of the dance scenes are far too long (especially the last one). If it wasn't for that I think I might even agree with Stanley Kubrick.

While the movie is entirely self-indulgent (Bob Fosse wrote and directed a film entirely about his own life, with names being the only thing that's changed), what's wonderful about it is that Fosse paints a shamelessly honest portrait of himself with the "character" of Joe Gideon. He constantly smokes and pops pills, harasses women, cheats on his wife, and cheats on his mistress, but Roy Scheider adds a charming humanity that keeps Gideon from being unforgivable. It also helps that he's never mean. He'll be honest with performers and tell them what they need to work on, but he's never monstrous or abusive. He's mainly just completely lost in himself, which I love watching, especially when his girlfriend says a particularly funny line and he literally looks in the mirror and says "That's good..." in the middle of the conversation. He's an endlessly fascinating character who's the best representation of my favorite kind of genius: self-destructive and egotistical, but also human and completely genuine.

There are some wonderfully innovative moments of magic realism in the film that continues to inspire storytellers to this day. There's the theater of his subconscious where people from his past and present hang out (along with death personified by Jessica Lange), which is then used again in the film Chicago, which was adapted from the Broadway musical that Fosse directed and choreographed. My favorite example is when Gideon is nearly dead after working on a movie and a musical at the same time, and suddenly the movie zooms out of that to reveal that this is all just a movie, being directed by a much healthier Gideon (both still played by Scheider), who gives the sick and dying Gideon acting notes while his wife, mistress, and daughter do a number about how he needs to change his life. It's very meta, but it's also revealing Fosse's inner thoughts and insecurities, making it a truly revelatory example of using art as personal expression.

The editing is masterful, giving the 1979 film a pace that's faster than even some modern movies while still being entirely coherent and powerful. The cinematography is all over the place in the best way possible, the production design is intensely lavish and detailed, and the performances (both acting and dancing) are magnificent. This is now on the top of my list of movies I need to see on the big screen, because there's simply so much going on visually that it really seems like the only way to take it all in.

I can't recommend this movie highly enough. If you feel like the dance sequences are going on too long, you're not wrong and you're well within your right to fast-forward it, but please finish the movie. It's too good not to see.