All That Jazz (1979)

Director: Bob Fosse
Writers: Robert Alan Aurthur, Bob Fosse
Stars: Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Leland Palmer
Runtime: 123 minutes    

Plot: Director/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid life of Joe Gideon, a womanizing, drug-using dancer.

Review: Because Joe Gideon's career closely resembles that of Mr. Fosse, who not only directed and choreographed "All That Jazz," but also wrote the screenplay with Robert Alan Aurthur, there will be a tendency to see the film as Mr. Fosse's answer to "8 ½," in which Federico Fellini wittily examined his own life at a point when he feared his creativity was at an end. 

"All That Jazz" is an essentially funny movie that seeks to operate on too many levels at the same time, but Mr. Fosse, like Barnum & Bailey, believes in giving the customers their money's worth. Some of it makes you wince, but a lot of it is great fun. There are big, beautiful, steamy, typically Fosse production numbers, small, intimate dance routines, shots of openheart surgery that may send you under your seat, soul-searching, gags, fantasies, flashbacks and, finally, emerging from the machine-made fog, the figure of a man who isn't always likable but who deserves the attention he affords himself. 

A key to the success of the production is the performance of Roy Scheider as Joe Gideon. With an actor of less weight and intensity, "All That Jazz" might have evaporated as we watched it. Also prominent in the cast are Willian LeMassena, David Margulies and John Lithgow who embodied the richness of New York's acting talent.

Reviewed by Mohaiminul Islam