All That Jazz

Roy Scheider gives a blistering performance. All That Jazz makes Chicago look like Annie

Any film that won 4 Oscars surely cannot be included as a Lost Movie right? Well normally I would agree. But in a time when the recent Rob Marshall version of Bob Fosse's musical Chicago can sweep the board at the Oscars with its limp, flat style, it's vital to realise that there are truly great musicals out there which are slowly disappearing in the mists of time.

All That Jazz tells the semi-autobiographical story of Fosse through the life of Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider). Hugely successful at staging musicals and making movies, Gideon is beginning to feel the strain of his hedonistic lifestyle. A meeting with the "Angel Of Death" lets Gideon look back over his life in all its excessive detail.

What's so surprising about this movie is that Fosse would dare to show his life in such agonising detail. His striving for perfection triggers a nasty drug habit and his serial womanising is especially sad as we see the trail of heartbroken women he leaves in his wake.

Brilliantly realised through the mixture of fantasy and reality, Fosse is never afraid to make the audience work. The movie cuts back and forth through time, through meetings with his Angel (Jessica Lange) and includes lengthy musical sequences that never fail to be spectacular.

Despite the fast cutting and the sheer energy of the film (especially Scheider's performance) All That Jazz is an unrelentingly sad movie. It's made clear from the outset that Gideon is on a downward spiral. We see his routine of classical music and pill-popping each morning followed by an increasingly weary "it's showtime" as he stares into his mirror. As he reaches completion of his latest musical (including a controversial number where the cast are mainly naked) his early exuberance has been reduced to nothing more than a racking cough.

The film is as dazzling as it is sometimes bewildering and the undoubted star is Roy Scheider who somehow manages to make a truly horrible person sympathetic. We marvel at his search for perfection and rue his disregard for his family's emotions. During a script reading, Gideon tunes out of his actors' dialogues, only hearing the tapping of his fingers or the squeak of his chair. The scene brilliantly illustrates how far Gideon has sunk into his own exhausted world. 

When he ends up in hospital the film melds reality with fantasy completely. Lying on the operating table, Gideon witnesses musical performances with a message as members of his past sing about his regrets. During the final, brilliant performance, Fosse has achieved the remarkable creating at once an uplifiting musical experience combined with the sadness of the end of a life.

An incredible achievement. Its surreal nature will not appeal to everyone but this is a film which improves with every viewing. A standout from Bob Fosse operating at the height of his powers and a type of musical which, judging by the recent Chicago, ensured that due to its unique achievements the entire genre had nowhere to go but backwards.