Review of All That Jazz

A terrific opening sequence involving a cattle call of dancers being reduced to about a dozen or so gives way to an indulgent, but still mostly entertaining autobiographical look at the director's life. Legendary choreographer and director Fosse was on top of the world professionally the year he won an Oscar an Emmy and a Tony, but, soon after, he keeled over from a heart attack and nearly died. This film is an artistic expression of that near death experience, examining his work ethics, his personal turmoils and his creativity. Scheider pays the character closely based on Fosse. He is simultaneously editing a film starring Gorman and developing a stage musical featuring his estranged wife Palmer and a gaggle of dancers. Meanwhile, he is romancing (though that may not be the best word) Reinking and finding occasional time to parent daughter Foldi. Each morning begins with a shower, a handful of pills and a cigarette as he drives himself nearly into the ground with an obsessive approach to every detail of whatever it is he's working on. Lange (in the role that helped bring her back from the disaster of "King Kong") looms near Scheider as an Angel of Death until it's time for him to succumb. The bizarre approach to the storyline (having Scheider chat with a death figure prior to joining her) was unusual (though not completely original) at the time, but has been repeated many times since in things as diverse as "Dallas" and "De-Lovely". The primary appeal here is two-fold. First, is the spot-on, stellar performance of Scheider. Because he is not a singer or dancer, he isn't the first person that springs to mind for a role like this (and was, in fact, an eleventh-hour replacement for Richard Dreyfus, who would have been all wrong physically), but he rises to the challenge beautifully. He isn't called upon to do a lot of dancing and does even less singing, but he perfectly embodies the self-destructive whirlwind who was Bob Fosse. Secondly, the film contains several impressive dance sequences, one performed by a virtually nude ensemble. As Scheider himself noted, the film does in the first eight minutes what "A Chorus Line" took two hours to do (albeit, obviously, without the many great songs and dances in that show.) There are also several numbers featuring the talents of Palmer and especially Fosse's own famed protégé Reinking (who portrays a variation of herself, though she, famously, was asked to audition for the role!) Fosse fave Vereen also figures prominently in at least one number. It's a film that will doubtlessly mean more to fans of the director and to those who are somewhat familiar with his life and work than to the casual viewer. Others may find it to be a little too self-indulgent and lengthy. Oddly, Foldi, who did a very fine job as the daughter, was never seen again on film! Palmer never worked on film after this either, preferring to live in Israel. Many popular Broadway performers are interspersed into the cast Including Frederick, who also appeared in "A Chorus Line".