#724: FOSSE, Bob: All That Jazz (1979)

FOSSE, Bob (United States)

All That Jazz [1979]

Spine #724
Blu-ray

The preternaturally gifted director and choreographer Bob Fosse turned the camera on his own life for this madly imaginative self-excoriating musical masterpiece. Roy Scheider gives the performance of his career as Joe Gideon, whose exhuasting work schedule — mounting a Broadway production by day and editing his latest movie by night — and routine at amphetamines, booze, and sex are putting his health at serious risk. Fosse burrows into Gideon's (and his own) mind, rendering his interior world as phantasmagoric spectacle. Assembled with visionary editing that makes dance come alive on-screen as never before, and overflowing with sublime footwork by the likes of Ann Reinking, Leland Palmer, and Ben Vereen, All That Jazz pushes the musical genre to personal depths and virtuosic aesthetic heights.

123 minutes
Color

3.0 Surround

1:85:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2014

Director/Writers

Written by Robert Alan Aurthur and Bob Fosse.

Fosse was 52 when he directed All That Jazz.

The Film

Aa

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Thirty-two page booklet featuring an essay by critic Hilton Als.

Commentary

Featuring editor Alan Heim.

Selected-scene audio commentary

By actor Scheider.

Interviews 1

With Heim and Fosse biographer Sam Wasson.

Conversation

Between actors Reinking and Foldi.

Episode

Of the talk show Tomorrow from 1980, featuring director Fosse and choreographer de Mille.

Interviews 2

With Fosse from 1981 and 1986.

The Soundtrack: Perverting the Standards

A 2007 documentary about the film’s music.

Interview

With George Benson from 2007 about his song “On Broadway,” which opens the film.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

99

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