All That Jazz (1979)

I’d been keen to see Bob Fosse’s semi-autobiographical All That Jazz (1979) for awhile and I finally sat down with it over one weekend. Fascinating to watch such a reliable and straight-laced performer like Roy Schneider stretch himself, playing a version of Fosse that is glib, controlling, physical, exhausted and ultimately, a rueful asshole. Some criticised it at the time for being self-indulgent but I liked its stylish self-flagellation and Felliniesque dream-life excesses. Plus the musical sequences are great. The film gives an insight into that 70s-era Broadway culture while going for broke reckoning with “Joe Gideon’s” fear and self-destructiveness. Amazing to see Sandahl Bergman as a dancer, a young Jessica Lange as the angel of death, and John Lithgow in villain mode as Gideon’s director rival. And I’ll always love the morning ritual montages – “it’s showtime, folks” [jazz hands].