All That Jazz / Beckylooo Who
The movie musical has been on life support ever since the untimely death of Bob Fosse. That’s not to say there haven’t been some visually impressive, slickly packaged attempts at reviving the genre, but no one has come close to the skill or depth of his work. He grounded the movie musical in the real world in a way no one has, before or since. All That Jazz is his masterpiece and depending on when you ask me, my all time favorite movie. It is the semi-auto biographical story of Joe Gideon (Roy Schneider), famed director of stage and screen, who works, chain smokes and pops speed until his heart gives out. And at the end, in spite of all his failures as a father, husband, and lover, he is able to look back on a life lived to the fullest with joy and gratitude.
Fosse’s greatest strength as a storyteller was the economy of his revelation. There are very few “talky scenes” and most take place while people are moving. A student of Sanford Meisner’s, Fosse never used three words when two would do. Gesture and behavior were always preferable to conversation. Nothing’s ever on the nose. Each scene circles it’s point, prowling-like. A look, or a glance betrays the heartbreak Joe inflicts on those who love him and yet, you find yourself rooting for him, caring for him, cheering him on.
The opening sequence of the film is a stunning feat of artistry by the end of which, we’ve met all but one of our main characters and have a clear understanding of how they all feel about each other. We’re introduced to Gideon with 12 shots and in less than a minute are given everything we need to know about him.
In a bathroom: A tape is pressed into a deck, a finger presses play, we hear classical music. Visine is dropped into a blood shot eye. Alka-Seltzer drops into a glass. A man looks at himself in a mirror next to a framed poster of dancing legs. The tape deck reads “Total Automatic Shutoff.” In the shower, the man takes a cigarette from his mouth, having forgotten it was there. A prescription bottle: “Dexedrine… Joe Gideon.” The pills are popped into the mouth of the man. Visene drops into his eyes.
In a netherworld: The man walks a tight rope, “To be on the wire is life. The rest is waiting.” A mysterious woman looks on, “That’s very theatrical Joe.” “Yeah, I know.” “Did you make it up?” “I wish I had. You like it?” “It’s all right.” He falls into a net.
In a bathroom: The man looks at himself in the mirror, forces a smile, “It’s showtime folks.”
We cut to an audition and hear the piano opening of George Benson’s “On Broadway.” Dancers stretch nervously. We’re tight on a few learning a routine and slowly pull out to reveal the entire stage, jam packed with hundreds of dancers. In the house sit the producers and the composer, Gideon’s ex-wife/star of the show and their daughter. The sequence plays out almost entirely in MOS and what dialogue is audible is sparse.
Joe looks at an audition card, “Victoria Porter. Is this your home number?” She smiles and nods coquettishly.
With one line and two shots, it’s clear what game is afoot.
While the thrust of the opening sequence is all about character revelation and setting up what’s to come, it happens in and around Fosse’s gorgeous choreography. It all feels voyeuristic, as through you’re hiding in the rafters, watching the audition. No one’s performing for the camera. They’re all performing for Joe. And when he let’s them go, with a kind touch on the shoulder and an empathetic head shake, it’s clear he doesn’t relish this part of the gig. Two dancers hurry down the stairs to the street, “Oh fuck him, he never picks me.” “Honey I did fuck him and he never picks me either.”
The film moves back and forth between Joe’s reality (rehearsing a show, cutting a film and screwing up all his relationships) and a fantasy netherworld suggestive of the dressing room of an old vaudeville theater. Here Joe looks back on his life with a mysterious, veiled woman (Jessica Lang) who is later revealed to be the angel of death. It is here he is able to fess up to the mess he’s made of his personal life. Back in the real world it’s all missed opportunities and delivered lines. After a fight with his girlfriend Katie (Ann Reinkin, Fosse’s real life girlfriend), Roy snaps from the bathroom, “Katie, about the goddamned tour, I don’t think you should go.” “Wrong reading.” She calls to him. He walks into the bedroom, “Softly and with feeling. Don’t go… Please?” But in the netherworld, Joe questions, “Why do you suppose she put up with it?” “Oh, I can think of many reasons for wanting to be with you.” “Now don’t bullshit a bullshitter.”
For those whose knee jerk reaction to the genre is something akin to gagging on rotten brussel sprouts, All That Jazz doesn’t feel like a musical. It would be more fair to call it a movie with music. The performance numbers come organically out of the circumstances of the story: an audition, rehearsals, a living room performance for daddy by daughter, a deathbed hallucination. Unlike today’s MTV mimicking musicals, Fosse lets his dance pieces play out almost entirely in wide shots. He uses judicious editing to build tension and pace. He has faith that the choreography is compelling enough to drive a scene without chaotic jump cuts to close ups of forearms and legs. When he does chose quick, dicing cuts to close ups, their affect is powerful. He builds to it, using it sparingly. (What a novel idea!?) This sense of shape and build isn’t just apparent on a micro level in each sequence, it’s clearly his approach to the film as a whole. Modern musicals have no dynamics. Chicago, Moulin Rouge, Hairspray, from the jump all of them are at “11,” shoving singing and dancing down your throat. There’s very little difference between the energy of the first big number and that of the last. The opening of All That Jazz is languid, measured. The camera barely moves. You take time with the characters and their movements. You hold on facial expressions. But as Joe moves closer and closer to death the cuts between fantasy and reality become more frequent until the line is erased completely and it all blurs together. The final sequence, the death bed hallucination, is an eye popping, quick cutting song and dance extravaganza that makes you feel like you just dropped some acid before doing a few lines of blow.
If there is a weakness in this film it is that final sequence. It is the only portion that doesn’t subscribe to the “Less is More” philosophy. It goes on for what feels like an eternity and just when you think it’s all over, the music begins to build back up and Gwen Verdon and Anne Reinking, clothed in vein-y body suits, snap back to attention and dance around Joe’s hospital bed as he undergoes open heart surgery. But even though it all feels like too much, it creates a shocking contrast to the final moment: a close up of a lifeless Joe zipped into an opaque body bag, the sound of the zipper cutting through the music.
It is a real shame that no one since Fosse has realized the true potential of the movie musical. He understood that character can and should shape form and function. Just because you can cut a dance sequence with in an inch of it’s life, doesn’t mean you should. And in most cases, such ginsu knife work does nothing but undercut the impact of your story. Here’s hoping some young filmmaker comes along and picks up the mantle Bob dropped. The culture could use a little nuance in it’s song and dance.
Beckylooo Who is a newly minted television writer. Don’t ask which show. Further rantings and ravings can be found at If A TV Falls in the Woods.
Three Days of the Condor | | Eloquent Eloquence 06/26/08
Comments
I truly hate musical theater, but this review actually makes me want to see this movie. Go figure, this has NEVER before been the case for me after reading a Pajiba review...
Posted by: KHA at June 26, 2008 1:32 PM
I think that you mean Ann Reinking.
Posted by: Arkansan at June 26, 2008 1:53 PM
On the evening of Bob's death, my filmmaker friend sat me down, poured me an espresso martini, and made me watch this. The scenes with him and his daughter are some of the most touching scenes I've witnessed in a movie. The end scene was like eight LOTR3 end sequences set back to back, with a Blues Clues composer streching the soundtrack out to fit.
Gorgeous movie overall.
Posted by: that bees chick at June 26, 2008 1:53 PM
Wow, nice review Becky. I'll have to check this out.
Posted by: Julie at June 26, 2008 1:54 PM
Whooops. Thanks for the catch. Dustin... Are you out there? Will ya fix it?
Posted by: Beckylooo at June 26, 2008 1:55 PM
My mother was a dancer and so I saw this movie as a girl (and later appreciated how inapropriate the themes are). Have always adored and and seek it out every few years. The scene of his daughter and Ann strutting through the living room is priceless.
I also think that its aging well. It will feel dated in terms of clothes and whatnot, but now that late 70's feel homey and charming and unpolished.
Posted by: mums at June 26, 2008 1:57 PM
Oh, Christ, I haven't even read the review yet, but I love you people!!
Posted by: Jerce at June 26, 2008 1:59 PM
I love love love love love this movie. There are times that it is my all-time favorite as well. It's so wonderful to see it being appreciated here.
Posted by: Hello at June 26, 2008 1:59 PM
I can't help it, I just hate this movie. I'm sure I'm wrong and it's a great movie but I absolutely loathe it ever since I was forced as a twelve-year-old to see it in the theater. I watched it again later on dvd and it didn't grow on me at all. Has that ever been a diverstion-Movies you know are great but you hate, loathe and despise them anyway?
Posted by: lateformyfuneral at June 26, 2008 2:00 PM
This is one of the movies that changed my life.
Posted by: Sara at June 26, 2008 2:07 PM
Oh, Beckyloo, I love this movie. I am a sucker for a GOOD musical, or as you say, a "movie with music" and this is definitely a GREAT one. The dancing is amazing, Sheriff Brody is incredible as a Fosse-clone and who can't love Gwen Verdon? She was Magnum's mom, for Godtopus' sake? Really, this is a fantastic review of an amazing movie. Well chosen, well done.
Posted by: dammitjanet at June 26, 2008 2:09 PM
Even the travesty of Paula Abdul's 'Cold Hearted Snake' video can't destroy the power of this film. And hadn't Fosse moved on from Reinking to Jessica Lange by the time he was making this film?
I don't know who it is in the veiny body suit at the end, but I know neither of them is Gwen Verdon.
Posted by: Andrew at June 26, 2008 2:20 PM
I get that this can be a truly great (type of) movie, but there's just something about it that doesn't let me bring it home. The closest I get to stuff like this, be it on tape or on Broadway, is when broadway is the genre du jour on SYTYCDD:R - it's enjoyed in small doses. I know I could be missing some truly great stories, characters, etc, but...it takes place in a world where I just don't care. I don't want to be soulless, but...stories about dancers and actors just leave me cold, and this just seems a little too far "out there" to overcome my willing suspension of disbelief. Yes, I'm an insensitive man. Stop your jobs and look at the insenstive man!
Posted by: lordhelmet at June 26, 2008 2:39 PM
What fascinates me about All That Jazz is the utter, relentless narcissism of the whole project. Fosse cannibalized himself, his career, and his personal relationships because he thought that Bob Fosse, minimally embellished, was a terrific subject for a film. And annoyingly, he was absolutely right.
Mums is right, too. I re-watched this movie about ten days ago, and it holds up just fine. I'm delighted to see it made the cut for Classic Films of the Seventies.
Posted by: Mr. Atoz at June 26, 2008 3:28 PM
Mr. Atoz, excellent points. All I can add is that Roy Schneider is great in this.
Posted by: StephanieS at June 26, 2008 4:39 PM
Another fantastic, thought out review. It's been a long time since I've viewed "All that Jazz," but I'm gonna have to add it to the Netflix immediately.
And I feel the need to comment on your new bio. DELICIOUS.
Posted by: M at June 26, 2008 5:53 PM
I've watched this movie a couple of times. It's not a movie I have ever actively gone out of my way to watch, I usually just come across it when flicking through channels. It can't be that bad because I've always stuck around until the end. However, for some strange reason, Roy Scheider as Joe Gideon always makes me think of Sebastian from Meet the Feebles. Does that make sense to anyone out there?
Posted by: Dexter Morgan at June 26, 2008 6:21 PM
And it's Scheider folks. Getting all uppity about people saying Schneider instead is just one of my foibles. Okay, I'll go now.
Posted by: Dexter Morgan at June 26, 2008 6:28 PM
Actually, Leland Palmer played Joe's ex-wife, but she was based on Gwen Verdon.
Posted by: Rachel at June 26, 2008 7:23 PM
Yeah, but I don't think it's Palmer in the vein-y body suit. Though I'm always willing to admit I'm wrong... IMDB has not proved useful. Apologies for the misspellings and the misinformation.
Posted by: Beckylooo at June 26, 2008 7:31 PM
Heh! Dexter, now I'm picturing Rob Schneider instead. :D
Especially in Roy's more manly roles.
"That's a shark! And I know what they look like because I've seen one up close!
...Stop snickering!"
Posted by: Loob at June 26, 2008 7:37 PM
Dexter Morgan, my apologies. You are right.
Posted by: StephanieS at June 26, 2008 8:26 PM
I used to really like Moulin Rouge, but watching it recently was really tiring. The editing is out of control! Actually, the first 30 minutes is out of control in editing, color, and crazy story-telling. I'll have to check this movie out. I do love a good musical.
Posted by: kelsy at June 26, 2008 9:48 PM
This movie, reminds me in an odd way of "The Man In The Arena" speech by Teddy Roosevelt.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; . . . who errs, who comes short again and again, . . . who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
That's part of what this movie is about, I think.
Posted by: BierceAmbrose at June 26, 2008 10:48 PM
Thank you for an excellent review of a masterpiece of a movie.I've seen this movie countless times and it never gets pale.
Posted by: brite at June 27, 2008 2:16 AM
Beckyloo, great review! It's nice to see one of my favorite movies of all time (in my top 5) recognized. I agree with you that it is this, and not Cabaret, that is Fosse's masterpiece. Though, you've not mentioned the obvious debt Fosee owes to Kubrick...especially in this film which could've been directed by Kubrick himself! In fact, this is one of the best Kubrick films he never directed!
What with this being reviewed and TK's review of Deathtrap (another of my favorites), it's good to see some of the lesser-known classics getting props.
Posted by: boogs at June 27, 2008 8:28 AM
Not a Fosse scholar but I just read both his biographies and Gwen Verdon was not in this movie and Ann Reinking was not his girlfriend at the time of filming, Jessica Lange was (though she was cheating on him with Baryshnikov, scandal!)...
Posted by: chasse at June 27, 2008 11:38 AM
Jessica Lange, not Lang
Posted by: Shena at June 27, 2008 12:45 PM
I think I'm officially in the running for most inaccurate and typo laden review of the year. Awesome.
Posted by: Beckylooo at June 27, 2008 1:17 PM
I'll have to confess.
I loved this film when it came out, and the review jump-started the memory nest containing all the Hollywood and Broadway musicals I listened to as a child.
(I tend to freak the neighbors a tad when I mow the yard while belting out a few from Camelot and Man of La Mancha).
The homage to the Everly Brothers as Gideon dies was masterful.
Posted by: The Wanderer at June 27, 2008 1:33 PM
THANK YOU!! All That Jazz is a great film and not enough people have seen it.
Posted by: Rachel at June 27, 2008 2:17 PM
So happy to see others appreciate the masterpiece of this movie! I saw it in the theater when it came out (I was/am a huge movie buff, even at the young age of 19, at the time) and it was awesome. The opening with George Benson's "On Broadway" was stunning on the big screen. Jessica Lange never looked so beautiful and etherial. Fosse had recovered from a heart attack and taken a look at how his life had been lived previously - then took it to the screen. Where's that old video - I have to watch it again!
Posted by: Chris at June 27, 2008 4:29 PM
So too, did this movie change my life...
My uber cool parents took me to see it in the theater when it came out in 1979 and I was 11yrs old...I was enthralled (especially with the character Michelle since I was her age at the time--wanted to do that duet desperately with Ann Reinking in Gideon's apartment to the Everything Old is New Again number....).
The only part of the movie my dad covered my eyes for was the cum-on-the-pants scene after young Gideon got it on with the strippers at the club...I just thought he had wet his pants!
It is the only movie I own on DVD....it still makes me cry (esp. the daddy/daughter parts).
Great to give this gem some recognition--may Roy Scheider rest in peace...
Posted by: Courtney at June 27, 2008 5:50 PM
I love this movie. Roy Scheider is brilliant in it. I'm glad to see it reviewed here.
Posted by: jk at June 28, 2008 10:16 AM