With Beyoncé Knowles’ smash hit Single Ladies drawing inspiration from the legendary Bob Fosse, there’s no better time to revisit one of the strangest autobiographies ever committed to film. Fosse’s All That Jazz follows the last days his barely-veiled stand-in, Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider), as he attempts to put on a major Broadway show while paying the price of cigarettes, amphetamines, and women.
Fosse happily mocks himself and his choreographic trademarks like splayed fingers, staccato movements, and an obsession with sexuality – especially during one hilariously smutty number. Other performances, however, are integrated casually into Gideon’s life story: sparring with his daughter as they improvise, or arguing with his ex-wife during her rehearsals.
Gideon’s inner landscape is depicted through a Felliniesque backstage, where he flirts with a cryptic blonde named Angelique (Jessica Lange) – who seems to be the Angel of Death. The fantasy sequences increase as Gideon’s health fails, reaching a spectacular peak as he directs his own hospital song-and-dance hallucinations during open heart surgery.
Winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, All That Jazz is both audacious and indulgent, self-aggrandising and self-loathing in equal measure. Fosse once said that “I’ll have to be dead to find out if I’m any good.” Perhaps that’s why he sent out a fictional doppelganger to take the bullet for him.
The routine with the mother and daughter (‘Ann and Erzebet’s Dance’) to the Peter Allen song is gr8!