Film of the Week #69 - All That Jazz

BlitzKrieg

Ok, I had to resist every urge under the sun to not pick a porno for this one (also, I dont seem to have a hash symbol on my keyboard...meh)



My choice for Film of the week is

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078754/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_that_jazz

ALL THAT JAZZ

A Bob Fosse film from 1979.


Little backstory to how I saw this film, I was shown a scene from it as part of an editing course, one scene and this film jumped up to being one of my most loved films. It has since been a major influence on my own filmwork and editing style.



Sooo the film itself.

first the trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onCpbs-iwe4

Its a really unique film in that its a musical, an auto-biography and fiction. They sort of dont mix but it actually makes sense when explained out. Its by Bob Fosse of Chicago and Cabaret fame (not that horrible Chicago film, the original musical) and he based the film on his own life, huge parts of the film are taken from his own life, from the film they are working on being the last film he made, to his childhood growing up in a burlesque. But what makes it good has to be spoilered

the film goes beyond what has happened and has Fosse describing out how he see's his life will go and the film just goes into a fantastic dark dive towards the end

So what makes me love this film?


Its amazingly well made, the editing, the acting, the cinematography and above all the directing is extremely tight and spot on, Roy Schieder is amazing in the lead.

Its very unique, its a musical but its nothing like a typical musical, very strongly routed in reality and has a dark and gritty edge to its musical numbers.

Also I always find that films about filmmaking always tend to be the some of the most compelling films, All That Jazz is no exception.

The story is brilliantly paced and it has one of the most satisfying endings in cinema.


Now what would put people of this?

Well it is a musical, but like I said it aint like a traditional musical, the rules of the world dont change for the musical numbers, so it is probably more likely to put off people who expect the musical numbers to be a bit more flashy. But trust me by the end they get very flashy.

Thats pretty much it, I cant think of any reason for someone not to like this film.


also it has John Lithgow in it, thats worth extra points


Now for clips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVasewV7OpA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0NX-ZINtqw

here is a collection of clips from the film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F96_PyFEHBM

FROM HERE THESE CLIPS CONTAIN SPOILERS OF THE FILM:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VfOh8bli3Y

This scene is the one I was shown and it is my all time favourite scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNcl0L7eJUY

faceman

Interesting choice! I havent seen this one BK, generally i dont take too well to most musicals. However your post will provoke me to give it a watch. Nice one!

Dudess

Great film. Really interesting, surreal style and the choreography is remarkable. Scheider is excellent - he does a perfect job of playing the hard drinking, hard drug using, hard smoking, hard womanising Fosse. This was a guy who would have been considered a grade A pig to women if he was all macho and blokey, but because he was slightly camp and flambouyant, being a choreographer and all that, he got away with being a serial cheater.

I despise musicals in general but this is as far away from Evita and The Sound of Music as Apocalypse Now is - seriously. Don't be put off by it having musical numbers - it's NOT your usual type of musical. And like Fosse's masterpiece Cabaret, it's got some exceptionally dark stuff going on. For some reason I also love film representations of New York at that time. I don't know, self-obsessed, prima donna-ish, bohemian, arty New Yorkers were at their most interesting in the late 70s (I'm thinking Richard Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl - this has also got that kinda buzz going on).

Of course, as well as singing, this movie's got dancing in spades. This was the late 70s and the floodgates were about to be opened for a plethora of films revolving around dance - Fame being the start, then Footloose, Flashdance, Dirty Dancing etc. Again, nothing like any of those...

Finally, I may be a heterosexual female, but I've gotta say Ann Reinking is one of the world's most over-looked hotties. She is just teh sekz in this. Her career was chiefly dancing on Broadway but she took a couple of film roles - this and Mr Warbucks' secretary in Annie being her best known. She and Fosse were a couple in real life too, so that's quite an interesting touch - Fosse casting his bird as his bird in the film.

And Jessica Lange is just breathtaking.

Nolanger

It's a rare musical for men.

Dudess

Oh yeah and this is interspersed with him directing a film about a stand-up comedian (Fosse directed 'Lenny') with the guy in the lead role being a Dustin Hoffman-a-like rather than Dustin Hoffman. Really well made, original film.

BlitzKrieg

i get the impression Dudess loves this film as much as I do

but I've gotta say Ann Reinking is one of the world's most over-looked hotties.

fantastic legs *drool*