ALL THAT JAZZ (1979) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Bob Fosse
Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking,
Leland Palmer, Cliff Gorman, Ben Vereen,
Erzsebet Foldi, Sandahl Bergman, John Lithgow
Ann Reinking's legs, Sandahl Bergman's tits and Bob Fosse's ego are all on display in this hyperkinetic musical in which a workaholic director/choreographer imagines his own death. It's a massively self-indulgent portrait of the artist as a driven, chain-smoking, womanizing louse, with Roy Scheider at his most seductively cynical playing the Fosse surrogate, Joe Gideon. Reinking plays herself, pretty much. Leland Palmer stands in for Gwen Verdon. Ben Vereen does a merciless send-up of Sammy Davis Jr. There are incidental references to "Lenny" and "Cabaret", and the song-and-dance work is unmistakably Fosse. You'll either like it or not, I guess, but one thing's for sure: It's not like any other musical or any other film. Look at it this way: How bad can death be, when the angel coming to get you looks like Jessica Lange? And what's not to like about Ann Reinking's legs?
