All That Jazz: Music Edition

UPC: 024543434795

Studio: 20th Century Fox

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language, Substance Abuse, Sexual Situations]

Summary: "It's showtime!" In this part film ? clef, part musical phantasmagoria, director/choreographer Bob Fosse takes a Felliniesque look at the life of a driven entertainer. Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider, channeling Fosse) is the ultimate work (and pleasure)-aholic, as he knocks back a daily dose of amphetamines to juggle a new Broadway production while editing his new movie, not to mention ex-wife Audrey (Leland Palmer), steady girlfriend Kate (Ann Reinking), a young daughter, and various conquests. Joe cannot, however, avoid intimations of mortality from white-clad vision Angelique (Jessica Lange) that lead him to look back at his life as he heads for a near-inevitable coronary and his departure from this mortal coil with the appropriate razzle-dazzle. Taking his cue from Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963), Fosse moves from realistic dance numbers to extravagant flights of cinematic fancy, as Joe meditates on his life, his women, and his death. Following a similarly dark revisionist vein as Martin Scorsese's New York, New York (1977), Fosse shows the stiff price that entertaining exacts on entertainers (among other things, he intercuts graphic footage of open-heart surgery with a song and dance), mercilessly reversing the feel-good mood of classical movie musicals. Critics praised Fosse's daring even as they damned his self-indulgence, while Scheider was lauded for giving the best performance of his career. Though not a disastrous failure, All That Jazz came nowhere near the popularity of 1978's Grease, as late '70s audiences increasingly turned away from "difficult" movies. For all its excesses, Fosse's fiercely personal approach turned All That Jazz into another striking work from one of the few directors able to make, and experiment with, movie musicals after the 1960s. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Category: Musical

Awards: Best Cinematography – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Editing – British Academy of Film and Television Arts U.S. National Film Registry – Library of Congress Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or – null Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Cinematography – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Costume Design – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Adaptation Sco – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Palme d'Or – Cannes Film Festival Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: Audio commentary with film editor Alan Heim
Portrait of a Choreographer featurette
Perverting the Standards featurette
Making of the Song "On Broadway"
Movie-oke: "Take Off With Us"
Music machine
Bob Fosse photo gallery
Production photo gallery

All That Jazz: Music Edition

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 04/03/2007

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 123 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- All That Jazz [Special Music Edition]
1. Main Titles
2. Auditions
3. Some Father
4. The Death Process
5. Victoria
6. Joey's Mother
7. Kate
8. Selling a Song
9. Rehearsal
10. Air-otica
11. Jagger & Gideon
12. The Set and the Script
13. The Hospital
14. Flirting With Disaster
15. Blocked Arteries
16. Hospital Hallucinations
17. Something's Gone Wrong
18. Bye-Bye Love
19. The Big Exit
20. End Titles

Dan Jardine

Bob Fosse's not-so-thinly veiled autobiographical film is a viciously honest portrayal of the central character, Joe Gideon, a brilliant but deeply troubled and self-absorbed director/choreographer who has ongoing problems with drugs, alcohol, and fidelity. All That Jazz is a speed freak of a movie, flying by at breakneck pace, then screeching to a halt so the protagonist can indulge in some serious ruminations on death. The film takes regular detours into the surreal, as Jessica Lange's appearance as the stunningly beautiful personification of death hints at Gideon's self-destructive impulses. As his name suggests, Gideon has a bit of a God complex, and he views his work as a struggle to create something as beautiful as one of God's creations. It is difficult to tell if Fosse is apologizing for his boorish behavior or explaining it. Perhaps the film's most revealing line of dialogue is delivered by Gideon as he faces death "If I die, I'm sorry for all the bad things I did to you. And if I live, I'm sorry for all the bad things I'm gonna do to you." The film is a dazzling piece of eye (and ear) candy, full of brilliant dance sequences (the AirRotica sequence stands out), great music, and bizarre flights into the fantasy world in Gideon's head. The fanciful near-death experiences at the climax are an adrenaline-soaked showstopper, and Roy Scheider does the best work of his career. The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won four of them. ~ Dan Jardine, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Wallace Shawn  Actor 
Ben Masters  Actor 
Nicole Fosse  Actor 
Sloane Shelton  Actor 
Theresa Merritt  Actor 
Sandahl Bergman  Actor 
CCH Pounder  Actor 
Ralph Burns  Composer (Music Score) 
Bob Fosse  Director 
Bob Fosse  Screenwriter 
Daniel Melnick  Executive Producer 
Daniel Melnick  Producer 
Wolfgang Glattes  Producer 
Robert Alan Aurthur  Producer 
Robert Alan Aurthur  Screenwriter 
Roy Scheider  Actor 
Jessica Lange  Actor 
Ann Reinking  Actor 
Leland Palmer  Actor 
Cliff Gorman  Actor 
John Lithgow  Actor 
Erzebet Foldi  Actor 
Ben Vereen  Actor 
Michael Tolan  Actor 
Max Wright  Actor 
William Le Massena  Actor 
Chris Chase  Actor 
Deborah Geffner  Actor 
Kathryn Doby  Actor 
Anthony Holland  Actor 
Robert Hitt  Actor 
David Margulies  Actor 
Sue Paul  Actor 
Keith Gordon  Actor 
Frankie Man  Actor 
Alan Heim  Actor 

Country: USA