All That Jazz

Like someone’s dream of the end of life when a person reflects on all they have done and all that they have loved. Offbeat version of a famous choreographer’s life played so well by Roy Scheider.

I’m slowly building my Criterion collection and this is an amazing edition. Not only is the transfer beautiful but the extras are fantastic. There are several great interviews with Fosse and one with an older Ann Reinking and Erzebet Foldi that is very sweet. This was a favorite of mine since it came out in 1979 and I’m delighted to have this wonderful, beautifully restored edition from Criterion.

Bob Fosse was undoubtably a bastard and a genius. And, on top of both of those things, he was also incredible honest. Despite being a serial liar.This movie is basically his autobiography -- about the insane time when he was directing both the risky Broadway musical "Chicago" while ALSO directing Dustin Hoffman in the Academy Award nominated bio-pic "Lenny" (about Lenny Bruce).Unlike most filmmakers, Fosse does not shy from his faults. In fact, he puts them centerstage. He's a bastard. He admits he is. And he doesn't try to sugar coat it. That's why this brilliant masterpiece is one of the most gut wrenchingly beautiful emotional cadavers in film history. Hell, he put his own lover in the role of herself and had her play out scenes as they happened. Word for word. No rewrites. No apologies. Just the truth. Brutal and ugly. And dazzlingly entertaining.Roy Scheider (once again) shows why he was one of the biggest movie stars of the 1970s. He plays the fictional version of Bob and holy hell does he knock it out of the park. He was robbed of the Oscar that year (he was nominated). It's a performance that stands the test of time. Filled with humor, love, pathos, revulsion, pain and magic.There isn't a false beat in the whole thing. And I once again tip my hat to Criterion - they do one helluva transfer. This looks and sounds great. Top notch. Worth every dollar. This is a desert island movie for me - and I don't even like musicals. But it's not a "musical." It's all motivated (no stupid breaking out in song in the middle of a scene). This is quite simply one of the best movies ever made.

The usual excellent edition from Criterion, too is not available in 4K, but until then this Blu-ray will let you enjoy a masterpiece by Bob Fosse.

“Life is the wire, everything else is just waiting”Criterion has released the restored and beautiful version of All That Jazz. The colors, the skin tones, the atmosphere is perfectly and beautifully presented. For a 40 year old film the 3 channel DTS sound is very clear and dynamic. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and the technical aspects of the disc are outstanding.This is an unusual musical movie. In it Bob Fosse, the director, displays his own life and predicts his own death. And he paints a picture of show business that is cynical, cruel, selfish, self-destructing and enormously appealing.I enjoy seeing the movie a second time, more than the first because you learn who the people are and what they are doing. Oh, you know that the spectacular performance of Roy Scheider is there to duplicate the director, Bob Fosse. But Jessica Lange is beautiful, mysterious and dangerous, and someone who Fosse, here named Joe Gideon, had been courting all of his life.“Do you think Stanley Kubrick ever gets depressed?”The movie is a genuine and also a fantasy, with realism enhanced by fantasy, often in dance. Gideon (Fosse) is man who smoked too much, drank too much, took too many drugs to often and never worked to maintain a relationship. You like him and maybe feel sorry for him, but you never really root for him. This movie was made in 1979 and, almost a decade later, Fosse died of the same ailment that befalls Joe Gideon in this film.Upon seeing the movie after his death, the penultimate scene with Ms. Lange, will go to your heart.

Bottom Line First:All that Jazz can be an intense and difficult to watch. This is a rewarding movie for a thinking viewer. It is not recommend for date night, light entertainment. It is not entirely family friendly as there can be rough language and exposed flesh. There are views of actual open heart surgery. All That Jazz is a dramatic exposure of a person's inner life as he forces himself to see past his own weaknesses. Along the way there is great dancing, moments of satire, love of family and love of the flesh. If you are open to a serious and complex movie I recommend All That Jazz.Director, choreographer and writer Bob Fosse invites you to watch this as a film autobiography. Roy Scheider who performs the Fosse role as Joe Gideon reemphasizes this approach in the commentaries attached to this copy. Many who knew Fosse reacted to this view of the movie commenting with equal passion that Bob Fosse was not that bad of a person and that he was worse.This is fiction. Fosse used elements from his life to create a fictional world. Joe Gideon is not (exactly) Fosse. Gideon is an exaggeration of those elements, good and bad that make for a dramatic movie. I take this stand against the counter argument that no autobiography is an exact retelling of the writer's life, because the writer is never able to remove himself from the retelling. Fosse makes the deliberate decision to pick and choose because fiction allows/Demands that he change reality to fit the demands of his story.Joe Gideon is a man slaved to the classic addictions: booze, drugs, sex and work. Against the claims of all these `unreal' aspects of being a person he will sacrifice every real value: His real love of his daughter, his abiding love for his ex-wife and the burgeoning love for his girlfriend. He is deeply committed to the production of Broadway musical comedy and his next movie. All that is real in Joe Gideon is on view and available for his customers, those who care most about him get what is left.As the movie open we can see that what is left is dwindling. We are here to watch this man die. We are invited to judge him. We see him from the view of his business partners, fellow performers, and loved ones. We will watch him judge himself before death. Rather the Angel of Death played, rather perfectly underplayed by Jessica Lange. Death clearly does not judge, and is never fooled. She is everyone's ultimate lover and is beyond caring about anyone's artifices, dodges or self-delusions.Director Fosse refuses to blink or excuse Joe's failures. It is this honesty that can make this movie difficult to watch. If you can see this much into another man's life and not ask yourself to see past your own excuses, then watch All that Jazz again. You may be razzled dazzed by the sex and dancing and all that jazz, but ultimately Fosse asks that you see your truth.

Absolutely brilliant. 💗

recommended

Bob Fosses sarkastisches Musical "All That Jazz" entstand 1979 und bescherte dem Genre, dessen beste Zeiten schon vorbei waren, bei der Oscarwahl 1979 noch einmal neun Nominierungen von denen sich fünf (Bester Film, Beste Regie; Bester Darsteller Roy Scheider, bestes Drehbuch und beste Kamera Giuseppe Rotunno) am Ende nicht durchsetzen konnten, aber in vier Kategorien wurde ein Sieg eingefahren. Ralph Burns für den besten Original Score wurde ausgezeichnet, ebenso wie der geniale Schnitt von Alan Heim. Auch die Kostümdesigner um Albert Wolsky durften sich freuen, weil ihre Arbeit ausgezeichnet wurde. Ebenso wurden die Bühnenbildner Edward Stewart und Gary Brink sowie die künstlerischen Leiter Tony Walton und Philip Rosenberg geehrt."All That Jazz" war bis zur Nominierung von Disneys "Die Schöne und das Biest" im Jahr 1992 das letzte Musical, das für den Oscar als bester Film nominiert wurde und bis zu Baz Luhrmans "Moulin Rouge"das letzte Realfilm Musical, das in dieser Kategorie im Jahr 2002 nominiert wurde.Das Drehbuch wurde von Robert Alan Aurthur und Bob Fosse geschrieben und stellt eine halbautobiographische Fantasie dar, die vom Leben und der Karriere Fosses als Tänzer, Choreograph und Regisseur inspiriert wurde. Bob Fosses Film gewann 1980 bei den Filmfestspielen in Cannes die goldene Palme und spielte ca. 37 Millionen Dollar an der Kinokasse ein.Für Roy Scheider war es vermutlich die anspruchsvollste Rolle seines Lebens, obwohl er beim Publikum vor allem durch seine Rolle als Chief Brody in "Der weiße Hai" unvergesslich bleibt.Er entwickelt als Broadway Choreograph und Regisseur Joe Gideon eine unheimliche Präsenz. Leider unterlag er beim Oscarrennen Dustin Hoffman, der für das Rührstück "Kramer vs. Kramer" nominiert war.Er spielt den Egomanen einfach brilliant - der Film selbst ist eine schrille und bitterböse Zurschaustellung der Akteure, wie sie auf der Bühne agieren und wie sie hinter dem Rampenlicht agieren. Dabei geht der sexbesessene und bald auch todessehnsüchtige Selbstdarsteller sozusagen aufs Ganze. Trotz eines Herzinfarktes kann er nicht zur Ruhe kommen und verstärkt seine nervöse Energie umso mehr...Die Inszenierung zeigt zunächst das faszinierende, aber ruhelose Leben des Choreographen, der seine Ehe mit Audrey Paris (Leland Palmer) durch seine ständigen Seitensprünge ruiniert und auch seine Tochter Michelle (Erzsébet Földi) vernachlässigt. Das gleiche gilt für seine jetzige Freundin Katie Jagger (Ann Reinking). Er betrügt auch sie mit anderen Frauen. Doch noch wichtiger als die Frauen ist seine Besessenheit für seine Arbeit, die sein ganzes Leben diktiert. Gideon hat schon als junger Mann (Keith Gordon) das Showgeschäft geliebt und ist nie wieder davon losgekommen. "Its showtime folks" so sein Leitspruch und er bleibt ihm auch bis zum bitteren Ende treu. Im Laufe des Films wirkt die handlung immer surrealer und es erscheint ihm die hübsche Angelique (Jessica Lange), die sich als Engel des baldigen Todes erweisen wird. Mit ihr erlebt er auch das 5 Phasen Stebemodell nach Kübler-Ross: Nicht Wahrhaben Wollen, Zorn, Verhandeln, Depression und Akzeptanz - dieses Modell nahm früher einer seiner Comedians (Cliff Gorman) in seinem Auftritt mit aus und machte sich darüber lustig.Das AFI setzte "All that Jazz" (Das ganze Zeug) in ihrer Liste der besten Musicals aller Zeiten auf Platz 14.

Servizio di consegna ottimo; il dvd è arrivato ben confezionato e nei tempi richiesti. Il video, come sempre, è strepitoso!

El envío lo califico con cinco estrellas, el paquete llegó bien y sin demora.Reseña:Voy a ser muy sincero: a mi nunca me han gustado los musicales. Pocas excepciones han sido de mi agrado como la reciente La La Land o Bailando en la Oscuridad de Lars Von Trier, o la más exagerada y rara Cry Baby de John Waters, donde actúa un muy joven Johnny Depp. Sin embargo All That Jazz, va más allá de ser un musical y ha hecho que vea los musicales de manera diferente. O por lo menos solo esta película.Bob Fosse, el director de la película, fue muy reconocido más como coreógrafo, bailarín e inclusive actor de cine, antes de incursionar como director . Su incursión en la dirección cinematográfica si bien consta de una filmografía muy corta, pero con películas como Cabaret de 1972 y All That Jazz de 1979, marcaron su carrera como director para siempre. Ésta última incluso le valió ganar la palma de oro en el festival de Cannes, y sin duda alguna, llevó al género musical hacia otro terreno.All that Jazz, cuenta la historia de Joe Gideon, un coreógrafo y director de una obra de teatro de Broadway, que goza de una gran fama y prestigio. Por las mañanas se encarga de dirigir y ensayar su nueva obra de teatro, mientras que por las noches, se encarga de editar su nueva obra cinematográfica. Joe Gideon, interpretado por Roy Scheider (conocido por su papel en Tiburón) vive una vida caótica y acelerada, siendo un perfeccionista obsesivo, vive en una espiral acelerada entre las obras de teatro y su película que va dirigiendo y editando hasta la saciedad. Gideon es la representación de la vida misma de Fosse, y esto hace de All That Jazz, una película semi autobiográfica. All that Jazz es una reflexión que Fosse hace de su propia vida en la piel de Joe Gideon, un hombre acelerado y ocupado, que consigue también a la par de sus proyectos, vivir su vida personal que lo aleja más de su propia novia, o de sus propias infidelidades y también más aparte de su propia hija.Con Gideon, Bob Fosse hace de All That Jazz su testamento cinematográfico anticipado de su propia vida, ya que tan solo ocho años después, Fosse murió de un infarto a los 60 años, justo cuando se encontraba en la preparación de una nueva obra de teatro.All That Jazz es un musical que va más allá, es una reflexión alegre y agridulce sobre la vida y la muerte, es una reflexión sobre la existencia de un hombre, que en cuerpo y alma fue capaz de entregarse a sí mismo a su pasión que eran los trabajos a los que se dedicaba. Y al entregarse a todo eso, también a las consecuencias que acarreaban.La edición de Criterion es magistral, y está repleta de varios extras muy interesantes que hacen la pena cada peso gastado en la edición, y que sirven de mucho para entender más allá la obra de Fosse. Lo único (y que siempre será lo malo) es que Criterion nunca va a tener subtítulos en otro idioma más que en inglés, en cada una de sus ediciones.Lo mejor: El inicio de la película, con la canción On Broadway de George Benson. La escena donde Gideon lee junto con los miembros de la obra de teatro el guion. Los diálogos con la mujer bella que tiene Gideon, y por supuesto, la secuencia final: magistral.Lo peor: ¿Puede haber algo malo en esta película? Para mi no, pero quizá el ritmo tan rápido que tiene quizá pueda ser confuso, pero es digno de representar la vida que Gideon tiene a lo largo de la película.Sin duda alguna, una obra maestra total del cine contemporáneo.Si no te gustan los musicales, ver All That Jazz hará que tu opinión cambie de parecer, no importa en qué medio la veas, es una película que vale la pena ver por lo menos una vez en la vida.10/10