This Is Definitely A Film Worth Re-Visiting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

                                From watching all those celebrity picks from YouTube on The Criterion Closet,  I was always interested in how "All That Jazz" would turn up on many people's picks.  I had never really given it a thought beyond 1979.  Oh, but let me correct myself.  The film was released on December 20, 1979, which means I did not see it till sometime in early 1980.  This was especially a harsh time in my life.  My mother had died eight months before, I had not found my working niche yet, and relations were beginning to call me out on it.

                                When I finally saw the film, at the Ziegfeld Theater, with my friend Doug, who was obsessed with the film, particularly Jessica Lange as The Angel Of Death, what stayed with me was the opening sequence, where a dance audition is held, and they dance to "On Broadway."  I kept thinking this is how "A Chorus Line" should look, if transferred to film.  Was Bob Fosse consciously trying to beat Michael Bennet, whose show "A Chorus Line" was?  Unfortunately, he did, because the 1985 film version of "A Chorus Line" was disgraceful, and Bennett died soon after that in 1987.  Maybe Baayork Lee is the only hope for putting it on film, but then would she want to?

                                 Seeing "All That Jazz" yesterday, after 46 years, made me realize the passage of time, because I remember so well the 70's New York theater scene, which the film so accurately captures.  Those who do not, recall it, and who are not familiar with whom the film's characters are based on, may not have a clue as to what they are watching.  I mean, how many folks out there will know that Leland Palmer's (What ever happened to her?) Audrey Paris was a stand-in for Gwen Verdon, or that Erseber Foldi, as daughter Michelle, stood in for Fosse's daughter Nicole, or that Ann Reinking's character essentially played herself?  This knowledge is tantamount to understanding and liking this film, which is why gays and Theater Queens of a certain age are especially drawn to it.

                                    And while Roy Scheider's performance as Chief Brody in "JAWS" was fine, nothing could have prepared me for what he does here.  Playing Joe Gideon/Bob Fosse, he gives the performance of his life, putting all he has into the role in a way I never ever thought him capable of.  And he was still good looking here.

                                     Having seen Ben Vereen onstage in "Pippin" back in the day, his number and the skill with which he pulled it off were no surprise to me.  What a pity there are no choreographers around like Fosse or Bennett.  Where are they?  But then, where is there great material for them to work on?  There used to be Susan Strohman and Warren Carlyle.  I had high hopes for them, as I still do for Justin Peck and Christopher Gattelli.  Only time and show quality will tell.

                                         Seeing "All That Jazz" a second time after a lifetime was both joyous and sad. Fosse's skill and razzle dazzle are there for posterity, but the era the film portrays when anything creative was possible has given way to crass commercialism.

                                           "Where's discretion of the heart, where's passion in the art, where's craft?"

                                            It is happily preserved in this film, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!