Above is Roy Schieder as Joe Gideon, a character based on the film's director and co-writer, Bob Fosse, in conversation with Jessica Lange, who plays Angelique, an afterlife figure who wants Joe so badly he can only be flattered -- eventually to death.
Billed as a "musical drama," the film focuses on Gideon's last months as he struggles to edit his over-time and -budget film (based on Fosse's Lenny, 1974) while at the same time choreograph a new Broadway musical, entitled NY/LA. Like Fellini's Guido (81/2, 1963), Fosse's Joe works hard, plays hard, and soon enough is hospitalized for exhaustion (angina). While there, he has the heart attack that takes him to heaven -- the "Bye Bye Life" sequence.
I first saw All That Jazz on VHS cassette in the early-1980s. Back then, I was accustomed, if not indifferent, to men like Joe and their domains. But now, in our age of personal accountability, it is hard to watch films like All That Jazz for their composition and treatment of certain themes and not be distracted by/alerted to their characters' social transgressions. I forget how many times I frowned at the screen and thought, There. Right there. Today this guy/this gal would go down for that.
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