ALL THAT JAZZ **

"All that Jazz" shared the Palme d'Or at Cannes with "Kagemusha" and went on to win 4 Oscars yet it's not an easy film nor a particularly likeable one. It is, perhaps, the most shamelessly autobiographical musical ever made but whereas most directors would probably paint 'themselves' in a good light Bob Fosse's alter-ego, Joe Gideon, is a hard-drinking, pill-popping, womanising chauvinist. Roy Scheider is superb in the part but he isn't someone who engenders our sympathy.

Fundamentally this is a 'putting-on-a-show' musical but it's not like any other 'putting-on-a-show' musical you've ever seen. The life of Scheider's Gideon/Fosse is played out in what looks like a giant dressing room presided over by Jessica Lange's Angel of Death and Fosse leaves us in no doubt that the guy up on screen is meant to be him; as he rehearses his new show we see him editing his movie "Lenny" but with Cliff Gorman, Broadway's Lenny, rather than the real movie's Dustin Hoffman.



Of course, it's self-indulgent and there isn't that many musical numbers though the few we do get are brilliantly directed and choreographed, (the 'erotic ballet' is a stunner). It's probably closer to Fellini than to anything else Fosse did, (Fosse's 8 1/2?), so newcomers to the picture may be inclined to think of "Nine" while they're watching it. It's certainly well made but it's a sour and self-critical movie, perhaps too much in love with its own sense of style. As if prefiguring his own early demise Fosse kills off his central character but his death becomes just another production number, (Bye Bye Life). Nothing, it seems, is to be taken seriously. This is a pity because as it stands "All that jazz" feels strangely smart and soulless at one and the same time.