All That Jazz (1979)

Choreographing and picking dancers for his new show whilst editing his feature film about a standup comic is getting to Joe Gideon. He is a workaholic who also chain smokes, sleeps with various women and neglects his special dancing daughter Michelle. Without the chemical substances he wouldn't have the energy to keep up with his girlfriend Kate Jagger, his ex-wife Audrey Paris, and Michelle. Everything around him is causing tremendous stress to his already fatigued body and his imagination he flirts with an angel of death named Angelique.

Gideon's condition gets worse as he checks himself out at the hospital and learns that he has two clogged arteries and needs heart surgery. The backers for the Broadway show must decide now if they should delay the opening or replace Gideon as the director. Scenes from his past life start to encroach on the present as he becomes increasingly aware of his mortality. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Bob Fosse wrote and directed this semi-autobiographical fantasy tale. His girlfriend, Ann Reinking, who played a part based on herself, had to audition several times before she was cast. Talk about building self confidence, what if she had not been cast AS HERSELF!!!

I see this movie as really two movies. The first is a story about a smoking, drinking, womanizing, workaholic and his spiral into life threatening heart disease, basically real life. The second happens when Gideon is in the hospital and starts hallucinating full-on production numbers, basically, all in his head. Oh, and he talks with the Angel of Death all through the movie, kinda trying to explain himself, but on the other hand, flirting wth her. It is a pretty good movie though, when you put it altogether. Roy Scheider is pretty good as Joe Gideon. "It's Showtime!"