MovieChat Forums > All That Jazz (1979) Discussion > High praise from Stanley Kubrick

High praise from Stanley Kubrick

posted 7 years ago by Edward_de_Vere
5 replies | jump to latest

Stanley Kubrick praised All that Jazz as one of his favorite films.

While Roy Scheider's performance is excellent and there are a handful of memorable moments from the supporting cast (especially the underrated Cliff Gorman as a Lenny Bruce stand-in), I don't see what Kubrick or anyone else thought was so great and ground-breaking about this movie. Scheider holds the film together as a character study, but there have been many other character study films that I found much more engaging (for instance, many of Coppola and Scorsese's films from the same decade).

For those on this board who are fans of All that Jazz, what am I missing?

[–] shieldsdraeger 7 years ago

You may not be aware that the main character is patterned after Fosse himself. And he
is very honest about his character flaws. But the main thing is how the story is told
through song and dance, Fosse's preferred form of artistic expression. And the dance
numbers are very imaginative. Maybe you just don't like musicals.

[–] Edward_de_Vere 7 years ago

You may not be aware that the main character is patterned after Fosse himself. And he
is very honest about his character flaws. But the main thing is how the story is told
through song and dance, Fosse's preferred form of artistic expression. And the dance
numbers are very imaginative. Maybe you just don't like musicals.

Well, I'm not a great fan of musicals, but as I said I can see why one may praise the film on account of Roy Scheider's performance and as a character study. What I was asking had more to do with what was so groundbreaking about this movie from a film-making point of view. I'm assuming that if Kubrick praised it as one of his favorite films, there must be more to it than good acting plus some song and dance routines.

[–] eelb 7 years ago

Perhaps Kubrick was a fan of the Broadway musical. Or a point could be made that the film is about show business in general. Which would include the movie industry. Maybe Kubrick saw some of himself in Joe Gideon.

[–] Edward_de_Vere 7 years ago

Maybe Kubrick saw some of himself in Joe Gideon

Quite possible, like Gideon, Kubrick was a perfectionist in his work and an egotist in his personality.

[–] IMDBRefugee1SD (139) 7 years ago

In 1979 Kubrick called All That Jazz "the best film I think that I have ever seen."

The film was not groundbreaking, though what other film tells its story in terms of dance like it?
I think that what Kubrick was praising was Fosse's vision and that he achieved it with no compromises.
That vision is elucidated in Alan Heim's(Fosse's editor) commentary track on the Criterion edition of the film.