All this jazz

The talented choreographer and director Joe Gideon is torn between preparing his new Broadway show and editing another movie.

Gideon is seriously ill, but every morning he starts with a shower, Alka-Seltzer tablets, a dose of stimulants and the phrase “The show begins, gentlemen!” And then - a busy day, cigarettes one after another, the difficult birth of a musical and a series of women (ex-wife, lover, attractive dancer from the new show), who are attracted to Joe, despite his constant betrayal and irresponsibility. However, the only one with whom Joe is truly honest and with whom he is truly passionate is a mysterious creature in white, his muse , and perhaps the angel of death .

An unhealthy lifestyle and its frantic pace naturally lead to a heart attack. Gideon goes to the hospital, where he will undergo heart surgery. But even the threat of death cannot make Gideon change. The producers of the musical are faced with a choice: replace the director of the show or wait until Joe recovers. As a result of negotiations with representatives of the insurance company, they find out that the death of Joe as a result of the operation will be the most favorable outcome for them. The insurance will cover all losses from a performance that strayed from the production schedule. Show business does not know pity. The finale of the picture is a brilliant mini-musical, a figment of the imagination of the dying Joe Gideon.

• Director - Bob Foss
• Producer - Robert Alan Arthur
• Screenwriter - Bob Foss , Robert Alan Arthur
• Composer - Ralph Barnes , Mike Stoller , Antonio Vivaldi
• Operator - Giuseppe Rotunno

The film reveals clear parallels with the life and work of the creator of the picture, Bob Foss. Just like the main character, Foss died of a heart attack in 1987, while working on his next tape, having lived only seven years after the release of the film “All This Jazz”.

The director of the picture decides on the screen a difficult dilemma - to create a realistic movie and to comply with all the genre conventions of a commercial musical show on Broadway.

The ups and downs of the picture send the viewer to another masterpiece, picture 8½ . As well as the hero of Fellini - Guido Anselmi, the director of the show painfully gives birth to the images of the future performance in his mind, after which they find their real appearance in music and dance. ^[one]

In 1996, the Russian group "Alice" released a number album called "Jazz". In an interview, group leader Konstantin Kinchev explained that the film was affected by the title of the album.

• Golden Palm Branch of Cannes Film Festival (1980)
• Bodil Award (1981) Best Non-European Film.
• Golden Globe Award (1980) Award nomination for Best Musical Film Actor

• Biography of Bob Fossi .