All That Jazz
All That Jazz is a 1979 American musical drama film directed by Bob Fosse and starring Roy Scheider. The screenplay, by Robert Alan Aurthur and Fosse, is a semi-autobiographical fantasy based on aspects of Fosse's life and career as a dancer, choreographer and director. The film was inspired by Fosse's manic effort to edit his film Lenny while simultaneously staging the 1975 Broadway musical Chicago. It borrows its title from the Kander and Ebb tune "All That Jazz" in that production.
Plot
Joe Gideon is a theater director and choreographer attempting to balance staging his latest Broadway musical, NY/LA while editing a Hollywood film he has directed, The Stand-Up. He is an alcoholic, a driven workaholic who chain-smokes cigarettes, and a womanizer constantly flirting and engaging in sexual encounters with a stream of women. Each morning, he begins his day by playing a tape of Vivaldi while taking doses of Visine, Alka-Seltzer, and Dexedrine, always concluding by looking at himself in the mirror and saying, "It's showtime, folks!" Joe's ex-wife, Audrey Paris, is involved with the production of the show but disapproves of his womanizing ways. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Katie Jagger, and daughter Michelle keep him company. In his imagination, he flirts with an angel of death named Angelique in a nightclub setting, discussing his life with her.