Jazzy black humor.

• Author: Gehring, Wes D.
• Position: REEL WORLD - Bob Fosse's All That Jazz

SINCE THE 1970s, genre-crossing dark comedies frequently have masqueraded behind other categories, such as the nominal Western "Little Big Man" (1970), or the titular neo-film noir "Chinatown" (1974). That is, while these movies embrace the twisted trio of black humor themes--the omnipresence of death, the absurdity of the world, and man as beast--one's knee-jerk response is to categorize them elsewhere. Moreover, even these genre cloaks break their own category conventions, adding to the attraction of dark comedy. For instance, in the Cavalry vs. the Indian world of "Little Big Man," one now roots for the Native Americans. The token femme fatale in "Chinatown" (Faye Dunaway) actually is an innocent victim, and Jack Nicholson's prerequisite gumshoe is a prosperous detective whose metier involves divorce cases in stunning California sunlight. Where is the down-and-out Philip Marlowe, or Sam Spade, who lives in those murderous German Expressionistic nights come to Los Angeles?

Still, the 1970s' best example of these more complex genre-crossing dark comedies is Bob Fosse's "All That Jazz" (1979), in which the term "subterfuge" might serve as a subtitle. Ostensibly a musical, this tale follows the life and death of stage and screen director Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider). A musical comedy about death is hardly Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers territory. Moreover, unlike the long takes and shots the choreographing Astaire used in their films, in order to prove the duo's artistry (excessive editing might make viewers question the team's talent), Fosse assumed the opposite perspective. As early as the "Hey Big Spender" number in "Sweet Charity" (1969), Fosse was creating dance through editing, now called the "montage musical." This is best showcased in "All That Jazz" in the open audition sequence of "On Broadway," when Fosse's editing morphs several hopeful dancers into a single leaping and spinning figure.

Another anti-genre smokescreen for "All That Jazz" is how Fosse performs a topsyturvydom maneuver on the art house film, the nontraditional genre that asks raised-issue questions, such as is there a God, or why are we here? Yet, there is none of the macabre deep dish symbolism of Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" (1957), in which a disillusioned knight (Max von Sydow) plays chess with a black-garbed death (Benjt Ekerot) so that the returning Crusader might buy time to make sense of God's silence.

In contrast, Fosse's figure of death is a...