Six Movies That Are (Not So) Secretly About Their Directors
Jon Favreau's 'Chef' is the latest in a long line of motion picture selfies.
All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)
“Do you suppose Stanley Kubrick ever gets depressed?”
Bob Fosse was a renowned choreographer-turned-filmmaker, who made All That Jazz as a fictionalised depiction of his own career. Inspired by his efforts trying to make the Lenny Bruce biopic Lenny (1974) at the same time as he was staging the premiere of the musical Chicago on Broadway, All That Jazz stars Roy Scheider as a director and choreographer who is on death’s door due to his own excessive workload. Far from a simple vanity project, All That Jazz picked up the Palme d’Or at Cannes the following year, and remains one of the 70s’ forgotten masterpieces.
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Chef is now showing in select cinemas.
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Lee Zachariah is a writer and journalist. He co-hosted the ABC2 film comedy series The Bazura Project, and is a co-presenter of film podcast Hell Is For Hyphenates. He tweets at @leezachariah.