Saw All That Jazz (1979), a movie-movie about a stage and movie director near the end of his life, facing down his own irrelevancy and crumbling health. The film is very kaleidoscopic, voice-overs and background conversations and serious meanings behind frivolous smiles are all layered on top each other. The effect is initially bewildering, however once you get into the groove of the film, it serves to get us into the bewildered mind of the protagonist, how he's tormented by his own artificiality and regrets, how he keeps a happy face on it all which he himself sometime despises. There's a scene late in the film where he says "I hate showbusiness." and another character responds "You love show business."
I didn't love the film. It's good, but I liked Confessions of a Dangerous Mind better, and saw it first. The film is also apparently inspired by 8½, by Fellini, which I've also seen. Unlike those films, this one has more of a smeary, soft-focus look, ala Terry Guilliam's movies (I'm thinking about Time Bandits here) it also has the intentionally tawdry feel of Cabaret which was directed by the same director and which I enjoyed. This one was interesting and had some good thoughts about self-destruction vs self-sacrifice, and about the dual artificiality and sincerity of showbusiness, I just wasn't in the mood I guess.
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