Round Midnight is a 1986 film directed by Bertrand Tavernier and written by David Rayfiel and Bertrand Tavernier. It tells the story of an African American tenor saxophone player in Paris in the 1950s who is befriended by an unsuccessful French graphic designer who idolizes the musician and who tries desperately to help him to escape alcohol abuse.
The protagonist jazzman, "Dale Turner", was based on a composite of real-life jazz legends Lester Young (tenor sax) and the tortured and enigmatic Bud Powell (piano). While the film is fictionalized, it is drawn directly from the memoir/biography Dance of the Infidels written by Francis Paudras, who had befriended Powell during his Paris expatriate days and on whom the character "Francis" is based. The film is a wistful and tragic portrait that captures the Paris jazz scene of the 1950s.
The score for Round Midnight was composed by Herbie Hancock. Dexter Gordon was nominated for the "Academy Award" for Best Actor in a Leading Role and won a Grammy for the film's soundtrack entitled "The Other Side of Round Midnight" in the category for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Soloist. Herbie Hancock won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Score. The soundtrack was released in two parts: "Round Midnight" and "The Other Side of Round Midnight". ~wikipedia
Starring: Dexter Gordon, Francois Cluzet
Supporting actors: Sandra Reaves-phillips, Lonette Mckee,
Herbie Hancock, Martin Scorsese
Directed by: Bertrand Tavernier
Genre: Drama, Music
Runtime: 2 hours 12 minutes
Release year: 1986
Studio: Warner Bros.
Review by William E Donoghue "Fessor Mojo" (Healdsburg CA USA) ~amazon
This touching and realistic movie is quietly dedicated to jazz pianist Bud Powell and saxophonnist Lester Young (both expatiriates who lived in Paris) on whose life the character of "Dale Turner," the saxophonist, is based. The character of Dale Turner, a jazzman in his last days, is played by Dexter Gordon, a jazzman soon to die of throat cancer. Dexter Gordon, a real-life expatriot jazzman who spent much of his playing years in Denmark, deservedly received an academy award nomination for his moving portrayal based on not only a real life story but people and settings with which he was personally familiar. In many ways it is the story of all three musicians, Gordon, Powell and Young. But even more it is based on a fine book on the life of Bud Powell by the young Frenchman who befriended him (which I cannot put my hands on right now). It's as close to truth as you can come. By the way, Dexter played Montreux the next year and while he sounds fragile in the film, he play with great strength.
More Details & Buy Film:
"Round Midnight": ~www.imdb.com
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