Tödlicher Winter

My review was written in March 1992 after a Greenwich Village screening.

Jazz fans and foreign film fans are both ill-served by "The Winter in Lisbon", a glum thriller guest-starring Dizzy Gillespie.

Spanish helmer Jose Antonio Zorrilla obviously likes movies (there are several nods to classic films included), but lacks the rudimentary skills for building a narrative or characterizations.

Stillborn story involves jazz pianist Chistian Vadim falling in love with Helene de St. Pere when she visits the San Sebastian jazz club Lady Bird, where he's appearing with the Bill Swann quintet (led by Gillespie).

His not-so-torrid romance with her (there's nudity but strictly mechanical passion) unfolds like a music video with Gillespie music on the soundtrack.

She disappears after a murder and turns out to be using Vadim as part of a complicated but uninteresting plot about arms trafficking, overthrowing the Portuguese government and a stolen Cezanne painting.

Zorrilla leaves most of the key action off-screen and gets zombie-like performances from his leads. Vadim, son of Catherine Deneuve and Roger Vadim, is a rising young star whose personality seems on hold in this vehicle.

Gilespie has one heartfelt scene lamenting the racism and drug use in the States, which caused his character to flee for Europe. His core is effective, consistently dominating the listless visuals, with nice keyboard work by Danilo Perez. As the fictional Swann, Gillespie plays a straight horn, rather than his trademark bent bell trumpet.