'Round Midnight

You don't have to be a jazz fan to love this film, but it helps! Seeing so many jazz greats was a pleasure, and hearing them jam was inspiring. Short on plot but long on carefully crafted acting -Dexter Gordon was magnificent.

'Round Midnight (1986)

If you love jazz, and especially if you love bebop and the 1940s and 50s music carried on by the real Dexter Gordon (who stars here), you ought to like this movie a lot. Or at least like and love the music.

And the music is great, with Herbie Hancock taking the Oscar that year for original score. Gordon is excellent, too, playing the fictional character, Dale Turner, not so different from his real life, as Gordon lived in Paris for years because the jazz scene was still alive there for him. The movie is based on a book loosely based on two earlier jazzmen, however: the great and troubled Bud Powell who played piano and of course the legendary Lester Young who played, like Dale Turner, the tenor sax.

And so do I, sort of. I love this stuff, the music and even the lore a bit, the individuals that make up that fifty years or so of classic jazz.

But the music is not entirely the movie. As a plot, a series of meaningful events and conversations, this is meandering (which can be wonderful in a better film) and sometimes poorly acted and poorly written. It's full of stupid clichés, frankly. And in fact it seems like what it probably is: an outsider's rosy-eyed vision of the American jazz scene as it was transplanted in Paris. It's filled with inevitable smoky rooms, quirky characters, tough but marginalized woman, alcoholic men, and dark nights. I'm sure that's accurate in the outline, but it comes off as naive and pre-packaged. Add the final element, that the music is played for a bunch of White Europeans who really love it but don't actually get it (sorry to say) the way it was "gotten" here in America, or was back in the day. It all rings false. Increasingly.

I'd love to know what other insider jazz people think of this portrayal. Watching the Ken Burns documentary of jazz series with all the clips and comments gives another kind of false view, aggrandizing as it is, but is has all the elements of truth built in to know something of the honesty and difficulty of the scene in the States. Director and writer Bertrand Tavernier is trying something noble, and probably coming from a love of jazz, but it's almost unwatchable as a movie.

In fact, it's almost insulting with all the clichés—the troubled French man who loves it all in a wide-eyed way and is supposed to show a rare empathy for the poor unappreciated Americans at the top. And that's the core of the movie. He says, more than once in different ways, "Your music changed my life." Yeah, yeah, of course! That's still not going to fill two hours on the screen.

Take these comments with some salt—the movie got lots of nominations for awards. And Dexter Gordon is terrific in his acting (if not always his somewhat stiff playing), which is a kind of revelation. And it might be enjoyable for the lack of glitz here, for all the quiet (a.k.a. boring for some) conversations. You'll get the feel in the first twenty minutes.

And love the music. That's a good full half of this troubled movie.

This is jazz-fan's delight: tons of jazz, featuring tenor saxophone with some bebop thrown in. Most of the music is nice mellow stuff and interesting to hear, even to a non-jazz buff like me.

The music and interesting story made me purchase the DVD, which I have subsequently watched three or four times and always enjoyed. The story is pretty laid-back, a simple tale of an American alcoholic sax great playing in France who reforms because of a French fan who cares about him.

Dexter Gordon's unique voice makes helps him become an interesting character to hear and the real-life jazz great proves to be a decent actor, too. Francois Cluzet plays the admirer who goes out of his way to help his idol. Gabrielle Haker is pleasant to watch as Cluzet's young daughter. She always seems to have a beautiful smile on her face.

I don't why this film was rated "R" because there is no sex, no nudity, little profanity except for a couple of "f-words," which must be the reason for the rating. Nevertheless, it's a pretty tame movie.

I found it a different and nice, gentle story.

In the Existentialist '50s, bebop jazz expanded beyond Manhattan and became all the rage in Paris. French intellectuals such as Sartre (in his pro-American hotdogs-and-bourbon phase) applied their knowledge to the music of poorly-educated African-Americans and discovered that this too, like the cinema of Jerry Lewis, was something they could like about America.

Director/scenarist Bertrand Tavernier, a veteran of the St. Germain des Pres scene, crafted "Round Midnight" as a nostalgic tribute to a now-vanished European musical scene. (The Blue Note Club is a studio set, the original having been pulled down). Melding the life stories of pianist Bud Powell and sax man Lester Young into a memorable character called Dale Turner, Tavernier benefited from the fortunate casting of real-life musician Dexter Gordon to play this role.

Gordon spent much of his working life in Copenhagen and in 1963 made a record with Powell in Paris. The two were part of a large group of black American jazzmen who gigged across Western Europe as the 52nd Street scene back home began to wane. Essentially, Gordon played himself, for which he deservedly received an Oscar nomination on his first try.

Musicians are not necessarily actors, but "Round Midnight" is bolstered by strong performances from a number of U.S. and French jazz players paying tribute to their own. As pleasant as the film's musical score is, "Round Midnight" succeeds because the cast of music professionals shows what they can do away from the bandstand.

I never write or read these comments because I don't care much what others think of a movie and I sure as heck can't stand reading a pointless review by someone pretending to be the NY Times movie critic using words like "iconoclastic" and otherwise taxing their thesaurus. But being a musician and avid fan myself, I felt I owed this to Dexter Gordon, an excellent musician whose work (I would have said "oeuvre" if I was pretentious, but I say what I mean and I don't need to impress you to make me feel better) was nothing short of legendary. Yes, Dexter Gordon is not an actor, but he did a good job and apparently the folks who hand out the Oscars thought the same, not that I would necessarily use them as a barometer, mind you, but they do pick more winners than losers. Although Dexter did spend about 15 years on/off in Paris, this story is NOT autobiographical, but the storyline of dealing with addictions, mental pain and physical suffering while honing a great talent can be applied to the lives of many jazz greats like Charlie Parker, Lester Young & Bud Powell just to name a few. It's a "dark" movie indeed, but the life of a musician can be very dark. This movie shows how 2 people can work together to overcome their fears, regrets and troubles, and how they interact with the various people and situations in their lives, a true character study revolving around music. The movie is actually more about Francois' character than Dexter's as it's seen from his point of view. It's about the frailty of the human soul and it's about compassion for supreme artistry. Most importantly, regardless of your impression of the movie, you get to see some real legends perform some wonderful jazz. Yes, Dexter Gordon was certainly beyond his prime and you will hear a few clunkers and pitch variance, but you will appreciate his talent nonetheless if you understand or enjoy jazz music at all. If you want to hear him really shine, go listen to his music from the late 40's & also the 60's during his first comeback; Dexter had 3 great comebacks --- and they say Sinatra was a genius at reinvention. That will give you a true sampling of his talent before he got old and started losing his wind. Even though he didn't play to perfection, he still played damn well in this movie and you can hear the experience in his phrasing and choice of notes --- for instance, at the very end of "Body & Soul", where he formerly played a very long ending like a virtuoso in an earlier recording (something you probably expect from someone like Kenny G, who plays about 40 notes where only 10 fit comfortably), Dexter now plays a single, beautifully-placed note. That one single note blew me away! You have to understand and appreciate the fact that most players (and most people) say way too much with their music or words when a carefully placed note or word can say volumes with its understatement, like a single picture with no caption. To play that one note in that one spot was pure genius. Bob James has been known to do the same --- less is more sometimes. Francois Cluzet does a heckuva job as protector and friend and the cameo by Martin Scorsese is priceless. The ending always leaves me wanting more and that's the mark of an excellent movie --- one so good you don't want it to end; you want to be within the movie yourself and you feel you're a part of it. The only reason I gave this a 9 instead of 10 was because it's not a great classic movie like Casablanca or The Godfather, but it touched me as much or more than those movies ever had. But this wasn't meant to be a piece of cinematic history and achievement, it is what it is, a period film about life of a jazz legend and in that respect it does everything possible and them some. This movie deserves your respect, your time and your admiration of a great jazz saxophonist, Dexter Gordon, and kudos to all the musicians involved, especially Herbie Hancock. Actress Lonette McKee does an excellent job on the vocals as well. It also gives you a good feel of a real urban jazz club in the early 60's and how life was for these jazz legends. If you get hooked on this stuff you'll never listen to anything else as it will never measure up, but jazz is very cerebral and it takes someone with a passion for aesthetics to appreciate it. Chess is great too, but you don't see many kids playing Chessmaster on their computers. This movie is an acquired taste and an excellent one at that. Thanks for the memories, Dexter.