La ballade des sans-espoirs

This may be the best movie ever made about jazz, at least by a mainstream Hollywood company. John Cassavetes had not yet dropped out of the L.A. scene to write and direct his own indie movies, and Too Late Blues represents one of his final attempts to try and do something different and ofbeat within the framework of The Big Time of movie-making. He pretty much pulls it off, with only one problem - because he and the film company refused to pull any punches, and offered a realistic rather than a romantic portrait of the jazz scene, what they ended up with was a pretty fine movie that was so totally depressing, no one wanted to go see it. Bobby Darin, just then trying to kick off a movie career a la his idol frank sinatra, plays the lead, "Ghost," a talented jazz musician with a fine band that just might make waves as they refuse to compromise for commercial success. Then Bobby meets a depressed but gorgeous young blonde (Stella Stevens, the most underrated actress of her generation) and shortly will do everything and anything he needs to do to win her. She's no simple femme fatale, though, and the full dimensionality of her character is essential to why the film clicks - in a notably downbeat way. As Bobby must choose between getting the girl or getting the gigs, he faces the great threat of every artist, jazz or otherwise. The mood and atmosphere is vivid, convincing, memorable in a noir kind of way. Catch this if you want quality - but not if you want some easy going escapism.

In one mindset, we can understand the metaphor of pushing against, wavering, finally giving in to Hollywood, and give credit for eloquently depicting that through a musical feast for the senses.

That being said, without actively thinking about this, it only made for another metaphor that isn't so attractive: a story that took its sweet time to take one tentative step forward, not going anywhere for quite some time and, unable to make that second step, instead takes two confident steps backwards.

Meanwhile, yes, a black and white beauty and the music was delightful, but unless you are thinking about it within an academic framework, Cassavettes' "Too Late Blues" is an overall disappointing viewing experience for the traditional viewer.

John Cassavetes creates an eternally unique drama with his chronicle of an idealistic jazz musician played by crooner Bobby Darin, and his relationship among his fellow band members and his object of affection, a beautiful would-be singer who comes between him and his band members, played by Stella Stevens in an honest, humanly extreme performance clearly directed by Cassavetes and cementing an argument that she could have held her own as a star.

Darin, as Cassavetes surely intended, brings a realistic contribution to his character from his life in the world of the era's music scene, as a dogmatically philosophical band leader who takes tremendous pride in seeing a profound, transcendental beauty in a mellow, instrumental school of jazz that he, with the exasperated tolerance of his fellow players, finds ideal to play to empty parks to communicate with nature and birds when he isn't playing gigs at old people's homes and orphanages. What is irrelevant in this film is how we feel about the music he feels most personally in tune with (no pun intended) in comparison to the commercially accessible music that would welcome him into a successful career. Like all Cassavetes films, Too Late Blues is about a character whose proclivities are beyond us, and what keeps it from being subjective or affected is that the rest of the characters share our feelings.

The key to our understanding and relating ardently to Darin's character is his unrelenting obstinacy, which becomes Bobby Darin uncannily, borne by the pride that absorbs all of his perceptions into what is of use only to him. As this dooming characteristic rears its head, an internal conflict between his true passions and what will gain him the recognition that deep down he wants more than anything else, we come to dislike him and find ourselves on the side of his band members and his girl Stevens.

Full of far-seeing insight and relentless individuality, it is not well-recognized film, which in itself is a testament to the artistic truth it presents. This is in some sense a shame though, because it is really a moving film in spite of all the expectations accompanied by an audience's perception of a music film. There are many great scenes where we simply hang out with the band in their regular hang-out spot with an entertaining bar owner, or we indulge in their impulsive diversions, or we react in unusual ways and we must step out of our regiments and make an endeavor out of looking further.

John Cassavetes produced and directed "Too Late Blues", as well as co-writing it, in 1961. It was his second film, after "Shadows", but he never really rated it, feeling the studio imposed restrictions on his 'style' and that the end result was too conventional. It wasn't. It may not be quite in the same class as "A Woman Under the Influence" or "Opening Night" but it is still remarkable in its free-wheeling, semi-improvisational way.

It's about jazz musicians and in particular Bobby Darin's pianist and Stella Steven's singer and their on-again, off-again romance. They are both terrific, particularly Stevens, (I think it's one of the great overlooked performances by an actress in the movies), and there is an equally brilliant performance by Everett Chambers as Darin's Machiavellian agent. Indeed the entire supporting cast are outstanding confirming, even at this early stage, that Cassavetes was a great director of actors. The superb black and white photography is by Lionel Lindon and naturally there is some great jazz on the soundtrack.

Coming after "shadows" and preceding "a child is waiting" ,"too late blues" is some kind of arithmetic mean between them.Not overtly avant-garde ,but never really mainstream,unlike the 1959 movie ,it has a screenplay and most of the dialogues are not improvised:actually they sometimes seem "carefully" written.

Stella Stevens gives a wistful sad performance ,diametrically opposite to later parts such as those of "girls girls girls" (!)or 'the silencers".Her singing -or that of the singer who dubs her?- looks like a moaning which stunningly blends with the boys' music.

"Too late blues" keeps a rather loose plot,but "a child is waiting "would take its "conventional " side and tighten it up:as a result ,Cassavetes would disown "a child..." and go back to less accessible works such as his debut.