EC-CHAP Film Series: "Round Midnight" (R) 1986.
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L to R: Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon, Pierre Michelot, John McLaughlin, and Billy Higgins in a scene from ’Round Midnight (photo: Courtesy of the Criterion Collection)
Round Midnight is a 1986 musical drama film directed by Bertrand Tavernier and written by Tavernier and David Rayfiel. It stars Dexter Gordon, François Cluzet, and Herbie Hancock, the latter of whom also composed the film's soundtrack. Martin Scorsese, Philippe Noiret, and Wayne Shorter appear in cameos.
Gordon was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor 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. Hancock won the Academy Award for Best Original Score. The soundtrack was released in two parts: Round Midnight and The Other Side of Round Midnight.
The story takes place In the 1950s, Dale Turner (Dexter Gordon), a gifted black saxophonist with a drinking problem, leaves behind New York and his estranged family and relocates to Paris. There he plays for a progressive, jazz-loving audience without being judged by his race, and ages quietly in peace. Not intending to turn away from his vices, Dale nonetheless becomes the project of a French fan (François Cluzet) who tries to help him fight his alcoholism, ultimately inspiring both Dale and his music. - ROTTEN TOMATOES
Dexter Gordon as Dale Turner in ’Round Midnight (photo: Courtesy of the Criterion Collection)
Tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon turns thespian and plays the Powell-type figure. I want to say that he plays himself, but he doesn’t quite do that, except insofar as the man knew what he knew, and that knowledge—of his friends, his rivals, his various iterations of self over the course of his own career—is brought to bear on the film.
My sense is that Gordon and the rest of the musicians who are a part of the movie—Herbie Hancock (who also contributed the soundtrack), Tony Williams, John McLaughlin, Billy Higgins, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson (this is a crazy list, no?)—had no problem informing Tavernier of what rang true and what didn’t. The resonance is pure, like a killer tone that could only come from one individual, on that one instrument.
Gordon was only in his early sixties when the film was made. He’d die just a few years after its release, aged 67. His character, Dale Turner, is reborn in Paris, even as we have the sense that he’s cognizant this will be a final flourishing for him. Gordon talks and emotes unlike anyone I’ve seen in a movie. It’s how he was. The voice is flowing gravel, a purring poetry of sediment and hard edges mellowed by a faith in the power of art. He’s drinking himself to death too, and treated like a child who can’t look after its own well-being, by a cavalcade of characters who 1) want him to be okay and 2) also need him to get to the gig on time. We have the metaphysics of art, and the practicality of business. The jazz mélange, for one who wants to make it—as a pioneer of sound and as a working, eating musician. - Colin Fleming, JAZZ TIMES
Dexter Gordon in 1982 (photo: Enid Farber)
"Round Midnight is a superbly crafted music world drama in which Gallic director Bertrand Tavernier pays a moving dramatic tribute to the great black musicians who
lived and performed in Paris in the late 1950s." - Variety Staff, Variety
"No actor could do what the great jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon does in 'Round Midnght." - Janet Maslin, New York Time
This film is a part of the EC-CHAP Film Series hosted by the Eastern Connecticut Center for History, Art, and Performance (EC-CHAP), a 501.3.c non-profit membership-based cultural organization. To learn more and how you can become a member, visit www.ec-chap.org.
Doors 6:30pm / Show 7:00pm. Soft drinks and snacks available. We are pleased to offer our exclusive "BYOB&F" model - Bring Your Own Beverage & Food (Wine & Beer Only - I.D. Required).
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