Country: Senegal
Year: 1986
Duration: 133'
Paris, 1959. After a long hiatus, Dale Turner, an American saxophone player who is a recovered alcoholic, performs once again in Paris. Every evening, Francis Borier, a penniless adman and a great fan of Turner, goes to hear him play and afterward waits on the sidewalk outside the club. Finally, one evening he finds the courage to approach the musician and invite him for a drink. It is the beginning of an unexpected friendship, the elderly jazz player’s last chance to recover his lost inspiration and try to redeem himself. “Subconsciously, jazz taught me about the freedom of narration, the ability to improvise. I think I learned right away that the relationship between the staging and the screenplay is a far cry from the usual cliché which says that the screenwriter is the composer and the film director is the orchestra director, or that the one is the architect and the other is the guy who builds the house. This relationship is represented much better by the jazz musician’s take on a piece of music he didn’t necessarily compose himself; he might completely respect the score but the way he interprets it remains in any case personal and belongs to him.”
Biography
film director
Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier (Lyon, France, 1941), after abandoning his law studies, dedicated himself to film critique, writing for “Cahiers du cinema” and “Positif;” he then began his career as director and screenwriter. After producing three of his own films, The Clockmaker (1974), Let Joy Reign Supreme (1975) and The Judge and the Assassin (1976), he decided to found his own production company, Little Bear. He has made over thirty films which have won prestigious awards, including an Oscar for best original soundtrack for ‘Round Midnight (1986) and the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear for Fresh Bait (1995).
FILMOGRAFIA
L’Horloger de Saint-Paul (L’orologiaio di St. Paul, 1974), Le Juge et l’Assassin (Il giudice e l’assassino, 1976), Une semaine de vacances (Una settimana di vacanza, 1980), Coup de torchon (Colpo di spugna, 1981), Un dimanche à la campagne (Una domenica in campagna, 1984), Autour de minuit (Round Midnight - A mezzanotte circa, 1986), La Passion Béatrice (Quarto comandamento, 1987), La vie et rien d’autre (La vita e niente altro, 1989), Daddy nostalgie (id., 1990), L. 627 (Legge 627, 1992), L’appât (L’esca, 1995), Capitaine Conan (Capitan Conan, 1996), Holy Lola (La piccola Lola, 2004), In the Electric Mist (L’occhio del ciclone - In the Electric Mist, 2009).
Cast
& Credits
regia/director
Bertrand Tavernier
sceneggiatura/screenplay
David Rayfiel, Bertrand Tavernier
fotografia/cinematography
Bruno de Keyzer
montaggio/film editing
Armand Psenny
scenografia/production design
Alexandre Trauner
costumi/costume design
Jacqueline Moreau
musica/music
suono/sound
Michel Desrois, William Flageollet
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Dexter Gordon (Dale Turner), François Cluzet (Francis Borier), Gabrielle Haker (Berangere), Sandra Reaves-Phillips (Buttercup), Lonette McKee (Darcey Leigh), Christine Pascal (Sylvie), Herbie Hancock (Eddie Wayne), Bobby Hutcherson (Ace), Martin Scorsese (Goodley), Philippe Noiret (Redon)
produttore/producer
produzione/production
