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Round Midnight (film)
Encyclopedia
Round Midnight is a 1986 film directed by Bertrand Tavernier
and written by David Rayfiel and Bertrand Tavernier
. It tells the story of an African American
tenor saxophone
player in Paris
in the 1950s who is befriended by an unsuccessful French
graphic designer who idolizes the musician and who tries desperately to help him to escape alcohol abuse
. The protagonist jazzman, "Dale Turner," was based on a composite of real-life jazz legends Lester Young
(tenor sax) and the tortured and enigmatic Bud Powell
(piano). While the film is fictionalized, it is drawn directly from the memoir/biography Dance of the Infidels written by Francis Paudras, who had befriended Powell during his Paris expatriate
days and on whom the character "Francis" is based. The film is a wistful and tragic portrait that captures the Paris jazz
scene of the 1950s.
Dexter Gordon was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role 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. Herbie Hancock
won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Score. The soundtrack was released in two parts: Round Midnight and The Other Side of Round Midnight.
by insisting that real-life jazz tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon
play the role of Turner. Gordon, who himself played with Bud Powell in Paris in the early 1960s, helped to revise and rewrite the script. The supporting cast is likewise composed of jazz musicians (from a slightly later period) such as Herbie Hancock
, Freddie Hubbard
, Bobby Hutcherson
, John McLaughlin
, Wayne Shorter
, Ron Carter
, Tony Williams, Pierre Michelot
, Eric Le Lann
, and others who play the music live throughout the film. In addition to the musicians, the movie stars François Cluzet, Gabrielle Haker, Sandra Reaves-Phillips, Lonette McKee
, and Christine Pascal
.
.
was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
. Herbie Hancock won the award for Best Music, Original Score
. The soundtrack was released in two parts: Round Midnight
and The Other Side of Round Midnight
under Gordon's name.
An episode of "The Simpsons
" titled "'Round Springfield
" is a homage to Round Midnight.
Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier is a French director, screenwriter, actor, and producer.-Life and career:Tavernier was born in Lyon, the son of Geneviève and René Tavernier, a publicist and writer, several years president of the French PEN club. Tavernier wanted to become a filmmaker since the age of thirteen...
and written by David Rayfiel and Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier is a French director, screenwriter, actor, and producer.-Life and career:Tavernier was born in Lyon, the son of Geneviève and René Tavernier, a publicist and writer, several years president of the French PEN club. Tavernier wanted to become a filmmaker since the age of thirteen...
. It tells the story of an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
tenor saxophone
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
player in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in the 1950s who is befriended by an unsuccessful French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
graphic designer who idolizes the musician and who tries desperately to help him to escape alcohol abuse
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
. The protagonist jazzman, "Dale Turner," was based on a composite of real-life jazz legends Lester Young
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....
(tenor sax) and the tortured and enigmatic Bud Powell
Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...
(piano). While the film is fictionalized, it is drawn directly from the memoir/biography Dance of the Infidels written by Francis Paudras, who had befriended Powell during his Paris expatriate
Expatriate
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...
days and on whom the character "Francis" is based. The film is a wistful and tragic portrait that captures the Paris jazz
French jazz
France has a long history with jazz music.Jazz began to become significant in France starting in the 1920s. As with Brazil , the French were at first concerned it was too American of an influence before "making it their own." Although in the case of the French the adjustment proved faster as by the...
scene of the 1950s.
Dexter Gordon was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role 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. Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Score. The soundtrack was released in two parts: Round Midnight and The Other Side of Round Midnight.
Casting
Tavernier defied the movie studioMovie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...
by insisting that real-life jazz tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...
play the role of Turner. Gordon, who himself played with Bud Powell in Paris in the early 1960s, helped to revise and rewrite the script. The supporting cast is likewise composed of jazz musicians (from a slightly later period) such as Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
, Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
, John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...
, Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
, Ron Carter
Ron Carter
Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...
, Tony Williams, Pierre Michelot
Pierre Michelot
Pierre Michelot was a French bebop and hard bop double bass player.Born in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris, Michelot studied piano from 1936 until 1938, but switched to playing bass at the age of sixteen...
, Eric Le Lann
Éric Le Lann
Éric Le Lann is a French jazz trumpeter.He moved to Paris in 1977 where he had his professional debut and gained notice in 1980. He has worked with Aldo Romano, Henri Salvador, and others. He also did music for films including those of Bertrand Tavernier...
, and others who play the music live throughout the film. In addition to the musicians, the movie stars François Cluzet, Gabrielle Haker, Sandra Reaves-Phillips, Lonette McKee
Lonette McKee
Lonette McKee is an American film and television actress, music composer/producer/songwriter, screenwriter and director.-Biography:...
, and Christine Pascal
Christine Pascal
Christine Pascal was a French actress, writer and director.-Biography:Born in Lyon, Rhône, Pascal made her film debut at 21 in Michel Mitrani's Les Guichets du Louvre , and began an association with Bertrand Tavernier with her next film, L'Horloger de Saint-Paul...
.
Soundtrack
The score for Round Midnight was composed by Herbie HancockHerbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
.
Awards
Dexter GordonDexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...
was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
. Herbie Hancock won the award for Best Music, Original Score
Academy Award for Original Music Score
The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
. The soundtrack was released in two parts: Round Midnight
Round Midnight (Soundtrack)
Round Midnight is a soundtrack album by Herbie Hancock featuring music recorded for Bertrand Tavernier's film Round Midnight released in 1986 on Columbia Records...
and The Other Side of Round Midnight
The Other Side of Round Midnight
The Other Side of Round Midnight is an album by American jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon recorded in 1985 and released on the Blue Note label. The album was recorded during the making of for Bertrand Tavernier's 1986 film Round Midnight which also produced the Academy Award-winning soundtrack album...
under Gordon's name.
An episode of "The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
" titled "'Round Springfield
'Round Springfield
"Round Springfield" is the 22nd episode of the sixth season of The Simpsons. It originally aired on April 30, 1995. In the episode, Bart is rushed to hospital after eating a jagged metal Krusty-O and decides to sue Krusty the Clown. Whilst visiting Bart, Lisa meets her old mentor, jazz musician...
" is a homage to Round Midnight.