Sunday, September 02, 2007
AND ALL THAT JAZZ
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
This is the story of the jazz guys who went to France to live and play in the sixties.
Dexter Gordon is astounding as the famous (fictional) musician, Dale Turner.
His performance is so non-theatrical and yet right on the mark.
No actor could have played it this way.
The story is about a friendship between this man and a younger french artist who is inspired by the sax player and whose career rises as the older man declines.
There is a lot of jazz played in this film, all of it real time real.
Herbie Hancock wrote all the original stuff and did the arrangements.
Of course, no one really writes for Dexter Gordon but the framework is there.
The Parisian milieu is strikingly portrayed by the camera and lighting.
This is a once in a lifetime kind of picture. Nothing else I have ever seen about jazz even approaches the quality of this film.
Even the opening musical bars have meaning.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
