Herbie Hancock is one of the greatest American jazz musicians of all time, and the legendary pianist and composer won the only Oscar for the music of the film about an aging jazz saxophonist struggling with addictions in Paris in the late fifties. Kudos to Herbie, but that year the Oscar for best music should definitely have gone to maestro Ennio Morricone for “Mission” by Roland Joffe, for me perhaps the best score this great man ever composed. However, Ennio had to wait almost 30 years for his Oscar and Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight”, and another legendary jazz musician was nominated for the main male role.
Saxophonist Dexter Gordon played Dale Turner, an aging jazz saxophonist from New York who decided to turn a new page in Paris in the late fifties in the film by French director Bertrand Tavernier. Old Dale is a heavy drinker. Every evening, he is a total woman, as if he has completely reconciled, surrendered and is just waiting for death to call him. Every night he performs with a band in Paris, they play classics by Gershwin and Porter along with a few innovations by Monk and Bird, and every night they literally take Dale out of the club. He doesn’t even see any profit from playing because his landlord buys everything, while the owner of the club keeps him drunk just enough to play his part, and what happens to him after that doesn’t really matter to him.
But one evening, his performance will be caught by a young Frenchman, Francis (Francois Cluzet), who is convinced that Turner is the best saxophonist in the world. Although he himself has problems and is in serious penury, Francis will try to help him. She will decide to take care of him, try to help him get sober, get clean and place him in the apartment where he lives with his daughter. However, the question is whether it is possible to help someone who does not want help and who seems to have completely resigned himself to fate. Although the basic story of the film, partly based on the lives of jazz legends such as Lester Young and Bud Powell, is quite simple, “Round Midnight” is a film that is given special depth and emotion by the main protagonist.
And although Gordan is not an actor and that is obvious, his charisma is incredible. His voice is tired and sad almost like his music, and he talks incredibly slowly. It is obvious that he has gone through everything and anything, that he is aware that his best years are behind him and that his death is getting closer every day, that he is lonely and sad, but he is not one of those cynical and embittered characters that we saw in films. He appreciates the help that Francis decided to offer him, and he really seems to come alive when someone gives him warmth, friendship, sincere help and support. In addition to numerous jazz musicians such as Gordon and Hancock who appear in the film, the legendary American director Martin Scorsese also played a minor role.