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'Round Midnight (1986)
Rate:
3
Viewed:
8/21
8/21:
Although splendidly photographed, 'Round Midnight is an agonizingly long, slow movie about a working jazzman.
Not much happens for more than two hours. What's shown during the first twenty minutes is endlessly looped the rest
of the way: get up, act stoned, mumble a few platitudes, play some jazz, find a drink, and be rescued at the hospital.
Bizarrely, a white Frenchman wants to save the black dude while neglecting his own daughter. Because of the way he looks,
I can't help but feel like I'm sitting through a bad Dustin Hoffman movie. Francis' obsession for Dale Turner is weird as well.
Never was an integral part of the Golden Age of Jazz which occurred during the 1920's and 30's, the 6'6" tall Dexter Gordon tries
to revive what the jazz scene was like in Paris during the 50's. However, it's tough to put up with his character who talks
slowly and is drunk out of his mind. Having served time in prison, Dexter was a heroin addict which probably explains
his behavior a lot.
That being said, I have to bring up Saturday Night Fever. The reason why the movie
worked so well is that it was filmed during the zenith of disco. Therefore, it became a time capsule that'll never be replicated.
Had it been done for 'Round Midnight, it's highly probable the film would've succeeded on the poetic level, but
everybody is simply too late to the party.
All in all, 'Round Midnight is geared toward serious jazz lovers, but the rest need not apply.