Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Film, An Homage to USA Jazz In Paris
Review: The late saxophonist, Dexter Gordon, was absolutely fabulous in this film about an American jazz musician in Paris as the 1950s come to a close. He befriends a young Frenchman who tries to help him but ultimately such friends will always be the givers in a relationship with a jazz artist. There is dialogue in this movie that is always the first thing I remember about it. Gordon's character wonders why people always expect that by escaping to somewhere else, that they will find a new life. "But you're still yourself when you land there," he adds, "You'd have to be a different person inside if you wanted to escape into a new life." These are prophetic words because although race-blind Paris will offer yet another jazz opportunity to this American black musician, he will never escape from himself. He ultimately sees a French psychiatrist when he can't stay away from booze and drugs. "I can't turn off the music in my head," he says, "It is always playing." Perhaps no truer words have ever been spoken by an artist because even those with smaller gifts in the fine arts see images or hear music in their heads. They might be able to turn it off at times but a huge talent won't be able to do so. As they say, there is no free lunch. This film also offers a superb soundtrack that I had to buy upon leaving the movie theater. This is an excellent film where you are justified in owning both the DVD film and the CD soundtrack.
Rating:
Summary: A realistic look at jazz musicians in Paris
Review: With an all-star cast like Dexter Gordon and Herbie Hancock, along with many of their jazz colleagues, this movie is a realistic look at what many jazz musicians have had to go through. Countless musicians, like "Dale Turner" (Dexter Gordon) have had to deal with drugs, alcohol, discrimination and other problems. What makes this movie even better is the fact that real musicians are playing instead of just faking their instruments like in so many other movies. Herbie Hancock wrote an excellent score, and even stuck in his own "Watermelon Man" as background music in a bar scene. Other jazz greats like Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Ron Carter, etc. make cameos in the film. Dexter Gordon is excellent as the lead character. Highly recommended for any jazz fan who wants to see a movie with real musicians playing their instruments, and a lot of good music. "Syrupy jazz ballads" they may be, but I somehow don't think "Cherokee" or "Ornithology" would be appropriate here. A mellow film, mellow music, and loud and clear message that promotes respect for jazz and its many enduring musicians.
Rating:
Summary: Friendship, music and far too much whisky
Review: This movie stars Dexter Gordon and features among others Herbie Hancock, Billy Higgins, John McGlaughlin, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Freddie Hubbard and Ron Carter. If you like jazz that's probably all you need to know to make you go see it. It's a loving recreation of Paris in the 1950s when many of the best American jazz musicians liked to hang in and around the Blue Note café, a venue which, if I only had a time machine is probably where I would most want to spend my evenings. There we find Dale Turner (Gordon) who is in France playing his tenor and drinking himself to death. Turner is based on a kind of amalgam of Bud Powell and Lester Young. His self-destructiveness and bizarre speech habits (all his male friends are nicknamed "Lady" something or other) are pureYoung. The friendship with a young Frenchman Francis (Francois Cluzet) with forms the film's dramatic centre is based on an episode in the life of Powell. Cluzet's character is perhaps one of the weaker aspects of the film. His conversations with Turner are a bit unsuccessful in getting very far past fanspeak, You are so wonderful, I love your music so much, etc., etc., which I confess I started finding a little tiresome. But generally it's a really delightful movie and one it is possible to enjoy even if you aren't a jazz nut. But the music is certainly a huge treat. The scene where Gordon and Lonette McKee's Darcey Leigh (clearly based on Billie Holiday) perform "How Long Has This Been Going On" is one of the most unforgettable and mesmerizing musical moments in any film. Music aside, it's a rather quiet, low key drama about how Turner befriends Francis and his young daughter who must then struggle to help him control the drink habit which is inexorably killing him. It's fairly slow moving. Not a lot happens. But it's a touching and likeable movie, slow and tender like much of its soundtrack, and is kept interesting mainly by Dexter Gordon's marvellous performance as Turner, a heartbreaking mixture of poetry and kindness on the one hand and hopeless alcoholic desperation on the other. He acts almost as well as he plays and he plays, well, he plays like Dexter Gordon.
Rating: 
Summary: Gordon rips off Bud Powell
Review: This is a rip off of the Bud Powell story, plain and simple. Francis Paudras was an artist of sorts, similar to the graphic artist in the movie. Francis lived with his girlfriend rather than his daughter. Buttercup was the devil woman in Powell's life, they don't even bother to change the name here. Making money off of the story of Bud Powell without having to pay anyone for it seems ridiculous to me. If you want the real story behind this movie, read "Dance of the Infidels: A Portrait of Bud Powell", written by Paudras himself. The book, while tedious at times, is drenched with the emotion of a truly heartbreaking story, rather than this cheap ripoff.
Rating:
Summary: FIVE STARS ¿ ¿ ¿ BUT!
Review: WHY DOES AMAZON.COM NO LONGER STOCK THE OREIGINAL ENGLISH-FRENCH VERSION? About one to two years ago, I purchased the original video version of 'ROUND MIDNIGHT from this site. Now it is only available here dubbed in Spanish. I don't get it. Perhaps it is becoming more difficult to find this video in English (...pretty awful because the gravel-voiced dialogue by the star/sax player, Dexter Gordon ... who won an Oscar for Best Actor ... makes the movie!). Based on the lives of Bud Powell and Lester Young, this tribute to American jazz musicians and their world is supported from beginning to end by a once-in-a-lifetime performance by real-life tenor-sax great Gordon himself! Jazz great Herbie Hancock directed the music for this film ... and won an Academy Award Oscar for his score. Adding to the charm of this tragic, bittersweet tale is that much of the dialogue is in French, further adding to the flavor (spice!) of the movie (yet another reason I can't imagine the Spanish-dubbed version can work). This film, perhaps more than any other, reveals the fundamentally different, dignified, adoring manner in which Europeans treat American jazz musicians; by contrast, these days, to their fellow Americans. The price for this video would be fair for the 120 minutes of fabulous jazz sound track ALONE. The poignant, visually pleasing story comes WITH the music! Too bad we cannot order the original form of this video HERE. [I would like to see a review here by a bilingual, English-Spanish viewer who can comment on the issues I raised above ... and also can compare both versions of this most entertaining video]
Rating:
Summary: Jazz anyone?
Review: Being a sax player, I was completely sucked in. It's one
of my favorites. It's a slow-paced movie, but the acting is
exellent and it's very real.
Rating:
Summary: Music is love
Review: This film tells us the story of the last years of Saxophonist Dale Turner. He is killing himself little by little with alcohol, though he has retained his music. He is under the strict surveillance from a woman, Buttercup, who locks him up to prevent him from running away to a bar. He is regenerated by a fan of his, a French graphic artist who takes him to his home, and his young daughter and integrates him in his family. Dale promises to stop drinking and he does. He recaptures his capability to compose music and finds a new life and youth in this late period of his life. He goes back to New York where he is received very favorably, but he can't stay there because New York is full of bad recollections and he feels it lacks some human atmosphere. So he goes back to Paris but life is never forever and he passes away one night, just like going to sleep a little bit too long. A very sensitive and emotional film in many ways. Tavernier directs it with tact and taste. The Paris of the 50s-60s is perfectly recreated, without its cars and with people in the streets that care for what is happening around them. He avoids emotions for the sake of emotions and builds up some deeply thought and felt situations. It is a lesson in generosity, respect and love for music. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan
Rating: 
Summary: A technical problem
Review: I liked the first half and the rest does not play on my Grundig machine.
Rating:
Summary: This is Jazz
Review: I first saw this film alone in my apartment in the wee hours in the morning,and it captures that mood perfectly. Though not a jazz fan at the time,this film and the soundtrack made me a jazz fanatic. Using real jazz legends make this film as real as a movie can get. I like the slow pace and the smoky jazz ambience.
Rating:
Summary: I could watch
Review: these scenes 100 times... Dexter Gordon and Wayne Shorter trading riffs - perhaps each other's Lonette McKee singing 'How Long Has This Been Going On?"
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