A troubled, but talented musician flees the US to escape his problems, finding refuge and support in Paris.
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Stars: Dexter Gordon, Lonette McKee, Herbie Hancock, Martin Scorsese.
Watched online, good print.
20 songs in the Soundtracks, probably most performed onscreen.
Rated 7 on 2014-03-04, agreeing with almost 4.2k IMDb voters who average 7.4. But I might not have rated it so high today.
After watching for almost an hour, I stopped and sought a review to answer "what is this about?" I'd been ignoring the French dialog, because it was infrequent, but apparently the much younger French man is also doing some soul searching, a significant thread in the film. I really wasn't in the mood to Watch intently. This is a mood piece, and doesn't look particularly pretty, since the Paris we see is run down back streets and jazz dives.
The music also wasn't great, except when HH played solo for a few moments here and there. DG, portraying the ailing jazz man (not himself), would miss some notes and otherwise seem off. But that was the character.
So today it would have garnered a 6, but I'll be generous.
distr. Warner, dir. Tavernier; 7-
