Bertrand Tavernier directed Round Midnight, an American-French musical drama co-written by Tavernier and David Rayfiel.
It stars Dexter Gordon, François Cluzet and Herbie Hancock.
Martin Scorsese, Philippe Noiret and Wayne Shorter appear in cameos.
The protagonist, a jazzman named Dale Turner, was based on a composite of real-life jazz legends, Lester Young (tenor sax) and Bud Powell (piano).
Though fictionalized, the film draws directly from the memoir/biography “Dance of the Infidels,” written by French author Francis Paudras, who had befriended Powell during his Paris expatriate days and on whom the character Francis was based.
Wistful and tragic, the film offers a portrait that captures vividly the Paris jazz scene of the 1950s.
Oscar Alert
Oscar Nominations: 2
Actor: Dexter Gordon
Original Score: Herbie Hancock
Oscar Awards: 1
Original Score
Oscar Context
The winner of the Best Actor was Paul Newman for Scorsese’s The Color of Money, a sequel to the 1961 The Hustler.
