'Round Midnight [Criterion Collection]

"In the hushed, spotlit darkness, the smoke from a hundred cigarettes curls and billows around the world-weary old black men as they shuffle on stage to their battered instruments and hunker down for another night's toil at the Blue Note. Sax player Dale Turner is their center. Rumpled as a flop house bed and haggard from years of too much booze, he picks up his axe and after a few tentative puffs, ensnares the listeners in a brooding spell of haunting notes that wind freely around the melody, escaping and transcending all notion of time and space, transforming Turner into the earthy essence of American jazz. 'Round Midnight is French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier's loving tribute to jazz music. The film is loosely based on the life of be-bop pianist Bud Powell and filled with plenty of authentic atmosphere, made even more so by the presence of saxophone great Dexter Gordon in the role of Turner, an aging alcoholic artist who tires of impersonal late-1950's New York and goes to Paris, the center of Europe's American jazz scene in hopes of finding salvation. Despite the presence of many old-time friends who try to help him, Turner seems on an unstoppable downward slide. Still he plays every night at the Blue Note, not knowing that outside, his most devoted fan, Francis Borier, listens to every note, dreaming of the chance to meet his hero Turner. One night his dream comes true and the impoverished Frenchman buys Turner a badly-needed beer. In return, Turner sees that Borier is allowed into the club for free. A friendship begins that night and the story centers on how Borier attempts to inspire Turner to create his most beautiful work while also trying to save the old jazzman's life."