'Round Midnight
by Bertrand Tavernier
List Price:
Our Price: $2.80
You Save: $3.17 (53%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.79 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Dexter Gordon, Francois Cluzet, Herbie Hancock, Lonette Mckee, Sandra Reaves-phillipsDirector: Bertrand Tavernier
Brand: Warner Brothers
Writer: Bertrand Tavernier
Producer: Irwin Winkler
Writer: David Rayfiel
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 133 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-07-22
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of 'Round Midnight
DVD Review: Nice Try But No Cigar
Summary: 1 Stars
I love jazz, but this movie did nothing for me.
Dexter Gordon is a great musician but someone needed to tell him that mumbling isn't acting. I found it easier to follow the French subtitles than I did understanding what he was saying.
Also, consider the character Dexter Gordon plays. Yes, he's a great musician, but he's portrayed as someone completely incapable of taking care of himself. He's not allowed to drink at the club he plays in. He has a woman who literally tucks him in bed. The young Frenchman who idolizes him *does* everything for him. ... Is this a respectful way of establishing a character who the audience is supposed to respect?
This movie is supposed to be based on real-life events, but I doubt it. Irwin Winkler, the producer, did the same thingg with his 1991 movie about the Hollywood blacklist, "Guilt By Suspicion" -- he Hollywoodized a certain reality that, in effect, comes out as highly *un*realistic.
I applaud the movie for trying to be intelligent and insightful, and there are scenes in it that are interesting, but as a whole the film is tedious and pretentious.
As for Martin Scorsese's small part in the movie, it should have been smaller to the point of nonexistent.
More 'Round Midnight reviews:
1
1
Description of 'Round Midnight
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 07/22/2008 Rating: RLike the music it celebrates, Round Midnight is long on atmosphere, short on formal structure, alert and open to improvisation, making this 1986 drama the most authentic glimpse of jazz yet filmed. Its subject, Dale Turner (played by Dexter Gordon), is a composite of brilliant but bruised jazz warriors who left America behind for self-imposed European exile, finding a more tolerant and appreciative audience while never completely eluding their private demons. Drugs and drink have battered the tall, laconic saxophonist, whose diffident, somewhat distracted manner only partly conceals a deeper exhaustion as he plays a 1959 engagement in a Parisian club and tries to stay sober. His burnished solos drift behind the tempo with a languor that can't be fully explained as a point of style. But when an ardent, impoverished French fan (François Cluzet) intercepts his idol and then offers him simple acts of kindness, the gesture inspires a brief but glowing second wind in the aging musician, reflected in his playing. Even as the film contemplates Turner's return to his homeland as a portent of his own death, his moments on the Parisian bandstand suggest a glimpse of redemption.
If Turner's frail character echoes real-life ex-pats like Bud Powell and Lester Young, director Bertrand Tavernier's insistence upon casting the role with veteran tenor player Dexter Gordon breathes startling authenticity into the figure. Gordon's own drug arrests and an extended idyll abroad give him direct access to Turner's isolation, and Tavernier elicits a natural but compelling performance that earned Gordon (who died in 1990) an Academy Award nomination. Likewise, the director cast his cinematic band with world-class musicians, including Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, and Ron Carter, and shot these sequences as live performances. Hancock's score deservedly won both British and American Academy Awards, as well as a French César. --Sam Sutherland
Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Jazz Icons: John Coltrane Live in '60, '61 & '65Naxos OF America INC; Release date: 2007-09-04; DVD
Best price: $12.48
Price in other shops:
Jazz : A Film By Ken BurnsParamount; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $49.45
Price in other shops:
Dexter Gordon - Round MidnightRelease date: 2008-03-01; Music CD
Best price: $2.66
Price in other shops:
Mo' Better BluesUNI DIST CORP. (MCA); Release date: 2004-12-28; Published: 2004-12-01; DVD
Best price: $2.87
Price in other shops:
The Miles Davis StorySony; Release date: 2002-11-26; DVD
Best price: $6.43
Price in other shops:
Thelonious Monk - Straight No ChaserWarner; Release date: 2001-01-30; DVD
Best price: $23.50
Jazz - 10 Movie PackJazz; Release date: 2005-09-01; Mac; DVD
Best price: $2.79
Price in other shops:
BirdWarner Brothers; Release date: 2010-06-01; DVD
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
A Great Day in HarlemImage Entertainment; Release date: 2006-01-03; DVD
Best price: $12.67
Price in other shops:
Midnight in ParisSON; Release date: 2011-12-20; DVD
Best price: $8.88
Price in other shops: