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‘ROUND MIDNIGHT | WITH MAXINE GORDON & RICHARD BRODY

February 26—6:30 pm9:30 pm

Round Midnight Film Still courtesy Criterion Collection

On February 26, in coordination with our ongoing exhibition Nordic Utopia?, join us for a screening and film talk on the 1986 classic ‘Round Midnight, a musical drama starring Dexter Gordon! Maxine Gordon, the widow of the late jazz legend and author of his biography Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon (University of California Press), will be present for a film talk with film critic Richard Brody of the New Yorker.

‘Round Midnight is a love letter from director Bertrand Tavernier to the heyday of bebop and the Black American musicians who found refuge in the smoky underground jazz clubs of 1950s Paris. In a sui generis, Oscar-nominated fusion of performer and character, legendary saxophonist Dexter Gordon plays Dale Turner, a brilliant New York jazz veteran whose music aches with beauty but whose personal life is ravaged by addiction. Searching for a fresh start in Paris, Turner strikes up an unlikely friendship with a struggling single father and ardent jazz fan (François Cluzet) who finds his life transformed as he attempts to help the musician.

Herbie Hancock’s evocative, Oscar-winning score sets the mood for this definitive jazz film, a bittersweet opus that glows with lived-in, soulful authenticity. Round Midnight was also nominated for Best Academy Award for Best Actor for Gordon’s performance and a winner of numerous other awards.

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Details

Date:
February 26
Time:
6:30 pm – 9:30 pm