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 New Yorker film critic Richard Brody.
‘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.