It's difficult to believe that the heart of this great movie didn't influence a later equally fine paean to friendship Il Postino. This one was almost true celebrating as it does the friendship between pianist Bud Powell and a young French admirer whilst Il Postino was based on the real friendship of the very real Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and the ingenuous young Italian who delivered his mail whilst he was in exile in Italy. Though Round Midnight was marketed as a film about Jazz, specifically what at the time (the late fifties) was known as 'modern' jazz and which had in turn evolved from Be-Bop it is much, much more a film about friendship and redemption. If you are a Jazz buff - and I am - then the Jazz is merely a bonus, albeit a terrific bonus but Francois Cluzet and Dexter Gordon deserve all the accolades available as does Bertrand Tavernier, who, not content with making the definitive jazz movie went on to do the same for the Occupation in Laissez-passer. A truly outstanding movie. Ten stars going away.
Review of 'Round Midnight
