'Round Midnight

Inside the Blue Note nightclub one night in 1959 Paris, an aged, ailing jazzman coaxes an eloquent wail from his tenor sax. Outside, a young Parisian too broke to buy a glass of wine strains to hear those notes. Soon they will form a friendship that sparks a final burst of genius in the fading musician. Round Midnight, set to Herbie Hancock's superb Academy Award-winning Best Original Score, is an elegant ode to bebop -- the technically demanding jazz that blossomed during the postwar era -- and to the expatriate black Americans who created, nurtured and lived it. Directed by Bertrand Tavernier and showcasing tenor sax great Dexter Gordon in a remarkable performance, Round Midnight is an awesome musical journey.