Cotton Club movie
Rmidn...@webtv.net
watched so far seems ok. On the back it says "One of the years 10 best"
Would "One of the movies in the last 10 years" be more like it? : ) I
checked the back posts about it. Says it uses and Ellington score, that
Duke and Cab are represented. Someone wrote that Richard Gere is really
playing the horn. Anyone know if this is true? I noticed when he plays
the piano his right hand is conveniently out of the picture. Any
thoughts about the movie?
Bayle
Rmidn...@webtv.net wrote in article
<15573-3B9...@storefull-294.iap.bryant.webtv.net>...
I'm biased because I can't stand Gere, but I love Coppola. I think it
stunk. Which was the opinion of most people at the time IIRC. Too bad
because it's a great subject and deserves to be done right.
Ron Hearn
Kansas City, but I have to believe the Altman would do a better job.
Someone
"Bayle" <nob...@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:01c13415$734d7c20$17541cd0@ilzyausv...
I saw this a long time ago and don't remember much about it, even whether I
liked it or not. But a quick scan through the reviews submitted at
www.imdb.com indicates a high degree of sastisfaction with the film.
Bayle
Ron Hearn <nos...@newsranger.com> wrote in article
<n5Bk7.1698$4z....@www.newsranger.com>...
Kansas City had the same problem IMO. Namely plot. Pretty lame. Still the
music was much better. At least in the sense that it appeared to be part of
the film. I recall a few scenes with the young Parker watching a jam
session that was pretty good. Had real musicians, though imitating Lester
Young didn't work out too well. I would have liked to have seen much more
about the wide-open Pendergast-run town and less about a neurotic white
rich woman IIRC.
I find it amazing that two great directors willing to spend resources
couldn't have come up with better movies. I'm not sure what this says about
jazz, but it must say something.
I thought Eastwood's movie about Bird was all right, not great. Allen's
movie about the Django Reinhardt admirer (Sean Penn) almost unwatchable.
There was also a movie with Dexter Gordon, Round Midnight which wasn't bad.
As I write this I wonder if these movies can be as bad as I remember them.
But unfortunately, that is the way I remember them.
Rmidn...@webtv.net
should tell Hollywood that trumpets (in this case cornet) are wind
instruments and the player provides the wind. Like a few other movies
I've seen, the player is not putting any wind into the horn, just
putting it to his mouth and putting the valves down. He seems to be the
same character in all his movies. The guy playing Duke in the backround
is believable. Maybe the story will be done again without gere and alot
smaller role for gregory hines.
Jack Lefton
<Rmidn...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:15573-3B9...@storefull-294.iap.bryant.webtv.net...
It's my favorite Coppola film after the Godfathers. I've seen it probably 15
times. Didn't do too well at the box office. Lost more money than "Heaven's
Gate". Made many critic's year's best list, and a few worst lists. Gere did,
in fact, play the cornet solos. The Ellington arrangements (I think by Bob
Wibur, John Barry did the incidental music) are accurate for his "jungle
band" period. The musicians did a good job of emulating the originals (Harry
Carney, Bubber Miley, Barney Bigard, etc.)
Coppola did the film in the style of thirties gangster and musicals, lifting
certain shots from "The Roaring Twenties" and other period movies. The
editing is terrific, moving between plot and production numbers perfectly.
The "Daybreak Express" finale is among my favorite scenes. The production
design and wardrobe are as food as "The Godfather". The cast is superb. Gere
can be irritating, but he's great here, as are Nicolas Cage as his brother,
Gwen Verdon as his mother, Diane Lane as the girl, James Remar, much better
than either Dustin Hoffman or Tim Roth as Dutch Schultz, Allen Garfield as
his accountant Abbadabba Berman, Bob Hoskins as Owney Madden, Fred Gwynn as
his pal Frenchy, as well as look-alikes as Gloria Swanson, Charlie Chaplin,
Fanny Brice, and Jimmy Cagney. Those are the whites. "The Cotton Club" is a
story of race relations as much as anything else. The blacks are Gregory and
Maurice Hines as the Williams brothers, Lonnette McKee as the dancer Gregory
falls for, Lawrence Fishburne as gangster Bumpy Rhodes (a role he would
reprise years later in "Hoodlums"), Mario Peebles as the choreographer, as
well as real life old time tap dancer Charles "Honi" Coles and convincing
ringers for Ellington and Calloway.
Chris Albertson
Rmidn...@webtv.net at Rmidn...@webtv.net wrote on 9/2/01 7:11 PM:
Richard Gere did indeed learn to play the horn, at least enough for a scene
or two. Bob Wilber was the musical director, which accounts for the accuracy
of Duke recreations, but it is unfair to view the film as a jazz movie and
then put it down for not being satisfactory as such. It was a gangster
movie, and not a very good one, IMO. The production had many problems,
which may be why its quality sometimes belies the creative talent of those
involved. Courtesy of Bob Wilber, I spent a day at the Astoria studio during
the filming and was quite impressed by the recreation of the Cotton Club,
including many details that the cameras never caught.
The "One of the year's ten best" quote must have come from one of the lesser
critics. Unsuccessful films often rely on their lack of perspective and
taste.
Chris Albertson
Mike
> Kansas City had the same problem IMO. Namely plot. Pretty lame. Still the
> music was much better. At least in the sense that it appeared to be part
of
> the film. I recall a few scenes with the young Parker watching a jam
> session that was pretty good. Had real musicians, though imitating Lester
> Young didn't work out too well. I would have liked to have seen much more
> about the wide-open Pendergast-run town and less about a neurotic white
> rich woman IIRC.
Kansas City was a bloody awful film, but as you say the musical scenes were
quite compelling. I invite you to seek out a companion film issued by the
director entitled Robert Altman's Jazz '34. It's a selection of musical
performances culled from shooting of the film and presented in their
entirity as a documentary, more or less: no extraneous plot crap, just the
musicians cutting the place up. As an attempt to replicated specific
musicians from the '30s, the film fails. The recent crop simply can't cut
it, though Cyrus Chestnut kinda looks like Basie, and Geri Allen sorta looks
like Mary Lou Williams. Overall, though, the movie does bring one a little
closer to the Kansas City scene before Basie moved to New York. And I
suppose it's worth a look, just for the ghosts it summons.
Mike
TJ
content that I have ever seen. That battle of the Tenors with those Bop
re-treads was just pathetic...they sounded and looked like programmed
robots...
TJ
Rmidn...@webtv.net
The one where he is asked to play the bix tune is pathetic. Someone
mentioned the Woody Allen movie with Sean Penn, that it was unwatchable.
I really got a big kick out of it, especially so soon after the Burns
doc. . I've given two copies away to people I thought would enjoy it
too. Thanks for the Cotton Club info......pb........off to watch trains,
then to the dump to shoot some rats : )
Bayle
Rmidn...@webtv.net wrote in article
<23499-3B9...@storefull-296.iap.bryant.webtv.net>...
Well I would have rather heard from Sean Penn about shooting rats in Burn's
film, than from Matt Glazer on quantum physics. So maybe you have a point.
Top Catt
Rmidn...@webtv.net says...
I liked "Sweet and Lowdown" too... I only saw it at my girlfriend's
insistence (she likes Sean Penn). The funniest scene (at least to me) was
when Penn's virtuoso guitarist enters a small-town talent contest,
pretending that he's a salesman who just plays guitar as a hobby; he then
proceeds to blow the audience away with a knockout solo that sounds like
a stylistic cross between Django, George Barnes, and Barney Kessel. The
people are righteously pissed, realizing that he's put one over on them,
and they run him out of town! Anyway, I ended up explaining to my g.f.
about Django and the Hot Club of France afterward, and of course that led
to us listening to some of their music at home.
Which is kind of a funny, ongoing situation (right out of a Woody Allen
movie?)--I hardly ever go to the movies, except when she wants to, and I
usually let her pick them. The result of this is that I've seen a lot of
"chick flicks," like "What Do Women Want?" which wasn't bad at all. But I
never thought that one of her movie choices would give me an opening to
introduce her to some classic swing-era jazz! Now, she can't get enough
of Django, Stephane, and company.
I don't think we'll see Woody's latest, though; according to the reviews,
he gets romantically involved with two beautiful women who are both young
enough to be his daughters. There's no question that the man's a near-
genius screenwriter--but that's kind of pathetic, really.
T.C.