John Coltrane Movies

This release actually features a compilation of three different Dizzy Gillespie-headlined ensembles: a quartet with Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner, recorded in San Francisco in December '63; a quintet with Jones, Tyner, Eric Dolphy and Reggie Workman recorded in Baden Baden, Germany in 1961; and a quartet with Tyner, Garrison and Jones recorded in Belgium in August of '65. Selections include: "Impressions," "Alabama," "Afro Blue," "My Favorite Things," and more ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

This "heist" film tells the story of a robbery in a stadium during the Le Mans 24 hour motorcycle race. Throughout the film are constant references to other movies in the genre. A policeman investigating the robbery is surprised to discover that the heist bears striking resemblance to the robbery depicted in Stanley Kubrick's 1956 film, The Killing. The robbery itself was perpetrated by Bernard, an ex-racer who dedicates the theft to a dead peer. He enlists the help of Thierry and several others to steal 6 million francs from the gate. He and his gang then hideout in the stadium until the race is over. Things are working against Bernard though. Two martial-arts experts try to cut in on the action. A gang member's girlfriend squeals to the cops, and an Arab assistant is killed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This video documents the evolution of jazz. It began in 19th century New Orleans, where the slaves first introduced the rhythms of African music. Story of Jazz follows the developement of jazz music from the blending together of African rhythms, European and American folk, and classical styles. Included are performances by: Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Willie "the Lion" Smith, Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmie Lunceford, Louis Armstrong, Charles Mingus, Count Bassie, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Gil Evans, and Sara Vaughan. Rare film clips, vintage footage, and photo's complete this indepth look at Jazz. ~ Beth Deki, All Movie Guide

Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy ranks alongside Sidney Bechet and John Coltrane as one of the few who permanently reshaped and reworked Dixieland music by contemporizing it in a postmodern vein. With his reassessments and reinventions of such Dixieland tunes as "Work," "Played Twice," and "Criss Cross" by Thelonious Monk and self-penned standards such as "Blinks," "Capers," "Clichés," and "Troubles,"Lacy laid the groundwork, stylistically, for innumerable later players and left in his wake a treasure trove for generations of listeners upon his death in 2004. Lacy is the center of the film Steve Lacy: Lift the Bandstand, which draws from interviews with Lacy himself -- as he expostulates on his place in the jazz realm and his contributions to the medium -- and rare archival footage of Lacy in performance. By juxtaposing extended clips of such luminaries as Bechet, Coltrane, Monk, and Gil Evans and Cecil Taylor, Bandstand reflects on Lacy's stylistic and professional relationship to those individuals. It also features extended discussions (and live melodic demonstrations) of the emotional and philosophical undercurrents that underlie Lacy's music. Additional collaborators and friends who appear here include Irene Aebi, Bobby Few, Steve Potts, Jean-Jacques Avenel, and Oliver Johnson. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Je vous salue Marie is Jean-Luc Godard's first sustained examination of modern spiritual life. This complex episodic film parallels the story of a contemporary Joseph (Theirry Rode) and Mary (Myriem Roussel) with that of a science class studying the origins of life on earth. Joseph is a cab driver and Mary plays on a woman's basketball team. A thuggish angel (Philippe Lacoste) tells Mary that she is with child. When she tells Joseph that she is pregnant, he accuses Mary of having cheated on him. The professor of the science class (Johan Leysen), who is having an affair with one of his students (Anne Gauthier), presents the theory that life came to earth from somewhere else in the universe. Godard organizes scenes from these two narratives into an essay about the relationship between the spirit and the body, and how being is born from nothingness. The film is filled with images of light cascading over the Swiss countryside. Godard often has his cinematographers Jean-Bernard Menoud and Jacques Firmann shoot directly into the sun and capture ravishing shots of pure luminosity. Je vous salue Marie is introduced by a short film by Godard's frequent directing partner Anne-Marie Miéville entitled Le Livre de Maire (The Book Of Mary), the story of a young girl named Marie whose parents separate. Miéville's film continues the philosophical reflection on children that she and Godard started in Numéro deux(Number Two). ~ Louis Schwartz, All Movie Guide

This is only the third feature produced by the National Film Board of Canada in its commendable attempt to foster the development of a distinctively Canadian media "voice." To that end, the projects chosen initially were "uncommercial" and highly personal visions by new directors. In this film, the first by Gilles Groulx, an introspective young Quebecois man ponders what it means to be committed to the cause of independence for French-speaking Canadians. He is less of a bomb-thrower than a thinker, but his commitment is firm nonetheless. When he discovers that his girlfriend is not nearly so obsessed with the cause as he is, he travels into the wintry countryside to hash things over with himself. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Miles and friends get together and play some tunes. ~ All Movie Guide