Bird

The film does not tell Charlie Parker's life in a straight line: backstage, hospital, marriage and collapse keep folding into each other, and almost every scene is at night. When Parker died at thirty-four the doctor estimated the body's age as over fifty. Chan, his wife, is at the centre, and she carries both his genius and his ruin at closest range. The most remarkable thing about it is the sound. Eastwood had an engineer electronically isolate Parker's saxophone from old recordings obtained from Chan Parker, and musicians including Ray Brown, Ron Carter, Red Rodney and Barry Harris then recorded new accompaniment under those solos. The saxophone on screen is genuinely Parker's. The fingering and breathing in shot are done by Charles McPherson, who had to learn to breathe exactly as Parker does on the recordings. Clint Eastwood directed and produced, from a screenplay by Joel Oliansky. Forest Whitaker plays Parker and Diane Venora plays Chan. It screened at Cannes on 21 May 1988, where Whitaker took best actor and the film won the Technical Grand Prize for its soundtrack. It won the Academy Award for best sound in 1989. Who it is for: anyone interested in jazz history and musician biographies. Who it is not for: anyone wanting pace. It runs over two and a half hours, the darkness makes some scenes hard to read, and the time jumps are difficult for a viewer who does not know Parker.