Screening jazz

by Mark Slutsky

The relationship between jazz and cinema goes back a long way--the first talkie, after all, was called The Jazz Singer--and it's no wonder, as both artforms first came into contact with a mass audience around in the same time in early 20th-century America. This week, with the Jazz Festival breathing down the city's neck, the Cinémathèque québécoise presents Jazz à l'écran, a series of films with a jazz theme.

Notable are Arthur Penn's Mickey One with a score by saxophonist Stan Getz; Jean-Luc Godard's New Wave favourite Breathless; and Robert Wise's I Want to Live!, with Gerry Mulligan and Art Farmer on the soundtrack. Not to be missed is the Ernest Lehmann and Clifford-Odets-penned classic Sweet Smell of Success, with Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster as, respectively, slimy press agent Sidney Falco and power-mad columnist J.J. Hunsecker. Elmore Bernstein and Chico Hamilton provide the musical accompaniment to the movie's portrayal of the 1950s New York nightclub demi-monde. Local jazzbos might also want to check out Charlie Biddle: An Improvised Life, a doc on the Montreal jazz scene fixture. Jazz à l'écran runs until July 8 at 335 de Maisonneuve E.

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