THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – TO SEE
Rewind and Play, by Alain Gomis, is a documentary that was not planned in the program, and it is sometimes in these moments of chance that the most unexpected stories are invented. The Franco-Senegalese director (Congratulations, 2017) has been preparing for some time a fiction about the great American jazz pianist Thelonious Monk (1917-1982). To support their research, he and his documentary filmmaker, Olivier Rignault, requested archival documents from the National Audiovisual Institute.
Among the images sent is the television program “Jazz portrait”, produced in 1969. But, surprise, rushes lasting two hours are added, a sort of end to end of the program. This one is hosted by the jazz pianist Henri Renaud (1925-2002): a sincere admirer of Monk, a black pianist who was long undervalued before experiencing success in the late 1950s, he was nevertheless awkward with his guest. . Clichés accumulate that end up being uncomfortable.
By reworking these rushes in a tight and nervous feature film (1h05), installing a certain tension, Alain Gomis gives space to Thelonious Monk by showing how he tries to resist his interlocutor. The film opens with the arrival of the pianist and his wife, Nellie, in Paris on December 15, 1969, for a concert at the Salle Pleyel. Monk has been touring for about ten years. He is rather reserved, puffs on his cigarette…
” I do not understand your question “
The montage shows the factory of the interview, in a recording studio in Montmartre: while Monk plays Twilight with Nellie (1957), Henri Renaud, who rubbed shoulders with the couple in 1954, in New York, asks Monk to say something about Nellie. “She is my wife and the mother of my children”, is content to answer the pianist, a little surprised. Then comes the big deal: when the Monks lived in a cramped apartment in New York, only the kitchen was spacious, and that’s where the piano was installed! Monk confirms, without adding to it. His strength is in this restraint, but under the studio lights, sweat begins to bead on his forehead.
Then Henri Renaud evokes the first concert that Monk gave in Paris, in 1954, Salle Pleyel. Perhaps his music was too avant-garde for French audiences, he suggests. ” I do not understand your question “, replies Monk, recalling that he was on the front page of a jazz magazine announcing the concert. On the other hand, he had no musicians to accompany him on stage, he laments. “Eventually I got guys to play with me and I was the lowest paid of them all. This is what happened. »
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