February 12, 1970. The broadcast Jazz Portrait is broadcast on French television. The guest of the day is the pianist Thelonious Monk, caught during a recent stay in Paris.
The composer says three words, then performs some of his most famous pieces, including the classic ‘Round Midnight.
Everything is going well. The show is a success… Or at least we thought so, before Alain Gomis made the film Rewind & Playa little jewel of discomfort presented tonight at the opening of the Rendez-vous du Documentaire de Montréal (RIDM).
The Franco-Senegalese filmmaker has indeed come across the rushes (retails) of this recording made on December 15, 1969, which had been dormant for more than 50 years in the reserves of the National Audiovisual Institute (INA). And what he saw does not correspond at all to the official version of the show which will be broadcast two months later, and some segments of which are still circulating on YouTube.
He instead discovered two painful hours, where Monk tries as best he can to escape the heavy questions of his interviewer, the pianist and jazzophile expert Henri Renaud.
Alain Gomis therefore chose to re-edit the interview, this time placing himself from the point of view of the American musician, and bringing out the “production” mechanisms used during the recording.
The result is illuminating… and deliciously unsettling.
We cut !
In 1969, Thelonious Monk is a recognized musician, who tours all over the world.
He was to play that evening at the Salle Pleyel in Paris and was filmed as soon as he got off the plane by the cameras of Jazz Portraitwho follow him to the hotel, in the company of his wife Nellie, then to the studio, where he is to be questioned by Henri Renaud, an avowed fan of Monk.
We don’t often have the opportunity to see Monk without his piano, wandering off stage, and even less in the streets of Paris. These excerpts will surely delight fans of the legendary jazzman, who died in 1982 at the age of 65.
But it is with the sequence of the interview that Alain Gomis’ documentary takes on its full dimension.
PHOTO GERHARD KASSNER, PROVIDED BY THE RIDM
Alain Gomis
Monk is seated at the piano, a little lost. Leaning over him, Henri Renaud presses him with predictable questions, which lock Monk into his character as a misunderstood, penniless and more or less self-taught pianist.
The story is obviously written in advance. The interviewer seems more concerned with respecting his narrative framework than with provoking a real exchange with the musician… to whom he speaks very little about music.
It looks like two planets having trouble talking to each other. Both seem surprised. The host does not realize at all that he is locking Monk in a very stereotypical image.
Alain Gomis, director of the documentary Rewind & Play
Already difficult to interview, Monk then rebels in his own way: by withdrawing into himself. “He doesn’t want to play the game,” adds Gomis. I think he’s tired of having to respond incessantly to somewhat caricatural visions [de son personnage]. »
There is still a rare moment when the American musician tries to open up. Invited to talk about his first visit to Paris, 15 years earlier, he says he was more or less well paid.
This revelation could fuel the conversation. But Henri Renaud, visibly anxious to protect the small local jazz community, asks the director to erase the sequence because it is “not nice”. A scene steeped in paternalism, which alone sums up the subject of Rewind & Play.
“What is disturbing is that he does it with no intention of doing harm, nuance Alain Gomis. He treats Monk with great admiration, but at the same time, great condescension. »
play instead of talk
Make no mistake about it: Rewind & Play also gives plenty of room for music. Because it is there – and only there – that Thelonious Monk can express himself freely.
The pianist is clearly annoyed at having to prolong his presence (“it’s the last piece, isn’t it?”). The sweat running down his tired face suggests he’s been baking in the spotlight for too long already. But he complies with good grace and delivers an astonishing performance, magnified by the camera which sometimes comes within inches of his face.
An “extremely touching” sequence, concludes the director, evoking the “loneliness” and the “very strong fragility” of the musician.
This great moment of jazz closes in style a failed interview, which missed the point. And whose colonialist bias is quite subtly denounced by Alain Gomis. Evacuated from all narration, Rewind & Play conveys its message through an uncompromising montage, where the unsaid speaks louder than the words… in the manner of Monk, the great master of the spaces between the notes.
Critical, but with style…
Rewind & Playby Alain Gomis, is presented this Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Imperial and on Sunday November 20 at 5.30 p.m. at the Cinéma du Musée
The International Documentary Meetings of Montreal are held until November 27.