'Round Midnight

'Round Midnight (1986) is Bertrand Tavernier's music drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Paris, 1959: inside a smoky club, an aging saxophonist lifts his horn and the whole room goes still.

Dale Turner is a great American jazzman playing out his final years in exile — booze, illness, his best days long gone. Outside the club, a young Frenchman too broke for a glass of wine shivers in the rain, worshipping the old man's sound. The two grow close, and the friendship sparks one last surge of genius. Real tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon plays Turner, with François Cluzet at his side.

Tavernier didn't make a biopic so much as a love letter to bebop: the music is performed live on screen, scored and recorded by Herbie Hancock, who took home an Oscar for it. Gordon, a working musician rather than an actor, landed a Best Actor nomination — a rare feat. Slow, smoky and made for anyone who hears a life story inside a solo. Stream 'Round Midnight (1986) online on iFILM.