Bird (1988). Photofest.
(Clint Eastwood, US 1988, 161 min., 35mm)
Eastwood as Director. The art and career of jazz saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker comes to life in Eastwood’s delirious biopic. Possibly the director’s most personal film (he is a musician himself and has written and performed music for many of his own films), it is also one of his most formally inventive films, moving both backward and forward in time. The film is anchored by Parker’s relationships with his wife Chan, trumpeter and bebop legend Dizzy Gillespie, and Red Rodney, a trumpet-player whose admiration of Parker turns into a working relationship. Forest Whitaker delivers a career performance as Parker, whose short life and career ended at the age of 34 due to a heroin addiction.