Kansas City (film)

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Movie
German title Kansas City
Original title Kansas City
Country of production USA , France
original language English
Publishing year 1996
length 116 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Robert Altman
script Robert Altman , Frank Barhydt
production Robert Altman , Scott Bushnell , James McLindon , Matthew Seig , David C. Thomas
music Hal Willner
camera Oliver Stapleton
cut Geraldine Peroni
occupation

Kansas City is an organized crime thriller filmed by Robert Altman , which takes place during one day in Kansas City in 1934 and strongly influences the then flourishing jazz music there with its special big band sound ( Kansas City Jazz ) and the many jam sessions the musician comes to the fore after the band appearances, which Altman himself said he experienced himself.

action

The little thief Johnny O'Hara is caught by the colored gangster Seldom Seen stealing from a player in his club, for which he blackened his face in an unsuccessful attempt to set the wrong track, and is imprisoned in his Hey Hey Club. Although he got all the money back, he wants to make an example of him. His wife Blondie O'Hara, who is following her model, the somewhat vulgar, blonde-colored film diva Jean Harlow , fears for his life and kidnaps the bored, opium-addicted wife of Henry Stilton, a Democratic senator, Roosevelt , in an act of desperation - Advisers and agents of the New Deal to extort him about its connections with the mob. Stilton just holds them out. In the evening O'Hara comes back, but collapses on the threshold and dies. The woman of Stiltons then shoots Blondie O'Hara in cold blood when she tries to get into the car of the Stilton waiting in front of the house. In secondary lines z. B. shown how the young Charlie Parker leads the 14-year-old pregnant Pearl Cummings, who missed her supervisors from the women's association (Nettie Bolt) in Kansas City, to a jam session at the Hey-Hey Club. Other subsidiary lines shed light on the corruption of the time, for example when Blondie O'Hara Flynn's brother-in-law buys votes for the unemployed at the time of the Great Depression for the Democrats and drives them from the country to Kansas City to vote.

Awards

The film received the Los Angeles Film Critics Association's 1996 award for Best Music by Hal Willner, and Harry Belafonte received the New York Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor . Miranda Richardson won the Society of Texas Film Critics Award in 1996 .

background

Jazz music plays a major role in the film, and Altman has also put together a film with only jazz scenes from the feature film and its preparation ( Jazz 34 ). The jazz musicians who can be heard and seen in a jam session in the Hey-Hey Club (the model for this is the Reno Club ) include:

Among other things, a tenor duel between Young and Hawkins is shown ( Blues in the Dark with Handy / Redman). You can hear: Blues in the Dark (in addition to the Handy / Redman Duel James Carter Solo), Moten swing (solos by Jesse Davis and James Carter), I Surrender Dear (with Payton), Queer Notions (with Murray), Pagin the Devil (solos by Byron, Dara, Gayton), Lullaby of the Leaves (with Geri Allen), I left my Baby (with Mahogany, then solos by Newman, Handy, Fowlkes), Yeah Man (with another tenor duel between Handy and Redman ), Froggy Bottom (by Mary Lou Williams, with Allen, Newman), Lafayette (Duel of the Trumpeters), Solitude (on the CD in two versions). A CD with the soundtrack for the film was released by Universal Music in 1995 .

The film premiered in May 1996 at the Cannes Film Festival , where it was screened as a competition entry.

The documentary film Jazz 34

From the material for the feature film, Altman also edited a 72-minute documentary with interviews with eyewitnesses of the time and a commentary spoken by Harry Belafonte. 13 pieces are presented: Tickletoe, Indiana, Solitude, Blues in the Dark, Harvard Blues, Lafayette, Lullabye of the Leaves, Piano Boogie, Pagin the Devil, Moten Swing, Queer Notions, Yeah Man and Solitude. The musicians don't play authentically at any price, but let their own interpretation flow into it.

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Liner Notes for the CD