Chet Baker's music is jazz, to be precise, West Coast cold jazz , not traditional blues music. The "Blue" in the title of the film uses more of the cultural meaning of blue in European and American culture-the gloomy color. As a metaphor for the film , this gloom permeated Chet Baker's life until the end.
This film is an innovative biography. Due to the flowing and ever-changing nature of jazz music, the use of black-and-white movies and the overlapping of reality in the film makes it difficult to distinguish between dreams and reality. It also implies Chet Baker's life as an addict. Mental state.
Although Chet’s famous repertoires are not all composed by himself. Everyone in the jazz world likes to perform old repertoires over and over again, but what makes jazz very special is that due to the super flexibility of jazz and the characteristics of improvisation, one The effect presented by the work greatly depends on the performer/singer and the cooperation between them. So jazz is a kind of flowing music.
How to understand improvisation and flow ?
It can be seen from the recording process that when recording ordinary songs, you can use the "sticking sing" method. The background music composed of all the orchestrators is recorded, and then the singer is invited, and the background music is sung in the earphones and recorded; Even the different instruments that make up the background music can be recorded separately in the studio just like "sticking sing".
But jazz performance rarely does this. You need to invite all the musicians to a room. They need to see each other while playing, and communicate with their eyes and tacit understanding. A piece of flower (add some decorative melody), every time you play it will not be exactly the same, you have to look at everyone's feelings, and it feels right, it is heaven and earth.
The melody of the original song only extracts a skeleton in the interpretation work. How to fill it into a handsome man with flesh and blood depends on the talent of the performer.
The beginning of the film is relatively depressing, and the plot takes a turn in the middle. The hero and the heroine live in a very beautiful mini RV, travel by the beach and practice music. The girlfriend gave Chet the warm companionship, and the agent also gave him. Great understanding and support.
The story of the film embodies human nature and destiny. There are struggles with self-discipline, struggles in hardships, the coming of good luck won by the best, and there are also tragedies of their own. Taking his old life after being released from prison as the main storyline, telling how he persisted in polishing amidst the ups and downs of fate, making his jazz mature day by day.
There is Chet Baker's complete classic song "My Funny Valentine" and "I've Never Been in Love Before" performed by Ethan Hawke in the film. I have to say that Ethan Hawke's singing is so fake that you can't find anything better than him. The right actor has gone to play this role.
The difference between Chet and Jane is that they care about the future differently. Jane failed in the sight glass. Chet comforted that many artists were too talented, and their creations were 100 years ahead of the time. No one at that time could understand; Jane said that she was discussing not talent, she just wanted a job. Chet said at the end of the film that he didn't want a Career, otherwise he would continue to work at a gas station. What he wanted was to go back to his previous life and perform his music as before.
What Jane wants is an ordinary, hopeful life. What Chet cannot do without is the release of his music and talent, even at the cost of madness.
Chet is a very self-conscious person and never accommodates others. This can be shown in many plots of the film. He is selfish and even a little naive. He can't do without Jane. He needs Jane's constant care and comfort everywhere. In the relationship between the two of them, he needs to be centered on his affairs, and he is jealous.
Finally, in the future with Jane, among music and drugs, he chose the latter two; when he clarified his heart to Jane in the audience with singing on stage, Jane no longer chose to forgive, and took off the engagement ring. Choose to leave. Jane helped Chet when he was in the lowest valley. Everyone stayed away from him when everyone avoided him. She saved him when he fell into the abyss, but after she was pregnant, she didn’t plan to save him indefinitely. He went down.
The conversation between Chet and his father before leaving was also very exciting.
The background story is that Chet was born into a music family, but his father encountered the Great Depression in the United States at that time and gave up his music career to find a job to support his family. It can be seen from the conversation that in this unhappy conversation, the father and the son have their own obsessions. Chet values persistence in doing something he has talents, and his father values family more.
So even though his son has realized his unfinished music career and achieved great success, his father still feels disappointed in his unruly son from the bottom of his heart.
Even if some audiences don't know this musical character, they have heard the famous song My Funny Valentine sung by him . In Friends, Janice once recorded a tape for Chandler as a birthday gift, in which the song was sung.
As an innovative character biography, although the film has a lot of interpretation elements, it completely restores the clothing and hairstyles of the American era, and reproduces all the elements in the American jazz bar, including classic cocktails and cigar cigarettes. Gentleman and lady. The retro fashionable elements in the film are very good materials to understand the retro aesthetic of that era.
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