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UK Premiere: Rewind & Play (15) + ScreenTalk

Part of Doc'n Roll/EFG London Jazz Festival

Rewind and Play

Thelonius Monk is on the loose on French TV in ’69, where the jazz giant takes down an arrogant journalist with a cosmic attitude. A minimalist and darkly witty treasure of a film about our man Monk.

Paris, December 1969. Before a concert, jazz genius Thelonious Monk appears in the programme ‘Jazz Portrait’ on French television. Raw material that ‘Rewind & Play’ returns to in an eminent and bizarre adaptation that is as far from traditional television as you can get. The situation falters from the start when the host doesn’t find Monk’s answers adequate, and a bizarre chamber game ensues between the two. In one corner: a polite, strained-smiling-but-tired and grand-swearing Monk who looks like he's landed on another planet. In the other corner: a jazz-savvy yet tone-deaf white interviewer who comes across as deluded and arrogant. Luckily, Monk also gets to play his piano.

This screening will be followed by a discussion of the film with journalist Kevin Le Gendre and a special guest.

France 2022 dir Alain Gomis 65 min

This title has been locally classified.

Please note this film contains references to racism and racist behaviour.

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Barbican Cinema 2