"Autour de minuit" ("'Round Midnight") is the story of a Frenchman's passion for jazz, and for a sax player. Or two Frenchmen, rather, for it takes a passionate director to make such a film.
Francis Borler (played by François Cluzet) is a Parisian artist and a jazz fan who finally meets his idol, sax player Dale Turner (Dexter Gordon), who is struggling with alcohol and drugs, money problems and a generally crappy life. The young Frenchman decides to help him, and the two of them become friends.
This movie is a must-see for any jazz fan: not only is the story about jazz, and partly inspired by real-life sax Lester Young, but the guest star list is particularly impressive, with such musicians as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter or John McLaughlin, and obviously Dexter Gordon himself, sharing some of the best moments of jazz on the screen.
But this is also a film for the layman. Dexter Gordon's rendering of Dale Turner is especially moving (on a par with, and arguably even better than, Forest Whitaker's impersonation of Bird in Eastwood's film a couple of years later).