Storyline
Stop for Bud is Jørgen Leth's first film and the first in his long collaboration with Ole John. […] they wanted to "blow up cinematic conventions and invent cinematic language from scratch". The jazz pianist Bud Powell moves around Copenhagen -- through King's Garden, along the quay at Kalkbrænderihavnen, across a waste dump. […] Bud is alone, accompanied only by his music. […] Image and sound are two different things -- that's Leth's and John's principle. Dexter Gordon, the narrator, tells stories about Powell's famous left hand. In an obituary for Powell, dated 3 August 1966, Leth wrote: "He quite willingly, or better still, unresistingly, mechanically, let himself be directed. The film attempts to depict his strange duality about his surroundings. His touch on the keys was like he was burning his fingers -- that's what it looked like, and that's how it sounded. But outside his playing, and often right in the middle of it, too, he was simply gone, not there."
Cast & Crew
BP
Bud Powell
Himself - Jazz Pianist
Lead
Dexter Gordon
Narrator (voice)
NØ
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
Himself
JE
Jørn Elniff
Himself
MB
Max Brüel
Himself
What People Are Saying
4.0
“A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. Ole John's vision lands with breathtaking precision.”
3.0
“Every frame feels alive. Stop for Bud is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.”
