Submitted by
Roger Mellor
Jazz on a Summer's Day (1960)
Influence of The Red Shoes on Bert Stern's film
Bert Stern, director of the classic Jazz on a Summer's Day (1960), available
on DVD (USA Region) talks of Michael Powell and "The Red Shoes"
The 1958 Newport Jazz Festival Remains a Palpable Treasure, thanks to Filmmaker
Bert Stern
By 1958, Bert Stern had become a celebrated advertising and fashion photographer,
but the then 28-year-old had another ambition: "I wanted to make a movie
before I was 30," says Stern, who beat his deadline with Jazz on a Summer's
Day. More than four decades later, Stern's sharply etched, exhilarating
portrait of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival --from fabulous yachts to youthful
party-hoppers to sensational performances by Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington,
Mahalia Jackson, Thelonious Monk, and others -- looks better than ever on
a sparkling DVD release. To celebrate the return of this jazz classic --
one of the few documentaries to be added to the National Film Registry --
Stern spoke with Barnes&Noble.com;'s John Guida about his film. Barnes
& Noble.com: What made you want to do a film of the Newport Jazz Festival?
Bert Stern: Bert Stern: It sounded very interesting to me. Jazz and Newport
were contradictory: One was kind of poor and from the South, the other was
rich and up in the North. I imagined the green lawns that all these rich
people had and jazz being played and lots of people sitting on the lawn.
George Wein, who put on the festival, said they had thought of [filming]
it, but it would be impossible to do because you could never get all the
releases and permissions -- just too many different groups, too many different
agents. But I was set on it, and I said, "Let me worry about that part.
Why don't I just shoot it, and I'll get the releases later?"
B&N.com: Did you scout the location?
BS: I went up to Newport to take a look at the setting, which turned
out to be in the backyard of a high school, and that was kind of shocking
to me, because there were no green lawns, there were just cement floors.
It was kind of a downer, so I had pretty much decided not to go forward
with it because it didn't have the charm I was looking for. When I got back
on this little plane to go back to New York, I sat down next to this guy,
a lawyer. We got talking, a real nice guy who was interested in the arts,
jazz, all kinds of stuff. He asked what I was doing up there. And I said,
"Well, I went to look at this location, but it was really terrible. So I
guess I'm not going to go forward on this project." And he said, "Oh, that's
ridiculous, you've got to go forward on it, it's a wonderful idea." We were
so high up in the clouds, it was like the voice of God telling me you've
got to do this project. I realized that my first instinct probably was the
right one and I shouldn't back out because it was difficult.
B&N.com: What do you think of the DVD image?
BS: The quality is like going back in time. It's digitized from the
original negative, and the color is like it was just made, just beautiful.
Very alive.
B&N.com: The lighting is striking. Who did it?
BS: The festival was lit so low we couldn't get an exposure. So I
offered to light the festival -- not that I knew how to do it -- and pay
for it, which George Wein seemed very happy about. We just got a truckload
of lights and brought them up there, and they said, "OK, where do you want
them?" And I said, "Are you kidding?" I didn't have a clue. But I said,
"Well, just stick them on the stage," but it looked awful. So I said, "Why
don't you turn them around, point them at the camera, and we'll shoot into
the lights."
B&N.com: Had you seen any documentaries or music films that acted
as a model for you?
BS: I didn't like jazz very much at the time because I thought most
of it took place in cellars in Greenwich Village, all in black and white.
If anything influenced me, it would have been a movie called "The Red Shoes"
by Michael Powell. When I saw that film, probably when I was 18, I was so
taken with the color that I remember just holding onto the arms of the chairs
in the movie theater and being mesmerized because I thought it was the first
color movie that used color instead of it being in color. And I think they
had stage lights and shooting into lights, I'm not sure, but it was red
and it was very exciting to me. It's a wonderful movie -- it's one of my
favorites, still is. The influence was very subliminal, very instinctual.
B&N.com: The list of performers from the entire festival, from
Thursday to Sunday, is amazing. Is there any footage of the performances
from days other than Saturday, when the musicians in the film were shot?
BS: We put the best stuff in the movie. But there were a lot of other
songs by performers. There were maybe two or three songs never seen before
by Louis Armstrong and certainly more material of Mahalia Jackson. I don't
know if there's footage of people that are not in the movie. There might
be. These were all that were left out because we didn't have time. So there's
kind of a treasure chest there.
July 11, 2000
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