''Born to Be Blue'' is a 2015 internationally co-produced
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
directed, produced and written by
Robert Budreau
Robert Budreau (born January 25, 1974) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer.Greg Colgan, "Ingersoll-raised Hollywood director Robert Budreau to star at Forest City Film Festival". ''Woodstock Sentinel-Review'', September 12, 2019. ...
. The film stars
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor and film director. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award. Hawke has directed three feature films, three off-Broadway plays, and a doc ...
and
Carmen Ejogo
Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo (; born 22 October 1973) . It was shown in the Special Presentations section of the
2015 Toronto International Film Festival
The 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 10 to 20 September 2015. On 28 July 2015 the first wave of films to be screened at the Festival was announced. Jean-Marc Vallée's '' Demolition'' starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Na ...
.
The film is about American jazz musician
Chet Baker, portrayed by Hawke.
Plot
The film is described as "semi-factual, semi-fictional".
''Varietys reviewer, Andrew Barker, noted that the film is "about a character who happens to share a name and a significant number of biographical similarities with Chet Baker, taking the legendary West Coast jazz musician's life as though it were merely a chord chart from which to launch an improvised set of new melodies".
Set largely in 1966, Baker (portrayed by Ethan Hawke) is hired to play himself in a movie about his earlier years when he first tried heroin. He romances actress Jane Azuka (a fictional character, a composite of several of Baker's women in real life, portrayed here by Carmen Ejogo) but on their first date, Baker is attacked by thugs and his front teeth smashed. As Baker recovers from his injury, his
embouchure
Embouchure () or lipping is the use of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, and teeth in playing a wind instrument. This includes shaping the lips to the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument or the mouthpiece of a brass instrument. The word is o ...
is ruined and he is unable to play trumpet any better than a novice. Meanwhile, he must answer to a probation officer, and ensure he is employed, while sticking to his regimen of
methadone treatment.
Cast
Production
In October 2014, it was announced that
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor and film director. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award. Hawke has directed three feature films, three off-Broadway plays, and a doc ...
had joined the cast portraying the role of
Chet Baker, with
Robert Budreau
Robert Budreau (born January 25, 1974) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer.Greg Colgan, "Ingersoll-raised Hollywood director Robert Budreau to star at Forest City Film Festival". ''Woodstock Sentinel-Review'', September 12, 2019. ...
directing from a screenplay he wrote.
That same month, it was announced that
Carmen Ejogo
Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo (; born 22 October 1973) and
Callum Keith Rennie
Callum Keith Rennie (born 14 September 1960) is a British-born Canadian actor who started his career in Canadian film and television projects, where his portrayal of Stanley Raymond Kowalski on the television series '' Due South'' was his firs ...
had also joined the cast of the film.
Filming took place in
Sudbury,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, in fall 2014.
The jazz score to the film was created by composer and pianist
David Braid. The audio for trumpet performances in the film was done by
Kevin Turcotte.
[ Hawke had taken trumpet lessons from Ben Promane, and requested video of Turcotte recording, in order to mime the playing during the shoot.][
]
Release
The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...
on 13 September 2015. Shortly after, IFC Films
IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its ...
acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. The film had a limited Canadian release on 11 March 2016, and a limited release in the United States two weeks later.
Critical reception
''Born to Be Blue'' received positive reviews from film critics, with Hawke's performance receiving praise. It holds an 88% "Certified Fresh" rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, based on 100 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10 and critical consensus being: "''Born to Be Blue'' benefits from a highlight-reel performance from Ethan Hawke and an impressionistic, non-hagiographic approach to Chet Baker's life and times". On Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film holds a rating of 64 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Soundtrack album
Warner Music Canada
Warner Music Canada is the Canadian division of Warner Music Group. The label previously operated as WEA Music of Canada, Ltd. (French: ''WEA Musique du Canada, Ltée''), often shortened to WEA Canada, the Canadian subsidiary of WEA Internationa ...
released a collection of 14 tracks, with 12 arranged or composed by David Braid and 1 track each by Charles Mingus and Odetta. Two tracks feature Hawke's vocals.
See also
* '' My Foolish Heart'', another film about the final days of Chet Baker.
* '' Miles Ahead'', a similar film depicting the life of jazz trumpeter Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...
.
References
External links
Official site
(IFC Films)
*
*
Born to Be Blue
' at Library and Archives Canada
{{DEFAULTSORT:Born To Be Blue
2015 films
2015 drama films
2015 biographical drama films
2010s musical drama films
2010s English-language films
Canadian biographical drama films
Canadian musical drama films
English-language Canadian films
Films shot in Greater Sudbury
Entertainment One films
Films about interracial romance
Jazz films
Cultural depictions of Chet Baker
Films set in the 1960s
Biographical films about musicians
Films about heroin addiction
Films directed by Robert Budreau
2010s Canadian films