Harlem (New York), Years 20. The Cotton Club is a popular night club is attended by both celebrities and rich thugs to enjoy the latest performances that take place there. "Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere) is a talented cornetist that after saving the life of gangster Dutch Schultz (James Remar), will become his confidant. The situation will become dangerous when "Dixie" start a relationship with the beautiful Vera Cicero (Diane Lane), a lover of his boss. Moreover, Sandman Williams (Gregory Hines) is a black dancer to tap that aspires to become a star after being hired at the legendary club, where you'll meet Lila (Lonette McKee), a mulatto singer pretends to be white to be more successful.
Cotton Club is one of the most expensive film whims of the career of Francis Ford Coppola. An uneven, but interesting movie that pays homage to a certain type and mode of filmmaking: that of the thirties and forties. And it does so through a look reminiscent of an era that will never come back.
The film deftly combines gangster genre, the romantic melodrama, musical and socio-racial drama in a package that includes an elegant and impeccable staging, but that grates along its uneven development, alternating very successful with other sequences in which the author of The Godfather seems to fall into self-parody.
The tape contains two lines of argument whose weak link is the famous jazz club, which serves as a playful for some (white), and as a means of survival for others (blacks) . Both time frames converge on the premises of same, culminating in a masterly manner in the assembly in parallel, house brand, which comes at the end (see video).
Cotton Club in find references to such films as Angels with Dirty Faces (Angels With Dirty Faces , 1938) by Michael Curtiz, The Roaring Twenties (The Roaring Twenties , 1939) by Raoul Walsh or Have and Have Not ( To Have and Have Not , 1944) by Howard Hawks. In addition, Coppola uses narrative devices from that era, using dissolves and overlays in the transitions of the film.
One of the points strengths of this work, it is the abundance of characters who, although they are poorly shaped, are the most picturesque and varied, highlighting the strange and loyal partner to make Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne (actor latter best known for its embodiment Herman Monster for television in the sixties).
are also noteworthy the soundtrack by John Barry, which contains many songs composed by the great Duke Ellington, art direction and gorgeous photography Stephen Goldblatt.
is not a work teacher, even a great movie, but it has moments that undoubtedly amply justify viewing.
Rating: Good .
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