Stopforbud (1963)

Stop for Bud

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."

Casting arrow_drop_down

Bud Powell
as Himself - Jazz Pianist

Dexter Gordon
as Narrator (voice)

Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
as Himself

Jørn Elniff
as Himself

Max Brüel
as Himself

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Crew arrow_drop_down

Ole John
Director

Jørgen Leth
Director

Jens Jørgen Thorsen
Director

Ole John
Cinematography

Ole John
Writer

Ole John
Producer

Bud Powell
Music

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