By JENNIKA INGRAM | Reporter
This month’s Palisades Branch Library Saturday Movie Matinee will be “Bird” (1988)—which tells the story of the troubled life of jazz visionary Charlie “Yardbird” Parker.
“Academy Award-winning director Clint Eastwood, a well-known, long-standing jazz aficionado, delivers a compassionate portrait of jazz visionary Charlie ‘Yardbird’ Parker,” the library shared in a press release. “Eastwood, who won a Golden Globe for Best Director for this film, also paints a vivid portrait of the jazz world in all its complexity.”
Parker, who lived from 1920 to 1955, is quoted as saying: “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out your horn.” “I Got Rhythm,” composed by George Gershwin, is his most famous song.
Academy Award-winner Forest Whitaker, who graduated from Palisades Charter High School, stars in this biopic. Whitaker won the Best Actor Award for his role in the movie at the Cannes Film Festival.
Whitaker is known for his work in movies like “Platoon” and “The Color of Money.”
Other lead cast members include Diane Venora, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Zelniker, Bill Cobbs, John Witherspoon and Tony Cox.
The film, rated R, has scored 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. With a run time of 140 minutes, it will be screened on February 22 at 1 p.m.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
