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Au Clair de la Lune (1957)
In November 1957, Miles Davis was invited by French impresario Marcel Romano to
participate in a three-week tour of France. The tour was largely a bust -- the group
played only a few gigs -- but while Davis was in Paris, in addition to participating
in a memorable session that yielded the haunting
soundtrack to Louis Malle's classic Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, he
performed with René Urtreger and Barney Wilen in a variety show directed by
Jean-Christophe Averty.
The show was broadcast at 9:07 pm local time by Radiodiffusion-Télévision
Française (RTF) on Christmas evening 1957. The broadcast comprises a
number of Christmas-themed comedic skits introduced by Jean Carmet --
Le Réveillon du Journaliste
(featuring Roger Carel along with Francis Blanche, Pierre Doris, Judith Magré,
and Nono Zammit),
Le Réveillon des Comédiens
(Roger Carel and Jean Bellenger),
Le Réveillon du Boxeur
(Henri Salvador),
and
Le Réveillon du Psychanaliste
(Louis de Funes, Pierre Mondy, and Pascale Roberts)
-- and concludes with a 17-minute segment, Averty's
Au
Clair de la Lune.
Au Clair de la Lune was filmed in Buttes Chaumont studios in Paris on December
7. Between the opening and closing remarks, during which the Davis-Urtreger
group plays "What's New?", it features
- Keïta Fodeba and Ballets Africains (3:50);
- Paul Braffort singing and playing the piano (1:37);
- the Davis-Urtreger quintet's variation on "Dig" (3:51);
- Giani Esposito singing and playing a hand drum (1:55); and
- Juliette Gréco walking around the stage and singing into a telephone (3:23).
The performances take place on a set with a stylized lunar landscape with the sun,
planets, and even twinkling stars in the background. Between the performances we
hear Sputnik-like beeps. The overlays and graphics during the announcements and
between artistic performances are very strange, combining astronomical and zodiacal
images with what looks like Alice in Wonderland. Plus St. Nicholas, of course. (Averty
would go on in 1970 to direct Alice au pays des merveilles, his very weird
adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.)
This film, lost for more than 60 years, was rediscovered in 2019 in INA's Conservation
Center in Saint-Rémy-l'Honoré. I am grateful to Pascal Rozat for finding
a copy of the film and sharing it with me. The Davis performance of "Dig" can now
be seen at the INA.fr website: check out
1957, un inédit de Miles Davis.
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