{"id":348958,"date":"2026-02-21T12:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/348958\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T12:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:00:10","slug":"biopic-of-american-jazz-pianist-with-strong-irish-input-hits-groove-for-awards-season-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/348958\/","title":{"rendered":"Biopic of American jazz pianist with strong Irish input hits groove for awards season \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday evening, the creative team behind Everybody Digs Bill Evans will learn if the Berlin<\/a> Film Festival jury digs their Irish-British take on the jazz legend as much as critics and audiences.<\/p>\n

The moody and mysterious biopic of Evans \u2013 who rose to fame playing with Miles Davis, soared high with seven Grammys then flamed out aged 52 in 1980 \u2013 premiered in competition at the Berlin festival and is showing too on Saturday at the Dublin International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

At the film\u2019s heart is a mesmerising turn from Anders Danielsen Lie as the introverted jazz pianist whose sure touch at the keyboard belied a lifelong emotional turmoil and heroin addiction. Unable to hide the sadness he cannot express, Danielsen Lie\u2019s Evans is a slow burn that tips into self-immolation.<\/p>\n

Newry native Valene Kane delivers an intense yet fragile performance as Evans\u2019s tragic on-off girlfriend and fellow heroin user. Laurie Metcalf and Bill Pullman give career-best supporting performances as the musician\u2019s puzzled parents.<\/p>\n

The film, based on the novel Intermission by Welsh writer Owen Martell and an elegant screenplay from Adam and Paul writer Mark O\u2019Halloran<\/a>, plots a tragic decline once described by a friend of Evans as \u201cthe longest suicide in history\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"NorthernNorthern Irish actor Valene Kane at a press conference for Everybody Digs Bill Evans during the Berlin Film Festival. Photograph: Fabian Sommer\/EPA <\/p>\n

At the height of his fame, Evans deconstructed Leonard Bernstein<\/a> show tunes to their harmonic bones while retaining their musical essence. Director Grant Gee succeeds in the other direction, reconstituting a plausible version of Evans the person without betraying the musician he hid behind.<\/p>\n

Film industry bible Variety said the \u201cnimble, restrained but quietly plangent\u201d film, supported by Screen Ireland<\/a>, elicits \u201cconsiderable beauty and feeling\u201d. It singled out cinematographer Piers McGrail\u2019s striking monochrome cinematography for boosting the dramatic appeal, allowing \u201cIreland\u2019s Co Cork<\/a> … stand in for both New York City and coastal Florida\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Hollywood Reporter praised the feature for its \u201cartful direction, nimble structure, visual richness and impeccable performances\u201d that delivered \u201csomething full-bodied, compelling and deeply affecting, its melancholy beauty lingering long after the end credits roll\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"BerlinaleBerlinale Festival director Tricia Tuttle, Alan Maher, Bill Pullman, Janine Marmot, Barry Ward, Valene Kane, Grant Gee, Mark O’Halloran, Anders Danielsen Lie, Katie McGrath, Albert Berger and guests attend the Everybody Digs Bill Evans premiere during the Berlin Film Festival. Photograph: Arturo Holmes\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

IndieWire drew attention to how the film shrugged off music biopic cliches for a tight focus on the contradictions and countervailing forces on one period of Evans\u2019s life: \u201cIt\u2019s a riff, played with real skill, lingering on dissonance rather than release.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Danielsen Lie, Evans remained a mystery even after bringing him to life on screen. \u201cThere\u2019s this big contrast between the order, the classicism, the refinement, the pureness of his art,\u201d he said, \u201cand the total chaos of his life. And he was kind of constantly rationalising his own problems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday evening, the creative team behind Everybody Digs Bill Evans will learn if the Berlin Film Festival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[25123,1877,142185,18,117,6621,11146,19,17,75940,153156,114538,35657],"class_list":{"0":"post-348958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-berlin","9":"tag-cork","10":"tag-dublin-international-film-festival","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-germany","14":"tag-hollywood-la","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-leonard-bernstein","18":"tag-mark-o-halloran","19":"tag-miles-davis","20":"tag-screen-ireland-fis-eireann"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116108514007578751","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}