Everybody Digs Bill Evans – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – Grant Gee
Writers – Grant Gee, Owen Martell, Mark O’Halloran
Stars – Anders Danielsen Lie, Bill Pullman, Barry Ward

This is an adaptation by Mark O’Halloran of the novel Intermission (2013) by Owen Martell. It focuses on New York jazz pianist Bill Evans (Anders Danielsen Lie). It hones in on the emotional crisis he endured following the death in 1961 in a car crash of his collaborator, double bassist, Scott LaFaro (Will Sach), who was only 25 years old. Scott’s death unhinges Evans, and he is unable to play the piano and finds relief in the greater use of heroin along with his girlfriend Ellaine Schultz (Valene Kane). His life as a jazz pianist is at a standstill, and he goes to live with his brother Harry Evans Jr (Barry Ward) and his wife and young daughter Debbie in their apartment. Harry Jr’s own mental health is not great, and Bill then flees to Florida, where his father, Harry Evans Sr (Bill Pullman), and mother, Mary (Laurie Metcalf), are living out a contented retirement having worked hard for it in New Jersey. Therefore, what Gee concentrates on is not Bill Evans’s music-making but rather the intermission which surrounds him following the death of Scott. It concentrates on the period of deep trauma that Evans endures.

The film begins in monochrome with the recreation of the Bill Evans Trio performance which took place in the Village Vanguard in 1961. This opening sequence is atmospheric, and it conveys the intense musical understanding which existed between the three band members. To watch it heightens the tragedy of the car crash which follows. The predominant monochrome shooting is interrupted by the first of several colour flashes forward into the seventies and eighties. They cover subsequent deaths of those to whom Evans was close. This unusual timeline is somewhat unsettling, but it emphasises that the death of Scott was the first in a series.

Evans is severely troubled by the death of Scott. He cannot conceive of playing the piano without the accompaniment of Scott. He is inconsolable as his creativity has undergone a catastrophe. He is grimly gaunt, and his black-framed glasses perched on his nose add to his mental remoteness. Barry Ward is the generous brother who, so far as he can, tries to help, but he has his own mental demons with which he has to deal. The retreat to Florida introduces two sterling performances from Pullman and Metcalf as they try to support their talented son. Both Father and Mother are trying their best to provide support for him, but they live in a different world. The important figure of Elaine is conceived sensitively by Kane, with Evans central to her own fragile mental equilibrium.

In concentrating on this period of creative inactivity and emotional trauma, Gee, O’Halloran and Martell create the intermission which Martell uses as the title for his novel. While the flashes forward are to an extent disruptive, they show that personal tragedy was part of Evans’s creativity and the death of Scott LaFaro was only the beginning. Evans lived until 1980, but the death of Scott was seminal for Evans in relation to his remaining years. This film, concentrating on the dark side of a comparatively short part of Evans’s life, provides an insight into the challenges which Evans had to manage.  It is an unusual perspective. It is insightful and beautifully made.