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Poster for Stop for Bud

Stop for Bud

Seen it?

1963 | 12 min | Documentary, Music

Monday Morning Maybeearly rating

Why it’s a Monday Morning Maybe

With a box office flop and almost no lasting buzz, this one could be a tough watch. Keep your phone handy.

Based on critics, audiences, awards, box office and buzz. Details below.

Is it for you?

Who'll love it
Made for the curious. If you loved Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, start here.
The mood
Eye-opening.
The pace
Moves along nicely, at 12 min.
What might put you off
  • It's in Danish, so expect subtitles (or a dub).
  • Made in 1963: an older pace and style.

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."

How it earned its rating

  • CriticsNot counted

    Not enough reviews on record yet

  • AudiencesNot counted

    Not measured yet: not enough ratings

  • AwardsNot counted

    No major awards or nominations

  • Reach & staying powerWeak

    Streaming release that reached a small audience so far

  • Buzz & cultural impactWeak

    Not enough engagement data yet

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Cast & crew

Directed by Ole John, Jørgen Leth, Jens Jørgen Thorsen

  • Bud PowellHimself - Jazz Pianist
  • Dexter GordonNarrator (voice)
  • Niels-Henning Ørsted PedersenHimself
  • Jørn ElniffHimself
  • Max BrüelHimself