Synopsis
The movie by Elizabeth Ok is a colorful piece of artwork about an extraordinary person, a genius with a fine sense of humor and a lot of enthusiasm. It also shows a complicated and tempting love story of an unconventional couple like Carlo and Anita, in Germany of the fifties. Last but not least, it is a hymn to freedom and jazz music. The Jazzkeller helped to build true relationships across countries after the painful experience of Second World War. The Movie shows how music and enthusiasm can overcome borders and bring people together. It seems that the motto of jazz musicians: keep swingin which helped in difficult times is still applicable today. Directors Statement I moved 2008 into a little apartment near the riverside in Frankfurt where I made a significant discovery: My cellar at Mainkai number 6 was full of old photographs, letters written by jazz legends like Chet Baker or Lee Konitz, Jutta Hipp and original music sheets of Carlo Bohländer. I found different records, a clarinet and many things more. At least I found a whole life in my cellar. This place belonged to Carlo Bohländer, one of the best German jazz trumpeters in the 50s, a jazz theorist, in fact, the pioneer of the Jazz harmony and founder of the Frankfurt “Jazzkeller”, formerly called “Domicile du Jazz”. The place for Jazz music in Germany which was famous on that time. American and European jazz musicians like Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt and many more came over in the 50s to play their beloved Jazz.
