A FILM BY MICHAEL RADFORD

MICHEL
PETRUCCIANI
People dont understand that to be a human being it isnt necessary to be
six feet tall. What counts is what you have in your head and in your body.
And particularly what you have in your soul.
SYNOPSIS
Michel Petrucciani was a startling and original man, both by the nature of his physical
condition and of his outstanding musical talent. This is the story of how he achieved fame
and fortune through his indomitable will and force of personality. If the denition of true
greatness is the realization of something that seems beyond human aspiration, then Michel
Petrucciani had greatness in spades. Born with glass bone disease, and standing three
feet tall as an adult, Michel Petrucciani overcame extraordinary obstacles to become an
internationally acclaimed jazz artist. Giving his rst professional concert at the age of 13,
he rapidly ascended to the heights, playing alongside some of the worlds nest jazzmen.
During his lifetime Michel Petrucciani sold over 1.5 million albums worldwide and gave
hundreds of concerts, appearing in major cities across the globe.
Through a wealth of interviews and riveting archival material MICHEL PETRUCCIANI tells
the remarkable story of a man driven by an insatiable and all-consuming hunger for life
and all it has to offer - travel, women, art - a supremely talented force of nature who
defeated devastating handicaps to become a true musical giant.
,
,
Michel Petrucciani
WHO IS MICHEL PETRUCCIANI?
To me, he is Dad, my hero, my model, my pride and my courage, but to others? Perhaps
hope, a feeling, a shared emotion, or what we call genius. I was too young at the
time to understand who he really was. I wondered why he played by himself in front of
thousands of people and why we all had to sit in our chairs for two hours. I was used
to seeing him behind his piano. All I had to do was to play on the sitting room oor,
the room where he composed, to hear a recital. Today I understand how lucky I was to
have had such a talented father. His music isnt conned to jazz. Its completely open
music, open to everything and to everyone. To appreciate a certain style of music you
have to understand it - the phrases, the rhythm, the melody. In jazz this principle is even
more vital given the coded architecture of call and response between the musicians.
In my fathers playing this complexity vanishes. Were no longer listening to jazz
but to a total music. We dont feel the years of sheer hard work it took to get there,
everything seems uid and simple. However my father didnt consider himself
an accomplished player. He was never satised even though some considered he
had reached a level practically impossible to achieve, like a distant lighthouse.
He never believed he had reached the harbour. To me this was his greatest talent: always
trying to go further, to get better, always working to get closer to a goal situated in the
innite.
When Im asked to talk about my father today, I still see him through a childs eyes. He
was joyful, very calm and always smiling. Life hadnt dealt him the best cards with which
to blossom. But thanks to his courage and his optimism, he never gave up, he managed
to take from life the good humour and lilting joy we hear in most of his compositions.
Music is a language, an innity of words and nuances that allows us to share, to let
the world know what is alive in our spirit and our heart. It allows us to get to know a
person better because it is the expression of feelings, internal desires. When I listen to
my father today I feel his happiness but also a past both melancholy and lled with hope,
a battle between joy and sadness, a battle we all share. I think the message my father
wanted to transmit is one of courage and hope. Everything is possible if you give yourself
the means, and human beings have no limit. No matter if we are born tall, short, handsome
or ugly, anything we want can be acquired through will and work; Michel is the perfect
example. If it was up to me, this is the lesson I would like audiences to remember him by,
more so even than the beauty and the intensity of his music. But for anybody else than me,
who was Michel Petrucciani?
Alexandre Petrucciani
From "Michel Petrucciani" by Benjamin Halay.
2011 Editions Didier CARPENTIER Dpt lgal : mars 2011.
By Alexandre Petrucciani
BIOGRAPHY
Michel Petrucciani
Michel Petrucciani was born in Orange, in the South of France, on December 28th 1962
into a family of semi-professional musicians obsessed by the classics of modern jazz.
He grew up bathed in the music of Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis, Django Reinhardt,
Art Tatum... and by the age of three he could sing most of their tunes. Fate had dealt
him an extraordinary hand. He was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, or glass bone
disease, a crippling genetic disorder, which meant that his bones fractured at the slightest
pressure (he was born with every bone in his body broken). He never grew beyond 3 feet
tall and was subject to terrible pain all his life. As if to compensate for this curse, he was
given two gifts: an extraordinary and rare genius for music and a charismatic personality
that charmed everyone and had women falling in love with him all his life. Petruccianis
disability never stopped him from anything and although he knew that he would probably
not live much beyond forty, he was determined to cram in as much as possible. He had no
time for anyone who complained. "What are you complaining about?" he would say. "Look
at me! Im okay! Im having fun!" And he did. At the age of four he saw Duke Ellington on
TV and immediately demanded a piano. His parents bought him a toy which he proceeded
to demolish with a hammer, leaving them in no doubt that he wanted a real one. By the age
of seven it was clear that he was a prodigy. He was schooled in classical music, but like
the rest of his family, his rst love was jazz and by the age of thirteen he was a formidable
improviser. His rst break came at a local jazz festival where it was arranged that he play
with the American trumpeter Clark Terry, who took one look at him and refused to believe
that this strange little creature could play the blues. Then Michel played a couple of licks
for him and Terry was thunderstruck. As someone said later: "At thirteen he sounded like
a world-weary black man lost in a piano bar somewhere in Mexico" Three years later,
he met the drummer Aldo Romano and they immediately became very close. At this time
Petrucciani could not walk, so Aldo carried him everywhere. He eventually took him to Paris
to see Jean-Jacques Pussiau, the owner of Owl Records. Between 1981 and 1985 Michel
Petrucciani recorded ve albums, including the classic "Toot Sweet" with saxophonist Lee
Konitz. Up until then he had been performing in local jazz festivals around the south of
France, but in 1981 he played at the Theatre de la Ville at the Paris Jazz Festival and
instantly caused a sensation. A new star was born. But France was not enough for him.
He dreamt of going to America. As soon as he was 18 he ew to the West Coast and Big
Sur where a friend of his, an American hippie drummer named Tox Drohar, was working
on the property of Charles Lloyd. He persuaded another friend to carry him (Petrucciani did
not actually learn to walk with crutches until he was twenty-ve, and loved being carried
about, especially by women). Charles Lloyd, the legendary West Coast sax player who had
discovered Keith Jarrett, had given up jazz to study mysticism. But he had been reading
about a Hindu saint with a broken body who had crossed the ocean to perform miracles,
and when he heard Michel play he picked up his horn for the rst time in fteen years and
the two of them started on the road together. This was Michels introduction to the real
world of jazz and he and Lloyd were soon touring the world to rapturous response. After
ve years in Big Sur however, Michel hankered to go to New York. It was the eighties, and
New York was Jazz Heaven. There he could play at the Village Vanguard, at Bradleys, and
jam with the greats. He signed to Blue Note Records, the rst non-American ever to do
so, and recorded and played with a host of legendary jazz musicians - Roy Haynes, Jim
Hall, John Abercrombie, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Joe Lovano and Dizzy Gillespie.
Finally tiring of the excesses of his life in New York, which was doing his health no good
at all, he returned to France, found love and fathered a son. When he discovered that his
son had inherited his condition he was both devastated and fatalistic. "To refuse to accept
this would be like refusing myself. Why should I do that?" His return to France coincided
with the greatest musical period of his life. Not only did he sign with Dreyfus Records, who
were determined to make him an international star, but his music reached stratospheric
new heights. He was soon not only recording discs that sold in their hundreds of thousands
(notably with Stphane Grappelli, Eddy Louiss and his trio with Steve Gadd and Anthony
Jackson) but also playing to audiences of tens of thousands, all over Europe. His disease,
however was taking its toll - as was his love of fast living. When told to take it easy, his
response was: "Hey, Ive outlived Charlie Parker, and thats not bad." It wasnt to be by
much. Exhausted by his punishing schedule (220 concerts in 1998) and by his failing
health, he caught pneumonia in winter 1998 in New York, and died on January 6th the
following year. He was 36 years old. His funeral in Paris was attended by tens of thousands
of mourners. He is buried in Pre Lachaise Cemetery, next to the grave of Frdric Chopin:
such is the respect in which this extraordinary man was held. It is in the words of Wayne
Shorter that Michel Petruccianis legacy and genius are best expressed: "Theres a lot of
people walking around, full-grown and so-called normal - they have everything that they
were born with at the right length, arm length, and stuff like that. Theyre symmetrical in
every way but they live their lives like they are armless, legless, brainless, and they live
their lives with blame. I never heard Michel complain about anything. Michel didnt look
in the mirror and complain about what he saw. Michel was a great musician - a great
musician - and great, ultimately, because he was a great human being, and he was a great
human being because he had the ability to feel and give to others of that feeling, and he
gave to others through his music. Anything else you can say about him is a formality. Its
a technicality and it doesnt mean anything to me." Michel Petruccianis life demonstrates
to all of us that nothing can stop a person from fullling his life. And he did it with humour
and fun and great, great music.
INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL RADFORD
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF MAKING A DOCUMENTARY
ABOUT MICHEL PETRUCCIANI?
I didnt. I was approached about four years ago by Bruce Marks and then by Les Films
dici in the person of Serge Lalou who thought of me for a documentary about Michel
Petrucciani. Although I never met him in person and Id never heard of him before, when I
started to do my research into him, I found him quite remarkable. Not just because he was
3 feet tall and talented, although that is I think very interesting for people, but because in
a very exaggerated way he represents the human struggle: to make the absolute best of
what you have been given, without regret, without remorse. And to live your life to the full.
WHAT KIND OF RESEARCH DID YOU DO?
I did a lot of research because I am not interested in information. I am interested in
humanity. It was difcult to nd material that was natural rather than informational. So I
did an enormous amount of research. I asked everybody who was in the lm if they had
any archive footage, home movies or anything. The footage, largely speaking, came from
them. I also researched on the internet. The process continued all through the shooting and
editing period thats to say for about six or seven months.
HOW DID YOU PICK THE INTERVIEWEES WE SEE IN THE FILM?
As Ive said, Im interested in humanity. This is a lm which is as much about the people
interviewed as it is about Michel. I didnt have the opportunity to lm him while he was
alive, otherwise it would have been a completely different lm.
There were many people who didnt want to talk about him, or couldnt for one reason
or another. But its not important. I have thirty-ve people in the lm willing to express
themselves. I dont name them, because in the end its irrelevant.
YOURE NEVER JUDGMENTAL, BUT SYMPATHETIC WITHOUT CONCEALING
PETRUCCIANIS DARKER SIDES. WHAT WAS YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON THE
MATERIAL?
Michel was born with a huge handicap, but he was also born with two wonderful talents:
for music and for life. I had no real perspective on the material when I started. I didnt want
to have any preconceptions. In a persons failings you nd his real human qualities. And
Michel had failings for sure.
AT THE VERY BEGINNING, PETRUCCIANIS CLOSEST RELATIVES SAY THAT
THEY "NEVER NOTICED MICHELS HANDICAP." THIS SEEMS TO SET THE
TONE OF THE FILM, DOESNT IT?
I never knew him, but everyone said he cast a spell over them. He cast a spell over me too,
although I am sure it would have been much stronger in real life.
ANOTHER KEY STATEMENT OF MICHELS SEEMS TO BE "I DONT WANT TO
WASTE ANY TIME" AS IF HE WERE CONSTANTLY AWARE THAT HE HAD TO
LIVE HIS LIFE TO THE FULL MORE SO THAN ANYBODY ELSE. HOW MUCH
DID THIS INFORM THE FILM?
Its right at the centre. It accounts for the speed of the editing as well. I believe that
everyone has an internal clock which subconsciously tells them how long they will live,
and regulates their energy accordingly.
WHAT IS MOST STRIKING ABOUT HIM IS HIS LUST FOR LIFE AND HIS
INFECTIOUS ENTHUSIASM. IS THIS WHAT GUIDED YOU?
What guided me was keeping an open mind. If he had lived by himself in Montelimar all his
life he would have been just as interesting, but in a different way. But it certainly took the
lm in a direction which is very inspiring for people when they look at themselves.
PETRUCCIANI SEEMS LIKE A VIBRANT, RADIATING PERSONALITY AND
THERES A STRONG SENSE OF CAMARADERIE AND APPRECIATION ON
THE PART OF PEOPLE WHO GOT TO KNOW HIM. DID YOU FEEL IT WHEN
INTERVIEWING THOSE WHO WERE AROUND HIM?
I think its basically true. There were people who didnt like him, of course, but I dont think
he had many enemies. He fell out with people badly (I show this in the lm) but they still
loved him. Often they felt they owned him and then when they met someone else who felt
the same thing they didnt like it.
PETRUCCIANI HAD TO FIGHT CONSTANTLY AGAINST HIS DISEASE: DO YOU
THINK HIS MESSAGE WAS THAT YOU CAN SOMETIMES OVERCOME FATE?
Yes. Although people do not have the same talents, they can make life work for them.
Those who are handicapped are inspired by someone like this, and those who are not are
forced to ask themselves: "What am I complaining about?"
HOW DID YOU WANT TO APPROACH HIS PARTICULAR RELATIONSHIP TO
WOMEN? HOW IMPORTANT WERE THEY IN HIS LIFE?
Very important. His dream was to be ordinary: and that, for a cacou from the Midi, was not
only to be with women, but consistently to betray them. I nd that very human. But again it
is important not to judge him, but to show him as he was, with affection.
WHEN HIS SON SAYS: "INSTEAD OF BEING WEIRD, I INTEND TO BECOME
EXCEPTIONAL!" ITS HEARTRENDING. HOW IMPORTANT WAS FATHERHOOD
TO PETRUCCIANI?
Again, the decision to have a son - and the way he was with him - are part of his life as
a star as well as a person carrying a terrible disease. His dilemma was one we could all
understand: you do not wish to deny the validity of your own existence, but at the same
time you are taking a terrible chance. And then all of that is negated by the existence of the
person himself. I like Alexandre a lot. I have a son who is 20 and they are very similar. Alex
is more oppressed by his father than by his disease. He worships him, but he never saw
him, or when he did it was all great fun and then he disappeared for a couple of years.
HOW DID YOU WORK ON THE EDITING?
It was a long process. I can only say I could not have done it without Yves Deschamps. In
documentary the editor is far more important than in ction, because there is no structural
blueprint - the normal relationship between an editor and a lmmaker. From the footage
and from what I said, Yves saw what I was trying to express. We also share the same sense
of humour.
HOW DID YOU WORK ON THE DIFFERENT MUSIC WE HEAR IN THE FILM?
By instinct, really. I chose what I thought would be appropriate to express the soul of the
movie at any given moment.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR
FEATURE FILMS
FLAWLESS, 2006
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, 2004
DANCING AT THE BLUE IGUANA, 1999
B MONKEY, 1997
IL POSTINO, 1994
Five Academy Award nominations 1995 (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Screenplay,
Best Music)
Academy Award 1995 - Winner - Best Music
BAFTA Awards 1995 - Winner - Best Director, Best Film in a Foreign Language, David Lean Award
for Direction
Nominated for Best Foreign Film Csar, 1996
WHITE MISCHIEF, 1987
BAFTA Awards, 1988 - Nominated Best Production Design and Best Costume Design
NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, 1984
ANOTHER TIME ANOTHER PLACE, 1983
Directors Fortnight, Cannes 1983
BAFTA Awards, 1983 - Most Outstanding Newcomer to Film
Michael Radford has also directed numerous acclaimed television documentaries for the BBC.
FILMOGRAPHY
Michael Radford
A NOTE ABOUT LES FILMS DICI
LES FILMS DICI
Since 1984, Paris-based Les Films dIci has proved itself one of the worlds leading
producers of powerful, creative and radical feature lms and documentaries-based
cinema. The companys redoubtable 700-strong lmography includes such widely-feted,
multi-awarded and internationally successful titles as Nicolas Philiberts To Be and to
Have (Etre et Avoir) and Ari Folmans Waltz With Bashir.
LOOKS FILM PRODUCTION
Created in 2004 by Gunnar Dedio and Martina Haubrich and based in Berlin, Looks Films
recent co-productions include "La vie sauvage des animaux domestiques" by Dominique
Garing and "Comrade Couture". Looks Film is currently co-producing "Michael Kohlhaas",
Arnaud des Palliress next feature: adapted from Heinrich Von Kleists novel and "Holding",
a political thriller directed by Michael Dreher.
LIAISON FILMS LLC
Liaison Films LLC was created to produce lms that narrow the gap between typically
intimate European lms and large commercial American lms.
PARTNER MEDIA INVESTMENT
Partner Media Investment was created in 2006 by Lucia Lo Russo Hussong and Andrea
Stucovitz. Over the past two years, PMI has produced three feature-length documentaries
and is currently developing two feature ctions: one by Egidio Eronico, in co-production
with Focus Film (Hungary) and "Marco & Polo", a comedy by Israeli author Ishai Ravid.

CREDITS
DIRECTED BY
EDITOR
DP
SOUND
SOUND EDITOR
SOUND MIXER
PRODUCTION ADMINISTRATOR
POST-PRODUCTION
PRODUCED BY
IN COPRODUCTION WITH
WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF
WITH THE SUPPORT OF
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
WITH FUNDING FROM
GERMAN THEATER,
DVD AND VOD SALES
GERMAN TELEVISION SALES
DVD & VOD PUBLISHING FRANCE
CINEMA DISTRIBUTION FRANCE
INTERNATIONAL SALES
Michael Radford
Yves Deschamps
Sophie Maintigneux
Olivier Le Vacon
Lilio Rosato
Roberto Moroni
Rjane Michel Catherine Grel
Mathieu Cabanes Franco Casellato
Les Films dIci (Serge Lalou Annick Coloms)
Liaison Films LLC ( Bruce Marks)
Looks Films (Gunnar Dedio Martina Haubrich)
Partner Media Investment (Andrea Stucovitz)
ARTE France Cinma
EDEN JOY MUSIC (Alexandre Petrucciani)
NOA NOA FILM GmbH (Roger Willemsen)
Orange Cinma Sries
ARTE France
Ministry of Solidarity and Social Cohesion
Delegation for Information and Communication
(France)
MIBAC Ministry of Cultural Heritage Italy
Department of Film
Eurimages
Fonds dAction Sacem
MEDIA, a programme of the European Union
Uni Etoile 8
COFINOVA5 and SOFICAPITAL
Italian Tax Credit
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH
Polyband Medien GmbH
LOOKS Distribution
Editions Montparnasse
HAPPINESS DISTRIBUTION
WILD BUNCH
Alexandre Petrucciani
Eugenia Morrison
David Himmelstein
Dr Georges Finidori
Mme Clauzel
Philippe Petrucciani
Tox Drohar
George Wein
Pierre-Henri Ardonceau
Alain Brunet
Jacques Bonnardel
Tony Petrucciani
Lionel Belmondo
Pascal Bertonneau
Frank Cassenti
Aldo Romano
Pascal Anquetil
Jean-Jacques Pussiau
Dorothy Darr
Roger Willemsen
Barry Altschul
Erlinda Montano-Hiscock
John and Lisa Abercrombie
Lee Konitz
Mary Ann Topper
Eliot Zigmund
Bernard Benguigui
Andy McKee
Victor Jones
Serge Glissant
Marie Laure Roperch
Hlne and Francis Dreyfus
Bernard Ivain
Ron McClure
Genevive Peyrgne
Franois Zalacain
Joe Lovano
Judi Silvano
FEATURING
Michel Petrucciani
OWL RECORDS PERIOD (1980-1985)
FLASH (1980) with Mike Zwerin, Louis Petrucciani and Aldo Romano
MICHEL PETRUCCIANI (1981)
ESTATE (1982)
TOOT SWEET (1982) with Lee Konitz
ORACLES DESTINY (1982)
100 HEARTS (1983) (The George Wein Collection. Concord Jazz Inc.) 1st recording for US label
NOTEN NOTES (solo) (1984)
COLD BLUES (1985) with Ron McClure
LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD (1984) with Palle Danielsson and Eliot Zigmund
BLUE NOTE PERIOD (1986-1994)
PIANISM (1986) with Palle Danielsson and Eliot Zigmund
POWER OF THREE (1986) with Jim Hall and Wayne Shorter
MICHEL PLAYS PETRUCCIANI (1987) with Gary Peacock, Roy Haynes and John Abercrombie
MUSIC (1989) with Joe Lovano, Andy McKee and Victor Jones
PLAYGROUND (1991) with Aldo Romano
LIVE (1994, recorded in 1991)
PROMENADE WITH DUKE (solo) (1993)
DREYFUS JAZZ PERIOD (1994 - 1999)
MARVELLOUS (1994) with Dave Holland
FLAMINGO (1995, released 1996) with Stphane Grappelli
BOTH WORLDS (1997) with Steve Gadd and Antony Jackson
CONVERSATION WITH MICHEL (2000) recorded between 1988 and 1989) with Bob Malachi
PRESS CONFERENCE (1994) with Eddy Louiss
PRESS CONFERENCE VOL. 2 (1995, recorded 1994) with Eddy Louiss
AU THTRE DES CHAMPS-ELYSES (1995, recorded 1994)
SOLO LIVE (1998, recorded in 1997)
LIVE CONCERTS (1999, recorded 1993-1994)
A SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
TRIO IN TOKYO (1999, recorded 1997) with Steve Gadd and Antony Jackson
CONVERSATION (2001, recorded 1992) with Tony Petrucciani
DREYFUS NIGHT (2003, recorded 1994)
PIANO SOLO - THE COMPLETE LIVE IN GERMANY (2007, recorded 1997)
INTERNATIONAL SALES
CAROLE BARATON [email protected]
LAURENT BAUDENS [email protected]
GARY FARKAS [email protected]
VINCENT MARAVAL [email protected]
GAEL NOUAILLE [email protected]
SILVIA SIMONUTTI [email protected]