Köln 75

If you know, you know. Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert is the best-selling solo jazz recording and piano album of all time — 66 minutes of pure improv, a work of sublime introspection and intense rigor. While that might seem like rather esoteric ground for a biopic, Ido Fluk’s movie about the buildup to the 1975 concert is jokey, fun, and feminist. Rather than framing the story squarely around Jarrett (played by Past Lives’ John Magaro), this is the tale of Vera Brandes (Mala Emde), the concert’s 16-year-old promoter who refused to back down, even with the odds against her.

Vera hurdles obstacles with panache, whether it’s calling a venue “from England” (actually the phone in her father’s dental clinic) or taking an 11 p.m. slot at the cavernous Cologne opera house. Along the way, the movie lightly sketches in what free jazz can be, cleverly poking fun at its own artistic liberties. This is the Bend It Like Beckham of jazz films. ’Nuff said!

Infectious…you don’t need to be a Keith Jarrett fan to enjoy Köln 75, but for anyone who is, the movie is a savory anecdote that
colors in his fluky rapture.

Owen Gleiberman, Variety

A vivid vehicle for a dynamic, often very funny Emde… the female-focused story of a high-stakes struggle, showing how a cultural passion can sometimes overcome all obstacles and transform a person’s life entirely.

Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily