Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Music, Movies and the Ongoing Romance Between Sound and Vision
Published as a bi-monthly, Film International covers all aspects of film culture in a visually dynamic way. This new breed of film magazine brings together established film scholars with renowned journalists to provide an informed and animated commentary on the spectacle of world cinema.
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contents
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Regulars
COVER IMAGE THE FILTH AND THE FURY (2000) SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN (2012) / DON'T LOOK BACK ( 1967)
'Y'all take it easy now. This isn't Dallas, it's Nashville! They can't do this to us here in Nashville! Let's show them what we're made of. Come on everybody, sing! Somebody, sing! ' Haven Hamilton (Nashville)
04 | Reel World The Blues Brothers 28 | Four Frames Phantom of the Paradise 34 | On Location Liverpool, England 38 | Screengem The Amplifier That Goes Up to 11 42 | Parting Shot All Together Now 44 | Competition Picture This 46 | Listings This issue's featured films
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Published by
The Big Picture ISSN 1759-0922 2013 intellect Ltd. Published by Intellect Ltd. The Mill, Parnall Road. Bristol BS16 3JG / www.intellectbooks.com Editorial office Tel. 0117 9589910 / E: info@thebigpicturemagazine.com Publisher Masoud Yazdani Chief Editor & Design Gabriel Solomons Editor Neil Mitchell Contributors Nicola Balkind, Dean Brandum, Neil Fox, Rob Beames, Jez Conolly, Scott Jordan Harris, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Neil Mitchell, Cleaver Patterson, Gabriel Solomons Please send all email enquiries to: gabriel@intellectbooks.com / www.thebigpicturemagazine.com l The Big Picture magazine is published four times a year
intellect
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REEL WORLD
F I L M B E YO N D T H E B O R D E R S O F T H E S C R E E N
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All images courtesy Theatre Royal Bath and The Blues Brothers Approved 2012/2013
Blues Brothers
GA BRI EL S O LO MO NS dons his shades to see just how far Jake and Elwood have come since their rst onscreen appearance nearly 40 years ago.
GENERALLY CONSIDERED to be the greatest tribute act to the black clad chums on the run, and the only act to have approval from Dan Aykroyd and Judith Belushi, The Blues Brothers ...Approved is a raucous stage adaptation of many of the hit songs from the pair's initial outing on Saturday Night Live in the late 1970s as well as John Landis' hit 1980 movie. Staying true to the themes of an unbreakable brotherly bond and an unshakeable belief that they are doing 'God's Work' while cops, hillbilly's and jaded exes all give chase - the stage adaptatation allows the music to take center stage while the drama weaves through a variety act of guest appearances and comedy asides. The Blues Brothers phenomenon first came to public attention on television in 1976 and 1978 on the American cult variety show Saturday Night Live when comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi created the roles of Joliet Jake E. Blues and Elwood J. Blues in musical sketches. An American blues and soul revivalist band, The Blues Brothers merged the electric Chicago Blues sound and the Memphis Stax Records R&B sound inspired by musicians such as Otis Redding and Issac Hayes. The original Blues Brothers band featured respected blues and soul musicians including Steve Cropper and Donald Duck Dunn (who sadly passed away earlier this year). After their television appearances, the band began to take on a life beyond the confines of the small screen releasing a hit single and a double platinum selling album Briefcase Full of Blues in 1978. Two years later The Blues Brothers cemented the reputations of both the band and of Aykroyd and Belushi as Jake and Elwood Blues. The film became a cult hit and the Brothers, with their matching FBI-esque suits and sunglasses have become part of popular culture, referenced numerous times in film, music and television, and further evidence that nearly 40 years on, the appeal of two foul-mouthed, slovenly jailbirds remains just as strong as ever. Keep on rockin' boys. [tbp]
gofurther
For all things Blues Brothers related visit the official fan website bluesbrothersofficialsite.com
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COVER FEATURE Y
SPOTLIGHT
C I N E M A ' S T H E M AT I C S T R A N D S
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Sweet Melodies
ALEXA NDRA H E LLE R- NIChOL AS and ROB BE AM E S put their dancing shoes on and do the twist with some movies whose focus on music struck a chord with generations of movie-goers.
THE JAZZ SINgER (1927)
Dir: Alan Crosland
JACKS STRUGGLE TO FUSE HIS JEWISH HERITAGE WITH HIS DESIRE TO BE A jAZZ SINGER IS RENDERED POWERFULLY THROUGH MUSIC.
Renowned as the first real talkie and marking the death of the silent film era, The Jazz Singers historical significance in the development of cinema has been challenged only by a focus on its Jewish star Al Jolsons use of blackface. Director Alan Crosland had experimented with sound for Warner Bros, but The Jazz Singer marked the first use of spoken dialogue in a feature film, with Jolsons Jack Robins famous line, "Wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet". The Jazz Singer was also the first musical, and because of the technical limitations of sound-vision synching technologies, the movie contains little speaking compared to its focus on song. Jacks struggle to fuse his Jewish heritage with his desire to be a jazz singer is rendered powerfully through music from Irving Berlins Blue Skies to the traditional "Kol Nidre" providing the soundtrack to a movie that ushered in both a new genre and a new era..AHN
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Images 1975 ABC Entertainment, Paramount Pictures / 1975 Goodtimes Enterprises, Visual Programme Systems
SPOTLIGHT
C I N E M A ' S T H E M AT I C S T R A N D S
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NASHVILLE (1975)
Dir: Robert Altman
A good chunk of Nashville's near three-hour running time is given over to musical performances, as the fictional country musicians who populate Robert Altman's epic ensemble drama perform songs in their entirety - usually in lived-in, authentic venues. This has the unusual effect of making it feel like a concert movie, for a show that never actually happened - and which also featured a car crash, a striptease, and an assassination. The movie deeply explores its cast of layered, fullydeveloped characters from the Nashville music industry; from parasites like Shelley Duvall's disconnected groupie and Geraldine Chaplin's intrusive and self-absorbed journalist, to cynical stars like Henry Gibson's Haven Hamilton. Yet, like Altman's later A Prairie Home Companion, Nashville is really about music and the role it plays in people's lives. The industry might be variously portrayed as twee, bankrupt, exploitative and phony, but the music is always imbued with meaning and seems to give rise to genuine hope. RB
LISZtOMANIA (1975)
Dir: Ken Russell
Ken Russell was no stranger to filming composer biographies. Aside from Mahler (1974), he also made television documentaries on composers like Debussy, Strauss and Delius. But it was in Lisztomania that he raised the biopic to a level that even today can be considered outrageous. Following their successful collaboration on Tommy (1975), Russell cast The Whos Roger Daltrey in the lead of this loose biographical re-imagining of Liszts life, including his romances and complex relationship with Richard Wagner. Bawdy, joyful and unapologetically flamboyant, its critical dismissal at the time now pales next to Lisztomanias inescapable influence on movies like Todd Haynes Velvet Goldmine (1998). Russells visual mastery saves the film from being Carry on Liszt, but its overwhelming spectacle is always dedicated to the films real star: its soundtrack. With electronic adaptations crafted by progrock icon Rick Wakefield, the heart of Lisztomania lies in its unabashed passion for music.
AHN
THE INDUSTRY MIGHT BE VARIOUSLY PORTRAYED AS TWEE, BANKRUPT, EXPLOITATIVE AND PHONY, BUT THE MUSIC IS ALWAYS IMBUED WITH MEANING AND SEEMS TO GIVE RISE TO GENUINE HOPE.
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EXTENDED MUSICAL SEQUENCES IN THE LOCAL NIGHTCLUB - PRESENT MUSIC AS A UNIFYING FORCE AND PROVIDER OF SHELTER FROM THE MYRIAD OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS THAT AWAIT ON THE STREETS OUTSIDE.
BABYLON (1981)
Dir: Franco Rosso
A brutal, socially conscious British cult classic, which explores racism and identity in Brixton at the start of the 1980s, Babylon stars Aswad's Brinsley Forde as a mechanic and aspiring musician whose life is eventually destroyed by ongoing racism and the vilification of his community. Soon after losing his job, Forde's David is subjected to random - and racially motivated police brutality in the street and slowly his own relaxed demeanour, racial tolerance and pacifism give way to anger and mutually destructive violence. Not only is every emotion and action reflected in the film's reggae soundtrack, but extended musical sequences in the local nightclub - shown as the focal point of the local Jamaican community, as a symbol of cultural and, for many, religious identity present music as a unifying force and provider of shelter from (and, in most cases, provide commentary on) the myriad of social problems that await on the streets outside.
RB
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SPOTLIGHT
C I N E M A ' S T H E M AT I C S T R A N D S
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SPOTLIGHT
C I N E M A ' S T H E M AT I C S T R A N D S
GAINSBOURGS INFAMOUS EXPERIMENTATIONS WITH MUSICAL GENRES RUN PARALLEL TO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
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Taken from the 1971 magnum opus Histoire de Melody Nelson, Joann Sfars Serge Gainsbourg biopic opens with the evocative Valse de Melody, establishing its romantic vision from the outset. Based on his graphic novel, Sfars background in comic books is palpable in Gainsbourg: A Heroic Lifes sumptuous visuals, employing animation, live action and puppetry in its story of a strange and charming boy who became a national icon. It's as much a musical as biographical journey, and Gainsbourgs infamous experimentations with musical genres run parallel to biographical sketches, including numerous widelypublicized romantic encounters. These include his relationships with Jane Birkin and Brigitte Bardot, the latter set to Initial BB, a song Gainsbourg wrote during his brief affair with the starlet. Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life does not use music to illustrate any kind of truth about Gainsbourgs remarkable and often controversial life, but rather locates the truth of his life in the music itself. AHN
LEFT GETTING A LEG UP bELOW PLAYING TO THE CROWD
also see...
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ART&FILM
FILM IN A WIDER CONTEXT
sIGNAL meN
C L E AVE R PAT TERSON enters the lm-sampling world of Public Service Broadcasting, a British band with a very distinctive sound and outlook.
With a musical style and visuality unlike anything else out there, and now through their collaboration with the BFI, Public Service Broadcasting are spreading their message of individuality to the masses. Splicing samples from vintage movies and public information films into contemporary dance music, the band are forging their own unique career. As J. Willgoose Esq. (one half of PSB) explained when we recently caught up with him during their hectic summer tour, these guys follow their own tune. Prepare to be enlightened.
What is your (J. Willgoose Esq. and Wrigglesworth) background and training in music and how did you come up with the name and concept for your band?
public information films and setting them to new music was bound to be an enormous hit, so thats what we did. We called it Public Service Broadcasting to try to throw people off our cynically mass-market ambitions.
How would you describe your musical style, and where do you nd your inspiration?
Unashamed. Primitive. Pretentious. Yet truthful. As for the origin of our inspiration - thats quite a loaded question. Youre assuming we have inspiration, in some measure. Im not sure we do. If we do well, who knows where it comes from. Its definitely from me, not Wrigglesworth, though. He just hits things.
What gave you the idea to mix old footage and contemporary music?
My (J.W. Esq) musical background is much more classical than Wriggles; I come from the world of light comic opera, and I specialise in 15th century arias. I like to think thats especially evident in our big hits like Spitfire and Don Giovanni Can Take It. Wrigglesworth holds a PhD in Primitive Yorkshire Drumming Techniques, which has put him in good stead for his role in this band. As far as coming up with the name and concept, we decided to focus on what was most likely to be commercially successful. After a fevered fifteen hours spent in the pub we decided that sampling
It's a very conscious decision. I love everything about the '30s or the '40s and '50s, the movies, the arts, the fashion design, the typography, the design, the cars, the architecture, the music ... What can I say? I'm old fashioned and loving it. That's, for all these reasons, why I will always prefer Vertigo, Rear Window and Rope to Torn Curtain, Topaz or Family Plot.
The lm footage you use, particularly to compliment your EP The War Room, is very similar to the work of the documentary maker Humphrey Jennings. Which
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lmmakers and musicians would you say have had the greatest inuence on you?
Very similar indeed, partly because some of it is his work (London Can Take It and Listen To Britain, which we used for the video for Waltz For George)! As part of the documentary film movement, his work is pretty much unequaled, so wed definitely give him a respectful nod. Otherwise Ive always admired the purpose and clarity of Kubricks films (apart from Eyes Wide Shut, which was bloody awful). I also admire his rampant control-freakery. Well done, Stanley.
How did your involvement with the BFI come about?
I phoned them up and confused the living daylights out of them, initially, then continued pestering via email. After a short period of non-communication they got back in touch and said I could use some of their stuff if I really wanted to, but first I had to take a blood oath and swear allegiance to the BFI cause. It all got a bit Dan Brown, to be honest, but it was worth doing, as their archives are great.
The War Room EP is clearly based around footage of WW II. How much say did you have in the choice of lm and how much freedom did the BFI give you?
They were great almost carte blanche was granted, and they had faith in what we were doing, which was nice. We could basically do what we wanted with any of the material that they held the rights to, and we couldnt have done it without them being such all-round good eggs. Thanks guys!
sympathetic to, yet add to, the source material. When it doesnt (see our video for London Can Take It), there just isnt much point in the two co-existing. The challenge is to find the right balance.
How restrictive, if at all, do you feel it is to associate your music and image etc. with vintage propaganda lms?
Clearly you have a affinity and love for cinema and lm, as well as music. How do you feel the two play off / compliment each other?
A good soundtrack can make or break a film. Its one of the quickest things to date old films the music is seemingly constantly dramatic, even when it doesnt need to be. Music needs to be
Not all of our music is associated with vintage propaganda films, but even if it were, I dont think thats necessarily restrictive. I think its all about how you use them to inform the music that you make, and how you keep developing the music in different ways to keep things fresh and stop them from getting repetitive and dull.
What is your next project?
gofurther
Order PBS's debut album Inform, Educate, Entertain from their website publicservicebroadcasting.net/
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Music needs to be sympathetic to, yet add to, the source material. When it doesnt, there just isnt much point in the two co-existing. The challenge is to nd the right balance.
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MUSIC MATTERS
THE HARMONIOUS MEETING OF MUSIC AND FILM
Inglorious Bastard
N EI L M I TC h EL L conducts an investigation into the use of Beethoven's Glorious Ninth in A Clockwork Orange.
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Top, bottom and opposite A Clockwork Orange 1971 Warner Bros., Hawk Films
TH E SYMBIOT IC RE L AT IO NSH IP between the moving image and music either original compositions or existing pieces has rarely been so complexly utilised as it was by Stanley Kubrick in his 1971 adaptation of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. Kubrick transcended any conventional use of music to create tension, underscore emotion or convey a sense of time and place. By appropriating Ludvig Van Beethoven's 'Glorious Ninth' symphony which includes a chorus singing Schiller's Ode to Joy - Kubkrick addressed issues of power, sex, death, violence, religion and morality; individual and collective, onscreen and off. First performed in 1824, and widely considered to be the yardstick by which other symphonies are measured, The Glorious Ninth a musical journey from darkness to light and from chaos to order is confrontationally deployed as the soundtrack to head Droog, and Beethoven fanatic, Alex's (Malcolm McDowell) misadventures. When coupled to the enthusiastic fervour with which the Droog's embark upon a vicious gang fight, Alex's ecstatic, depraved masturbatory fantasies and, subsequently, his horrified reaction to hearing the Ninth during correctional treatment, Beethoven's crowning glory is subverted. The connection between music and emotion is still there, but the associations are twisted; notions of love, optimism and humanity are replaced by visions of rape,
nihilism and ultra-violence. Female degradation, generational anxieties and corrosive alienation are accompanied by sections of Beethoven's alternately spiritually uplifting, reflective and strident composition. It is during Alex's correctional treatment, when the Government lets its professionals loose on Alex's sickly soul, that Kubrick muddies the musical waters further. The Droog's violent personal journey may take him along the same path traversed in the Ninth, but it is a far more controversial one, as The Ludovico Technique is itself, state sanctioned, violence perpetrated against the individual. Subsequently returned to his original psychological state, Alex is last seen lost in an orgiastic, rapturous reverie brought on by the heady climax of the Ninth. He may have been cured alright, but at what cost to himself, the powers that be and society at large? Through choreographed fight sequences, Soviet-Montage style fantasy scenes and oppressive shots of mental torture, Kubrick confounded expectations of how The Glorious Ninth could be perceived, felt and envisioned. In doing so, the director through his marriage of the 'high' art of classical music to the 'low' of sexually explicit, graphically violent imagery boldly questioned our own notions of acceptable entertainment, voyeurism and emotional gratification. [tbp]
The connection between music and emotion is still there, but the associations are twisted; notions of love, optimism and humanity are replaced by visions of rape, nihilism and ultra-violence.
gofurther
Read an in depth analysis of The Glorious Ninth in 'A Clockwork Orange' here http://bit.ly/12T6uDl
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FAN PHENOMENA
pe A K
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A boo
D E C O D I N G I C O N S O F P O P U L A R C U LT U R E
FAN PHENOMENA
..A place of almost unimaginable power...a power so vast that its bearer might reorder the Earth itself to his liking...This place I speak of is known as the Black Lodge and I intend to find it. - Windom Earle Opened in 2000 by Peaks fans Bryan Hogue and Matthew Martin, Black Lodge Video is a Memphis gem. The rental stores on-street sign shows Agent Cooper peeking through red curtains, and its shelves feature a selection of thousands of obscure and classic movies in all formats, including many VHS. The films are organized by directors, countries, themes and genres, and theres a permanent space for David Lynchs work. How did your rst Peaks experience affect you? Bryan: My first exposure to it was strange. I caught one episode midway through season two the one where the horse appeared in the living room. It made no sense. When the whole series was released, I watched it all in one run. For that day and a half, I existed in Twin Peaks. It was a heavy, concentrated experience. The ending is so crushing and cool and heartbreaking. From there, I became pretty obsessed with it. Matt, my business partner, was into it too, which was one of the things we connected on. How did this fascination with Peaks translate into naming the store Black Lodge Video? Matt and I collected VHS and had built up a healthy collection. When
A Black Lodge has been found in Memphis, Tennessee. Though Deputy Hawk warned those passing through the Lodge to do so with perfect courage lest their souls be annihilated, people have passed through this Lodge for over a decade, souls still intact. Interview by S h AR A LO R E A C L AR K , contributor to Fan Phenomena: Twin Peaks
we decided to open a store, we knew the name had to be something that meant a lot to us. We were Peaks freaks for years and wanted to give it props. The Lodge is on Cooper Street. Coincidence? After we chose the location, a week passed before I thought, 831 South CooperBlack Lodge Video...holy shit! Its at Cooper and Evelyn. Evelyn was the woman James Hurley visited. Also, the place across the street, thats Palmer Real Estate. Weve got all kinds of little Twin Peaks nods around us, but it was complete coincidence. Fellas, coincidence and fate figure largely in our lives. - Agent Cooper Who is your favorite Twin (OPPOsITE) THE ICONIC IMAGE OF LAURA PALMER FROM THE PILOT EPIsODE 1990-1991 LYNCH/FROsT PRODUCTIONs, PROPAGANDA FILMs, SPELLING ENTERTAINMENT Peaks character and why? The obvious answer would be Cooper. But Major Briggs, brilliantly played by the late Don Davis, is such a complex and warm character that you cant help but love every second hes on screen. He was a unique pillar of confidence and strength, but then there are times where his deadpan, introverted persona is turned inside out by moments of tenderness. Who doesnt love the scene in the diner Autumn 2013
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where he tells his son, Bobby, about the dream he had about them? Time stops for me every time I see it. Or even Briggs truth serum response to Windom Earles question: What do you fear most in the world? Briggs: The possibility that love is not enough. Thats one of the most beautiful and naive notions Ive ever heard; a philosophy few wouldnt be crushed by the weight of. I always felt that Briggs depth and spiritual scope probably surpassed even Coops. What are your feelings about the series versus the movie? I know its going to sound blasphemous, but I think the movie ended up being a wasted opportunity for either closure to our storyline or at least taking it a few steps further than the end of the series. I never thought the movie added anything new to the overall story. In the series, we got plenty of information about Laura, her double life, and troubles as the mystery unfolded. Did we really need a whole movie devoted to seeing it? Ive watched it several times, and it does have its good moments. It just always makes me wish for what could have been. There have been rumors about the massive amount that was cut from Fire Walk With Me. Maybe one day Frost and Lynch will be able to and want to restore it to what they originally envisioned. Why do you think the series/ lm has weathered the test of time? I guess it stands as a testament to not always treating your audience like idiots and going for what feels right; no matter how against the grain it might be. I like to believe Lynchs influence is as much to thank for that as anything else. I think the mystery of Lauras murder is what interested most at first. Then once you delve into all of the other characters in the town and the mechanics of their
lives, thats when you realize how densely layered their world is. Once its dark tone starts to show, either it turned you off or made you crave more. And many of us craved more. Its just an amazingly well constructed mindf**k, and my world is richer for having been exposed to it. How would you describe Peaks inuence on pop culture/television? Peaks opened up a cerebral side in TV, challenging viewers to look beneath the surface of its whodunit narrative and to process the deeper chemistry of its characters and their world. It exposed layers of secrets, lies, fears, desires, spirituality and inevitable doom. Peaks showed us that good does not always conquer evil, and that even the strong and pure are vulnerable. The giant in Peaks said that a path is formed by laying one stone at a time. Twin Peaks, I believe, is that first stone on the path to smarter television. It did what few shows did before it or since it turned television into art. [tbp]
Once its dark tone starts to show, either it turned you off or made you crave more. And many of us craved more. Its just an amazingly well constructed mindf**k, and my world is richer for having been exposed to it.
CLOCkWIsE FROM TOP PUTTING Us IN THE FRAME AGENT COOPER AND DAEMON bOb CO-OWNER MATTHEW MARTIN WITH GRACE ZAbRIskIE (SARAH PALMER)
gofurther
Available now
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FAN PHENOMENA
A neW bOOk seRies ThaT decOdes icOns Of pOpUlaR cUlTURe WRiTTen bY and fOR ThOse Of a passiOnaTe dispOsiTiOn
Fan Phenomena Star Wars Edited by Mika Elovaara ISBN: 978-1-78320-022-1 14.95 / $20
Fan Phenomena Buffy the Vampire Slayer Edited by Jennifer K. Stuller ISBN: 978-1-78320-019-1 14.95 / $20
Fan Phenomena Doctor Who Edited by Paul Booth ISBN: 978-1-78320-020-7 14.95 / $20
Fan Phenomena Twin Peaks Edited by Marisa C. Hayes and Franck Boulegue ISBN: 978-1-78320-024-5 14.95 / $20
Fan Phenomena Star Trek Edited by Bruce Drushel ISBN: 978-1-78320-023-8 14.95 / $20
Fan Phenomena Batman Edited by Liam Burke ISBN: 978-1-78320-017-7 14.95 / $20
For further information about the series and news of forthcoming titles visit www.intellectbooks.com Follow progress of all titles by liking the Fan Phenomena Book Series page on Facebook
Ro C K
N EI L FOX tunes his radio from ction to fact and steps into the world of the Rockumentary, where artistic creativity, cultural history and fragile egos have come together and made some unforgettable music.
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do C s
FILM IN A WIDER CONTEXT
WIDESCREEN
h A L FWAY T h RO UG h Michael
Rappaport's Beats, Rhymes & Life (2011) the director asks members of De La Soul if the show they are all at will be the last show by A Tribe Called Quest, the subject of the film. The reply is 'I hope so'. Its a moment that illustrates important factors in rock documentary - honesty, capturing the moment and the quality of the participants. Since DA Pennebaker captured a young Bob Dylan on the road in Don't Look Back (1967) the 'rockumentary' has surged to become a popular staple of the wider documentary genre. Pennebakers film and the conventions it spawned have become part of mainstream cinematic consciousness, with Todd Haynes' Dylan mythology I'm Not There (2007) borrowing heavily from its aesthetics for key sequences. Also, films such as Rob Reiner's beloved This Is Spinal Tap (1984) capture an authentic behind the scenes feel in a work that spoofs both the heavy metal and rock music genres in addition to the rockumentary itself. The rockumentary is generally a reflective document looking back at key moments surrounding its subject, from a distance that allows for that reflection by those involved and affected. This is fundamentally different to the concert film, which, due to the temporal nature of the subject, captures a specific moment in time. One of the greatest examples of a film that straddles both is The Maysles Brothers and Charlotte Zwerin's Gimme Shelter (1970). What must have started life as a straight document of The Rolling Stones 1969 Altamont show became something else entirely following the tragic,
unforeseen events that transpired. The directors perfectly capture both the prior ego and subsequent terror and reality check of disconnected rock royalty as well as creating a visual testament to a watershed cultural event. Their skill as documentary filmmakers elevates a simple concert film into a valuable historical artefact. The film becomes a way of viewing history in a wider context. It's post summer of love, the end of the sixties and paired with Jean Luc Godard's Sympathy for the Devil (1968) places a rock and roll group at the heart of a major cultural shift. Godard's film is a complicated and astute rockumentary, painstakingly capturing the attritionlike construction of one of rock and roll's most famous recordings it is also a painfully voyeuristic insight into a band at breaking point. Similarly to Gimme Shelter, it manages to convey a darkness emerging over the horizon of the hope fueled '60s, shot as it was in the aftermath of the May 1968 Paris riots and infused with classic Godard symbolism and contrasts. Increasingly Rockumentaries have become a way of redressing history and moments in time almost archaeologically, giving us new ways of seeing famous historical moments in music history and also providing an insight into artists that provided key influential, but under appreciated, input into the musical landscape. Standing In The Shadows Of Motown (Paul Justman, 2002) is a tribute to the Funk Brothers - the session musicians responsible for some of the most memorable music of the twentieth century - that also exposes and documents issues of injustice and Autumn 2013
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Rockumentaries add context, depth, perspective and an alternative view of history that are accessible and as they are rooted in the power of music, have the potential to move and, on occasion, be transcendent cinematic journeys.
TOP sEARCHING FOR sUGAR MAN AbOVE OIL CITY CONFIDENTIAL
the then burgeoning Civil Rights movement. Meanwhile The Devil And Daniel Johnston (Jeff Feuerzeig, 2005) is a vital film about mental illness, artistic integrity and heartbreak, which focuses on a musician who has had huge impact on the careers of artists ranging from Kurt Cobain to TV On The Radio. There's a voyeuristic element to rockumentaries, with audiences fascinated by watching talented but ego-ridden artists breakdown in front of our eyes. Of these, there are few more magnetic, enigmatic and infuriating than Anton Newcombe, who blazes a trail of stubbornness, anger and cosmic ambition at the heart of Ondi Timoner's cult Dig! (2004). The form has come a long way from concert films with backstage footage and quasi-narrative performance vehicles created to promote the likes of The Beatles and The Monkees, films that proved there is an audience willing to pay to see behind the veil and observe bands and artists being themselves or variants thereof. These observations have evolved from the mundane - press conferences, hanging round in airports and dressing room banter - into investigations into the creative process that have become key to the genre. Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster (Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofksy, 2004) is a fascinating insight into the traumas that can plague even the richest, most successful musicians. The aural onslaught of Metallica's heavy metal is poignantly contrasted against the band members' fragile personal demons, inter-band relationships and therapy sessions. In Sam Jones' I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (2002)
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MAGIC MAKERS
P R O F I L E S O F T H E W O R L D ' S G R E AT D I R E C T O R S
RIGHT DANIEL DAY LEWIs AND PAUL THOMAs ANDERsON ON THE sET OF THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2008)
UNITED STATES
PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON has been one of the most consistently exciting writer-directors to have emerged during the 1990s indiewood boom, in part simply because of his seeming unpredictability. Unlike his namesake Wes, for instance, each new film has constituted a significant departure from his last, with the most recent, There Will Be Blood (2008), coming as perhaps the biggest surprise. Yet this broad range might itself be something of an authorial signature, both for his oeuvre and within individual films. Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese tend to be cited as his most obvious predecessors, yet Anderson has often named Jonathan Demme as his very favourite filmmaker, once praising this directors
screwball-comedy-cum-stalkerthriller Something Wild (1986) in particular for being what he called a gearshift movie.1 This seems a useful concept for understanding Andersons own work, since it speaks to his love of keeping us forever unsure about what kind of a film we are watching. [tbp] Read the rest of this article along with other director profiles and 'essential American film reviews in Directory of World Cinema: American Independent 2 edited by John Berra. Available now from www. intellectbooks.com
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FOUR FRAMES
T H E A R T O F A B B R E V I AT E D S T O R Y T E L L I N G
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N I CO L A BA LKI ND stalks the corridors of Death Records and uncovers satire and cut-throat betrayal in Brian De Palma's gaudy horrormusical Phantom of the Paradise.
B R I A N D E P A L M A ' S Phantom of the Paradise (1974) encapsulates the satirical nature of musical films in a way rarely seen before or since. Paradise is a loose adaptation of a number of classic texts, from the obvious - The Phantom of the Opera and Faust - to the more obliquely credited Psycho (1960) and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Swan (Paul Williams) virtually predicts the natural horror-narrative progression of Simon Cowell in the form of an elusive, satanic record producer. Having cashed in on novelty band The Juicy Fruits (harkening forward to Josie and the Pussycats' boy-band Du Jour), Swan ensnares a composer named Winslow (William Finley) whose latest work, Faust a classic sound to counteract the Juicy Fruits candycoated nostalgia is the catalyst for the ensuing insanity. Attempting to reach Swan to consult upon his music, which Swan has evidently stolen, Winslow is ejected from the mansion and framed with possession of narcotics. Placed in a 'volunteer' correctional institution dubiously funded by the label, Winslow hears his Faust has been credited to Swan. He escapes in a rage, making an explosive exit amidst the dramatic strains of his musical opus. Winslow makes directly for the home of the record label, smashing his way through the building and breaking directly into the record printing room to disable the record press. Close to out-smarting his enemy, a policeman calls him away from the record press; but Winslow's snagged by a loose shirt-sleeve and his very face is pressed with the ink, heat, and indents of his nemeses. Things turn darker as Death Records lives up to its name. Clutching his ruined face, Winslow whines and stumbles like a dog, the minor piano notes mingle with passing sirens, descending with his fall into the river. A cut, and all is well again. Jovial hops of the violin bow bring in the spinning Variety headline of The Juicy Fruits' success, as 'Mad Tunesmith Bites Bullet'. Winslow is again foiled by the industry that he once sought to contain. Another genius thwarted. GO FURTHER Visit The Swan Archives and investigate The Phantom of the Paradise www.swanarchives.org/
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1000 WORDS
M O M E N T S T H AT C H A N G E D C I N E M A F O R E V E R
roCK &reeL
DE AN BRANDUM slips on his dancing shoes and gets ready to rock'n'roll with a movie that inspired lmmakers and musicians alike.
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OPPOsITE JAYNE MANsFIELD RIGHT EDDIE COCHRAN bELOW RIGHT LITTLE RICHARD AND bAND
I T I S DI FFI CU L T to conceive of many films could have brought consensus between the French critic-cum-director and the guitar god of The Yardbirds, yet Frank Tashlins 1956 satire of the popular music business managed just that. Although these two notable fans possibly consider the film from differing perspectives, they converge at the joy found in The Girl Cant Help It when celluloid and rock n roll finally consummated their previously uneasy relationship. The story is a simple one a washed up music promoter (Tom Ewell) agrees to work for a boisterous gangster (Edmond OBrien) turning his glamorous but reluctant girlfriend (Jayne Mansfield) into a star. Various plot contrivances occur, interspersed with often electrifying performances from the likes of Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Edie Cochran, Juanita Moore and The Platters. Perhaps best remembered as a cult item among aficionados of all things rock and roll and all things Jayne Mansfield, The Girl Cant Help It was more popular in Britain than in North America on its initial release and became a cultural touchstone for many members of the British Invasion of musical acts who dominated international charts in the 1960s. In 1968 The Beatles were deep in their recording of what would become known as The White
Album. Musically disenchanted after their Indian sojourn and experimentations with eclectic instrumentation, the group felt a need to be reinvigorated with a return to their musical roots. One evening they took a break from the studio and went to McCartneys house to watch The Girl Cant Help It on television. Energised, they returned to recording and soon the boisterous Birthday was in the can, the song a distinct throwback to an earlier era. Both McCartney and Lennon spoke about the effect the film had upon them as impressionable teenagers at their Liverpool cinema in 1957. This was a time when Britain was wakening from the malaise of postwar rebuild with a generation becoming teenagers as a period of consumerist affluence arrived coupled with the flood of exciting new music from across the Atlantic. Later, like many of their compatriots The Beatles would present to America their variation on that music, much of which they had first experienced in The Girl Cant Help It. The Girl Cant Help It was not the first rock n roll movie. In 1955 The Blackboard Jungle (Richard Brooks)
'In fteen years time people will realize that The Girl Cant Help It served then that is, today as a fountain of youth from which the cinema now that is, in the future has drawn fresh inspiration' - Jean Luc Godard
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included Bill Haley and The Comets Rock Around the Clock on the soundtrack and the popularity of the film among the youthful audience was such that producers queued to capitalise on this new musical phenomenon with hastily conceived films that showcased the popular performers of the time, with Rock, Rock, Rock! (Will Price), Rock Around the Clock and Dont Knock the Rock (both Fred F. Sears) all appearing in 1956. Unfortunately these were lowbudget, black and white affairs with dull, flimsy interludes between the acts desperately holding together a semblance of a narrative. When The Girl Cant Help It premiered in December of that year an already jaded audience could have expected more of the same and such misgivings would have continued once the film began. The appearance of the 20th Century Fox logo in Academy ratio and grim monochrome would have seemed so yesterday even in 1956. And the entrance of Tom Ewell on a soundstage surrounded by musical props to introduce the film was in keeping with the cynical practice of Hollywood producers unable to construct a narrative that allowed rock and rolls music, style and philosophy to exist without a patronizing, paternal explanation. But instead, Ewell performs the sort of fourth wall demolition that still leaves the viewer gasping today: He knocks
the frames of the screen out to Cinemascope dimensions and demands that the film be in colour, a wish granted. Soon, the camera pans to a gleaming jukebox and Ewells waffling is drowned out by Little Richards rendition of the title song (one that Rod Stewart would later name as his all-time favourite). From here the narrative commences but it serves only to link a series of sublime musical performances and the astonishing figure of Mansfield herself, who resembles nothing short of a cartoon blonde bombshell. Indeed
Tom Ewell performs the sort of fourth wall demolition that still leaves the viewer gasping today: He knocks the frames of the screen out to Cinemascope dimensions and demands that the lm be in colour.
TOP ELVIs PREsLEY IN 'JAILHOUsE ROCk' AbOVE bREAkING THE FOURTH WALL
go further
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bELOW THE bEATLEs IN 'A HARD DAY's NIGHT' 1964 PROsCENIUM FILMs, WALTER SHENsON FILMs, MALJACk PRODUCTIONs
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would you like to contribute to The Big Picture magazine? Were always on the lookout for enthusiastic lm-lovers with a passion and air for the written word. So, if this sounds like you, then simply send us a few examples of your writing along with a short personal bio to: Neil MItchell, Editor
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one almost expects the eyes of the infatuated gangster (OBrien hitting the right note of wolfish ham) to pop out on stalks and for him to howl in delight whenever she appears in her figure-hugging outfits. Such a comic sensibility is to be expected from Tashlin who began his career as an inventive animator and brought over many of that disciplines aesthetic and tonal qualities to liveaction filmmaking. Although mainstream critics expended little energy on the film, more discerning minds championed its qualities, with Godard believing the directors artistry would be appreciated in the years to come. Yet it was not to be. Tashlin enjoyed associations with Jerry Lewis and Doris Day throughout the 1960s but by the end of the decade he was swept out of favour by the emerging New Hollywood, Tashlin died in 1972 and Godards prediction remains mostly unfounded. Although he died young, he had sadly already outlived several of The Girl Cant Help Its stars including Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and Mansfield herself.
Never has early rock and roll music been presented on film with such visual flair and energy and rarely were Mansfields considerable comic talents ever better on display. It's immediate influence was felt a little over a year later in Jailhouse Rock (Richard Thorpe, 1957) and Tashlin's own Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). It's spirit has subsequently been evoked many times in music themed movies. A DVD that belongs in every cinefiles collection, as Keith Richards once remarked when asked if he was familiar with The Girl Can't Help it, Know it? I own it. And not just for Jayne Mansfield! [tbp]
tRIVIA Producers wanted Elvis Presley to perform in the movie, but Tom Parker demanded too much money for Elvis to sing one song.
ON LOCATION
LIVERpOOL
T H E P L A C E S T H AT M A K E T H E M O V I E S
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jEZ CO N O L LY , co-editor of World Film Locations: Liverpool, takes us on a musical tour of the city that gave birth to the sounds and spirit of Merseybeat.
We dont see Liverpool in A Hard Days Night, we feel it. Andrew Sarris described it somewhat over-elaborately in the Village Voice as the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals, a brilliant crystallization of such diverse cultural particles as the pop movie, rock n roll, cinma vrit, the nouvelle vague, free cinema, the affectedly hand-held camera, frenzied cutting, the cult of the sexless sub-adolescent, the semi-documentary and studied spontaneity. It is a viewing experience overwhelmingly of Liverpool, yet none of the film was actually shot in Liverpool. What is successfully captured however is the sense that wherever The Beatles are is Liverpool, as though they exist within a bubble of Scouse-made oxygen that sustains them. In travelling south to London to perform before the television cameras they are laying a pipeline for the rarefied and infectious Mersey air to flow through and bring colour to the cheeks of the capitals population.
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ON LOCATION
T H E P L A C E S T H AT M A K E T H E M O V I E S
LIVERpOOL
FERRY CROSS tHE MERSEY (1965) Dir. Jeremy Summers UK, 88 minutes Starring: Gerry Marsden, Freddie Marsden, Leslie Maguire
Shot with uncommon haste to cash in on the Merseybeat phenomenon, and described at the time by Kenneth Tynan in The Observer as a little glimpse into Hell, this very rough and ready tour of Liverpools mid-sixties sights and sounds is burdened by some regrettable stabs at humour and pales in comparison to A Hard Days Night, which it desperately tries and substantially fails to match. It does however show lots of the Liverpool from whence the synonymous sound sprang, including some brief but compellingly raw introductory footage of the citys back-streets, and rings with nine new Gerry and the Pacemakers songs written for the film and performed at various notable locations. Many will have seen the well known title song strummed out on the deck of the eponymous vessel, but also featured is a performance at the Cavern and a battle of the bands contest at the Locarno Ballroom.
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BACkBEAt (1994) Dir. Iain Softley US, 100 minutes Starring: Stephen Dorff, Sheryl Lee, Ian Hart
Something that Backbeat shares with The Beatles own forays into film is that, despite appearances, practically none of it was shot in Liverpool. In an echo of those scenes of John, Paul, George and Ringo running to catch a train at Lime Street station at the beginning of A Hard Days Night - actually shot at London Marylebone - Softleys telling of fifth Beatle Stuart Sutcliffes story, like many other Fab Four biopics, deposits its characters in constructed versions of the Liverpool (and in this case Hamburg) of Beatles lore. For example, the front of Hessys Music Centre, formerly on Stanley Street, where we see Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff) and John Lennon (Ian Hart) picking a guitar, is a sound stage set that owes more to myth than reality. An early pan across the Liverpool skyline and along the Mersey is however unmistakably the real thing and succinctly sets up the two friends point of departure.
OF tIME AND tHE CItY (2008) Dir. Terence Davies UK, 74 minutes Starring: Terence Davies
Terence Davies was on the verge of dropping his involvement in the project that would go on to be his much-admired documentary love letter to the city of his birth, but was inspired to persist when he came to consider how best to convey the contrast between the cleared Liverpool slums and the post-war housing estates and tower-blocks that took their place. Among the many pieces of music that form the films rich and varied soundtrack, the Peggy Lee version of The Folks who Live on the Hill sparked his creative instinct and lent the project shape and purpose. Dont expect the directors choice of music and depth of affection to encompass The Beatles; his monotone yeah yeah yeah yeah aping of the bands vocal style and his heartfelt marking of the passing of sedate British pop screamed away on a tide of Merseybeat put that particular record straight.
Opposite 1965 Subalms Top 1994 Channel Four Films, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Above 2008 Terence Davies
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ten be the top number, and make that a little louder? This confuses Tufnel, who pauses like a computer overloaded by a request it cannot process. These go up to eleven, he says. Few film objects have resonated in popular culture as loudly as the amp that goes up to eleven. At a time before mock-documentaries came to be commonplace in American comedy, this celebrated scene demonstrated beyond question the genres potential for big laughs and smart satire. The amplifier represents the needless excesses of heavy metal music but, beyond that, it represents the shallowness and stupidity of celebrity culture. As celebrity culture has become increasingly prominent in the decades since the release of Spinal Tap, so the film has become increasingly relevant and the amplifier increasingly famous. Across the English-speaking world, the phrase going up to eleven now refers to anything that is being forced to its absolute maximum. The influence of the amplifier in This is Spinal Tap, like the influence of the movie itself, really does go up to eleven. [tbp]
gofurther
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SCREENGEM
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W HI LE I T ' S T HE R A I SO N D ' ETR E of musicals to include scenes in which the principal cast and often a multitude of extras sing, it's an entirely different experience when seen in movies from other genres. What happens when characters in romantic dramas, high school comedies or arthouse movies burst into song? In these instances the viewer is caught off guard, entirely unprepared for sequences that stir a range of emotions through, and draw attention to, the power of song. Though Herman Hupfeld's As Time Goes By is sung by Sam (Dooley Wilson) on numerous occasions in Casablanca (1942), it is the spontaneous version of La Marseillaise, belted out by the patrons of Rick's Caf, that makes the greatest impression. With many of the extras in the scene being actual refugees and exiles from occupied France, this patriotic, defiant rejoinder to the German soldiers' singing of Die Wacht Am Rhein is invested with added poignancy. A light-hearted variation on this theme came in the coming of age comedy Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). During Ferris' (Matthew Broderick) unplanned adventures, the rebellious truant gate-crashes the annual Von Steuben's Day parade by climbing onto a float and leading the crowd, many of whom also dance in choreographed unison, through a gloriously uplifting, lipsynched version of Twist & Shout. It is a comedic nod to show stopping musical numbers that fits into Ferris' and the movie's larger-than-life attitude. Perhaps the boldest, most unconventional use of this trope appears in PT Anderson's sprawling human drama Magnolia (1999). All the principal players of this three hour ensemble piece take turns singing the lyrics to Aimee Mann's Wise Up, a melancholic ode to regret, self awareness and loss. Isolated in the frame as they are from each other, the individual characters are bound together by the song. Wise Up is a thread woven through the scene that renders everyone alike; fallible, damaged and struggling to make sense of their lives. Always striking and unexpected, and whether symbolic, comedic or mournful, the mass participatory song is never just a performance for its own sake, it's inclusion will always be to rouse an emotional connection within the viewer. [tbp]
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Wise Up is a thread woven through the scene that renders everyone alike; fallible, damaged and struggling to make sense of their lives.
JumpSuits
go further
Watch the 'Wise Up' scene from Magnolia here youtu.be/aNmKghTvj0E
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Images (clockwise) 1986 Paramount Pictures / 1942 Warner Bros. / 1999 New Line Cinema
COMPETITION
Picture This
WHAT? Y
2009's Liverpool set lm Nowhere Boy was directed by which established UK artist? The winning entry chosen at random will win a copy of World Film Locations: Liverpool edited by Jez Conolly and Caroline Whelan.
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EMAIL ANSWERS TO: G A B R I E L @ I N T E L L E C T B O O K S. C O M
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