rockersmakingcinema

[rockersmakingcinema]

The Holy founders of a local scene, 24 Hour Party People, Michael Winterbottom, 2002

Well well well, as for my last article I will write on one of my favorite movie so far which is 24 Hour Party People. Directed by the talented Englishman Michael Winterbottom, this is to me the best movie paying tribute not only to rockers but also to a local scene that went viral internationally. Yes, we are talking here about the UK’s Manchester scene from where the most prolific and visionary bands and artists originated and made the UK’s post-punk and new-wave music thrive all around Europe.

The movie starts with the gig performed by The Clash in the late 1970’s in Manchester. At that time, the city is not properly known for rock music. Attending the event, a certain eccentric and megalomaniac TV journalist called Tony Wilson pledges himself that he will be the one to be gathering the energy burgeoning within the city and the suburbs to make it pop up as a cultural movement. He finds a venue likely to host the most electric gigs, the Factory, and founds his own record label, the Factory Records. Then, the plot is set. The story spreads from the apogee of the Manchester scene in the late 1970’s/early 1980’s to its depletion in the early 1990’s. 

I was reluctant to include biopic films in this blog project. How relevant then ? Well, this movie is not properly a biopic. First, it displays a hybrid genre of documentary and fiction making it look like a mockumentary. Scenes are shot like a TV report. The camera movements are frequently unstable, as if the film was shot with the camera on the shoulder. We can feel both the spontaneity and the emergency in the making. There are rough and fast panoramic movements from a character to another while discussing or arguing. The character of Tony Wilson, impersonated by the genius Steve Coogan, sometimes stops his eccentric replicas and actions to speak to the camera, which breaks the following of the narration and turns the film into « meta ». 

Second, the movie does not focus on one band or one artist, it rather shows the evolution of numerous rock personalities, bands and artists throughout this period of time and never aims to relate the story, the problems or the psychology of one of them. The bands like Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, Happy Mondays, New Order, the personalities such as Tony Wilson, the off-beat and paranoid sound engineer Martin Hannett (depravedly embodied by Andy Serkis on screen)… They all serve the story at an equal level to show how this cultural movement arose. 

I highly recommend you to watch this film. It was released in the period of the British new-wave comedy films such as the ones directed by Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smocking Barrels, Snatch). There is also an electric energy and photography through split-screen, tense lightning  and supernatural actions which immerses the spectator into the insanity and creativity that guided this cultural movement along the years. This movie is not about the portrait of one rocker. This is the portrait of one era in which rockers of all kinds participated to one of the last, yet the most prolific and creative, rock movement. 

Watch one of the funniest scene where the band Martin Hannett (Andy Sirkis) drives the first Joy Division’s record session : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90j6V8EjSuI 

[rockersmakingcinema]

The Unfortunate Folk singer, Inside Lewyn Davis, Coen Brothers, 2013

After having dedicating my last article to shadowplaying, I will talk here about another type of rocker (rather a folk singer) upon whom is based the story of Inside Lewyn Davis. Released in 2013, this Coen Brothers’ film depict the unfortunate artistic career that a fictional singer and guitar player experienced in the early 1960’s. 

Lewyn Davis is not a shadowplayer. Roaming desperately in Greenwich Village, NYC, Lewyn tries hard to perform little gigs in bars and small venues. Nonetheless, times are harsh. Few people are likely to listen to his music, only bunches of soaks and folk amateurs. The hero, or should we portray him as an antihero, does not look attractive. He looks exhausted and grubby, is dressed with poor and torn clothes. Moreover, he fails every single things that he undertakes in life, may it be love or friendship. In a way this unfortunate young man embodies the spirit of folk music. 

The film’s photography enhances the story of this unfortunate artist. Cold and naturalist, the photography sets the film into the genre of realism. There is no artifice of any kind. Setting and scenary are genuine. This is what makes the story even more harrowing. We can feel the despair and frustration of a young man evolving on his own in this ruthless society, during winter, never approaching the career he always have wanted to pursue. 

The director of photography was not the one that the Coen Brothers usually worked with. It was this time the French Bruno Delbonnel. I find it actually quite ambivalent ! He had formerly worked out the photography of many motion pictures based on strong visual identities such as Amélie Poulain, A Very Long Engagement (Jean-Pierre Jeunet) and Dark Shadows (Tim Burton). Besides, he claimed that he was « little interested by reality » (interview in La Septième Obsession, 2019). Yet, his work on Inside Lewyn Davis made the film realistic, thanks to a cold and naturalist strong identity. For the portrait of that kind of « rocker », this photography appears to me to be a perfect choice !

Find out the trailer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuQ8pz-5WLY

[rockersmakingcinema]

The damned shadowplayer, Only Lovers Left Alive, Jim Jarmusch, 2013

Back to music and rockers ! This time I will talk about the role of Adam in the Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive released in 2013. Adam is a multiple-centuries aged vampire, living in a suburb’s large house in Detroit, USA. I watched the movie twice but when I did the second time, I completely identified myself to Adam. Let’s cool down, I am not a vampire at all, no worries. But what made me felt similar to Adam is his character of one rock musician stuck in the shadowplay.

Adam is a very old vampire who has been living through a wide amount of time. He influenced a bunch of legendary musicians such as Beethoven and met the most eminent personalities such as Nikola Tesla. He now stands on his own, his wife disappeared. Damned to live forever, he pointlessly records himself everyday. Indeed, his records fulfill no goal as he keeps them for himself. No one will listen to them. Albeit being a truly prolific artist, he is dragged into his own damnation of living alone and unknown forever. He plays and records with very old materials, vintage guitars, detuned cellos and violins. His house is messy and too big for a lonely man. 

This character is to me interesting. As I mentioned, I identify myself to him. Since I am a young boy, I have been recording a lot of songs and music pieces without release them. I have recently released some of them but it took time. Shadowplay is a state from which it is harsh to step out when you are a solo musician while the internet makes it way easier for artists to launch their music. Paradoxically ! 

I find incredibly fascinating that a movie is based on that type of character. When it comes to music and rockers, movies usually portray successful or depraved artists, either real or fictional. The subject of shadowplaying tends not to be appealing in cinema while the frustration that it engenders may lead to very poetic and absurd stories within which complex characters may evolve.  

Find out one poetic and musical scene : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rR_xWZKK70

[rockersmakingcinema]

The unbribable New-Yorker Lou Reed, Blue In the Face, Wayne Wang and Paul Aster

This article will focus on a scene from the movie Blue In The Face directed by Wayne Wang and Paul Aster and released in 1996. We will not talk about music here but rather on the character of the legendary Lou Reed himself. Yes, I am a huge fan !

This movie is made up from a succession of scenes and sketches with funky people from Brooklyn, NYC. Each scene is shot in or around one tobacco store. These people are sometimes famous such as Jim Jarmusch, Harvey Keitel and of course Lou Reed. They play their own character and use their personal traits to drag the scenes into funny or absurd situations. 

Let’s give a look at the Lou Reed’s performance. Unlike his fellow David Bowie (about whom I formerly wrote), Lou had rarely participated to any film project as an actor. His lack of experience did not fail him though. In the scene, he actually acts as he behaves most of the time : sarcastic, disenchanted, provocative and quite chauvinist. In fact, it reminds me the most famous Lou Reed’s interviews. By the way, the scene itself is led like a typical interview. Lou is leaning on the store’s counter, smoking cigarettes, wearing his sunglasses, speaking (just like he was wasted) about why he could not live out of New-York since all other cities and countries are rubbish. The camera is standing in front of him, turning the scene into something very basic. 

What I find interested here is that the directors use the well-known odd character of Lou Reed to nurture their vision of the Brooklyn district. Lou Reed is not considered as a musician but as a citizen deeply anchored in this city. This brief scene is like a break in the film, a conversation with Lou who turns talkative when it comes to speak up for his city. 

Find out the scene here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xduERw9BSns 

[rockersmakingcinema]

The guitar-shredding avenger - The Crow, Alex Proyas, 1994

For my second article, I will talk about the character of Eric Draven from the comics adaptation The Crow directed by Alex Proyas. Embodied by the majestic Brandon Lee on screen, this character is definitely one of the most badass rocker to have ever been portrayed in a motion picture. 

For a quick insight of the plot, Eric Draven lives in peace and harmony with his girlfriend Shelly Webster with whom he is passionately in love. One day, some mobsters burst into their apartment, rape and kill Shelly, then assassinate Eric. One year later, a crow comes on Eric’s grave and takes him back to life. Not only has he been snatched from the dead’s realm, but he is also given invincible powers by the crow that make him immortal. He is ready to bounce back as a terrible avenger.

Alive, he was an accomplished musician, playing guitar everyday and writing ballades to his girlfriend. His death did not make him forget his skills, it actually reinforced it when he came back to life ! Now an avenger, he is a real guitar shredder playing badass electric solo before killing the mobsters that took Shelly away from him.

There is profond poetry in the portray of the avenger and rocker Eric Draven. As a cowboy would wear and draw his gun, he always keeps his guitar with him and hooks it on his back when it is time to fight. Like a crow, he is omniscient, everywhere. He flies over the dark city, jumping from roofs to roofs, tracking his enemies. Like a ruthless and cynical monster, he takes pleasure to let know his preys that he is around and about to hit them by shredding badass solos on his guitar, which make it sound like their funeral oration. The make-up of Eric Draven as the crow makes him look similar to the most famous glam and hard rockers from the 1970′s such as T.Rex. 

The atmosphere of the film is incredibly particular and gives Eric Draven his majestic magnitude.  We don’t know in which city the story takes place, nor the period of time. The hero evolves in a foggy and burning city, modern and depraved at the same time. The scenery and costumes are dark and rocky (leather, chains etc.) as much as they are baroque. In a way, this movie foreshadowed the Alex Proyas‘ wonderful Dark City, released in 1998. 

Find out the lonely Draven’s guitar solo scene : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inUCmh3LY9Y

[rockersmakingcinema]

The prophetic Bowie - Christiane F, Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, 1981.

I shall start this post series with the prophetic figure of one rocker, which is embodied by David Bowie himself on screen. The movie is not particularly that good regarding the book from which it was incubated but it echoes to one of my life experience in Berlin. 

As for my first watch, I was not expecting to see David Bowie on screen, albeit his hit song Heroes/Helden scores the film. The scene in which he remakes one of his late 70′s West Berlin gig turns him into one prophetic rockstar. I mean, I am certain that the director intended to do so. He appears through a tough bright light on the foggy stage. His skin is luxurious and slick. He is filmed from behind. Then, the camera tracks him over the shoulder as he slightly moves forward to the front of the stage. Oh man, that traveling shot gave me the chills ! 

His appearance in the movie takes place at one shifting moment for the main character. The lonely and innocent Christiane is about to escape from her boring life. She is in quest for abstraction, pleasure. Attending this Bowie concert, she is rushing to the Thin White Duke throughout the crowd searching for answers, searching for a guide to help her step beyond. When she reaches the front, she gets hypnotized by the prophet on stage. The way they look at each other through low-angle and high-angle shots enhances that feeling. This concert is definitely a coming-of-age moment for Christiane. 

The song performed here is Station To Station, from the David Bowie’s 1975 eponym album produced at a time the rockstar took so much cocaine he could not even remember having made this masterpiece. When one considers the lyrics, the song is a prophetic message for Christiane, about to fall into heroine and lose her soul in the cold and depraved West Berlin. She is just 13. 

Find out the scene : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtqJxq2yck