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Control * Anton Corbijn (2007)

ControlIn the great film “24 Hour Party People” (2002) you can see how in Manchester different musical currents come together on one label. A part of that film is about Joy Division. The famous photographer Anton Corbijn picks a small part of the storyline of “24 Hour Party People” and gives us the short life of Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division. “Control” is based on the biography of Deborah Curtis. I think I expected too much of this film, because I am not really satisfied with it. Having been a photographer for so many years, I expected some fancier camera-work, but besides the moody black-and-white, the camera-work is fairly standard. What I also find strange is that “Control” only seems to portray a part of the story. There is close to nothing about the controversy around the band in the earlier days. The band is portrayed a another popband with another pop-audience, while I am under the impression that Joy Division ‘mothered’ the goth/batcave scene to some extend. Also strange is that the myth of a contract in blood with Factory Records is used. The thing that troubles me most -though- is that Corbijn fails to show how and why Curtis came to do what he did. Sure, he has problems with the pressure of succes and relational problems, but to me it does not become really clear how Curtis became so depressed. Perhaps the order of complete songs that Corbijn shows tell a story, but they were unfortunately not subtitled and I hardly know them myself. The last album supposedly spelled the things to come, but that does not become clear in the film either. To me “Control” was just an alright watch. There is some music in it, some biography, pinnacle peeks into the music scene of the day, but overall Corbijn did not manage to show me what I think he wanted to.

Walk The Line * James Mangold (2005)

Walk The LineThis film has been on my wishlist for a while. Not that I am a fan or Johnny Cash (1932-2003) or anything, but I like music films and the man made some interesting music. “Walk The Line” shows the troubled life of the famous musician. Writing his own music, he is pushed towards more commercial sounds of the time, so he starts to make what to me sounds like early rock’n’roll (what is supposedly country). Being married with children he does not make enough money to be a fulltime musician in the early days, but after his first hitsingle, Cash starts touring and touring and touring, each time ending up with many of the same bands, including the young Elvis and June Carter, one of the Carter family child-stars, who becomes his muse and eventually his wife. Carter, making awfull country music, may be the reason that Cash also went that way somewhat. His rapidly raising star and rock’n’roll life gives the usual trouble with a broken marriage and drug abuse and Cash’s bad period is shown at length. “Walk The Line” is a nice drama with nice music and a nice peek on the early days of rock music.

Trollflötjen * Ingmar Bergman * 1975

TrollflötjenI accidentally ran into this production of the recently deceased Bergman. I didn’t know if this would be a film-version of the “Die Zauberflöte” opera of Mozart or just like the Windgassen version that I reviewed before, a registration of the performance of the opera. Well, it is a bit of both. It seems that the opera was performed and that Bergman filmed it with and without audience. The latter is obvious, because he used lengthy facial close-ups in his montage, the first almost has to be, because there must have been cameras all over the stage. What you see is the opera, but with close-ups, different stages, etc. and it looks less than just a filmed opera of the Windgassen version. I don’t know if Bergman actually directed the opera AND the film, but the box suggests as much. The opera is translated to Swedish, but since it is available on DVD, you can just turn on subtitles. I would have preferred the original, German language, but the language is hardly an issue. The acting and stages are good, but Bergman has made some changes to the story. Small changes such as the way Papageno meets Papagena, but bigger changes such as the replacement of Isis and Osiris (whose mysteries are taught in the temple of Zarastro) by the supreme high God. Also it seems that Bergman has missed the Masonry in the story, leaving aside an enormous source for possible symbolism. In total this is another nice version of “Die Zauberflöte” and the first one that I get on DVD. I still prefer the first (of three) that I saw so far, so I hope to run into that Windgassen version some day too.

Ex Drummer * Koen Mortier * 2007

Ex DrummerHere we have another Belgian film, but this time spoken in Western Flemish. An extravagant writer thinks it is an interesting experiment to play the drums in a band with three lowlife idiots. He uses his ‘adventures’ to write a book (which later became this film). What you get is “Anyway The Wind Blows”, squared. Antisocial, mouth-filthy morons having fun with metal/punk-like music, beating up eachother, “janets”, women and whoever is in their way. This results in short explosions of bloody violence in the beginning of the film, working towards a very violent end. There are some crazy findings in filming and in the story and if you understand what the actors are saying, the dialogues are very amusing. “Ex Drummer” appears to be a scum version of the earlier works of Tarantino (but bloodier) layered with filthy music and characters that make the youths of “Trainspotting” look like mother’s favourite. “Ex Drummer” is a step further than most comparable films. Is this a path filmmakers should continue? Well, I had a few good laughs here and there, but overall I don’t find it necessary that film directors are trying to find the boundaries of when people actually get shocked (and I think “Ex Drummer” will do the trick for many people).

The Rise And Fall Of The Fool’s Ark * Dadara & Jesse vs Lamb & Hipoptimist (2007)

Many years ago, the Dutch artist Dadara was quite popular. His weird comic-like paintings were well appreciated. Recently I heard about this film of Dadara and decided to watch it. “The Rise And Fall Of The Fool’s Ark” is a 50 minute film combining ‘real filming’ with animations of Dadara, either mixed or separate from eachother. The film is about a group of people who build an ark because all fun and colour seems to leave earth, which is taken over by “greymen”. With Dadara’s strange characters and some weird ideas, this results in a very amusing film with some very critical parts on modern society and a simple (or silly?) message. Definately time and money have been investigated in the film. A real ark is built, many greymen have been made and the animations are sometimes elaborate. The film is not a film in the sense that it has a plot, conversations, etc., but rather it is a film with music on the background and sometimes text flying through the screen (which are not be best parts of the film btw.) The result is humorous and amusing and surely worth the watch.

This short film is not on IMDb, so it seems not to be regarded as a film, but maybe as a very long videoclip. Personally I think it is a short film, so the review belongs in this section.
-3-

Hedwig And The Angry Inch * John Cameron Mitchell * 2001

This film played in Seattle the second time I was there and I already wanted to see it then, but things went otherwise… Too bad that it took so long, because “Hedwig and the angry inch” is a very enjoyable film. Hanzel was born on the Eastern side of the wall in Berlin, but ended up as Hedwig in the USA. The story of his/her life and the half-sexchange is told in flashbacks, great scenes and Hedwig’s own songs. The film compares to films such as “24 Hour Party People”, “Almost Famous”, “Velvet Goldmine” and “Boogie Nights” playing in the music scene of the 70’ies and told with wonderfull dialogues and humour. If you like the mentioned films, don’t miss Hedwig and his angry inch!
-4-

Die Zauberflöte * Peter Windgassen * 1983

250 Years ago, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born, so 2006 is pronounced Mozart year. On several locations, the film recording of “Die Zauberflöte” (the magic flute) opera performed by the Orchester der Bayerischen Staatsoper directed by August Everding is shown. I had never seen an opera, neither real nor filmed. I really wanted to see this “alchemical opera” some time and this was a good opportunity. Well, it sure was a great experience! The stages of the 1983 performance are grandiose and the fact that the opera is filmed, leaves out many pauses and an up-close view, but since this film was shown on the big screen, the experience is certainly better than at home on TV. I have the “Die Zauberflöte” highlights on cd, but seeing the play as it should have been, makes the music a lot better. There isn’t too much alchemy in the play, but a lot of Freemasonry (also see my review of the book Die Zauberflöte, an alchemical allegory elsewhere). The story beautifully gives the path of initiation with obvious references to Freemasonry (Mozart was a Mason), but then placed in the Isis-mysteries. The play and the story are moving, beautiful, extremely symbolic and I loved watching the three hours. Be sure to take the chance to see it if you get it. I noticed that the film is also available on VHS and there are undoubtely more Magic Flutes on DVD, but I don’t know if they are as great as this one.

Velvet Goldmine * Todd Haynes * 1998

This film had been on my wish-list for quite some time. After films such as “24 Hour Party People” and “Almost Famous” I really wanted to see this one too. This time the subject is “glam rock”, more in particular the singers Brian Slade and Curt Wilde (a great part by Ewan MacGregor). Like the other mentioned films this one plays in the 70’ies. Glam rock was a reaction to the love and peace hippie-movement of the 60’ies. On some point the glamrockers took a step ahead. Speaking about free sex became action and also a trend to be bisexual arose, the clothing/look became very confronting and the overall image as well. The film is full of men looking like women and it is obvious that the image of several bands made a big impression on the “gothics” that would follow in the next decade (also see “24 Hour Party People“) and which are still very present in the underground music scenes. The music isn’t much of my liking this time, but I do again like the impression of the time, the combination of film and music and the ‘history lesson’ that I got. Just like the other two, you only get a snippet from a very large and wide musical movement that was present in the 70’ies, so you may have to watch all these films (and add some punk-films such as “Sid and Nancy”? to get a better idea of the time as a whole. But still, this one is recommanded too. <17/4/06><4>

Almost Famous * Cameron Crowe * 2000

Often compared to “Boogie Nights” (of which I have no review?!) this film. It also plays in the seventies, is a weird combination of comedy and drama and with young actors. Russell is a 15-year old intellectual who gets gripped by Rock ‘n’ Roll music that is already on its return. Following the fictious band “Stillwater” the boy first writes for the magazine “Cream” and later for the “Rolling Stone”. The film shows how Russell gets tempted by the life of a rockstar, their groupies and of course journalists. Amusing.

24 Hour Party People * Michael Winterbottom * 2002

I had wanted to see this film for a long time, but when I read in the anouncement of the TV-broadcasting that the Sex Pistols are part of the story, I wondered why I never watched this film before. Not that I am a big Sex Pistol fan, but I like films about the 70’s (music) scene, such as “Boogie Nights” or “Almost Famous”. “24 Hour Party People” is even more ‘educational’ than I expected. After the first concert of the Sex Pistols Tony Wilson decided that he wanted to form a plane for independant music. First he gets a show about punk music on a regional TV channel, later he opens the club “The Factory” to organise shows and after that he founds “Factory Records”. There isn’t too much punk in this film, because soon Wilson discovers the genre ‘postpunk’ (later ‘(new) wave’ or ‘gothic’). Quite a large part of the film is dedicated to Joy Division, the controversy about their name and the suicide of the lead singer. In their early days, there wasn’t much of ‘a gothic look’, but later there was. Obviously the genre developed into a scene. After the suicide of Ian Curtis, the band continues under the name New Order.
Wilson doesn’t just sign wave bands though, because he also discovers the Happy Mondays and some avantgardistic bands that I don’t even know. The greatest thing to see is what happens around the person a Wilson, a music lover not interested in genres. He releases punk, wave, indie/avantgarde, funk and eventually he opens a club where ‘the rave scene’ was born, the earliest signs of life of house music, where the attention didn’t go to the creators of the music, but to the medium, the DJ. Touched upon are the problems with drugs, gangs and the like.

I don’t know how historical the story is, but I read somewhere on the internet that the story is very one-sided and focussed too much on the person of Wilson. I suppose that is true, but still the film gives a wonderfull view on the happenings of the Manchester scene of that time.Personally I was delighted to see how different kinds of music and scenes run through and follow up eachother.

Also the film itself is very well done. Most of the time you get the idea that you are ‘part of’ the time the film is about, but the main character frequently makes it clear that the film was shot recently, by saying what will happen in the film, who plays what character, giving comments on what happens, etc. The humour is British and extremely dry, I like that! The film is educational in a way, enjoyable and a great watch. Now I need to see “Velvet Goldmine” (1998) some time soon too!