keeping it reel

I’m just back from seeing UK electro-pop outfit La Roux perform their Sydney gig at the Enmore Theatre. And here’s my verdict.

Let me be upfront and honest. It was not an impressive concert. The punters were there to hear the hits, the band itself was peripheral. I felt the same endearing feeling I’d feel if my 11-year-old nephew was on stage doing his thing … for the thrill. I’d be supportive, proud and encouraging. And that’s how I felt.
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Recognise the song this chord’s from?

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I dropped into the cinema today to see The Boat That Rocked. And, yes, it was the nostalgic sexagenarian trip down memory lane to the good ‘ole Swinging Sixties I was expecting. But, it was also a thoroughly enjoyable, vibrant and fun movie, aided a lot by a booming British pop soundtrack.

Directed by Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Notting Hill) and with an ensemble cast. The Boat That Rocked is a comedic tribute to the UK pirate radio stations of the 1960s that were pretty much the only radio stations playing pop music.

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Two of the most successful ad campaigns of all time, at least in the alcohol market, were for Guinness and Stella Artois.

Enter director Jonathan Glazer, who not only worked on these ads, but also a range of music videos for artists such as Radiohead, Jamiroquai and Blur. As well as with actors Ben Kingsley, Nicole Kidman and Ray Winstone on two acclaimed feature films.

With this kind of background, it’s no surprise that Glazer’s oeuvre is included in a DVD collection featuring the work of several music video directors. A few months back I looked at Stephane Sednaoui. Now I’ve had a chance to look at the Glazer DVD.

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This post is a quickie but a goodie. One of my favourite music videos care of the boys from Blur — “Music is My Radar”.

The clip is very retro — 60s futurism. The lads are on the set of a talkshow, which has just cut to a break. Behind them are four gigantic posters of the band members, all reminiscent of The Beatles. The set is 60s mod, blocks of red and white.
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Pioneered a genre of documentary that brought photography and musical composition together

Koyaanisqatsi is the work of director Godfrey Reggio, time-lapse photographer Ron Fricke and composer Philip Glass — released in 1982. It was the first of the Qatsi trilogy — Powaqqatsi (1988) and Naqoyqatsi (2002) followed. The film would also inspire similar non-verbal documentaries with sweeping music scores such as Baraka (1992), Atlantis (1991) and the truly amazing peek into the insect world Microcosmos (1996).
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Rebellion goes square in this cute, but unfortunately corny, High School Musical meets The Beatles rock opera

Directed by Julie Taymor (Frida), Across the Universe weaves together 33 songs from The Beatles list into a musical story about America’s movement through the turbulent and liberating 60s.
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The supreme rise of The Dreams

Just when I thought I lost the capacity to cry and hoorah, after La Vie en Rose failed to summons any tears, along comes Dreamgirls.

A film adaptation of a book and broadway musical, Dreamgirls tells the story of the phenomenal rise of The Dreams, a three-piece RnB group of the 1960s/70s. The story is loosely based around The Supremes — Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard and (later) Cindy Birdsong. Instead, we have (respectively) Deena (Beyonce Knowles), Lorrell (Anika Noni Rose), Effie (Jennifer Hudson) and Michelle Morris (Sharon Leal).

But, Dreamgirls is more than just a story about The Dreams. It’s the story of the move of Afro-American music into mainstream pop culture, timed as it were with the emerging civil rights movement and turbulent race relations of the time, which background the story. At the centre of this story is Curtis Taylor Jnr (Jamie Foxx), manager of The Dreams and based on Mowtown records founder Berry Gordy. The mainstream music industry throws up its own set of challenges, and its Curtis that manages this.

The film owes a lot to the Effie White character, based loosely upon Ballard. Like Effie, Ballard was originally the lead singer of The Supremes until the decision was made to lead with the soprano voice of Diana Ross. Like Effie, Ballard was resentful of the change and ultimately left the group following increasing alcoholism and no-shows at rehearsals. Cindy Birdsong replaced Ballard, who would pursue a brief solo career. In 1974, Ballard was invited to join The Supremes on stage at a special performance. This she did and, although she chose not to sing, her appearance drew ovations from the audience. Tragically, Ballard died two years later aged 32.

The other curious character in the film was Curtis Taylor Jnr, manager of The Dreams. Both groundbreaking and opportunistic, Curtis knows what hand to play and when. Curtis is a contrast to the ‘I got soul’ of James ‘Thunder’ Early (played by Eddie Murphy), who is fun, if not off-the-rails. This is a slightly darker side of showbiz, with the drugs and commerciality that has its own victims. Note the hat-tip to the Jacksons.

The other characters, however, were disappointingly flat. Some character development in Deena would have been appreciated — it wasn’t until the pivotal song ‘Listen’ that some depth here came through, but too little too late.

There are a number of key songs in this movie for me, but my favourite was ‘Listen’, performed by Beyonce. I also thought Hudson’s version of ‘One Night Only’ was fantastic and touching, but surprisingly absent from the soundtrack, as was her ‘Love You I Do’. Hudson’s hit song was ‘And I am Telling you I am not Going’ and to be honest, I just wished she did go when I heard this song. The scene and song would be better given to Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest, because Hudson was getting a little meldramatically monstrous.

There are some campy and well-choreographed pieces, notably ‘Steppin’ to the Badside’ (another favourite) and The Dreams’ performance of ‘One Night Only’, when the movie remembers that it is a musical in the same vain as Chicago. And a musical it is, as dialogue grows into shudderingly fantastic numbers.

I was pleasantly surprised by the movie, because the first half seemed relatively average. It was looking a lot like a slideshow of moments leading up to the rise of The Dreams, barely allowing me to take a breath — the switch between scenes was like being on a rollercoaster ride. The film needed to just sit with a few moments so they could resonate — a shame because there were some powerful moments.

Dreamgirls is a fun, glam picture, with great performances and numbers — just a little ambitious and glib. I cried, I clapped and I cheered, and for that I am grateful.

They’ve done it — a biopic about Edith Piaf. That small-framed, French chanteuse who I fell in love with as a kid, running into my bedroom dancing and miming to her songs. [Eds note: This is an old review I am posting.]

La Vie en BoozeRose opened recently in Sydney, kicking off the 2007 Sydney Film Festival at the State Theatre (which, for those outside of our city, is a grand old dame of a theatre with baroque trimmings both splendid and gaudy in one breath). And what a venue to see a movie about someone who was both splendid and gaudy.

I am not a huge fan of biopics. Birth, childhood, life and tragic death — we know the storyline and, at least in the case of a musician’s life, it is bound to end in their signature song as they die and a montage of their life plays across the screen (tissues please). So, no spoilers in this review. But being the fan of Edith, I did enjoy it.

Edith’s life reads like the character in Patrick Suskind’s book Perfume. Like Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, Piaf was born in the slums of Paris and her childhood was a struggle for survival. Her father was a soldier/contortionist and her mother a street urchin. When Piaf’s father went off to earn some money in the circus, he left Piaf with his mother, a madame at the local brothel. The child Piaf becomes attached to one of the workers. No sooner does she develop an attachment than Piaf is torn away again. This is kind of the pattern of her life. Her upringing is the inspiration and food of her music.

A key moment is when Piaf discovers not only that she can sing, but that she can be loved for it. Pauline Brulet, playing the young Piaf singing La Marseillaise was brilliant. Piaf then begins her singing career: first in seedy cabaret, then classier cabaret and then concert hall performances. (I always wondered why Baz Luhrmann never paid tribute to Piaf in his epic-epileptic Moulin Rouge.)

Piaf’s life is one fall after another, and often literally and on stage and on methadone (god knows they had her collapse at least 10 times throughout).

So there you go. Voilà!

Piaf was no glamour queen. She had a small frame, was’t particularly healthy, no stunner, walked around awkwardly and a little boorish. She was from the streets, kind of like J-Lo’s block. She was no Marlene Dietrich, who was graceful and glamorous and knew how to present herself (Lilli Marleen knew her best camera and lighting angles). Nor was Piaf really a performer — there are no grand stage shows here — and, in fact, she was portrayed in the film as being quite terrified of performing. This is all her appeal.

Marion Coterill (Big Fish), the actress who played adult Piaf, was outstanding in here Oscar-winning performance as Piaf. With gorgeous huge eyes (and shaved back hairline and shaved off eyebrows), you really got a sense of Piaf’s vulnerability, cheekiness and frivolity. And I think the great moment for me was when she is singing and you watch her eyes. Initially she is looking for validation, searching for it with her eyes. Then there is a change and she is so enjoying it, proud and confident.

The development of her understated and provincial image, how she deliberately chose to present herself in a very simple way, was fascinating.

Biopics generally tend to emphasise the tragic. The character’s flaws and tragique makes their greatness even more divine, much like a saint.

Sometimes the compulsion to emphasise the tragedy comes at a cost — in La Vie the price to pay was sacrificing some of her more heroic deeds (and less methadone/booze induced ones). One of the unfortunate absences from La Vie en Rose was any mention of her work during the Second World War and her involvement in the French Resistance during the Nazi Occupation. There are some interesting and funny stories about how she used her celebrity and popularity to help the resistance movement. Piaf has gained a lot of respect in France for her work in occupied France and many of her songs are tributes to the soldiers. It was a shame some time wasn’t devoted to that (in exchange for a couple of those scenes where she looked decrepit/drugged/drunk/collapsed … all what we expect from this kind of movie).

Also, Piaf’s career is presented in the film sometimes as made by men. Some mention of her relationship with Yves Montand (who would also become another major French export) and how she ‘discovered’ him, becoming both his mentor and lover, was needed.

So, yes all grand DIVA tragedy, but she was more than a messed-up bird on a stage.

From a film perspective I also found La Vie en Rose a little clunky and deliberate. It’s almost as if the film-maker went: ‘OK, we have to mention her relationship with Mr A because we have to tick that off the timeline’. So there were lots of really interesting relationships that I wanted to know more about, but alas the plot was driven by the demands of covering a lifetime in 2 or so hours. This is why I think movies like The Queen or Downfall or Capote or Wilde, offer really interesting insights into public figures in history and are so successful. They focus on specific moments where the character is making choices about how to deal with a compromising situation. Often, these moments can reveal more about the person than one hour of childhood explication. Another film is Gus van Sant’s Last Days, based on Kurt Cobain’s last days.

So, I think La Vie en Rose could have been more focused. Then I could read a biography of her life for the detail.

Piaf’s last performance, at age 47, was at the Olympia Theatre in Paris. If you check out the footage, this bird is still standing on the streets of Belleville, Paris, singing on the sidewalk. Piaf, her voice, passion and music makes this movie.

Less a return to “Felt Mountain”, more of a folksy trip to Scarborough Fair is Goldfrapp’s latest album.

I’ve been listening to the album for the whole week and it’s fantastic. Similarly atmospheric and experimental to “Felt Mountain”, the album is a luscious experience.

“Seventh Tree” has a definite folk, 60s, hippie, carnival feel, especially the first track, “Clowns”. Get out your tambourines.

Here’s a taste