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FILMMAKER BLOG  Sunday, May 20, 2007
CAN INDIE DIRECTORS EVER REALLY ROCK OUT?
 Producer Ted Hope sent in the below rumination on indie film and rock music for the blog. It was presumably prompted by two projects. Hope produced Hal Hartley's latest, Fay Grim, which opened this weekend. As Hope notes, Hartley has made a "true rock gesture" in all of his films; he's a director who seems to follow current music, incorporate it into his films, and, through his forays into music video, actively approach it on its own terms.. Also, this week Hope announced The Passenger an Iggy Pop bio-pic set to be directed by Nick Gomez and star Elijah Wood as the Stooges-era Pop.Here's Hope: Most directors I know are music nuts. Many even play instruments. They all seem to make mix tapes. Or rather mix CDs. At least in between jobs. They pride themselves to some degree on their music taste and knowledge. But can anyone ever make a great film about music. Should anyone even try?
Music docs are another beast altogether. A performer, a performance, their music, even their process can be captured on film. Don't Look Back and even Eat The Document give a glimpse, behind the curtain, at an artist beyond what I had imagined them as before. Cocksucker Blues may be the greatest rock and roll movie ever made, but not because of anyone's performance but for the world, not of The Rolling Stones but of their hanger ons, that it exposes. And The Devil and Daniel Johnson, which I had the pleasure of aiding, reveals bits and pieces of an incredibly complex man who makes deceivingly simple seeming music and all which somehow elevates us and makes it seem more worth living (and isn't that what the dream of all art is, to some degree).
But what of narratives? of fictions? Of recent times, Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People comes the closest to being a perfect rock film in that its failures feel like perfect rock moves. I probably have the most affection for Sid and Nancy by Alex Cox as I had the glorious pleasure of being a PA on that (calling my first "roll" and "cut" as Gary Oldman pops up at the bottom of the stairs after a stuntman's tumble). The film was made with what always has felt to me as pure rock attitude, as Alex Cox seemed to improvise many of the greatest moments, deliberating creating chaos all around him but finding the calm center that S&N could escape into. I am thinking about Rock Films as I would like to make a whole bunch of them, but financiers tell me that no one wants to see them. That may be true, but we all know the reason no one goes is because everyone out there knows most rock films really truly suck. You know that they are fakers, wannabes, not even approaching a put on. It's all performance of performance.
Music videos have always held more promise for me than they have ever delivered. They never feel like they are about the music. At best they are about the filmmaking. The Director Series that Palm put out a few years back were great films and infinitely watchable, but like all videos they are not about music. Great ideas with great visuals and great backing tracks but do they put the music forward. Could they, if they had more than the length of a song to play with? I would be curious to see a collection of music videos made by filmmakers who don't consistently make music videos and aren't really trying to deliver the product just to sell the disc. I know that all the indie filmmakers have made a spot or two or three along the way;
you'd think the indie cinema gods could wield strong swords against the capitalist hordes; keep art for arts sake and not sell out. But I have yet to find the collection of the collected music videos of Jarmusch, The Coens, Harmony Korine, and Wong Kar Wai. I have a few links here and there but where's the master list? When's Palm or anyone going to put out the Indie Director Series?
Hal Hartley, who has had many a true rock gesture in all of his films, has made a handful of videos, two of which I have had the pleasure of working. The good folks at Matador Records recently posted Hal's Yo La Tengo video on their blog and it's worth checking out. Fay Grim opened on Friday. Please check it out. If you're interested in Hartley's own music, you can download it from eMusic here.And Hartley's video for Beth Orton's "Stolen Car" can be watched here.
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 5/20/2007 10:49:00 AM
Comments (8)
one of the best rock on film shows i've seen was Dig!,the doc about the dandy warhols and the other band.
- sujewa
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posted by The Sujewa @ 5/20/2007 11:53 AM
Though I think there's a case to be made for Almost Famous being a great (populist) rock movie, I think that music films are really tough to make.
I remember on the All the Real Girls DVD commentary, David Gordon Green talks about playing Sigur Ros to his actors before particular scenes in order to get a certain mood from them. Green has an excellent feel for and taste in music, but maybe the way directors can best use music in films is as a creative starting point rather than an end product.
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posted by Nick Dawson @ 5/20/2007 11:54 AM
Jarmusch's b&w video for Tom Waits's cover of It's All Right for the Red, Hot & Blue project was very interesting.
Also, the use of music in Dead Man was odd & interesting.
Another good rock doc was Jem Cohen & Fugazi's "Instrument", about Fugazi.
What about School of Rock in the fiction arena? Kind of a kids movie but it's got a nice combination of attitude, energy & personality (all mostly thanks to Jack Black i guess). And a nice (but familiar) story, rock related.
- sujewa
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posted by The Sujewa @ 5/20/2007 12:00 PM
How about "The Doors"? It's got some good stuff in it.
The reason that no one makes these movies now is because the best rock stars glorified sex and drugs, and while that's a good thing, I think people today would say it's irresponsible. Without that, you get "Almost Famous" or "Rockstar" which are just too tame to be real rock movies. Why don't they make movies with hippies in them set in the 70's?
The other reason is that the idea of Rock that you're thinking of doesn't really exist anymore. Iggy Pop is an old man. I guess there's Pete Doherthy, but most bands these days are straight and focused on trying to make a living with their label breathing down their neck. It's not really Rock and Roll like you're talking about.
Jazz movies suck too.
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posted by @ 5/20/2007 2:37 PM
It's the meaning of Rock, the attitude that is so difficult to capture on film. In that respect i must mention 'A Hard Day's Night' which was successful that way. The escapism of Rock. In a narrative form.
In a doc form what about 'Woodstock?'Richie Havens certainly nails his foot to the floor and tunes his guitar. And that film about the train tour across Canada.(Can't think of the Title) but there is a scene in there where Buddy Guy tears off a solo that will just drop your jaw.
I would love to see some new great Rock films. The market does exist but it's not necessarily what you think it might be.
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posted by timsored @ 5/20/2007 10:06 PM
The problem with indie directors being able to really rock out is an issue of form, not subject or style. Remember Indie, like Punk is about pushing the form so that it almost explodes with energy and passion. The problem with most rock films is that they try to shrink this passion into the mind numbing bio-pic genre. The bio-pic format is one of the most boring of hollywood genres, it attempts to tell a linear, often rags to riches story in which a hero acheives success either by hard work or luck...that's not rock and roll. Rock is about heroes who create in order to fight the constrictive head shrinking establishment and to cope with the cruelty of daily life...success be damned...and often those heros are self destructive and have no goals except self expression. Gus came close with his Cobain film and a film about the first punk rocker Glen Gould called "12 short films about...." also comes close. "Clean" by Oliver Assayas might be one of the truest films set in the rock world..... Anything by Cameron Crowe is closer to Bobby Darin or Pat Boone pop than true rock.
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posted by mikesryan @ 5/21/2007 6:39 PM
Velvet Goldmine?
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posted by @ 5/22/2007 8:44 AM
PERFORMANCE and, for reggae, THE HARDER THEY COME can't be beat.
What about hip hop? The old-school classics WILD STYLE (fiction) and STYLE WARS (doc) are landmarks of hip hop history, but they don't make it as great cinema in the way PERFORMANCE does.
On the other hand, HBO's THE WIRE is a masterpiece for the ages -- and it covers much of the same subject matter and thematic ground as so-called "gangsta rap." But the show isn't about the music or its making.
Two recent flicks that are about the music, 8 MILE and Marc Levin's SLAM, may not be great all-around movies, but both contain a few scenes that really capture the power of hip hop at its best.
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posted by nelson @ 5/22/2007 12:38 PM
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