quote:wildmercury wrote:
I've just posted a review here - http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&p=614&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more614
Thanks for posting the link to your fine article, John.
Couldn't agree more with your assessment of Jagger and his interaction with his audience.
I really was hoping that Scorsese would make it more that just a concert film!
8th February 2008 08:17 AM
Gazza
Scorsese says Stones film "for generations to come"
by Mike Collett-White
(Photo by Johanens Eisle)
BERLIN (Reuters) - The Rolling Stones have been asked when they would lay down their guitars for good ever since the mid-1960s, shortly after they formed.
More than 40 years on, director Martin Scorsese's new concert film of the British band provides few clues, with the veteran rockers rolling back the years and Mick Jagger putting in a performance worthy of a man a third of his age.
Whether the two 2006 concerts in New York where the footage was taken will be among their last is not the point, Scorsese argues, although one reason for making "Shine a Light" was to preserve the Rolling Stones for the future.
"This might give some sense of what it is as a working band on stage for generations to come, hopefully to see this and to appreciate who they are," Scorsese told Reuters after the movie was screened to the press at the Berlin Film Festival.
At 65, the New York-born film maker is roughly the same age as the Stones, and their music provided a soundtrack to his life which he said influenced his work heavily.
"The sound of the Stones, the construction of the songs, the nature of the chords that are used, the sound of the voice, Jagger's voice, all of this worked on me in my own mind from listening to the records," he said in an interview.
He added that the Stones were part of his "musical movie DNA", explaining why the song "Gimme Shelter", for example, had made it into so many of his movies. The music influenced the pictures, not just the sound.
"They certainly influenced the images, there's no doubt about it. Look at 'Mean Streets', it has a similar kind of edge to it. I was attracted to that kind of music and what they were saying at that time."
ROCK HISTORY
Scorsese's relationship with rock music goes back a long way. His credits include "second unit director" on the 1970 documentary film "Woodstock" and "montage supervisor" on the 1972 film "Elvis on Tour".
In 1978 he released "The Last Waltz" about The Band and nearly 30 years later "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan".
Scorsese resisted the temptation to make a full documentary of the Rolling Stones, arguing that it would require 10 to 12 hours of film to do properly.
Instead, he said, "let's give you who they are, which is performance, which is why after 40 years they're still performing. That was the idea."
He includes black-and-white archive footage of band members fielding inane questions from increasingly awe-struck reporters, many of which centre around how long the Stones can keep going.
"At a certain point ... the archive ... gives you a sense of the whirlwind nature of performing, continually the same questions," Scorsese said.
"There's no more answering of the questions. The questions are always going to be the same, so what's the answer? The answer is perform, and we're going to show you the performance."
"Shine a Light", out in April, includes appearances by Jack White of The White Stripes, Christina Aguilera and, in one of the film's best moments, blues guitarist and singer Buddy Guy.
Getting enough footage from two concerts required meticulous planning and the use of 17 cameras. The film also includes Scorsese himself, fretting over the song list, and Jagger scoffing at a model of Scorsese's planned set design.
"You might as well have fun with it and use that as the humor of the situation, because it is absurd, to try to get them on the stage with us with our cameras," Scorsese explained. "It was a wonderful circus".
REUTERS
8th February 2008 08:18 AM
LadyJane
quote:wildmercury wrote:
I've just posted a review here - http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&p=614&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more614
Outstanding review, John.
Welcome to RO!
LJ.
8th February 2008 08:20 AM
Gazza
Scorsese's Stones movie short on satisfaction
Fri Feb 8, 2008 7:09am EST
By Kirk Honeycutt
(Photo/REUTERS/Christian Charisius)
BERLIN (Hollywood Reporter) - Martin Scorsese has made his share of superb musical documentaries, but filmgoers may find they can't always get what they want from "Shine a Light," his new movie about the Rolling Stones.
Shooting for two nights at concerts in New York's Beacon Theatre, Scorsese and an all-star cinematography crew capture the very essence of the Stones in performance -- the raw energy, slick musicianship, easy rapport with audiences and the way their individual personas have grown into appealing caricatures of their former bad-boy selves.
But at the end of a very long night, "Shine a Light," screening here out of competition, is simply another in a long line of concert films about the "so-called greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world." Scorsese, who painted a portrait of an era and its musicians in his great concert film "The Last Waltz" (1978) and explored the blues so movingly in his television series "The Blues" (2003), is content here to sit back and watch. Hard to blame him -- after all, it is the Stones -- but you do expect more from Scorsese. No one, except perhaps Clint Eastwood, knows music and movies better, so you want him to take a deep, long and, OK, celebratory look at the iconic rock band.
No dice. You've got a ticket to watch the Stones in concert so enjoy.
The film does not stand up to the current crop of music/concert films like "U2 3D," which brilliantly uses 3-D to show the Irish band in concert so as to encapsulate its relationship to its fans, each other and their own music, and "CSNY: Deja Vu," which hones in on the political connection Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young have to their music.
Scorsese makes peripheral and sporadic attempts to introduce a documentary flavor to the filmed concert. The movie opens with color and black-and-white footage of the preparation to shoot the concerts in autumn 2006 during the band's "A Bigger Bang" tour. The curious emphasis here seems to be on the missteps, frustrations and lack of communication as the film and rock cultures meet.
At one point, Scorsese is told about a potential fire danger of an effect involving Stones lead singer Mick Jagger. Scorsese actually says with a straight face, "We cannot burn Mick Jagger." No, you can't.
Then, pre-concert one night, the Clintons descend on to the stage -- Hillary, Bill, family and guests. For jet-lagging Americans at the Berlinale, where the film opened the festival Thursday night, this is an almost surreal moment, as if post-Super Tuesday, the Clintons have somehow arrived cinematically in Berlin to scrounge up absentee ballots from local expats.
Once the concert gets under way, Scorsese cuts in ancient interviews with the Stones when they were all callow youths, interviews marked by the utter inanity of the questions and the near torpor of their answers.
Only two answers are interesting: On how he can still be standing, let alone playing great music, after a hard life of hard living, Keith Richards shrugs, "My luck hasn't run out yet." And to Dick Cavett's question many years ago about could he imagine doing rock concerts when he is 60, Jagger immediately replies, "Yeah, easily."
And that's it for the documentary section of the film.
Scorsese has cameras everywhere, with seemingly half of the American Society of Cinematographers membership -- Stuart Dryburgh, Robert Elswit, Ellen Kuras, Declan Quinn and Emmanuel Lubezki among others -- plus legendary Stones documentarian Albert Maysles ("Gimme Shelter") manning those cameras. He and editor David Tedeschi cut rhythmically from angle to angle as each song unfolds, catching the antics, attitudes and exuberance of the four band members and their musical compatriots onstage. Drop-by guests include Christina Aguilera, bluesman Buddy Guy and Jack White.
Predictably, Jagger and Richards dominate the stagecraft as drummer Charlie Watts and guitarist Ron Wood all but disappear into the set. Aging though they clearly are, these two still have that movie-star aura. And they still have great musical instincts onstage.
When you recall how articulate Richards was about music in Taylor Hackford's documentary "Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll" (1987), you do wish Scorsese had put him on camera between shows to talk about the Stones. And Jagger has certainly done enough movies as an actor to have delivered some insights, so long as the questions are not inane.
But Scorsese just wants to hear the music and watch as the men transform back into boys.
Director: Martin Scorsese; Producers: Victoria Pearman, Michael Cohl, Zane Weiner, Steve Bing; Executive producers: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood; Director of photography: Robert Richardson; Art director: Star Theodos; Editor: David Tedeschi.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
8th February 2008 08:27 AM
Gazza
Shine a Light
James Christopher at the Berlin Film Festival
Martin Scorsese’s homage to the Rolling Stones has some of the most stunning concert footage I’ve seen. Shine a Light, which opened the 58th Berlin Film Festival yesterday, is far more than just a night on stage in front of a live audience at the Beacon Theater in New York. The director and band chime perfectly. They are vintage bad boys of their respective arts and, true to form, they don’t seem to agree about anything.
There are shades of Spinal Tap about Scorsese’s efforts to plan his concert film while the band rattles around far-flung stadiums on their world tour. The director gleefully documents telephone conversations, and whether the lighting rig will burn Mick Jagger to a crisp.
Mick looks at a doll’s house mock-up of the stage and wonders what on earth Marty was thinking about when he designed the set.
Scorsese thinks it was entirely Jagger’s idea.
The film is an unexpectedly sharp comedy, shot in silvery black and white. It takes a turn for the surreal when Bill Clinton shows up with Hillary’s venerable mother a couple of hours before curtain-up. “Hiya Dorothy,” leers Keith Richards, with a Jack Nicholson smile and a pirate’s bandana. Bill then introduces Ronnie Wood to the president of Poland.
The deadpan, tongue-in-cheek way this is filmed is beautifully alive to the band’s exotic, almost mythical appeal.
The intimacy is unexpected. Scorsese clearly adores the Stones in the way that he paints them as individuals.
He has plundered some terrific footage from the archives and stitched these clips between their anthems. There are rare shots of the band as shy young men, and then a medley of interviews where they are cast as public nuisances, mavericks, popinjays, drug addicts, rebels, and legends – mostly to their total bemusement.
The concert itself is a piece of Technicolor magic. The camerawork and editing are astonishing. Several tracking shots that follow Keith and Mick across the stage beggar belief.
The song list is Desert Island Discs nostalgia from start to finish: “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, “Satisfaction”, and so on. Mick’s pouts and wiggles still send ladies of a certain age wild. Charlie Watts puts a thumping end times2 to a song, looks over his left shoulder, and winks. Keith looks fabulously depraved, with a Marlboro clamped between his teeth.
The Stones might be less easy on the eye than they were 40 years ago, but there’s something indestructible about their chemistry.
This is the deep point of Scorsese’s film, and why the newsreel clips that basically map the history of the band are so poignant, and invariably comic.
The famous World In Action programme for Granada Television, inspired by William Rees-Mogg’s editorial in The Times of July 1 1967, “Who Breaks a Butterfly on a Wheel?” is an eloquent reminder of just how much nonsense they have survived. The most affecting detail is how their personalities have or have not changed, despite the vast and obvious trappings of wealth.
A collector’s item for fans, a surprise for everyone else, Shine a Light will be released in the UK in April 2008
Berlin Film Festival 2008: Martin Scorsese's Shine a Light and CSNY: Déjŕ Vu
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 08/02/2008
Veteran director Martin Scorsese captures the Rolling Stones' energy on film, says Sheila Johnston
Shine a Light
What happens to old rockers pickled in, among other things, their own creative juices? One answer comes in Martin Scorsese's Shine a Light, a record of the Rolling Stones performing in New York in 2006 - and a truly barnstorming curtain-raiser to the Berlin Film Festival, where the film had its world premičre last night.
Christina Aguilera and Mick Jagger duet in Martin Scorsese's Rolling Stones documentary, Shine a Light
A brief humorous prologue cross-cuts between Jagger in London and Scorsese in New York preparing the movie. Jagger is unhappy with the designs for the stage set, which he thinks looks like a dolls' house, and worried about being distracted by cameras (16 were used). Scorsese is fretting that he still hasn't got the playlist (and about his sinuses).
Just before curtain-up, a terminally uncool Bill Clinton arrives at New York's Beacon Theatre with an entourage of 30 and effuses on stage about being the Stones' warm-up man.
Keith Richards leers sardonically at him and narrowly resists the temptation to say, "Hey Clinton, I'm bushed!" Then a playlist is pressed into Scorsese's anxious hand and, seconds later, Jumpin' Jack Flash starts up.
Snippets of archive material trace the Stones' career. In 1960s television clips, plummy-voiced, pin-striped announcers remind us of a prehistoric, class-bound Britain. A cherubic-looking Jagger reckons, "I think we're pretty well set up for at least another year."
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Later interviews gently mock the increasingly star-struck reporters and build up a cumulative image of roaring boys who lived to become pensionable more by accident than design.
But Shine a Light is principally a concert movie. As temperamentally ill-sorted with the band as he might at first seem, nerdy little Scorsese steps up to the plate and pulls out his own set of fireworks to capture the excitement. He is aided by a team of top-league camera operators, including the veteran documentarian Albert Maysles, who captured the Stones on screen 38 years ago in Gimme Shelter.
The set includes some obvious choices, climaxing in a frenzied Satisfaction, but there are also idiosyncratic renderings of less familiar C&W and blues numbers. The guest artists are Jack White, Christina Aguilera and the Chicago bluester Buddy Guy, whose guitar duet/duel with Richards is a highlight.
Clad in a cropped tuxedo and a sequinned burgundy evening shirt, both of which he immediately sheds, Jagger displays incredible stamina. No wonder he's still snake-hipped - his whirling-dervish performance is a killer workout.
Wearing eyeliner and assorted ironmongery, Richards jabs his guitar neck and bares his weird satanic grin at the nymphs in the mosh pit. Apart from nice, quiet Charlie Watts, perhaps, you probably wouldn't want your mum bringing one of them home to dinner.
CSNY: Déjŕ Vu
Another answer to that initial question is seen in CSNY: Déjŕ Vu, screening in Berlin's Panorama section. It records Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's pan-American tour - also in 2006 - protesting against the Iraq war.
Ruder critics likened the on-stage appearance of the group (who've done their own share of fast living) to the sight of fat, balding millionaires comparing their prescriptions. The insults are very sportingly quoted in the film by Neil Young, who also directed it.
A keenly political response to a-changing times (though the times are, the title suggests, not all that different from the protest movements of the 1960s), the new songs, mostly by Young, include something called Let's Indict the President (for Lying), the extreme reactions to which are a sort of theme and a running joke.
Deliberately low-fi, the movie is enjoyable, thought-provoking, perhaps even inspirational, though compared with the Stones' visceral, irresponsible, bad-boy energy, one is left somehow feeling that the devil still has the best riffs.
well just look at your signature picture, its looks quite grey there
8th February 2008 10:46 AM
Mr Jurkka
quote:speedfreakjive wrote:
well just look at your signature picture, its looks quite grey there
Ahh.. yes didint see that. Anyway Rolling Stones 2008 looks really good. Everybody looks healty.. and their having the time of their life.
Queston!
Are they gonna be in every premier?
8th February 2008 10:49 AM
Jumacfly
Have we got a release date for the movie??
8th February 2008 10:56 AM
speedfreakjive
quote:Jumacfly wrote:
Have we got a release date for the movie??
i think its April 5th in the UK, not sure about anywhere else though
8th February 2008 11:12 AM
Jeep
.
.
8th February 2008 11:32 AM
Gazza
quote:Jumacfly wrote:
Have we got a release date for the movie??
From imdb.com
Germany 7 February 2008 (Berlin International Film Festival)
Germany 4 April 2008
Iceland 4 April 2008
USA 4 April 2008
Netherlands 10 April 2008
UK 11 April 2008
France 16 April 2008
Finland 18 April 2008
Australia 24 April 2008
Belgium 28 May 2008
US premiere will be at SXSW Festival, Austin on or around 10th March.
UK premiere will be in London on 4th April.
[Edited by Gazza]
8th February 2008 01:34 PM
Nellcote
From tmz.com
Mt Rushmore of Rock?
8th February 2008 02:02 PM
luxury1
oh, that's beautiful, nellcote. The boys in the band would surely get a kick of that one.
8th February 2008 02:47 PM
BILL PERKS
KEEF WORE THAT SCARF TO WOODY'S WEDDING
I AM STRANGELY AMBIVALENT ABOUT THIS FILM
8th February 2008 03:08 PM
SweetVirginia
quote:wildmercury wrote:
I've just posted a review here - http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&p=614&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more614
One of the most insightful Stones reviews I have ever read.
Fantastic.
8th February 2008 04:12 PM
glencar
quote:Bitch wrote:
copied from the Berdinale website:
SHINE A LIGHT
In autumn 2006 the Rolling Stones gave two concerts at Beacon Theatre in New York. Here, in the almost intimate environment of this 2,800-seater old Broadway theatre that opened in 1928, we remind ourselves why Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood and Charlie Watts are living legends. Before an enthusiastic audience that includes Hillary and Bill Clinton, the Stones present their hit songs as well as less known numbers. Guest appearances from Christina Aguilera, blues legends Buddy Guy and Jack White (“White Stripes“) make this an unforgettable evening.
As with his concert film, THE LAST WALTZ (made in 1978, about The Band) and his music documentaries FEEL LIKE GOING HOME (made in 2003, about the history of the blues) and NO DIRECTION HOME (about Bob Dylan, 2005), Martin Scorsese does not merely portray popular musicians for the umpteenth time, rather he portrays their music – in the truest sense of the word. SHINE A LIGHT transposes rock music to the screen and makes it palpable in the cinema. But this cinematic tour de force is not solely the work of the director; it also represents the culmination of the combined talents of some of Hollywood’s best cinematographers, who filmed the concert from every conceivable angle. Among those contributing their skills were legendary Stones documentarian Albert Maysles (GIMME SHELTER, 1970), and two
cinematographers whose work is to be seen in this year’s Berlinale Competition: Ellen Kuras (BE KIND REWIND) and Robert Elswit (THERE WILL BE BLOOD). Moreover, the film’s stunning soundtrack gives everyone the feeling of being right at the heart of the proceedings.
It’s only rock ’n’ roll, but you’ll like it.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ROLLING STONES & MARTIN S FOR THE SUCCESS OF SHINE A LIGHT! THANKS FOR MAKING IT! XOXOXOXOX
[Edited by Bitch]
The concert was attended by far better people than the Clintons. Why is everything about celebrity today?
8th February 2008 04:17 PM
glencar
quote:Gazza wrote:
Scorsese says Stones film "for generations to come"
by Mike Collett-White
(Photo by Johanens Eisle)
Is Keith doing highlights in his hair now?
8th February 2008 04:18 PM
glencar
quote:BILL PERKS wrote:
KEEF WORE THAT SCARF TO WOODY'S WEDDING
I AM STRANGELY AMBIVALENT ABOUT THIS FILM
I share your ambivalence but not yer strangeness.
8th February 2008 04:57 PM
texile
that was a great from john,
but is this just a glorified concert film?
i'm not sure what i expected...
i think the stones are too epic for some of us (true-blue stones fans) for any film to satisfy.
8th February 2008 05:19 PM
Mr Jurkka
It's good that they haven't lost the humour side of theirs.
8th February 2008 05:33 PM
open-g
I've already agreed on John's writing about Jack White on this thread.
"Live films often bore me, but "Shine A Light" is pretty gripping, even during its weaker moments (“Loving Cup” could manage without a surprisingly overwhelmed Jack White, for instance)."
but after watching the movie a second time that Jack W. is getting on my nerves - he really spoils a lovely song.
8th February 2008 05:33 PM
Gazza
quote:glencar wrote:
The concert was attended by far better people than the Clintons. Why is everything about celebrity today?
because the Stones tend to whore themselves more towards phoney audiences than real ones?
In fairness, Beacon 1 WAS a benefit for the Clinton Foundation, wasnt it? It would be hard to make a documentary around these shows and NOT mention it at some point.
[Edited by Gazza]
8th February 2008 05:43 PM
Gazza
quote:open-g wrote:
Back from the freezing long wait at the red carpet and then the movie
SHINE A LIGHT
with Beast, Paulywaul, With Sssoul and Pjotr
it was great to meet you
This movie will be a treasure chest when it comes out on DVD!
one you can rewind and shuttle for repeated sequences.
It has quite a few hilarious moments right from the start.
Marty and the setlist - was a story told in a repeating, slapstick kind of a way. very funny and entertaining - not only for Stones fans.
The songs that Pauly posted where all played out - except one!
Connection - it was butchered with interview cuts inbetween - ouch^^
With Sssoul will have something serious to say about that - stay tuned.
The sound was a bit strange sometimes.
it was moving all the time. the guitars, when in picture, really jumped out at ya.
sometimes very good, other times a bit strange.
I don't know if it was the cinema's fault or if it's actually mixed like that (I'm not a fan of suround sound) I guess I can tell tomorrow, after seeing it at another cinema.
According to Martin Scorsese at the press conference, no overdubs were done and I couldn't hear any from this first experience.
if anything had to be done it was through the audio-mix.
the musical highlights for me were Far Away Eyes and Champagne & Reefer**** absolutely stunning, but don't worry, the others ain't far off.
About "The blond hired bimbos" ....well, if it hadn't been talked about earlier, no one woulda noticed. nothing to get ones knickers in a twist.
my opinion o'course.
...and I'm pretty tired
Thanks for the review. Glad you enjoyed it. Interesting observations about the bimbos. Other reviewers seemed to pick up on it and find it a bit unnecessary. I noticed that Beast mentioned that it seemed the crowd shots would have suggested that there were ten times as many women in the crowd as men, which plainly was far from the case.
I'm sure I'll love the film anyway, but I just find it a bit inconsistent that a 'documentary' (which is supposed to depict reality, after all) feels the need to hire actresses to begin with. Especially ones who evidently only recognised about three songs.
8th February 2008 05:52 PM
Gazza
here's Paulywaul's review on IORR
Here's my two cents worth .......
The first 15-20 minutes are genuinely hysterical. We were five people sitting together, Beast, sssoul, Piotr, open-g & myself, and between us all we did a LOT of laughing. So much in fact, that we invariably missed various bits of dialogue because we were still sniggering from the previous something or other and couldn't hear the next absolute gem. It was all about Scorcese's side of things, worrying about this & that (nearly everything in fact); the fact that he'd done this elaborate stage design to make the Beacon look all nice and pretty - and there were the Stones looking at a small scale model of it and going' "looks like a fucking dolls house to me", the fact that despite his best efforts he couldn't get a setlist out of them until what seemed like literally minutes before they hit the stage, the fact that the lighting guy said to him that if he flooded Mick with light from this really low slung lighting rig for something like more than 18 seconds at a time - the heat generated would cause Mick to spontaneously combust !! His reaction to being told this was priceless, the look on his face is one thing, but then he says something like "well we can't incinerate Mick Jagger, that wouldn't be good at all". It's just full of absolute peaches like that, those first 15-20 mins really are a laugh a minute. Hilarious. There's also a few clips of them rehearsing (can't recall what it was they were doing now - sorry !!), them meeting Bill & Hilary and Hilary's mum Dorothy. Keith absolutely surpasses himself by sneaking up behind (I think it was Mick) talking to Bill and shouts "hey Clinton ... I'm BUSHED". He also pulls some fantastic facial expressions whilst Bill is droning on about something or other to Mick, the kind of "'ere we go, the prima donna & the slimy politician talkin' bollocks" look. If looks could kill, one particular one would've done.
I sent the setlist to Gazza late last night and it's a few pages back on this thread, so won't bother repeating it here.
The cinematography is awesome. This is "close up", I mean REAL close up. My only criticism is that Mick is over-represented, it would've been nice to see a more proportionate distribution, that is to say more of Keith, but particularly of Ronnie & Charlie. Having said that, the quality is something else. Once the show starts (they open with JJF), it's actually a movie of "the concert". Spliced in here and there intermittently are selective cuts from various interviews and documentaries over the years that for the most part, "fans" would've all seen before. There were possibly one or two exceptions, but generally - not much new there. Maybe not "new", but very cleverly woven into the fabric of the film nevertheless, just in the right spots, not too little, not too much, not too short, not too long.
In terms of the musicianship on offer, for me there are several absolute highlights. Champagne & Reefer is simply to die for, the musicanship is outrageous, but the song is SO hugely complimented by the truly awesome cinematography - that it scales new heights. Second to that I'd have to put either Some Girls or As Tears Go By. Again, absolutely brilliant musicanship, but the way it's filmed and the way that filming captures all Mick's facial expressions as he's delivering those comical lines - genius. Also captured is that well "documented and talked about" moment when the Glimmers "share a mic" for supposedly the first time in God knows how long, as well as Keith (a) rushing up to another mic on a stand to sing backing vocals on the chorus and (b) arriving at the mic late and missing a bit of it, and (c) then being unable to complete it anyway because he bursts out laughing !! Some Girls will make you laugh and smile, but As Tears Go By ... that will tug at your heartstrings and bring tears to your eyes. I'm not ashamed to admit that I got a bit emotional during that song, and when it ended and I looked to my right and my left ... I noticed I'd not been the only one !! Enough said ?? Otherwise, for a sheer "shitkicking Rolling Stones song" with screaming guitars (can't remember what the cinematography was like because the guitars were so fantastic ........ !!) - I'd pick She Was Hot.
I read a couple of UK paper reviews (Times & Telegraph) on the way home, I'd agree with what was said in one or the other ... and that is that although once the first 15-20 minutes is over, it is essentially a film of "a concert", but taking those first 15-20 minutes and the bits and pieces of old footage he weaves in together - you come away from this film feeling that they've revealed some of their own individual characters. That's no small achievement, all credit to Scorcese for accomplishing that I think.
Finally, just to dispel any rumours: there were no refs to Bill or Mick T or Brian. It's not a documentary about the Rolling Stones, it's simply a film of a Stones concert in the fall of 2006 within which there's references here and there to how they've looked/what they've said/what the world has thought of THEM over the past four and a bit decades.
Fans will love it. When it comes out on DVD, fans will be in "pause/rewind" heaven. As for me, I anticipate it taking me AT LEAST 2 hours to get through the first 15-20 minutes - there's so much crammed in there that I could watch AGAIN & AGAIN & AGAIN ......... !!
Non-fans (in other words just good old "vaguely interested" parties) will quite probably be blown away and think to themselves "f*** me THESE old bastards rock, I'd better catch them the next time they come around !!"
If there's one thing this film really DOES put across it is that the Stones continue to do what they do because ............ it's rock n' roll and (it would most definitely appear) that they REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY do LIKE IT !!!
When I sent in the setlist to Gazza I gave it an 8.5 out of 10. I'll stick to that, because there ARE ways in which I think it could've been a little better: more close-up camera work on/of Keith and Ronnie and Charlie, maybe some audience shots and other footage acquired in and around/on the street outside the theatre itself on the day(s), a bit more archival footage woven in here and there, but all in all, for what it is ....... I loved it and I'm REALLY glad I made the trek to Berlin to see it. And anyway, I'm sure that when it comes out on DVD, there will likely be lotsa bonus material. Here's hoping in any case !!
8th February 2008 05:59 PM
PartyDoll MEG
A few new youtubes..
8th February 2008 06:30 PM
mrhipfl
Paulywaul's review is great - thanks for sharing Gazza! I'm so psyched to see this film. I'm hoping it'll change some of my buddies' opinion on the band.
8th February 2008 06:48 PM
open-g
About them bimbos...
I'm sure it could have been done in a better way and it seems that there were last minute edits done - going by the read of an Iorr posting.
for me though, that was a minor lapse. it didn't really get in the way of the movie....and all IMO of course.
I was having more trouble with the sound.
here's what I wrote on Iorr:
Quote:
Jocke
No ADTL?
oh, wasn't it mentioned?
well yes, All Down The Line is in the movie.
Quote:
Beast
Hey open-g - it was my pleasure! Great to meet you and thanks for guiding us round Berlin. Enjoy your second viewing of the film and let us know how the sound at Urania compares.
Great reviews, you both wrote, Beast & Pauly.
It's always good when the cavalry comes to rescue.
I'll talk a bit about the sound at the Urania.
first of all, it helped to not stand in a cold and windy place at the red carpet for hours, freezing yer ass off.
I got there early enough to choose a good seat right in center of the film beam (word?) and right on axis with the stereo panorama - a few rows down from the rear speakers.
Easy to guess that the sound was much better - the room itself sounds better.
Urania is a ca. 800 ppl modern Cinema but doesn't have the patina of the ole' Zoo-Palast, which could be an extension of the Beacon theatre.
after the 2nd song or so in Zoo Palast, something happend with the sound.
I thought some power-amp might have blown, and there was a glitch and we looked at each other, remember?
well that didn't happen at Urania tonight.
Now the whole suround sound made more sense - but still it's like a round-about.
I do understand that you hear Lisa on the far left when looking at the stage and hear the audience in your back - but does the whole sound setting have to change with the angle of the camera?
I don't think so, not in a concert film.
It's highly destracting to flip audio sides when a great percentage of information is carried in music.
As a concert goer, you are used to see the different angles and images on the big screen, and you hear the sound from where your standing or sitting.
I prdict: If you listen to this soundtrack, as is, on headphones - you'll fall down drunk.
so now the audio CD makes a lot of sense too, doesn't it?
I'm looking forward to that because they can't get away without a decent stereo mix.
cheers
8th February 2008 07:05 PM
open-g
glencar wrote:
The concert was attended by far better people than the Clintons. Why is everything about celebrity today?
Btw, the Clintons only appeared in the first 10-15 minutes for a short time.
you never thought about them after that and didn't feel that they might still be at the show. were they?
Anyway the short Clinton episode was so friggin' funny you don't even want to miss it.
Keith: "hey Clinton ... I'm BUSHED" ...hysterical.
and then M.Cohl explaining to Charlie about the guests of the Clintons. Charlie goes WTF.
I can't put this words but I was lmao.
you gotta see
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