Minty’s Movie Masterclass – Jean Pierre Melville

One of the nodal influences on the crime film is without question the work of Parisian Jean Pierre Melville. Channelling the iconography and milieu of the Warner Brother crime films of the 1930’s such as ‘Little Caesar‘, ‘The Public Enemy‘ ,’The Roaring Twenties‘ and just about anything starring George Raft, James Cagney or Edward G. Robinson, Melville forged his own hermetically sealed celluloid world of trench coated imperturbable gangsters, of reticently executed robberies and bewitching mobster molls through a number of hugely admired Gallic crime films from the mid 1950’s to the early 1970’s.

  

There are two strands to Melville’s career, roughly divided to either the war films set against the backdrop of occupied France during WWII (in which he fought and was a decorated member of the resistance) or his dispassionate crime epics, both strands of which examine codes of honour and tradition, trust and betrayal on both sides of the law or warring countries. I’ve seen a few of the war films and they are good bit I’ll be concentrating on the crime films as they are far more up my alley and will make my research more appealing.

  

‘Bob Le Flambeur‘ – Whilst Claude Chabrol admired it for its imperfections and meandering drift, Melville’s first film was a revelation of the crime sodden Montmartre sectors of Paris, a ethical hangover from the occupation which ceased only five years earlier. Bob is a professional gambler, a card sharp whose luck appears to be running away from him. In a final act of desperation, Bob plans a audacious robbery of one of his favored casinos despite the police being almost certainly aware of his futile scheme.

 

You can clearly see the origin of Melville’s style here. It has the dispassionate, prepotent criminals facing off against the tenaciously professional police battling within the murky area where both opponents modus operandi intertwine. It’s all shot in a rather flat downbeat monochrome fashion with the sparse minimalist dialogue signaling the protagonists emotional vacuum – there is only the job, the work which defines these men. It’s not clear exactly where and why the heist is occurring until the final act which has drawn some criticism but that seems an ideal tactic to me, it builds interest and suspense until the project nears its final dramatic stages. This is a entertaining little film and I recommend it along with Neil Jordans remake ‘The Good Thief‘ with Nick Nolte - it’s not as good but remains a competent enough little thriller.  

 

‘Le Doulos‘ – Fantastic stuff. If ‘Bob le Flambeur’ was Melville finding his feet and his way around a camera and actors, it didn’t take him long to build and expand  his own unique world which on reflection look like they’ve all been shot at the same time, both the colour and black and white pictures. During an three minute opening dolly we are sucked again into Melville idiosyncratic world with the character of Maurice marched imperviously through his stark urban landscape. The film charts the actions of Maurice and Silien (Jean Paul Belmondo) as they navigate the Paris underworld, evading and perpetuating a series of double crosses leaving the audience uncertain as to who they are rooting for, who is winning and what the prize is. Melville wades further into psychological waters with this one, the world is more sparse and minimalist than ‘Bob Le Flambeur’ with the adherence to ethics and loyalty in a godless universe proving ultimately hollow and hopeless. That’s not to say its depressing, it’s entertaining to watch these marionettes dance toward their inevitable demise, the journey not the destination being the attraction. Solid genre fun.

 

‘Le Samourai‘ – I had seen this before, way back in the ‘Moviedrome’ era but a repeat look was more than worthwhile. As it is not out on DVD and is only available on video at some ludicrous prices so I had to resort to some shall we say less orthodox methods to conduct a viewing. This is probably Melvilles best film with a career best Alain Delon as our antihero this time round, a cool hitman whose sole purpose is to maintain alignment with his internal code of honor, an ideology identical to the ancient bushido philosophy. 

 

I loved this, the first colour film of the bunch with the style remaining subdued and deflated. For me its the quintessence of Melvilles approach with the actual narrative and frankly Delon is simply super fucking cool. Amongst other indomitable tough guys of the screen such as Toshiro Mifune, Lee Marvin or Robert Mitchum Delon stands tall in the Parisian corner giving the Americans a run for their money. One of these guys unarmed could take on a battalion of Matt Damon’s and and still emerge victorious.

 

‘Un Flic‘ – As his last film it’s interesting to compare this with Melville’s debut and see just how his cinema has evolved. Where ‘Bob’ was at times playful and almost flippant, by the release of ‘Un Flic’ every frame almost sudders with existentialist dread. As in ‘Le Samourai’ the players move through the action like autominon, in this case leading with Delon who has moved to the other side of the law and plays a cop intent on bringing down a ruthless gang who stage a defiant robbery during the films opening. Delon is also attempting to break a drug cartel and retain the affections of his girlfriend (Catherine Denevue), a ambiguous figure who is also his main suspects mistress. Tricky.

  

Catherine Denevue has never been more aloof or glacial, yet unattainably alluring (I also recommend this fantastic film by Truffaut which stars Denevue, it’s Truffauts tribute to Hitchcock which of course makes it unmissable). It is interesting to compare ‘Un Flic’, Melville’s final film with his first, the reductive techniques pervading every frame with absolutely no extraneous material, from dialogue and costume right down to props and make-up. It encapsulates that particular European nihilism so prevalent in Melvilles films and serves as an apt final film. 

  

Anyone who likes Scorsese’s crime films, Michael Mann’s epic canvases or Tarantino’s bloody extravaganzas (that is before he went off to plunder Asian cinema) should catch up on the work of Melville. His penchant for monochrome location photography and almost playful adoption of the iconography of the Hollywood crime genre locates Melville as a pivotal precursor of the French New Wave who in turn where adopted by the Hollywood Brats in the 70’s. What goes around, comes around….

Butthole Surfers – London Forum

So, another reunion gig but who are the ‘Butthole Surfers‘? For the uninitiated, this is a good place to start for getting a feel for the Texan born psychedelia alt-rock lunatics who were one of the more unique bands emerging from the American post-punk scene in the mid 1980’s. I’m not their biggest fan, I have three albums and a live bootleg – but their live shows from the start of their career have obtained an almost mythical status so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see them reformed with most of the original line-up. As I expected they weren’t quite as insane as they used to be but still delivered a cracking show with all the requisite back projections, strobes, smoke and loud, loud guitars.

 

The band use two drum kits, up to four guitarists on some tracks and vocalist Gibby Haynes employs some weird voice distortion equipment so this ain’t exactly your traditional rock act four piece. I must confess that set list wise I only recognised about half of the songs as many of the tracks were culled from the album ‘Rembrandt Pussyhorse‘ and some of their EP’s which I don’t have. My two favourite tracks of theirs are fairly mainstream, ‘Cough Syrup‘ which they didn’t play but we did get a storming rendition of ‘Sweat Loaf‘ which made the night for me.

  
The Forum is a good, intimate venue where I’ve seen both ‘Nine Inch Nails’ ages ago and the ‘The Pixies’ during their storming reunion a couple of years ago. Here are some other links to Surfers material I’ve tracked down to give you an idea of their history. And madness. 

 

Frontman Gibby Hayes has certainly changed over the past few years – check out the before and after photos above. The whole tour was part of the Paul Green School of Rock project which aims to get kids on stage performing live with established acts - the world has certainly drifted further toward Apocalypse when they’re letting Gibby near children considering stories of his past behavior. For the only encore about twenty of the kids performed something of a stage invasion during a rendition of ‘The Shah Sleeps In Lee Harvey’s Grave‘, destroying equipment, wrapping each other in gaffer tape, throwing objects into the crowd as squeals of feedback rumbled around the venue, now that’s the chaos you expect from a Surfers gig!! 

  

There are some legendary stories about the antics these psychopaths got up in the late eighties which are part chronicled in this book, an absolute must read for anyone even passingly interested in the US alternative/punk scene of the 1980’s. If you’re interested further, here is a link to the Surfers website where they are giving away, perfectly free and legitimate copies of a live bootleg from 1988.

The Dark Knight

 

I think it’s doing rather well isn’t it? Hot on the heels of some of the best and unanimously praiseworthy reviews I’ve ever seen for a Hollywood blockbuster I caught an afternoon screening of ‘The Dark Knight‘ in my local cinema as I’m an impatient git – I have plans to go and see it with a friend in Leicester Square tomorrow afternoon and can’t wait to see it again. Hey, what can I say, I’ve been quivering in anticipation at seeing this ever since the finale of the superb first ‘re-boot’ of the character after Schmaker effectively drove a stake through the heart of the franchise back in 1997. We’re certainly on another winning streak like the start of the year with the ‘The Dark Knight‘ making a third terrific film in a row and (EDIT) probably easily the best superhero film I’ve seen. And I’ve seen ‘em all, even the execrable ‘Ghost Rider‘ and ‘Fantastic Four‘ atrocities. 

The narrative picks up in Gotham City shortly after the conclusion to ‘Batman Begins’ with the vigilante now facing a hostile press and populace who disagree with his cavalier attitude to the law. District Atrorney Harvey Dent (a dependable Aaron Eckhert) is conducting a major offensive against the cities organised crime syndicate with startling success. Against this backdrop a terrifying new criminal mastermind emerges in the films exhilarating opening heist (supposedly designed as a homage to the legendary robbery in ‘Heat‘ which also influenced this) who unleashes a wave of terror and carnage on the residents of Gotham with homicidal mayhem targeted at the law enforcement institutions, taking particular interest of course with our hero who Christian Bale portrays again with his consummate, intense skill. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman return as Alfred and Lucious Fox, two of the few characters who support and understand Bruce Waynes crusade with the wonderful Maggie Gyllenhaal replacing the insipid Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes, Bruce’s potential love interest. 

The film is not perfect, I found some of the early plotting rushed along with the films texture in terms of what it is trying to signify being incomprehensible – I mean that literally as there are some speeches and voiceover particularly in the last movement where I simply couldn’t hear the dialogue clearly. To that end I partially agree with this assertion (Minor Spoilers) that the film does jump around quite confusingly which can be distracting and it does have significant plot gaps – all this is overwhelmed however from what Nolan and his team have got right which can be summed up in two words – The Joker.

 

Ledgers performance really is the core of this film and he electrifies you every moment he is on the screen. He portrays that sense of anarchy, of homicidal derangement that a lapsed comic book fan like yours truly has so long waited to see since the medium grew up with the work of Moore, Morrison and Miller back in the late eighties. His schemes are ingeniously constructed and illuminate not only his embrace of chaos and hatred of the world but also his exceptional cunning and purpose. For me he’s got it all note perfect, the voice, the walk, the intonation, the total sanguinary lunacy. Oscars? He certainly deserves it but I couldn’t give a damn, what’s more rewarding for me is the portrayal of that almost mythical battle between these two figures that has been explored for almost seventy years in the comic, the graphic novel, on the big and small screen. In one scene the Joker with a knowing smirk states ‘You complete me’ to Batman which I think is a nod to the hard core fans and indicates some of the complexity that Nolan is attempting to achieve under the surface of a big action movie. Major, MAJOR spoliers during an insightful interview with the screenwriters here.

Overall though the film is also just a great fun rollercoaster with some superbly executed set pieces, some cool fight sequences and big ass explosions that we all look for in these ‘event’ movies. It was refreshing to see Batman actually doing some detecting, some investigative stuff which is something I’ve always felt was lacking in all the other screen incarnations that I’ve seen. After all he is not a superhero with any special powers, just a absurdly rich screwed up chap with access to some nifty gadgets and equipment. As Stephen King said in his forward to the 400th issue of Batman he always preferred the character to Superman or any of the other heroes as Bats would use his ingenuity and intellect to get to the missile before it’s launched, to prevent the nefarious schemes of his opponents before they come to fruition.

Here are my favourite scenes from ‘Batman Begins’ to whet your appetite (the way the music swells up at the end of the last clip made my hair stand up when I saw it at the cinema) which hopefully should get you out to your local cineplex. As ‘Batman Begins’ had a feel for partial source material ‘Batman: Year One‘, ‘The Dark Knight’ exhibits strong echoes of ‘The Killing Joke‘ which for me remains the single greatest Batman/Joker story I’ve read although Moore has always dismissed it as an inferior work. It’s also quite amusing that such an American icon as Batman has been subverted by a group of ‘Brits’ in the form of director, screenwriter, lead and supporting roles. I do hope Nolan and his crew return for a third installment to round off a exceptional trilogy of mainstream entertainment which has put a big old nerdboy oafish grin on my face.

 

EDIT – Well, after a second viewing in the far more enjoyable surroundings of the Odeon Leicester Square I have to revise my opinion – my god this is a brilliant, brilliant film that delivers on so many levels. The sound and audience was much better including a smattering of applause at the finale (a rare beast these days) and genuine gasps of shock and wonder at many of the films memorable moments. I don’t know what I was on yesterday but my criticisms have faded somewhat with those aforementioned lapses in logic actually evaporating although it does hold some very, very minor plot holes. Make no doubt, this is an instant classic and is not only the apotheosis of the so called ‘comic book’ genre but simply one of the best crime films I have seen, the fact that it hinges on a comic book conceit is irrelevant to its quality, to its depth of design and execution. Second time round it was as riveting as before and I picked up many more of the subtexts and themes. Go and see on the biggest screen possible. Now.

Wall-E

In yet another dystopian future the human race has evacuated the earth, a planet now blighted by mountains of waste and reeling from the effects of some sort of environmental catastrophe. The only soul remaining is Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth class since you asked) burdened with the sisphyian task of compacting the endemic refuse into teetering skyscrapers that pollute the landscape. After 700 years Wall-E is understandably feeling a little lonely with only his coachroach friend for company, things change with the arrival of the mysterious robot EVA who has come to earth on a secret mission…

Now, you may have guessed from previous posts that Disney movies are not exactly my thing but I always make an exception for Pixar as they are quite simply at the vanguard of the very best animation being made in the 21st century. To cut to the chase this is their best film yet and I thought it was absolutely outstanding on every level. Yup, its better than ‘Toy Story‘, ‘Toy Story 2‘ and even better than ‘The Incredibles‘. I don’t know how they do it but they manage to invest such an astonishing level of characterisation and pathos into the little fella you can’t help but succumb to his charms.

 

Characterisations aside it’s just so damn funny, so beautifully and breathakingly rendered with all the usual references and, well it’s just so completely entertaining. All the critics who claim that it is the darkest animated kids film ever made have clearly never seen this but I concur that he does present a quite alarming future for kids to get their heads around. If one kid out of every hundred who sees this movie needles his parents into recycling more then I guess the film has achieved its purpose.

The first half an hour is dialogue free which is not only very brave it would also make the likes of Chuck Jones really proud. This approach also adds to the silent movie, slapstick feel of the film with critics citing Wall-E having a distinctive Chaplin vibe to him (Or should I say ‘it) as well as other more recent pictures such as ‘E.T‘ of course, ‘Short Circuit‘ and ‘Silent Running‘. Honourable mention also goes to the short ‘Presto‘ which accompanies the film, it is absolutely hilarious. Although some of the headcases in the States have issues with the film, (after all how dare you criticise rampant consumerism?) I’ll close with an absolutely heart-warming tale connected to the film from Metafilter which I think Illustrates exactly the company ethos at Pixar and what kind of people they are. Outstanding.

 

Robots!! Like ‘em or loathe them, I for one welcome our new cybernetic overlords. Here’s a bunch of clips with what I think are the best robots to have graced the screen over the years, enjoy.

Flotsam & Jetsum XVII

Man, this whole taking time off is getting tough. Arising from my crypt at noon, watching five films in a day, researching stuff on the web (just putting the finishing touches to a couple of monthly film masterclass things), taking a stroll down the East London watersides in the occasional sunshine – hard work my friends, hard work. I have been catching up (more harrowing than ‘Audition’ or ‘Ichi’, strong stuff but great) with some of my DVD backlog, some stuff on my web memberships, some arty stuff and some movies on the TV as the choice on the big screen has been patchy at best over the past couple of weeks, more on this below.

I’m not sure quite why I’m collating clips of Chevy Chase but life is full of mysteries. I watched ‘Fletch Lives’ over the weekend which was predictably awful but there’s just something about the man that cracks me up in certain sequences of generally bad films. All the clips I’ve seen of him and Bill Murray on the old Saturday Night Live show have generally left me cold but when he’s portraying that WASPish, cheeky rogue he can conjure up some fantastically hilarious and unique moments. One of the few vaguely watchable John Carpenter films since the late 1980’s is this which has its moments, thinking about both their careers I guess you really have to make the most of it when your star is in the ascendent.

I’ve also been catching up with the many podcasts I subscribe to, given that it took me a bloody month to get hooked up after I moved I have over 100 broadcasts to wade through. Strongly recommended is the Creative Screenwriters podcast which features excellent one hour plus interviews with the writers behind many of the better recent US mainstream films including the guys behind ‘Cloverfield‘, ‘Children of Men‘ and well, just look at the list. I also like this for a different perspective, a Melbourne based public service show that has turned me on to a few Australian pictures and filmmakers over the past couple of years. Ripper. I’m a bit jealous as my friend in Melbourne has just e-mailed me this years film festival programme which includes a retrospective of George Romero including screenings of all the Zombie movies on the big screen. Cool.

  

As I said there’s not much out at the moment so I’ve reverted to tracking down some old classics, this week I caught the terrific ‘Double Indemnity‘ at the Stratford Picturehouse, it’s Billy Wilder’s landmark film noir with perhaps the screen’s most iconic femme fatale. Family man Walter Neff (Fred McMurray, a wholesome Disney actor wonderfully cast against type) falls for the icy Barbara Stanwyck who convinces him to murder her husband so they can make off with the insurance money – you can guess the rest. I’m not inclined to bother with a full Minty review so I’ll just leave you with these great reviews.

 

Film clip time. I’ve finally joined the 21st century and got my first two Blu-Ray disks last week including this and a Special Edition Super Elite copy of ‘Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’. Manipulative? Sure. Dated effects? Obviously. However, there is just something about this film and of course E.T that will always occupy a fondness with me, given that they were amongst the first films I recall ever seeing and actually making me think about who makes these films, how did they do it and why did they do it the way they did? The boxed set contains all three cuts of the film along with an old (made for the 20th anniversary) two hour documentary on the making of the picture along with a short updated interview with Spielberg for the 30th Anniversary. I must concur that they should have never gone into the Mothership for the Special Edition and left that experience to the audiences imagination which would have been more spectacular and satisfying than what they finally threw up on screen. Spielberg has always maintained that the final 25 minutes of the film has always been the most difficult editing job of his entire career and he only concurred to the re-release so he could shoot and insert some of the earlier sequences he had to drop due to budgetary constraints – he was under enormous pressure as the studio was effectively bankrupt and the whole company was riding on the success of the movie. Paramount agreed only if he would include material inside the Mothership as this would give them a very strong hook on which to re-sell the picture. Stick to the original cut I reckon. At the risk of being annoying, Blu-Ray on my big TV is quite special and it is a genuine treat to re-visit some of these films I know backwards again – coming soon……

The Mist

Before we get started let me make this clear, I’ve scrutinised all the links and they are spoiler free for the film itself although some links to other movies do have some reveals and are tagged as such. Anything less would require cinematic seppuko on my part.

Well, after my feeble attempts to rectify my public persona what do I do? Go and see another horror film of course. I’ve been waiting to see ‘The Mist‘ since last year and I think we’re lucky that it got a cinema release at all in Europe given its failure in the States – there was talk of it simply going straight to DVD such was its critical reception and poor box office takings. Wiser sense has prevailed due to its praise amongst the genre fan press on the web who have all reveled in the films winning combination of solid B-Movie monster genre trappings and a quite remarkable finale which has to be the most distressing and jaw dropping conclusion to any mainstream film I’ve seen since (Spoilers) Se7en. 

The film is based on Stephen King’s short story of the same name and unfolds in his frequently utilised native Maine. After a brutal overnight storm David Drayton and his son Nathan make a trip into town to acquire some materials to repair their damaged home, leaving his wife to begin patching up the tumultuous damage. An ominous, unexplained mist swiftly envelops the town’s convenience store severing all communications with the authorities, with family, friends and the trappings of the outside world. It soon becomes apparent that the mist harbours a Lovecraftian coterie of terrifying creatures who mercilessly devour any souls foolish enough to abandon the fragile safety of the building. As the hours pass the tension and body count escalates, straining the veneer of civilised society as some of the more unhinged victims begin to speak of the end of days, a final Armageddon that has finally materialised upon the earth…

As the man says, civilisation is only three square meals from anarchy and barbarism. Director Frank Darabont wastes no time getting into things and augments the action and hostility throughout the films two hour running time, a duration quite unusual for what is essentially an old-school creature feature. There’s some able support from talent in the form of Toby Jones, Francis Sternhagen, a chilling Marcia Gay Harden as the movies fundamentalist troublemaker and most exciting for me, Homicide’s Lt. Pembleton who is always a strong presence.

I think its quite telling that someone who could deliver one of the most loved films in the past twenty years, with its final affirmation of (Spoiler) redemption and hope could turn and say something quite so spectacularly bleak and shocking. I read that Darabont was offered twice the money to do the film with an alternative ending but he stuck to his guns and you have to admire him for that. Treading carefully, it follows the short story 100% faithfully and I quite smugly thought I had worked out what was going to happen next when the film continued past the source material – boy was I wrong. It has all the requisite jumpy moments which are perfectly executed and even the criticised monster CGI wasn’t honestly that bad and fits the films B movie inspiration (there’s also talk of a Universal inspired black & white cut on the DVD) considering Darabont’s early pedigree. Shot on the fly with the same crew that Darabont employed for his recent ‘Shield‘ episodes the film is a very intelligent, contemporary horror picture with another incidental attack on the religious fundamentalists which like ‘Teeth’ blasts all the American horror genres recent tiresome ironic and ‘torture porn‘ pictures out of the water.

Finally, a couple of exciting pieces of film news. Firstly, missing reels of the incredible ‘Metropolis‘ have been unearthed in Brazil. This is a major, major find and will result in the full restoration of one of the indisputably most influential dozen or so films ever made, regardless of genre. Lang is one of my most admired old-school directors (this is probably my favorite film noir) and without ‘Metropolis‘ there would be no ‘Blade Runner’ let alone all the other cinema spectaculars made since 1927. Yes that’s 1927 for fucks sake – Outstanding.

  

Can you imagine my excitement at the prospect of a new Kubrick documentary, especially one made by long time Kubrick aficionado Jon Ronson who was one of the few journalists granted access to the Chidwickbury estate following Stan’s death in 1999? A rarity these days, Channel 4 have actually produced something worthwhile in the form of a season trailer emulating the making of ‘The Shining’ including very specific fan boy references not only to the film itself, but also the seminal ‘Making Of‘ documentary directed by his daughter Vivian which is the only historical evidence of the great man at work. Can’t wait.

Teeth

Slim pickings at the cinema last week, the new ‘Hulk’ movie and ‘Wanted’ both look terrible in that lowest common denominator Hollywood blockbuster way so I turned to the more reliable independent scene for my weekly fix and opted for ‘Teeth‘, a controversial horror film from the states which has got all the fundamentalists up in arms which is a good sign. It was also screening at the Apollo cinema on Regents Street which I haven’t experienced before, the cinema was OK and they were playing Nick Cave over the tannoy prior to the presentation so the staff can’t be all bad.

‘Teeth‘ is the story of Dawn, a teenage girl who is a prominent member in her schools young republican community and the proud spokesperson for the school abstinence programme. As her burgeoning sexuality develops we discover that Dawn has a terrible secret, some sort of mutation that…..well, now, that would be telling wouldn’t it? Against her better judgement, her willpower erodes and she begins to experiment sexually with some truly horrific results….

Quite appropriately the film is a bit cartoony in keeping with its satirical style and doesn’t take itself too seriously – every single male character in it for example is a particularly odious example of the masculine sex. It’s directed by the son of legendary artist Roy Lichtenstein which is interesting, it’s his first feature and whilst it does trail off toward the end as the film has written itself into a cul-de-sack it’s a worthy addition to the body horror genre. Cronenberg would be proud.

I welcome any film that ridicules and exposes the ideology of any breed of religious fundamentalism. Easy enough targets but hey, those deranged idiots deserve everything thrown at them. I mean, when you even think of the definition of the word fundamentalist, it has the word mentalist in it for chrisakes. Oops, sorry. Funny isn’t it that just about all the films that narrow minded bigots have wanted to ban throughout history are usually pretty good? Off to the top of my head I’m thinking of these:

• The Last Temptation Of Christ
• The Life Of Brian
• Crash
• Freaks

And the movies with arguably a pro-Republican, pro-fundamentalist agenda suck. Hmm, funny that.

I’m a bit concerned that many of my recent posts have had a horror theme or reference to them, so to attempt some equilibrium here are links to some other movies I’ve caught over the past few months just so you don’t think I’m some kind of perverted psycho. Besides, the restraining orders were lifted two months ago thank you very much. Being off work has enabled me to see some film noir matinees that I’ve enjoyed on the Film4 channel and even ITV offered up a fantastic film for a change. 

My Bloody Valentine

 

I don’t go to enough gigs. Never did. A brief scan through my blog and memory of older efforts details some fantastic experiences but I’m sure I still missed some amazing opportunities. Back in the day I was fortunate to see many of my favourite bands and with some minor exceptions I think I did OK, especially since a £5 an hour job in a video shop wasn’t exactly a path to NME backstage pass entertainment. Now our generation has the opportunity to revisit some of those artists we may have missed as they have reformed for many different reasons – not always the money, not always the kudos, just sometimes because I think they can, and it feels right.

 

Last Tuesday I saw the ethereal ‘My Bloody Valentine‘ on the final night of their short residency at the Cornerhouse where you may recall I caught ‘Sonic Youth‘ last year. Full disclosure, I was not a major fan back in the day as it were, I was vaguely aware of their amazing breakthrough material and approaches to gigs but I was too busy listening to ‘Lush’ and ‘Ride’ when it came to that strand of music to appreciate what could be achieved with those effect pedals and an obsessive attention to detail. And volume. I own ‘Loveless‘ which is great but it wasn’t exactly on the playlist for any Minty Indie revival compilation. 

So I approached this gig without the sense of expectation that many others did, including my mate who I went with who is a major fan of the band. Now then, I’ve heard some loud gigs in my life. Front and centre for the Pixies in Brixton in 1990. Sonic Youth in 1990. Shellac in 2005. The Hollowmen in the Posh Club in 1988. They all stack up. This was not a gig, it was nothing less than an aural fucking assault and it was literally stunning. During the last track ‘You Made Me Realise‘ the entire place was literally shaking,the vibrations were almost palpable in the air such was the volume and insane distortions which was coined as the ‘Holocaust‘ when they pulled this stunt on tours back in the 1990’s. I’m still recovering. Some other great tracks where trotted out (click on the ‘watch in high quality’ icon for that one), no encores but after the disorientation of the final track I can’t complain. Apologies for the poor audio on those links but I’m surprised the punters phones didn’t commit suicide trying to capture the footage and frankly there’s not much material out there – hopefully it will give you some flavour of proceedings. 

 

Set list above. So, next on the agenda are these headcases whom I’m seeing in a few weeks, I’m really excited as John Peel memorably called them one of the best live experiences of his life and I don’t think you can get higher praise than that. Finally, here is an article on the best 25 electronica albums of all time. I’ve no problem with the godfathers ‘Kraftwerk’ achieving the No.1 and they seem to cover all the bases although I’d replace Portishead and Bjork if I had the chance….