Title: Insurgentes (DVD)
Artist: Steven Wilson
Genre: Documentary
Release Date: 8th October 2010
Label: KScope Music
DVD Review
It is described as a road movie, a documentary and a kind of portrait about Steven Wilson, following him in the making of his first solo record ‘Insurgentes’. In fact, the movie is far more than that. While I had reservations about this movie being a one-timer, a thing that is interesting for watching it one time and then store it in your shelve where it’s catching dust for the next couple of years, I felt a need to push the play button again immediately after I watched it the first time. I felt like just having listened to a piece of really complex music and I would need another spin to get more out of it, to penetrate the upper layers and getting more insight. I’m going to try to explain why I felt like that in the following lines.
So you hit that button and first thing you see is a test picture followed by a blurry, bleak sequence with a child babbling over it and it all appears so random, so carelessly pieced together like an amateur movie, and if you wouldn’t know who’s behind it you’d waste no second thought about watching any further. In the following now the camera remains up-close to Steven Wilson on his journey, partly revisiting fragments of his past like the first school he’s attended, seeing him recalling vividly the details of how it was when he was going there, what bothered him there. While that might be sounding not that exciting in particular it’s the way it’s presented that makes you sitting like mesmerized in front of your TV. There’s something in the very composition of every frame that wouldn’t let go of you anymore. Even if it was composed as a silent movie it would still unfold that moody atmosphere. It wouldn’t even need the soundscapes supporting the experience. The imagery of this movie is unique; in some ways having a life of its own and just like the music on the album it tends to destroy the coherence of a scene occasionally by injecting a surreal set of pictures, something disturbing, disquieting even sometimes like a pack of masked creatures crawling through the woods.
On the other hand there’s a strange, a melancholic beauty in the imagery of the “interruptions” Some of them I would like to frame to my wall as a photo actually. Wonderful landscapes, bleak industrial places, artful depictions having a strong impact. The other side of the documentary is the phonetic, the insight into the thoughts of a creative mind who can’t be bothered about the whole IPod stuff and the Mp3 craze. While seeing the positive aspects as well he’s pillorying the devaluation of the music that came with the digital age that reduced music for many to a simple piece of software, something they can dispose of at any time. With all that written down, I’ve just scratched the surface of what the release has to offer. To get the whole picture you have to really watch it attentively and you’ll find it has lots of layers to decode like a goof piece of music. The promotional package solely included the movie, so I couldn’t really make any judgement about the extras that will be included in the finished product or the packaging; the artwork etc. which I think will be worth their money again like the movie alone already is.
Tracklist
- Insurgentes Documentary Movie
Extras:
- 31 minute film of Bass Communion and Pig live in Mexico City
- Promo video for Harmony Korine
- 2 x trailers
- alternate ending
- footage of a Q+A session with Steven Wilson and Lasse Hoile at the international premiere at the Copenhagen film festival
- 6 audio out-takes from the album recording sessions.
Website
http://www.kscopemusic.com/stevenwilson/insurgentes/documentary-film.htm
Cover Picture
Rating
Movie: 10
Audio: 8
Video: 9
Extras: -
Total: 9 / 10
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