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Berlin: He always wanted to be in the movies. His hero was Roy Rogers. So said Keith Richards of Mick Jagger when he would appear in his cowboy outfit in the sandpits of South London over fifty years ago. Since then Sir Michael Jagger has made uncomfortable attempts to break into the acting tradition - first with "Performance", then "Ned Kelly" and, in the 1990s, "Jacknife". Of late he`s been more succesful as a producer ("Enigma"). Now, in 2008, his moment has come, performing who else, but himself - rock icon Mick Jagger in Martin Scorsese`s "Shine A Light". By premiering the Berlinale with a documentary (or is it outsourced marketing?) Festival Director Dieter Kosslick has made dubious history of his own - opening the first international film festival with a non-fiction film, albeit by a recently appointed Oscar winner. Such questions didn`t blunt the edge off the February 11th, 2008 premiere as the four core members of the band - Jagger, Richards, Wood and Watts - mischievously appeared from their cars and strolled their way past the hundreds of onlookers, fans and press and into the Berlin Palast. For those of us used to seeing the rockers performing amidst the sound and fury of their stage pyrotechnics it seemed unusual to see them exist in real time, joking, engaging and slowly pacing along the red carpet, enjoying the irony, we hope, of having their Beacon Theatre concerts of 2006 filmed, exhibited and now applauded. One of many thousands of concerts that they have customarily undertaken since 1962. So it wasn`t quite The Wild Bunch. More the Mild Bunch, soul survivors of bangs to the head (Richards), throat cancer (Watts) and, more recently, hermia operations(Wood). For Scorsese it`s his gesture of thanks to a group whose music has, he said, provided the soundtrack of his life and movies - he frequently cites "Taxi Driver" and "Casino" in this respect -and something for the generations to come. How his filmed concert differs and improves upon the many such films that have been taken over time is to be debated. Scorsese is, after all, the latest in a line of directors - Luc Godard, Hal Ashby - who have tried to capture the creative swirl of StonesWorld.
For the band, though, that`s always been on the move, the process of preserving their legacy starts properly now as they sit and reflect on their output since 1962. With a change of music publisher - EMI is too adrift - it is time for the dice to be tumbled yet again. How well it falls and how far time remains on their side, who knows. But for their fans throughout the world it`s still a case of Rock On to the next concert tour on down the line. Or, should we say, Ye Ha!. Autor: Alan Taylor E-Mail: kinowords@hotmail.com Abfassungsdatum: 08.02. 2008 Roy Rogers Museum Verwertung: weltexpressandtheauthor Quelle: www.weltexpress.info Update: Berlin, 08.02. 2008 |
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