Making a rockumentary crammed with concert registrations is tricky business. To really 'make it work', you will somehow have to give the (film)audience the feeling that they're actually there, right in the middle of the crowd (or even closer to the performers!) at the time of the concert. And Festival Express manages to do just that.
At the screening at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam (2003), the audience often couldn't resist applauding enthusiastically in between truly breathtaking performances by such brilliant dead people as Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia and many others. As a bonus, we get to see unique material of wonderful jam sessions inside the train, as it is moving from one Canadian festival location to the next.
Two things struck me as this film's most outstanding qualities:
1. The quality of the sound recording & mixing is nothing short of AMAZING! This really helps to get the concerts and jam sessions across. We have Jimi Hendrix' and Led Zeppelin's sound producer to thank for that. So when viewing, make sure you're in a place (preferably a theater, of course...) with a decent sound system.
2. Thankfully, the director focuses more on the music, the artists and the fun they were having than on the drama of the whole project. For drama there surely was! Not just at the festival locations, but also (and mainly) at the end of the Express' journey, when the whole project went bankrupt and juridical problems kept this film's footage on the shelf for decades.
Thankfully, the subjects of rioting Canadians who want to get into the concerts for free and the bizarre financial kamikaze mission of organizer Ken Walker (which it definitely was!!), are touched upon/left for the viewer to contemplate further, but do not dominate the movie. This is what sets it apart, I think, from that other great rockumentary, Gimme Shelter by the Maysles brothers, where the death of an audience member determines (and should determine) the atmosphere of the entire film, leaving a bitter aftertaste.
I'm no great fan of rockumentaries/concert registrations, but in its genre, this is as good as it gets.
09/10
At the screening at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam (2003), the audience often couldn't resist applauding enthusiastically in between truly breathtaking performances by such brilliant dead people as Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia and many others. As a bonus, we get to see unique material of wonderful jam sessions inside the train, as it is moving from one Canadian festival location to the next.
Two things struck me as this film's most outstanding qualities:
1. The quality of the sound recording & mixing is nothing short of AMAZING! This really helps to get the concerts and jam sessions across. We have Jimi Hendrix' and Led Zeppelin's sound producer to thank for that. So when viewing, make sure you're in a place (preferably a theater, of course...) with a decent sound system.
2. Thankfully, the director focuses more on the music, the artists and the fun they were having than on the drama of the whole project. For drama there surely was! Not just at the festival locations, but also (and mainly) at the end of the Express' journey, when the whole project went bankrupt and juridical problems kept this film's footage on the shelf for decades.
Thankfully, the subjects of rioting Canadians who want to get into the concerts for free and the bizarre financial kamikaze mission of organizer Ken Walker (which it definitely was!!), are touched upon/left for the viewer to contemplate further, but do not dominate the movie. This is what sets it apart, I think, from that other great rockumentary, Gimme Shelter by the Maysles brothers, where the death of an audience member determines (and should determine) the atmosphere of the entire film, leaving a bitter aftertaste.
I'm no great fan of rockumentaries/concert registrations, but in its genre, this is as good as it gets.
09/10