The Last Waltz Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I've been fortunate enough to have been able to go to Cannes for the past four years now, and I'm getting ready for my fifth. And, as I often say when explaining film festivals to people who've never been to one, it's not just an adventure; it's a job. Cannes is a "get-away" the same way running from a burning building is "a tour of the grounds"; there are plenty of movies, plenty of work, and the overall emotional tone of the event is a mix of exhaustion and exhilaration. The heady moments of pure movie magic come fast and furious with the muck-and-money reality of international financing and distribution happening all about you.

Going to Cannes means seeing at least 40, maybe 50 or more movies in 10 days, never mind actually thinking and writing about them; you'd think that that kind of pace would soon turn into a blur, and it does, but it's a glorious one. Here's some of my favorite movie going moments (highly subjective, of course -- I've not included last year's ridiculously strong quartet of Persepolis, No Country for Old Men, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, as they're still so fresh in my mind) from the past four years of the Cannes Film Festival; think of these as the rushed recollections of a film critic who knows exactly how lucky he's been.

If there's something Martin Scorsese knows about almost as much as movies, it's music from the '60s. Apparently. Why else would he be on such a roll these days with music documentaries on iconic acts from that time? First there was the wonderful Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home; now he's about to release a Rolling Stones doc titled Shine a Light; and he's just announced another doc he's going to make about George Harrison. According to Variety, the film will be more of a comprehensive biography, covering Harrison's time in The Beatles, as a solo artist, his Eastern religious/philosophical interests and even his stint a movie producer (his Handmade Films gave us Monty Python's Life of Brian and Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits). Scorsese is producing with Olivia Harrison (George's widow) and his No Direction Home producer Nigel Sinclair, and filming will begin with some interviews later this year. It will take awhile to finish, of course. The untitled pic will again be edited by David Tedeschi, who also cut the other two Scorsese music docs.

Maybe if time permits, Scorsese can do more '60s icons after he's done with Harrison. Neil Young may not be worth another film, and The Doors doc would probably be better suited to Oliver Stone, but surely we could use a Scorsese-directed film about Eric Clapton or any of the girl groups (The Shirelles, The Ronettes, The Marvellettes, The Crystals, The Shangri-Las) he likes to use for his soundtracks. Hey, he could just do a doc on girl groups. It's so good to see Scorsese getting back to music docs so long after working as an assistant director on Woodstock, and later as director of The Last Waltz, and I can't wait to see what else he's got planned. Anyway, there's no use thinking so far ahead. I'm still simply waiting for Shine a Light, which doesn't come out until April, and I'm definitely looking forward to the Harrison film, which will feature a ton of archival footage provided by his family and is expected to feature surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

Fresh off his hit film The Departed, director Martin Scorsese is taking a small break from violence, cursing and Leonardo DiCaprio in order to shoot a feature-length documentary on The Rolling Stones. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Paramount has picked up all North American rights to the pic, which it intends to release at some point during the latter part of 2007. These music docs are nothing new to Scorsese, as the man just put out No Direction Home: Bob Dylan back in 2005 and is responsible for 1978's The Last Waltz, in which he documented the final concert of The Band.

While there's no title for the doc yet, Scorsese began shooting this past Sunday at New York's Beacon Theater where the Stones were performing for Bill Clinton's birthday bash. (Must be nice to have the Stones play your birthday party, huh? The closest I ever came was the mechanical animal band that rocked out center stage during my fifth birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's. Sigh) The film will showcase two concerts from the band's current tour, as well as "historical and contemporary behind-the-scenes footage and interviews."

Oh, and if you're wondering how Scorsese will go about covering each concert, well, it's pretty safe to say he's got a solid team backing him up. Check out this mind-blowing list of cinematographers covering the Beacon's main auditorium: Mitch Amundsen (2nd unit, Mission: Impossible III), Stuart Dryburgh (The Piano), Robert Elswit (Good Night, and Good Luck), Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Andrew Lesnie (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), Emmanuel Chivo Lubezki (The New World), Anastas Michos (Mona Lisa Smile), Declan Quinn (In America) and John Toll (Braveheart). Yeah, I think Scorsese has officially defined balls-to-the-wall coverage with this monster of a documentary. What do you think?