A Bigger Bang for the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones never fails to amaze.
Just a day before the premiere of their Martin Scorsese-directed concert documentary, Shine a Light, Rolling Stones revealed plans to show the immensely anticipated movie on a record number of Imax screens.
Of course it’ll include Mick, Keith and the group performing at New York’s intimate Beacon Theatre during 2006’s record-breaking A Bigger Bang tour, Shine a Light will be unveiled in an unparalleled 93 Imax screens, as well as 250 normal theatres, nationwide today.
“It’ll be very large,” lead vocalist Mick Jagger announced at a Sunday press conference. “After looking at all the options, Marty decided he wanted to make this small intimate movie. And I said the laugh is on Marty in the end, because we’d blown it up on this huge Imax thing…But it looks good on Imax, and we’ve got both formats, so we’re happy with that.”
Scorsese approved, advising that the large-screen set-up “puts you right in the center of every action and every move—it’s as if you are right there on stage with the band.”
The Academy award winner auteur said while other movies have captured the ‘Greatest Rock and Roll Band’ in concert, this is the first to shoot them in a rather small location.
“I’m better suited to try and capture the group…on a smaller stage,” Scorsese told reporters. “More for the intimacy of the group and the way they play together and the way you see the band work together and work each song. I found that to be more interesting. It’s more of a compulsion of mine. I like to be able to see that.”
Scorsese is considered a veteran in the realm of concert docs. He launched his filmmaking profession as an editor on 1970’s Woodstock and created one of the finest movies of the genre with 1978’s The Last Waltz, which captured the last concert of the Band.
Contrasting to the latter, which weaves performances together with the behind the scenes interviews of band members, Scorsese mostly focuses on the Stones rocking out before a live audience with archival recording of the band in crucial moments of their career intermixed throughout.
The classic marvels crank through a set list gathered from their four decade-plus list, including timeless pieces like “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Satisfaction (I Can’t Get No),” and “Brown Sugar” to lesser known songs like “Loving Cup,” “Some Girls” and “You Got the Silver.” They even drag out the old ballad “As Tears Go By.”
As seen in the film Jagger duets with Christina Aguilera, Jack White and legendary bluesman Buddy Guy—the final collaboration of which is one of the movie’s high point.
“We’ve done quite a few shows with Buddy Guy in the past and we’ve known him on and off for quite a long time. He’s one of those continually wonderful blues performers that you admire,” said Jagger.
“He’s another Muddy Waters,” interjected Keith Richards, who trades scorching licks with Guy in the film. “[Playing with him] was a high point for me.”
“I think that Marty captured the duet thing we did with him was one of the high points of the movie for me,” continued Jagger. “And I think the other guests in slightly different ways all add to the movie.”
As luck would have it, the band originally presented Scorsese the idea of a concert film of their performance to 1 million-plus fans at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.
However after a succession of meetings with the helmer, they ultimately settled to shoot on a smaller venue partially because it allows Scorsese more command.
To lock up the Rolling Stones in all their live brilliance, Scorsese gathered a lineup of globally commended cinematographers, administered by Oscar-winning director of photography Robert Richardson. They comprise such talents as Andrew Lesnie (Lord of the Rings), Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood), Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and John Toll (Braveheart).
“It was fantastically enjoyable but in other ways nerve-racking for us,” said Jagger. “And I’m sure Marty has a lot of things going on, because he’s got to cover it as it happens.”
Certainly, no Stones presser is ever comprehensive without the mandatory tribute to the group’s AARP- entitled position.
Shine a Light includes a historical clip in which a then-twentysomething Jagger proclaimed that he could picture himself doing the rock thing at the age of 60, one correspondent asked if they can perceive themselves still rocking along at 70.
“That’s only five years away!” joked Richards.
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