'This Movie Is Broken'...

I've said it before, and I'll say it again
as much as Broken Social Scene are a band, they are a business. The film This Movie Is Broken is a golden example of the business outlook that this band fosters so well. It seems this film is a film about love and Broken Social Scene. Judging by the video, it seems that the show they're using was the show I missed last summer at Harbourfront.

I am certainly going to see this film, and I will more than likely enjoy it. It's just kind of an interesting route for the band to take. I took a film course this past year at school, and we had a couple of classes dedicated to music and film. We discussed The Last Waltz, Stop Making Sense and Woodstock. Three films that were glorified for different reasons. I will now attempt to explore those concepts:

The Last Waltz, a Martin Scorsese film made in 1976 documenting the last show of The Band. They chose Scorsese based on his music selections in the incredible film Mean Streets. Stop Making Sense is a concert film of the Talking Heads. This film was staged for the camera, the audience was merely a sidenote, and featured very minimally throughout the film. It marked a shift in concert-going experience, as people were now able to better experience a concert in the comforts of a movie theatre or in their own homes.

Woodstock, provided an altered concert experience. It is a film that shows the audience presence. Similar to both the Last Waltz and and Stop Making Sense, Woodstock is a film that captures a concert. It differs from in that the show is very detached from the camera. The audience watches from the numerous angles the camera captures. A great example of this is the Who's brilliant song "See Me Feel Me".

This Film Is Broken was directed by Bruce MacDonald. The trailer only gives you a hint as to what the movie is about. It's safe to say it is about love, as the underdog finally gets the girl. I sense a hint of youth in the first song featured - "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl". Finally, I sense adventure in live music and the shear juxtaposition of images nearing the end of the trailer. The hook for the film is "A Rock Show Romance". It claims that the film is no longer a concert film, but it's love as well. It's funny how in creating a live concert film, they now dictate how you have to feel in seeing it. Very differently, the concert films in the past have served as an agent to make people feel, and give the sense they too, were at the show. This Film Is Broken is going to rob people of those raw emotions.

So come, June 25, less than a week after their big island show. You can bet twentysomething music lovers will secretly hope they will find love when they go to see the film in its opening days... And I am no exception.