Chris Barry
I actually owned this on video for three years before watching it. Somehow, I just didn't get around to it. What was I thinking? I read some reviews of it, most were either mediocre or sneering and I thought the work would be a lame shot on video CBC doc with some talking heads explaining (duh) why they think Kurt Weill is a musical genius.Then I watched this film and WOW! First of all, it's not a documentary! It's a concert film with amazing renditions of Weill's music by luminaries such as Nick Cave, William S. Burroughs(!), Lou Reed, Mary Margaret O'Hara, David Johansson, Elvis Costello and P.J. Harvey, amongst others doing incredible interpretations of Weill's work.The film is interestingly staged in an old warehouse that evokes both the early industrial period in which Weill worked as well as the alienation technique of Brecht's theatre.I can't describe how wonderful this work is. If you are a Brecht purist you may find this a little too awesome, but if you have an open mind and enjoy challenging and inventive music, you must see this.What struck me so powerfully was that Weill's music never fit into what anybody would mistake as a 'musical' or 'opera' or 'pop', but amalgamated them all in an attempt to bridge art with the politics that surrounded him at the time. Weill's music was the soundtrack to the rise of Nazism in Europe and his haunting scores are even more disturbing in retrospect.LONG LIVE WEILL!
afc-ajax
This is what modern documentary filmmaking is meant to be. Neither relying on talking-head interviews nor re-enactment, "September Songs" attempts to convey the great talent, contribution, and indeed the trials of Kurt Weil's journey from pre-WWII Germany to his eminent destination, the U.S.The performances by Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, and PJ Harvey are wonderful and inflect a properly dark, dramatic tone which parallels the hard and often persecuted life of the composer.Buy the soundtrack - see the film.
manuelh
If you mind languages other than english, watch movies about music to comment the special effects, think that women with hairy armpits should be put away, prefer dancers that are anorectic and not "bulky" or "big boned" this is NOT he movie for you. Go see American Pie or something.If you like music, this is a FANTASTIC movie to watch. Read the "credited cast" list and you will be surprised at the big names that have taken part in this movie. I bought the CD a few years ago and it is still in my top 10 list.There is a little documentary information in there somewhere, but it all gets crushed under the artists fantastic performances of Kurt Weill Music.
Serva
I'm happy to see that not many people have seen this... this... thing. At the same time it's strange that so many have voted it a 10. Then again if you enjoy watching badly conceived shows of old music, that you won't understand for the most part because of the foreign language, for one and a half hours then I guess this is paradise.Personally I think the movie is utterly pretentious and extremely amateurishly done nonsense. Several people walked out of the theater when I saw this movie. I really tried, I really did but I couldn't stand it either. This is a movie about some german music person that I had never heard of before. The special effects are worse than bad (take a look at the "flames" in the beginning). The female singer who looks like a guy, they film her hairy armpit in the middle of the screen for minutes. I mean come on people we are doing a movie here. There is a reason you have a make-up department. One of the dancers in a scene is rather bulky. I have nothing against people with "big-bones", but again we are producing a film. All these stupid things just turn the movie into a parody of itself. Avoid at all costs.
AD
