Chuck Berry

My school has been having this Rock and Roll series at our on campus theater; it's great. 35mm film and a big screen really does beat youtube or the dvd player. It's all student organized; each quarter there is a different theme picked and researched by students (last was German... not really my thang!). I help organize/volunteer, so I get in for free. The Rock and Roll theme is awesome, although I haven't been able to make it to every film. Some of the films being shown include Ziggy, DiG! Gimme Shelter, Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, Spice World, A Hard Day's Night, etc.

Tonight was Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock n' Roll. Before watching this film, I was almost entirely unfamiliar with Chuck Berry's personal life. All I knew was that I dug his music, having bought a respectable greatest hits comp a few years back. So the film was pretty interesting for me.

Compared to Ziggy, this was totally different. Ziggy felt more raw and real. Cuts were jagged and abrupt. The editing did work to emphasize Bowie's 'idol' status, but it was less obvious.

With Hail! Hail!, it was totally different. Things felt really staged. There were obvious jump cuts. Smooth pans were used in the concert setting, and the tracking shots of Berry felt deliberate. It seemed like Berry was acting. While it was emphasized that he was a showman, there were some moments that felt too staged to be real. I couldn't help but wonder if they rehearsed certain moments, or told Berry to do certain things. I'm almost positive they did.

Hail! Hail! also used editing in a huge way. "Interviews" about Berry were given by various artists like Bruce Springsteen, Keith Richards, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, and Roy Orbison. After each interview, there would be various cuts to back up or emphasize the point that the interviewee was making. Sometimes B roll footage was used on top of the interviewee's voice, implying various things. Jump cuts were especially noticeable in the 'interview footage.'

It was interesting noticing that in a few specific occasions the filmmaker left in the voice of the offscreen interviewer; in almost all of these cases, the interviewer was asking a more "charged" question. For example, referring to Berry's time in jail. None of these questions were really answered, which was a little weird for me, not knowing Berry's history.

Oh and just a random picky note: why were Bo Diddley, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry never shown in the same shot? That really irked me for some reason.

I also noticed that while Berry played at the "Cosmo Club", the audience was almost entirely black- probably friends and family (Berry had been talking about how the Cosmo Club used to be in its heyday, making me assume that the "Cosmo" footage was some kind of homage to the good ole days in a different setting, maybe his home?). However, at the Fox Theatre all close up audience shots were of white people. Was this intentional? Was I overanalyzing things? Although this was a documentary, the filmmaker can emphasize/de-emphasize things with edits..

The film also left me with some questions like: Julian Lennon? I remembered reading his wikipedia article and maybe listening to one song, but that was it. Also, I wasn't very familiar with some of the people that Berry performed with, Robert Cray and Linda Ronstadt, for example.

Not knowing Chuck Berry's story, I left the showing feeling more confused than enlightened. I felt like I hadn't really heard anything from his point of view, even though he did a lot of talking.

The live music made my feet start tapping, but ultimately felt a little too staged for my liking.

It was crazy though, seeing Chuck Berry, as well as the Everly Brothers and Jerry Lee Lewis--musicians who I listen to a lot now but never really see. That's the thing about listening to older music as a younger person; you're less likely to connect the face with the music since there is less of an opportunity to see the artist on tour.

I also find it particularly ironic that in this age where it is incredibly easy to get free music, the music I actually want is only available on expensive box sets. I would buy so much shit from Bear Family if I had the moneyz.

Berry teaches Keith!