HEVOSEN VUOSI
Neil Young ja yhtye Crazy Horse ovat pääosassa. Mutta tämä dokumentti ja konserttikiertuetaltiointi Euroopassa ja USA:ssa vuonna 1996 hypnotisoi katsojansa muutenkin kuin musiikilla.
Ohjaaja Jim Jarmusch on Mika Kaurismäen ja Sam Fullerin vannoutunut yhteistyökumppani ja ystävä.
Tuottaja L. A. Johnson oli Jarmuschin kanssa toinen Super 8 käyttäjä. - Kun sain ihailemani Neil Young'in tekemäään musiikin Dead Man leffaani, hän puolestaan pyysi minua kuvaamaan työskentelyään Super 8:lla. Tein työtä käskettyä ja bändin pojat olivat innoissaan. Rosoista kuvaa, mutta kaunista..., muistelee Jarmuschin lyhyistä kommenteista, haastatteluista ja dokumentin lähtölaukausta.
Kuva on karheaa ja musiikki hullun hevosen rokkia. Siis yksi halpa pikatuotanto, konserttikiertueen taltiointi?
- Kamerana oli kyllä Super 8 ja 16 sekä vähän Hi-8. Mutta sitten alkoi rahakirstun saranat natista. Musiikki nimittäin miksattiin 40-raitaisella. Koko materiaali digivideoitiin ja tästä tehtiin kolme 16 mm:n filmiversiota vanhaan kolmiväri tyyliin. Ja sitten siirrettiin koko juttu 35 milliselle negalle. Niin, että teknisesti koko hommassa on vähän enemmän jujua kuin arvaisikaan, tekniikat hallitseva ohjaaja luettelee.
Year of the Horse on ennen kaikkea musiikkia, se on myös lyhyitä kommentteja ja puheenvuoroja. Vakkapa Neil Yong'in isän vertailu miesten musiikista nyt tai 10-vuotta sitten, tai heidän omat arvionsa esiintymisestä, huumorista - tai tuhosta, jota Neil Young leikillisesti väittää jättävänsä jälkeensä.
- Ohjaaja: Jim Jarmusch
- Tuotanto: October Films, USA, 1997
In English In English In English
YEAR OF THE HORSE
Year of the Horse was filmed in 1996, following Young's contribution of the score for Jarmusch's ethereal Western, Dead Man, in 1995. The match-up of the Jarmusch and Young - sensibilities has turned out to be an inspired fit. Just as Young's music provided the perfect jangly dreamscape for Dead Man's trippy American journey, Jarmusch's choice to shoot Year of the Horse in a low-tech combo of Super-8,16mm, and Hi-8 video formats creates an ideal visual equivalent of the ragged passion that characterizes the Crazy Horse sound. Music has always been a major factor in Jarmusch's films: Musicians such as John Lurie, Tom Waits, Screaming Jay Hawkins, and lggy Pop have been regularly cast as fictional characters in his movies (Permanent Vacation, Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law, Mystery Train, and Night on Earth) and have also contributed to his soundtracks. And Young's history of making and releasing film documents of his musical efforts is extensive. The originality of Year of the Horse has little to do with any new or radical techniques of making rock & roll concert documentaries. The movie stands out because it gets the music right: The complement of music and movie here is total. Year of the Horse is a rock & roll movie through and through.
Using material from three different decades also emphasizes the movie's sensitivity to the passage of time - echoing one of the band's constant if unacknowledged preoccupations. It's a theme with universal resonance, this idea of improving with age, moving constantly closer to the source, and discovering the preciousness of things only as a result of time's passage. The differences between working solo and working in concert with others is another recurrent theme acknowledged by the band members, all of whom recognize that there is a greatness to their sound that can only be achieved in unison.
Jim Jarmusch: Larry [Johnson] produced and we made a video for Crazy Horse on their last record, Broken Arrow, for a song called "Big Time." That was all shot on Super-8 and Neil really liked the way that looked. Then he called me a month or two after that saying, "Let's shoot some more stuff that looks like that video." And so I just went out on the road, Larry organized it all, we went on the road and just started shooting. We had no road map, no plan, we didn't know if it would end up being a video for another song, or a half-hour film they might give away with their record, or a feature film... we didn't know. So it wasn't really a decision, it's just kind of like it's the Neil Young way: Just start in and see what happens.
Based on the interview in The Austin Chronicle
- Director: Jim Jarmusch
- Production: October Films, USA, 1997
Päivitys:9.9.2000 U.E.
