“Was there already a good film on a rock group?” “wonders the musician Stephen Malkmus in Pavementsa feature film which could in any case claim to the title. Available on the Mubi -on -demand video site from July 11, this documentary produced by Alex Ross Perry returns to the work of Pavement, a cult rock group from the 1990s. With its hybrid and experimental form, in turn ironic and sincere, the film pays tribute to the group’s slacker spirit, but also derisals the popular trend of biopics and musical documentaries.
In Pavementsyou will find the usual archive images, retracing the group’s journey. But also sequences whose veracity seems more porous, which document several eccentric projects mounted by the filmmaker himself, namely a museum devoted to Pavement, a musical taking up the songs of the group and even a false musical biopic entitled Life Rangein which we see professional actors (Joe Keery, Nat Wolff, etc.) reproduce the archive images seen earlier.
Hybrid format
Alex Ross Perry is a fictional director, author of indie nuggets like The color Wheel (released in 2012), Queen of Earth (2015) or Her Smell (2019), one of the best contemporary films on the world of music. It is precisely because he had no experience in the field of musical documentary that he was approached to carry out this one, with the imperative to create something unconventional. “I was asked to approach this not as a documentary maker, but as a screenwriterretraces Alex Ross Perry. I was given the freedom to write, or rather to make a story, in a format that, at least in a cosmetic way, for the public, would look like non-fiction. ”
The American filmmaker wanted to play on the group’s niche aspect, which has never reached the notoriety of a Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Rolling Stones or Metallica. “Generally, musical films are always devoted to the hundred largest artists of all timenotes Alex Ross Perry. Pavement, it is a group that is not at all mainstream, but which is, in the minds of its 100,000 fans, the “best group of all time”. I wanted to make a film that takes this opinion, not as a counter-current and minority opinion, but as an undeniable reality. ”
Logistics challenge
Alex Ross Perry takes the opportunity to point the finger at all the clichés of the musical film. The beginning of the film looks like a classic documentary, as it has been swept away for a few years. On a banner, Pavement is qualified as “The most important group in history”. But the more the story advances, the more Alex Ross Perry breaks out his narration and blurs the border between fiction and reality.
While the group is preparing to go back on stage after twenty years of interruption, we are witnessing the opening of a museum that exhibits some of their outfits, their instruments and even a piece of foot nail … We are also witness to the preparation of the future biopic Life Rangefrom the casting of actors on filming. And we start to wonder if we have to trust what we look at.
“Logistically, the challenge was to have all these films in the filmsays Alex Ross Perry. Imagine that making a film is like preparing a dinner. Except that there, there would be just five dishes of resistance, no accompaniments, nothing else, just five main dishes. It would be a very stupid way to make a meal, but it’s a bit like that we made this film. ”
With a hundred hours of rush and several films in one, Pavements indeed represented a colossal work for the filmmaker and his team. Especially when editing, “Clearly the most difficult part, which was a good thing since it was not I who was busy, it is the editor Robert Greene”.
Satire of musical biopics
One of the tastiest aspects of the film is the production of its false biopic, Life Range. Alex Ross Perry explains that he wanted “Use pavement, a group that I like, as a vehicle to explore a cultural trend that I don’t like, that I do not respect, but which fascinates me”. In the film, we see real actors playing themselves, preparing their interpretation of the group’s musicians.
Including Joe Keery, revealed by Stranger Thingswho plays Stephen Malkmus, takes accent lessons with a coach and goes so far as to ask the musician to send him a photo of his language to better reproduce his intonation. “It’s good for my career, maybe I will win a price”he confides in front of the camera with the greatest seriousness.
“I am inspired by a form of scripted biographical narration that I find crap, bad, devoid of creativity, but which is however invasive and constant in our lives at the moment.”
Griffin Newman, who embodies drummer Steve West, explains: “I didn’t know how to play the battery and I didn’t have time to take lessons either. So for me, it was above all an exploration of, like, what is the soul of a drummer. ” Or Nat Wolff, responsible for playing the Spiral Stirs guitarist: “This film is the story of Pavement, but it is also the story of humanity.”
If he has an affection for musical films that thwart conventions, as Velvet Goldminefrom Todd Haynes (1998) or Last Days, From Gus Van Sant (2005), Alex Ross Perry does not hide his contempt for formulaic musical biopics. “Stephen Malkmus said he was” inspired by groups that sound like shit “. And doing Life RangeI said to myself, that’s exactly that. (Laughs) I am inspired by a form of scripted biographical narration that I find crap, bad, devoid of creativity and intelligence, but which is however invasive and constant in our lives at the moment. ”
While the excellent Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), a parody of musical biopics, made fun of the way these films all reuse the same formula, Pavements Adds a layer and laughs at the way in which the actors focus their promotion on physical or vocal resemblance to their subject. Still having post-traumatic nightmares of the teeth of Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), we could only appreciate.
“When you read the press, the most interesting thing about these films is never to know if the screenwriter did research, or what should they have changed for the story to be in two hoursdeplores Alex Ross Perry. According to the media, the most interesting thing is how performance has been twisted and shaped to become an imitation. Not the process of telling a story, but the process of trying a wig, having prostheses, or working with a vocal coach to succeed in perfection of someone’s voice. ”
Artistic integrity
Through the career of Pavement and their success remained confidential, one of the other notions addressed in the film is that of “SELL OUT”: This moment when an artist becomes more commercial and betrays his artistic principles to earn more money, by working for advertising for example.
When Alex Ross Perry is asked if there is a line that he will always refuse to cross, his answer is like the film, funny, honest and sarcastic. “No. I already do not earn enough money at the moment. As we show in the film, nowadays, no one is concerned about that. There is no longer any illusion of integrity or cling to our ideals. I am sure that some could look at an artist’s work and say “Wow, this person has stayed straight in his boots and refused to take big sums of money”. In most cases, including mine, it’s just that I didn’t offer anything. And if I had been offered, I would have this money, because I would have said yes. “
If we strongly regret that Alex Ross Perry is broke, we are delighted to see that he has created such a unique and intelligent work, which deserves as much success as a summer blockbuster or an Oasis tour.
