A Bookshelf Top on problem!
This film contains numerous snippets of very interesting footage of the musician/composer John Zorn performing live, rehearsing, recording, and discussing his ideas about art and politics. However, these clips are brief and scattered amongst even more abundant footage of the director (Claudia Heuermann) assembling the film and pretentiously musing about her past, the concept of time, the time in her life when she discovered Zorn’s art, the nature of art itself, and suchlike… but not to any intellectually rewarding ends. At some point during the making of this film, Zorn stopped returning her calls. Perhaps this is part of the explanation as to why the film seems so patchy and incomplete. However, there are so many clips included from different sessions and performances that one would think there was enough raw material to fill out the film by lingering on the live shows and the unraveling of the creative process (Zorn’s, not the director’s) that was hinted at in brief studio and rehearsal segments. Unfortunately, this is not the route Heuermann chose to pursue.
I knew only a little about Zorn and his music when I came into this film; and while the brief flashes of his artistic process included in this film served to pique my interest even more, it didn’t actually educate me about its subject at all. I couldn’t tell you during what decade he was born, played his first show, recorded his first album, or what his background was before he discovered hardcore and whether that was the genesis of his musicianship or a later development that succeeded his interest in film music, Jewish music, jazz, and classical (although it does seem he had an early preoccupation with cartoon scores).
I knew even less about director Claudia Heuermann, but I was quite put off by her meaningless pseudo-intellectual ramblings. I hate to read between the lines too much, but it isn’t hard to guess why Zorn would quit returning her calls.
I can’t completely put this film down becau
A Bookshelf on Top