The Last Waltz (dir. Martin Scorsese)

I had never heard of this film or the band The Band until last week. The film is heralded as one of the greatest music documentaries ever, and I presume from the amazing line up of special guests playing at this document of their last ever concert that they were a pretty big band. Ah, well, I guess knowledge gaps exist for everyone. The concert took place in the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in 1976. Directed by Martin Scorsese were seven famous cinematographers using 35mm cameras. The budget must have been huge. The Band were joined on stage by a succession of musicians such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Eric Clapton. For me, the best bit was Muddy Waters. He sang his amazing 'Mannish Boy' but what really worked was that only one of the seven cameras was filming him (due to some technical/human errors) but it was great to have that solid focus, especially on such a strong vocal. All the songs are played in full and the film is interspersed with Scorsese's interviews with the band members. The interviews are are a bit lite in a way, they are more like a bit of casual chit-chat between the songs but then the film is really about the concert and a celebration of the music and this is the strength of the film.