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Cocksucker Blues December 4 Tate Modern
Reviews

From: John Moseley
Category: Films
Date: 12 December 2004

Review

Accident or design that a lot of this was in blue monochrome? Probably the former. Film stock whether colour or monochrome looked cheap and the low-fi mechanics of the process were perpetually exposed. Random mustachioed longhair, later revealed to be intravenous heroine user and member of Stones entourage shown at one point holding the microphone, during one of many scenes of Stones hanger ons hanging out in generic hotel rooms, sprawled eternally on beds like characters in mid period Warhol movies. I was lucky to see this because tickets were in short supply. A friend of a friend phoned me at the last minute because someone couldn't use their ticket and I dropped everything to go, not that everything was a lot. Saw it with a group of film and animation professionals whose reaction was a yawn and a shrug, while mine was exuberance. A verite film whose realism extends to revealing the mechanics of its making process as integral part of the viewing experience. At one point Jagger looks directly at camera and says threateningly, 'fucking voyeur'. Some he actually shot himself, including a bit of private fiddling with his cock, through trousers, in yet another hotel room, revealing his authorship of the scene in a mirror. But all this sounds a bit theoryish, and it wasn't that that I loved. Franks said something like, 'Until I went on tour with the Stones I thought they were normal people. I realised they don't breathe the same air.' It's that that makes it and to show it he had to show everything he did, most of which is a lot of hotel room drug taking, sex, gambling and himself filming; a little of which is amazing footage, still with cheap grainy stock, of the Stones live. Jagger and Richards appear superhuman in a slightly scary way, somehow able to create genius rock music despite the vagrant loitering. Their onstage clothes are absurd and even off, even by the standards of the time, they look outrageous, unique, camp and intimidatingly confident. They are young, totally free to indulge in anything they please, totally powerful, totally unfettered by normal societal standards and totally brilliant artists, genuinely breaking ground. No visible suffering for art here, but the people around them, especially the groupies, are palpably being used, notably in the airplane scene where various men boisterously, perhaps violently, strip women and perform sex acts on them while the Stones play a musical accompaniment with acoustic instruments. That much of this was built on the work of black musical pioneers, a problem dealt with more explicitly in Godard's Stones film 'One Plus One' is also alluded to when the Stones meet with old black guys in a pool room and hang out with them as if they're workiing class kids rather than millionaire rock stars. Jagger is also, clearly, when the mood takes him, a little cruel to lesser mortals, though Richards, to his credit, seems a quietly nice chap. The effect is sublime, as in awe-inspiring, unbelievable, beautiful and frightening and the only way to show it was clearly Franks' total access, (which resulted in the film's banning by the Stones) and his endearingly crappy materials, which both allowed him to catch everything on the hoof and did nothing to hide the seaminess of much of what was going on and the surroundings. Perhaps most crucially, the verite style breaks the illusionism that usually surrounds the Stones, showing them in all their finery in an imperfect world we can recognise, underlining and exposing how exceptional and privileged their position in it is. The 'fucking voyeur' comment is fascinating because, though I don't think any member of the band is actually shown having sex, it's as if they're all perpetually engaged in brilliant sex as a career and the rest of us, addressed by Jagger's direct look into the camera, are watching passively. Perhaps this is what the fear is based on - that Jagger's comment and cruelty and contempt are justified; that he's saying, come on you tossers, don't just watch. I'm doing it, really doing it, why can't you? Um, well some of its illegal for a start. No, seriously, Mick, my Mum's waiting up for me and I've got to go to school in the morning so I don't fail my A-levels. Plus I tried being free once and it didn't result in Sympathy for the Devil. I just got paranoid and was nearly inveigled into joining a religious cult. Really. Sorry. Going home. Have a nice party.

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