When You’re Strange
Tom DiCillo:
When You’re Strange (USA, 2009)
87 min. - English
K-11
The Doors, the symbol and trend-setter of the American acid rock of the 1960s. Jim Morrison, a rock icon, the band’s infamous leader figure and the dark flipside of the flower era. These are the ingredients of Tom DiCillo’s documentary When You’re Strange, offering an X-ray of the band’s anatomy. The film lets you close to experience the shared trip of Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger and John Densmore. When You’re Strange includes a lot of previously unseen film footage: the lizard king sheds his skin and lets himself to be seen without the mask of rock stardom. In fact, the film includes so much new archive footage that the fans doubted its authenticity. But absolutely authentic it is.
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The footage of When You’re Strange follows the band’s journey from the founding year 1965, Jim and Ray meeting in the corridors of the UCLA film school, the sold-out venues of The Doors and finally, Morrison’s shadowy and early death in the beginning of July 1971 in Paris. The documentary also includes excerpts from Morrison’s own film projects. When You’re Strange appears as a feverish period-piece of a decade of extremities – a contradictory decade The Doors became a symbol and Morrison a victim of. The time travel is crowned by the narrative voice of Johnny Depp:
“Watching the hypnotic, hitherto unreleased footage of Jim, John, Ray and Robby, I felt like I experienced it all through their eyes. As a rock n’ roll documentary, or any kind of documentary for that matter, it simply doesn’t get any better than this. What an honor to have been involved. I am as proud of this as anything I have ever done.”
See also:
» Raymond De Felitta: 'Tis Autumn: The Search for Jackie Paris
» Sam Taylor-Wood: Nowhere Boy
» Jim Jarmusch: Year of the Horse
» Raymond De Felitta: 'Tis Autumn: The Search for Jackie Paris
» Sam Taylor-Wood: Nowhere Boy
» Jim Jarmusch: Year of the Horse
Thu 18th Nov at 9:00pm at Tapio 4
Sat 20th Nov at 1:00pm at Tapio 2
