Year: 2019
Director: Anton Corbijn
This was a worldwide screening of the film in 750ish cinemas worldwide. This one was in central Auckland, New Zealand – the audience numbered about 40 and – gasp – there was even a smattering of young people.
The film tells the story of several people who have found the music important in their lives. D A Pennebaker’s film from 1988, 101, followed a similar path but in those simpler times the fans were a bunch of young people having a blast. This film has more depth. A middle aged French woman tells of losing her memory after a car accident when she was 25. After three days in a coma, she could not remember who she was or her family/friends. She had to learn how to speak from scratch, unable to communicate for a long time. Today, she still has no memory of her life before the accident. You know where this is leading, don’t you? Yes that’s right, ladies and gentlemen, she could perfectly recall (only) the music of Depeche Mode.
We see the French lady open her garage door and pootle away down a Parisian street on her scooter. This is made impossibly stylish by Corbijn – referencing his own Deoeche Mode history, as he filmed a similar scene with a young model in 1987’s Behind the Wheel clip,
Most people featured here have lines of pain and experience etched on their faces. None more than Depeche Mode themselves, who are now in their 60s. Despite the flamboyance of the live show – Christ they look old – particularly close up. To their credit, the energy of the show is intense – we can see how much the music means to the band and to people we now feel like we know. They are surrounded by another 40,000 people or so that have similar expressions of showing a temporary release of euphoria, “It’s the best church you’ll ever go to” says one. The crowd are not staring at their phones or chatting to their mates – everyone appears to be fully immersed.
The Mongolian fan and the Romanian fan make the same observation – they loved the feel of music years before they knew what the words meant. They attached the own, personal, significance to the words they heard.
I had moments of being swept away in the film. One crowd scene stands out – when they enact the impressive “wheat field” effect during Never Let Me Down Again, we can see a lone handwritten sign, held aloft. It says “Thank You”.
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
101, The Posters Came from the Walls, Strange, Strange Too, Live in Hamburg, One Night in Paris, Some Great Videos.
Well done Mr Celeb, keep spreading the gospel.
Why thank you kindly.
Next week I’m seeing a Depeche Mode tribute band so I will be back on here reporting on that. You lucky people.
So you’re a fan, then? 😉
Hoping to see it Monday. The Swedish weather is definitely getting me in the right Mode mode.
Might be.🙃
The film made me think about the different facets to the Depeche Mode experience :
The recorded music
The remixes
The live show – where the music is presented in a significantly different way to the records.
The videos and films
In countries where oppressive regimes were the order of the day, it seems that Depeche Mode particularly appealed. In this film, a young Romanian recalls his father and friends listening to smuggled-in cassette tapes at a low volume. This may be related to Martin Gore living in Berlin in the mid-80s and the band spending a long time in Europe. They stopped making an effort in England at this point and, correctly, saw that there was a vast audience elsewhere, particularly in post-Soviet Europe,
Great review dude.
Yes. Echo the words of Moose.
Saw this Monday. Very moving and humbling to hear the fans’ experiences. And what the music means and symbolises to them. Someone said “what Depeche fans have in common is that at some point we decided that we don’t care what people think about us”. There is something there. DM became huge without adjusting, almost by accident. Well, that and Martin’s songs and Dave being a great performer.
The VERY best part was something my wife, previously not a fan, said as soon as the movie ended: “I want to see them live”. Reach out and touch faith, indeed.
That’s a good quote. I definitely copped it from many of my contemporaries back in the early 80s – usually open laughter – and I often reflected that life would be easier if I just liked Level 42 like everyone else. Level 42 were huge in my local area, even before they started to have hits.
DM have always been a bit of a secret society, haven’t they? Even when they had huge hits. A bit like The Cure in that sense.
Funny about Level 42. Some bands are big, ‘trendy’, for a while, and a couple of years later nowhere to be found.
I was made fun of for liking The Beatles in the late eighties and early nineties, as I’ve mentioned before. As late as the late nineties someone told me Aqua (remember them?) were far superior to The Beatles and that The Beatles would soon be forgotten anyway. He was right of course. Right off course.
Cure fans a secret society? Not exactly. You can probably spot most of them from the Moon.
Maybe I misused the term secret society. I meant they became really big, but somehow remained underground, at least in their approach. Big by accident, sort of.
Much like Robert Smith himself…
(sorry)
There’s a bloke down our street who runs a sort of informal neighbourhood watch thing. Every now and then, he sends emails to everyone in the road about which houses have been burgled recently.
His name – unusually for a Swede – is Robert Smith.
Anyway, last Friday evening, we got an email with all the latest burglary news. I felt like replying to him “Mate – you should send these mails at 10:15 on a Saturday Night”. Arf arf!
He’s unwisely incorporated his image into all the Neighbourhood Watch material… now every house in the street has his Head on the Door.
Crikey, were ver Mode really that reviled? That you wished you’d preferred Level 42?
Amazingly, yes. These guys were called “casuals” – they dressed like golfers, had Princess Diana haircuts and wore jewellery – but they were thugs. Jazz funk was their thing – Level 42 were the toppermost in that genre at that time.
Soft shoes as well. At least skins had the courtesy to wear big boots so you knew what was coming.
wasn’t there a documentary about DM fans a few years back that the band suppressed? I have vague memories of this, but I may well be wrong.
You are right, Kid.
http://www.jeremydeller.org/OurHobbyIsDepechMode/OurHobbyIsDepecheMode_Video.php
What happened to a movie called The Posters Came From The Wall or something like that?
It’s the same film. Not sure why the title changed.
In the age of a search engine of your choice it’s probably better to have the name of the band in the title of the film. Plus it’s easier to remember in general.
I’ll just assume you’ve seen it. Any good?
See also Applying Mascara Whilst Riding a Rollercoaster: A Film About the Cure
I’m starting to think you don’t like The Cure.
Yes I have seen it. If you take away the live footage, Spirits in the Forest is a similar idea. I have referred to a Russian woman before who is in the film – who picks up that one of the camera crew is English. She gives him a stern talking to – saying that prophets are never honoured In their home land. Shaking with anger, she says “This is why you English will NEVER understand Depeche Mode”’ .
Blimey.
Wow. So fascinating in an unsettling way?
In that example, yes. Towards the end they talk to a man who was homeless and lived under Hammersmith Bridge for five years. He would go without food to buy batteries in order to listen to his one cassette tape, which was of course a Depeche Mode one. He saved money for a ticket to their Crystal Palace concert in 1993 and going to that show inspired him.
I am not aware that the band suppressed the film, as such. I guess they watched it along with everyone else and didn’t feel they wanted to endorse it as a Depeche Mode “product”