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  • Full Frame
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  • English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
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  Extras
  • Additional footage
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  • Audio commentary
  • Behind the scenes footage
  • Interviews
  • Dolby Digital trailer

Kurt & Courtney

20th Century Fox/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 0 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Anybody out there who has the remotest interest in modern music is familiar with the band Nirvana and its lead singer, Kurt Cobain. It is impossible to overstate the influence Cobain had on alternative music, specifically with the release of Nirvana’s album Nevermind. The track Smells Like Teen Spirit defined a generation, and still resonates with Australia’s youth, demonstrated by its number one ranking in Triple J’s Hottest 100 of all time. (And to think they would never have even existed without the influence of Boston's mighty The Pixies - Ed.)

As such, anything offering even a whiff of Kurt insight has an immediate and sizeable audience. Particularly following his suicide, when distraught fans groped at anything he had created in his life, and any insight into why their god had chosen to end his existence. It was in this Kurt-thirsty atmosphere that Kurt and Courtney hit the scene. And, unfortunately, it is only in this atmosphere that such a self indulgent mind numbing film could possibly have warranted financing and production.

Nick Broomfield. This is the name of the person responsible for the wasting of several precious and irretrievable hours of my life. I curse you, Nick Broomfield. Let me tell you his story. If anything, to save you the torture of hearing it direct from the source. He’s some British doco maker who has always wanted to make a music documentary. He vaguely intended to make one about The Clash. But (colour me surprised) he couldn’t get anyone even remotely interested in funding it. So, lo and behold, our Kurt carks it, and ol’ Nick sees opportunity shine for funding, as everybody wants a piece of the Kurt pie. Ring in Nick.

Things start going wrong for ol’ Nick, funding wise, when his meandering line of investigation starts wandering down the avenue of Kurt’s little lady. Ah, and what a lady. It still strikes me as nothing short of a travesty that Courtney Love has yet to release a self help book for those dealing with the loss of a loved one in their lives. For God only knows how much of the collective population’s suffering could be alleviated with such skills as she demonstrated in very, very, very rapidly dealing with the death of her husband. So quickly did she deal, her band Hole released an album a week after his death. The oh-so-subtle title? Live Through This. Only in bloody America would this blatant cash-in actually manage to cash in successfully, and Courtney was (briefly) catapulted into fame and admiration, with media appearances and movie offers to boot.

Clearly, this gives ol’ Nick a bit to work with. But you haven’t heard the half of it! Ol’ Nick stumbled across a trash-Courtney goldmine, with both the private detective she hired to find Kurt after his suicide, and Courtney’s own father, willing to be interviewed by Nick, and to broadcast their convictions that Kurt Cobain did not commit suicide, but was murdered by Courtney. Gold, gold, gold! But what did Nick choose to do with this angle? Utilise it to portray himself as even more of a bumbling, indecisive, confused English git. And he delivers this portrayal very, very, very, very slowly.

The pity of it all is that within the content of Kurt and Courtney is actually enough to make a decent film. It’s just a poor neglected affair crying out desperately for some editing attention. Kurt’s Aunt Mary provides a very interesting insight into his childhood, musical inception and base personality. His girlfriend prior to his fame, Tracy Miranda, has fascinating stories to tell about how he lived pre-fame, and the pictures he painted for her would break any Cobain fan into a cold sweat. Her understanding of Kurt was unfortunately not taken advantage of enough, with Nick’s questions failing to tease out much of depth and interest from her.

The focus then turns to Courtney (seeing as Nick had run out of Kurt contacts). Should anyone happen to care, the interviews with her father are rather insightful. This, of course, is no reflection on Nick’s penetrative interviewing style. A toaster resting nearby could likely reveal what a dickhead this man is. Ditto Nick’s interview with the colourful Courtney-ex Rozz Rezabek. Nick’s interview with Tom Grant is nothing more than Tom trying desperately to advertise his anti-Courtney book. His tête-à-têtes with the ridiculously drug addled El Duce, Amy and Chelsea don’t even warrant comment.

"Forgive it for being a bit rambling… I didn’t have an angle on the story. I was just trying to find my way through it."

Thanks for the warning BURIED DEEP IN THE EXTRAS, Nick. Too little, too late. I’m angry now. Nick’s dubious insights are strung together in a haphazard fashion, following his languid comprehension and conclusions of the post-Kurt suicide scenarios. He seems to be allergic to editing, and is deeply enamoured with the sound of his own voice. His film discovers little and concludes nothing.

  Video
Contract

It’s self defeating to expect too much from a documentary; especially one comprised mainly of interviews. From this viewpoint, Kurt and Courtney doesn’t actually do too badly. It has its rough patches, but these tend to appear on playbacks of the television coverage of Kurt’s suicide. The picture is quite clean, and the extras segment of the film actually serves to demonstrate the effort that was gone to by the filmmakers to clear up any artefacts, as the extras have not received the same attention. The film is not anamorphically presented; just a 4:3 full screen format, but manages to deliver decent, realistic colours and contrast and, considering the format, a reasonable lack of noise and artefacts.

  Audio
Contract

Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, the sound, as with the video, doesn’t do too badly. Dialogue is clear enough for comfortable comprehension and its volume is well balanced with that of the musical tracks. The musical content, for a movie about one of modern music’s heroes, is pretty shabby. The at times poor audio of tracks in Kurt and Courtney is more than likely a reflection of the dubious efforts made by the musicians, than of any kind of poor workmanship on the part of the movie sound technicians. Particularly as it’s clear that a number of the interviewed bands have only agreed to entertain Nick for the opportunity of getting their demo tapes included in his movie, which demonstrates just how desperate they are to gain any kind of exposure.

  Extras
Contract

Anyone who has ever lamented a lack of extras on a DVD would surely devour their words after this experience. This reviewer was forced to give the extras a somewhat decent score for quantity of content alone. Yes, there’s a lot of content here. And some of it would actually be very, very interesting, especially the commentary on Kurt and Courtney being banned from the Sundance Film Festival, thanks to the influence of Courtney’s “people”, were it not for the fact that this commentary is by bloody Nick, who by now I guarantee you will elicit frequent dreams of stabbing in slow motion. Included also are deleted scenes of interviews with members of bands who knew Kurt Cobain. Put simply, it is ridiculously clear why these scenes were deleted. The only thing worth of mention is a speech by Robert Redford, who is eloquent and fascinating in his analysis of the nature of the American film industry. Unfortunately, you have to sit through a lengthy intro by none other than bloody Nick, before you finally get to the blatant example of how Nick should have done his entire documentary in order to make it comfortably watchable. The extras, in a nutshell, are extensive and excruciating.

  Overall  
Contract

For many Gen-X’ers, and anybody with an interest in alternative music, Kurt Cobain is something of a god. As such, there are many critters out there with an interest in the person behind the phenomenon, the musician behind the music and the spirit behind the lyrics. If your interest in all things Kurt, ten years past his death, still holds strong, Kurt and Courtney has something to offer you, provided your finger remains poised over the ‘skip’ button.

This reviewer, even as an eternal fan of Nirvana, left the experience disappointed and disgruntled. All in all, the whole thing tastes sourly like a cash-in. The prime example is Courtney, who, whilst ultimately not exposed as a murderer, is certainly exposed as a manipulator of magnitude. And, from promoting books to promoting music, every single person interviewed, without exception, is cashing in on any link they had to Kurt Cobain, however tenuous it may be.

The prime example of this is the filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who fulfils his quest to be a filmmaker by using the death of Kurt Cobain, financed in drifting along with any half baked notion of fancy, because right then a lot of people cared about Kurt Cobain. It’s a funny thing that one of Nick’s few conclusions is a reflection on the self serving ploys of those in the spotlight, when he’s done little more than gratuitously cash in on the widespread worldwide interest in Cobain’s death. Anybody with a sense of irony will likely come out of the Kurt and Courtney experience with a similar conclusion that, unbeknownst to Nick, he was actually a blatant example of the point he was attempting to put across. Oh, and that Courtney Love is a skanky ho-bag.


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      And I quote...
    "He: grunge god, defining a generation shaping musical movement. She: skanky ho-bag. This DVD: some deeply boring English git rabbiting on about them."
    - Rachel Schmied
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Sony DVP-NS530
    • TV:
          Sharp SX76NF8 76cm Widescreen
    • Receiver:
          Sony HT-SL5
    • Speakers:
          Sony SS-MSP2
    • Centre Speaker:
          Sony SS-CNP2
    • Surrounds:
          Sony SS-MSP2
    • Subwoofer:
          Sony SA-WMSP3
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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