Flux screened the U.S. premiere of the Radio Soulwax “Part of the Weekend Never Dies” Tuesday night at the Montalban.
The film, shot on a single camera over 120 dates in 5 countries by Saam Farahmand, opened with an unexpected, charming half-spoken/half sung animation that introduced the Dewaele brothers overlapping projects: Soulwax, 2 Many DJ’s and Soulwax Night Versions. From there, Farahmand’s flick blasted out of the gate with sick footage of people around the planet universally losing their fucking minds at Soulwax shows.
To its advantage, the movie played like a two-hour extended remix of a what a typical three act documentary would be.
Simple effective sound-driven imagery and electric editing stood in where many of the talking head interviews might normally be. It appeared that, whether the decision was made in production or the editing room later, Farahmand chose to take the viewer on tour rather than explain life on the road to the them. Good choice.
Farahmand employed some simple successful techniques to keep the film in motion and the viewer engaged like that of a slow pan that transitioned from scene-to-scene, show-to-show, city-to-city and gave us the feeling we were globetrotting with the band.
‘One’ could argue that Farahmand did little to provide the viewer with any information about the backgrounds and lives of his subjects outside the world of Soulwax and ‘one’ would be right, but that’s not to say the movie isn’t a success. When you assume the life of a touring musician you’re constantly looking forward. You’re forced to. And reflection for many artists, impossible to achieve without solitude, ends up becoming part of the sound.
I expected nothing and had a blast. I was bouncing in my seat throughout and cheering along with the crowd. But that being said, seeing this flick in a proper theater on a huge screen with a few hundred people buzzed on tons of free booze, definitely added to the overall movie-going experience.
Have to wonder if it will translate to the small screen. Guess I’ll have to wait until it comes out on DVD and watch it a second time to find out.
I actually don’t think the trailer does it justice, but here it is anyway.
