Duran Duran: Unstaged

David Lynch – 2014 – USA

I admired both the band and the filmmaker when I first heard about this project. They were begging for controversy and condemnation the instant they agreed to make it. There is no way that the majority of Duran Duran’s fanbase would tolerate a feature-length arty video experiment in place of a straightforward concert film; the kind that looks like every other one they’ve ever seen. Fans want an unobstructed view of the band, which is understandable, but since this is clearly advertised as a David Lynch work as much as a Duran Duran work, they really have no right to be surprised and outraged that it isn’t what they’re used to seeing. I like Duran Duran okay, but not enough to watch a concert film on them. I am, however, a huge David Lynch fan, so will watch anything he makes. Unstaged is what happens when a real artist gets hold of a prosaic, purely functional medium. He demonstrates that the medium doesn’t necessarily have to be prosaic and purely functional. And for his trouble, he’ll be called pretentious and self-serving. The film is unique, as far as I know. Rather than shooting the event with wild angles and distorting lenses, it’s shot in a fairly standard way. What Lynch does is superimpose the footage with abstract imagery that either compliments or accentuates the music. It seems to me that the entire purpose is to create something that’s interesting visually as well as musically. Lynch doesn’t seem to be trying to interpret the songs literally, but pulls from the collection of images in his head to match things that feel appropriate to the emotion and rhythm of the songs. The band is never not on the screen, so it’s not like this is just an art film with a Duran Duran soundtrack. It really is a collaboration. The problem for the artists, though, is that fans aren’t really interested in a collaboration; they just want the Duran Duran part of the equation and couldn’t care less who technically “directed” the production. Speaking as a Lynch fan, though, I found it fascinating and couldn’t help thinking about his earliest experiments in film, when, as a painter in school, he longed for a way to give his canvases the breath of life, to make the light and colors move, and finally decided that cinema was the answer. All these years later, he’s still experimenting with the same sense of wonder.