STACK #128 Jun 2016

STACK

1

2

BRETT MORGEN DIRECTOR OF COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK

Cobain: Montage of Heck is an acclaimed, intimate film biography of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Brett Morgen spoke with STACK ’s Chris Murray.

chronological. How did you think about how songs related to the images? The first week or two in the screening room was spent listening to the entire catalogue, from first recording to last. And I kind of deconstruct the lyrical value of a song, and the musical value of the song, and try to determine where in the narrative it fits. I moved stuff around because of his limited albums; I didn’t want to limit myself to only hearing Bleach songs for the first hour of the movie, and wanted to be able to incorporate or utilise some of

You’ve previously documented Hollywood producer Robert Evans, and The Rolling Stones. Why Kurt Cobain? The great thing about this story is you look for the universal. The something that personalises it, and set it against these backdrops – you look for the personally individual, and set against a sea of millions – but, you can never be intimidated by the material or the subject.

his music as score, or in a more traditional sense, a movie musical where the song is telling you the story of the person. How much did you relate to Cobain as a person? I tried to make the film as entertaining and intimate as I could, but it’s a story ultimately about a different time and place. With Cobain I had an opportunity to tell a story about my generation for the first time. I’m the same age as Kurt, we grew up with the same cultural influences. I

The music, of course, plays a role in Montage of Heck , but it’s not strictly

www.stack.net.au