STACK Jun #128

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Cobain: Montage of Heck is an acclaimed, intimate
film biography of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.
Brett Morgen spoke with STACK’s Chris Murray.
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.
The music, of course, plays a role in
Montage of Heck , but it’s not strictly
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
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
BRETT MORGENDIRECTOR OF
COBAIN:
MONTAGE
OF HECK