Movie of the Week: Shut Up and Play the Hits

“Shut Up and Play the Hits”, is a musical documentary about the end of LCD Soundsystem shot in 2012. The story is more or less the band’s last show in New York City and the time before and after that moment. It is remarkable especially when you can feel how good people they all are, the great vibe during the concert, the strength of NYC lights, and imagine how James Murphy and the band are in their real lives.

James Murphy’s interview, for this documentary, says all and nothing. I didn’t imagine him that wise. When I started listening to LCD I was in the university, in 2005. That time “Tribulations” and “Daft Punk is playing at My House” were real cool songs and it was forbidden not to add them to any playlist. I did it a lot, every Friday, in my two hour’s show for the university radio.  After came “Sound of Silver” in 2007, probably their most sold album with hits “ North American Scum”, “New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” – BTW it ends the film so well, you can actually see I teenager crying among white balloons and the guitar down in a stage already empty of human warmth – and the last album, “This is Happening” in 2010, which I review as a more-of-the-same album, with trivial lyrics and beats without artistic content, definitely not what we were used to listen from these guys.

Then in 2011, Murphy announces the end of LCD Soundsystem and this film came one year after. Things to point out:

1. The interview Murphy gives to a journalist (don’t know who he was and the producers didn’t write his name on the screen ewww) answering all evasive but at the same very sensitive.
2.  The part where Reggie Watts appear on stage is very cool.
3.  North American Scum and Yeah Yeah Yeah best tracks live.
4.  NY I Love You But Your Bringing Me Down, aka the perfect final with white balloons, gave me goose bumps.

Movie of the Week – III Movies of João Salaviza

Cinema. There’s a new generation of young Portuguese directors playing the game, Gonçalo Tocha (É na Terra não na Lua), Miguel Gomes (Tabu) and João Salaviza (Arena and Rafa), that after a couple of awards in Berlin and Cannes have achieved a gorgeous reputation among cinema critics.

Midas Films just launched a DVD with Salaviza’s three short movies and its available in French and English as well, so exportable. In an interview for a Portuguese radio show the young director shared his witty thoughs about his work “my flat mates say my emotional intelligence is all focused on cinema”. He grow up in Lisbon and the pictures he captures in his movies are true, in a way that they exist just like they are in reality, with the same people around, same color, same essentia.

 “Arena”, 2009, won Golden Palm in Cannes, is a short movie and tells a story of Mauro. He’s arrested and lives with an electronic bracelet at his home. He likes to tattoo people. It’s mid-day, the sun is hot and strong, and three kids of the area come near Mauro’s window.

In “Cerro Negro”, 2011, Anajara comes back from its work in the jingle-jangle morning. She cannot leave Iuri at school. Seventy kilometers from home Allison waits his wife and son. It’s the visiting day in Santarém’s prison.

The plot of Rafa, 2012, Golden Bear in Berlin, is about a child named Rafa. At 6AM he found out his mother was detained at the police station. He leaves his home in the Southbank of Tejo River, crosses the bridge with a friend in a motorbike and arrives to inner Lisbon.

Salaviza’s technique and photography are remarkable, and also the ends - everyone can give a future to his characters. He's working on a new film to be lanched in 2013, a film with more than 60 minutes, shot in Lisbon, because he is a big-city man.  3.5/5