Review: 'Immagine In Cornice' is anything but a 'Life Wasted'
Posted Monday, September 24, 2007 at 4:58 PM Central
by John Couture
A funny thing happened to me between my Junior and Senior year in high school. I truly discovered music for the first time in my life. Now, don't get me wrong, I had always grown up with music in my life, but the first time the music actually talked back to me was during a Summer stay at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
I bought a copy of Pearl Jam's "Ten" and my world was instantly changed. I didn't think it was possible back them to wear out a CD, but I'm currently on my fifth copy of "Ten." It would be more, but the onset of the digital age spared many innocent CDs an untimely demise.
Pearl Jam hails from the Seattle Grunge scene, but their music is anything but easy to classify. While Kurt Cobain's tragic demise cemented Nirvana as the poster child of this era of music, Pearl Jam lived on to create music and reinvent themselves as musicians.
As a group, they have continually pushed the envelope on social change from going to war with TicketMaster to campaigning actively against President to championing everything from women's rights to the environment. One instance at the beginning of Immagine In Cornice when lead singer Eddie Vedder stomps out a cigarette with his boot and then bends down to pick it up demonstrates how far this bad has come.
They have outgrown their grunge base and if they were born in another generation, perhaps they would be held up and compared favorably to Led Zeppelin, The Who and The Rolling Stones. But as it is, they are a band that continues to pump out meaningful music while the rest of the world is stuck in a one-hit, sugary pop world.
Immagine In Cornice captures the group at the top of their game during a magical tour of Italy in 2006. World-renowned photographer Danny Clinch is along for the ride and much like his photographic style, he has a knack for showing his subjects as unobtrusively as possible.
While concert films will always be judged by their sound, and Immagine In Cornice, is certainly not lacking in this department, it's the visual style that Clinch brings to this piece that sets this offering heads and shoulders above its rivals.
The concert footage is pristine and flawless, but an artistic decision is made to film the interspersing clips in such a way that its graininess and bleached colors immediately take you to a 1970s European avant-garde selection. If you didn't know better, you would think that Dario Argento directed Immagine In Cornice in his prime.
What separates Immagine In Cornice from Pearl Jam's earlier concert films such as Touring Band 2000 and Single Video Theory is that for the first time we are able to spend time with each member and get a rare glimpse beyond enigmatic frontman Eddie Vedder. Whether it's Jeff Ament breaking into a skate park for a little skateboarding action or Mike McCready discussing his tattoos and hinting at his past drug issues, the glimpse provides a small window into the soul of a monumental band.
For Pearl Jam addicts like myself and music junkies in general, the biggest draw of this DVD might be the three bonus songs. The first one is a great cover of The Who's "A Quick One While He's Away" featuring Eddie Vedder being backed by opener My Morning Jacket. The second song is Eddie along with a guitar in a what is becoming a Pearl Jam preshow ritual playing "Throw Your Arms Around Me." And finally, the last song appropriately is iconic show closer and personal fave of Jennifer Aniston "Yellow Ledbetter." The song allows guitarist Mike McCready to take center stage and he shines as always.
Beyond the music and beyond the band, Clinch is able to portray Eddie's little suitcase that he carries everywhere as a pivotal part of everything that is Pearl Jam. And in a way, the suitcase represents the band. It's a little weathered and worn out, but there are still plenty of good years left in it.