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Heart and Soul: Exclusive Interview with Michael Shamberg

Heart and Soul

By mil

The punk movement of late 70s Manchester was infectious. Rebellion was the order of the day: and music was the weapon of choice. The ability to play an instrument was secondary when forming a band – above all you needed spirit. Joy Division were like everyone else, making it up as they were going along, learning how to play, write and perform. So how do you show that in film? Simple. Apply the same principle to the film – capture the spirit above all.

"I hope the film will be emblematic of Joy Division’s approach to music," says Michael Shamberg, co-producer of the new Joy Division film Enigmatic. "The spirit should be there. To try to represent something your work has to reflect the essence of the source."

"Punk was a reaction against the overproduced mainstream which becomes nothing more than an opiate to the masses. Rock music should be like good poetry – something which both celebrates and challenges. [It] is like a friend’s response to being offered a tribute to his work: ‘Being celebrated in times like ours is like giving autographs on the deck of the Titanic.’ "

The story of Joy Division has been told, analysed and deconstructed at length. Many music fans worldwide lament what might have been had lead singer and lyricist Ian Curtis not committed suicide on the eve of the first Joy Division American tour.

Shamberg’s history with the band (carrying on under a different name, New Order) begins shortly after, when he filmed their New York concert Taras Shavenko in 1981, and went on to produce the majority of their music videos.

With a myriad of Joy Division projects being produced, including Control (in production, based on Touching From a Distance by Ian’s widow Deborah, directed by Anton Corbjin) and several other documentaries, Shamberg, director Carol Morley (The Alcohol Years) and co-producer by Natasha Dack (Tiger Lily Films) have chosen a unique approach to their film.

"It’s just the way I work – to go against the grain and question the tradition. I had the idea of finding people in Beijing and taking them to Manchester, a kind of a road movie. And through them we learn the story of Joy Division. Not the complete story, or the ‘official’ story, but perhaps a truer story in the spirit of making a film in the way Joy Division made music."

According to Shamberg, it’s essential that a film about an artist should be made like an artist, and demands an understanding of how they work.

"They were not writing Top 40 hits at the time, nor should [Corbjin] shoot a commercial film. You must know that musicians often tell lies in interviews. They tell stories because they get bored saying the same things over and over. And that’s part of the charm."

Accuracy, then, becomes a tricky concept when considering this and another important factor in music; interpretation.

"Maybe that’s why I chose to see it through other characters. I would not admit to knowing everything. The film would truly reflect my journey of discovery. It may be a misreading – just as one might hear one work in a song for years and one day discover it was a different work – but it’s valid either way. The original understanding is as true as the discovered one. In fact, it gives more life to the song because it's how we interpret it. That is how art works. You get it – and that’s the important thing. Now, how do you convey that?"

As well as developing Enigmatic, Shamberg has been building a website ( www.kinoteca.net ) which contains the ‘making of’ story behind each New Order music video. The recent release New Order: A Collection contains all their music videos and two new clips for Ceremony and Temptation. For all the videos Shamberg produced, he handpicked video directors who were given total creative freedom for their film, which by no means had to include the band. The result is several interpretive, fantastic short films, such as Jonathan Demme’s The Perfect Kiss and Robert Frank’s Run. All very different, very artistic and very New Order.

"Traditionally, record companies make a video to promote a single which, in turn, promotes an album," explains Shamberg. "It is the album which makes money, not the single. New Order and Factory often put out singles which were "stand alone" – not on an album. So the choices were a bit random at first. Confusion (1983) was probably chosen because it was an event of sorts: happening in New York with hip-hop producer Arthur Baker. So it was as much a document as a music video."

"When making that video, my interest was to make it a kind of social realist document to reveal the making of the track on different levels. The band does not mime, and would not do so at the time. So the next video, The Perfect Kiss, was the band singing live and was quite expensive. Making videos was not a routine of Factory, but something fun and interesting to do."

Like most things at Factory records, perhaps it didn’t make sense from a marketing perspective, but it did preserve the integrity of the musicians themselves.

"While the band was very democratic, they were also lazy.. That is not a derogatory observation, but rather a compliment. They did what they did best: make music. And live a life of rock and roll. They handled their videos, like their artwork by Peter Saville, by giving Peter and I control rather than the record company."

Even after 25 years of working with the band, and years after the end of Factory Records, New Order continue to work in their own way, putting out albums with Saville cover art and allowing Michael Shamberg to produce films and videos where possible. According to Shamberg, there is only one thing that keeps an artist creating.

"Passion. For example, the last time I worked for New Order it was for the video Crystal directed by Johan Renck. I ended up "executive producing" the video where I did little more than stand around and observe. I like Johan and we got along well, and I made good money, but it was very unsatisfying and I stopped working with the band until I could once again do what I wanted."

The music of Joy Division tells their story, and their sound reflects and captures their city, their time, and their lives. The lyrics chronicle Ian’s state of mind, from the miserable to the desperate, from ‘Isolation’ to ‘Love will tear us Apart’. It is this spirit, together with the meaning and passion people got from Joy Division’s music that Shamberg hopes to capture in Enigmatic..

"Ian’s lyrics are powerful, and when you see him perform in even the most trashy archive available, his performance is unique and engaging…we feel that he let himself go to the edge and not hide what so many of us do. In a sense he lived for some of us, those who share in the beauty and the horror of the magic of Joy Division."

Thanks to Mil for the submission and informations

Excerpts taken from .
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