“Blur: to the end”: friendship and rebirth in a documentary
Every time Damon Albarn, Alex James, Graham Coxon and Dave Rowntree They find themselves making music, usually after long break periods, the event becomes memorable. “Blur: to the end” by Toby L., documentary in Italian early at the Seeyusound Festival in TurinFriday 21 February at the Cinema Massimo at 9 pm, he says “From inside” yet another rebirth. It does so by focusing everything on deep relationship among its components. And it is as if the audience was there, among them, and became the fifth element of training. This fourth project dedicated to Blur, after “Starshaped”, “No distance left to run” (on the 2009 world tour) e “New World Towers” (on the realization of “The Magic Whip” in 2015), however, offers an unpublished look.
Thanks to the total access granted to the directorthe film, in fact, reveals in a intimate way and without filters a band that does not limit itself to chasing the past, but experiences the experience as a pause from everyday lifenow also made of domestic routines. Enriched by exclusive films that alternate live performances of the most iconic songs, moments in studio and life on the road, “Blur: to the end” presents itself as a profound portrait of one of the most long -lived and influential English bands. The Blur have left an indelible mark on British and world culture, not only as a group, but also thanks to the sound experiments carried out over the years by the multifaceted and magical Albarn. “Blur: to the End” brings the spotlight to the surprising return of the Blur in 2023, with the release of the acclaimed album “The Ballad of Darren” After eight years of record silence. The film explores the link between the four members of the band – friends and travel companions for over three decades – during the reunion for the recording of the new album and preparations for two sold -out concerts at the Wembley Stadium in London. The Blur, in reality, have never officially separated or dissolved, wanted to follow other currents After the 2015 “The Magic Whip” tour: in the band there are those who like Damon Albarn dedicated themselves to Gorillaz and their solo projects, but also those like Alex James preferred to produce cheese in his farm. Friends who cannot and do not want to separate.
“The Ballad of Darren” marked the return, a great return and that friendship, that harmony, remained intact. Colchester’s Scalmanati have grown and matured, never as in this documentary project, just like in the last record effort, it is understood how much they changed over time reaching more adult and wise sections, but they do not lose their musical and human restlessness : They started with the 1991 debut diving into the soft sea of Britpop and then moved on to the rough and punk world of “Parklife” reaching up to rock more than alternative in the 1997 album of the same name, a turning point wanted by Graham Coxon. With “The Magic Whip” of 2015 they returned to the scenes after twelve years of stop and also in that case, musically, they never proved completely aligned, Always traveling. An process that led them to “The Ballad of Darren”, a record with energetic moments, but many, most of them, more melancholy and intense. Everything has reverberated in the great concerts in Wembleyimmortalized in the documentary, which seems to have something epic and infinite. Scenes of Giganti Live are to be counterbalanced at intimate moments, passed together by the band, to shiny splinters of life. Everything mixes.
