Shine a Light

Colour, 35 mm
USA, United Kingdom, 2007, 122 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

A remarkable film by Martin Scorsese documenting an exhilarating concert by the world-famous Rolling Stones, held over the course of two evenings in the autumn of 2006 in New York’s Beacon Theatre. Eighteen non-static cameras operated by several Oscar winners capture the rock’n’rollers on stage, particularly in close-ups or semi-close-up shots. This allows the cinematic perfectionist to capture the pensionable-age musicians’ incredible energy and their telepathic communication on the stage from right up front. The score of songs, including some of the cornerstones of rock’n’roll music, such as the rebel anthem “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”, are interlaced with archive interviews. Among the highlights of the concert, which was hosted by Bill Clinton, are songs for which 70-year-old blues-rocker Buddy Guy and the sexual she-devil Christina Aguilera, 50 years his junior, take the stage with the band.

About the director

Martin Scorsese (b. 1942, New York) studied film at New York University, graduating in 1966. One of the most important directors of New Hollywood, he worked within classic genres, as evinced by his dramas Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980), the comedy The King of Comedy (1982), the period melodrama The Age of Innocence (1993) and the biopic The Aviator (2004). He explored issues of moral imperatives in a world of violence in Mean Streets (1973), GoodFellas (1990) and Casino (1995). His sole Oscar was awarded to him for the thriller The Departed (2006). Scorsese’s interest in music was reflected in the retro-musical New York, New York (1977) and in a number of documentaries such as The Last Waltz (1978) and the anthology The Blues (2003).