As I am a big fan of the bands who secured the glory of Factory Records, especially Joy Division and Durutti Column, I was quite impatient to discover "24 Hour Party People". I watched it last night and the first thing i will say will be the following one: how disappointed I was! The scriptwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce and especially the director Michael Winterbottom did a really bad work and I will try to explain why.
For me "24 Hour Party People" is an enjoyable movie to listen to, mainly thanks to the music. Someone has written on this site that you had to be British to appreciate the music. Not necessarily. I am myself French and I love most of the bands who signed for Factory Records. Obviously, you have to like this time (English independent music of the eighties), this culture. That said, these bands aren't very known in France where they remain at the stage of cult-bands. Michael Winterbottom's flick was apparently successful in Great-Britain, but in France it was belatedly launched (on the 4th June 2003) and it went unnoticed. But the main problem is that "24 Hour Party People" is, visually an exhausting movie to watch. I must say that I don't appreciate very much the making adopted by Winterbottom. There's an amateurish side, reinforced by a granular and quite dirty photography in his way of filming that I highly disapprove. It seems that his camera can't stand still even in the quietest moments. On another hand, when the movie arrives at the end of the eighties (the golden age for Manchester), as if he wanted to recreate the crazy atmosphere of the town in 1989-1990, he didn't skimp on the flashy effects which ends up annoying the spectator. Then, Winterbottom must have been influenced by "Trainspotting" (1996) because in his directing, we can sometimes detect a video clip side.
To go on, the authors of the movie seem to have forgotten one important thing. Factory Records wasn't only limited to Joy Division and the Happy Mondays. There was also Durutti Column and New Order. All right, the movie doesn't forget them but you can only see them for a few minutes. Given that, the film nearly skips the mid-eighties and quite obviously Joy Division and the Happy Mondays's careers especially interested the authors. Due to this, you can easily separate the movie in two parts. The first one mainly focuses on Joy Division while the second involves mostly the Happy Mondays. This characteristic is confirmed with the cover of the original soundtrack which depicts Tony Wilson (of course) but also Ian Curtis and Shaun Ryder. By way of consolation, we can object that Winterbottom had intuition for the cast because the actors he hired to play the musicians are very true to life, especially the ones in the roles of Ian Curtis and Bernard Sumner. Furthermore, the actor who acts Martin Hannett is very convincing in the shameless personality of this extraordinary producer.
Tony Wilson's voice-off is necessary to guide us through the most important stages. So as to give the spectator interest in the film, it can also be a good thing to make Wilson directly speak to the camera to make us share his feelings, his thoughts on Manchester, the music. So long as this idea doesn't overload the movie and I have unfortunately this impression. Winterbottom and Boyce should have restrained these too frequent apparitions.
The screenplay retained the most outstanding moments in the history of Tony Wilson and Factory Records but it doesn't stop it from having neglecting important stages as well. For example, I am sure that the fans of Joy Division would have liked to see the band recording their great disembodied album, "Closer" (1980). Then, in the first part of the work, the "punk" and "new-wave" spirit are well rendered (in one sequence, we see one character taking off from the wall a poster depicting Pink Floyd's album "Dark Side Of The Moon" (no Pink Floyd in 1977!) as well as the festive one in the second part through the Hacienda and ecstasy. But because, the director wanted to dazzle the spectator, at a visual level, it is difficult to fully enjoy this exhausting film. So you are never touched by a movie that is meant to take a nostalgic look at a past time.
This is my opinion about "24 Hour Party People": excellent music but an average movie. If a director wishes to make a film about Alan McGee, the former boss of Creation Records (Oasis and Primal Scream's former record company), I hope he won't do the same mistakes as Michael Winterbottom with this flick.
For me "24 Hour Party People" is an enjoyable movie to listen to, mainly thanks to the music. Someone has written on this site that you had to be British to appreciate the music. Not necessarily. I am myself French and I love most of the bands who signed for Factory Records. Obviously, you have to like this time (English independent music of the eighties), this culture. That said, these bands aren't very known in France where they remain at the stage of cult-bands. Michael Winterbottom's flick was apparently successful in Great-Britain, but in France it was belatedly launched (on the 4th June 2003) and it went unnoticed. But the main problem is that "24 Hour Party People" is, visually an exhausting movie to watch. I must say that I don't appreciate very much the making adopted by Winterbottom. There's an amateurish side, reinforced by a granular and quite dirty photography in his way of filming that I highly disapprove. It seems that his camera can't stand still even in the quietest moments. On another hand, when the movie arrives at the end of the eighties (the golden age for Manchester), as if he wanted to recreate the crazy atmosphere of the town in 1989-1990, he didn't skimp on the flashy effects which ends up annoying the spectator. Then, Winterbottom must have been influenced by "Trainspotting" (1996) because in his directing, we can sometimes detect a video clip side.
To go on, the authors of the movie seem to have forgotten one important thing. Factory Records wasn't only limited to Joy Division and the Happy Mondays. There was also Durutti Column and New Order. All right, the movie doesn't forget them but you can only see them for a few minutes. Given that, the film nearly skips the mid-eighties and quite obviously Joy Division and the Happy Mondays's careers especially interested the authors. Due to this, you can easily separate the movie in two parts. The first one mainly focuses on Joy Division while the second involves mostly the Happy Mondays. This characteristic is confirmed with the cover of the original soundtrack which depicts Tony Wilson (of course) but also Ian Curtis and Shaun Ryder. By way of consolation, we can object that Winterbottom had intuition for the cast because the actors he hired to play the musicians are very true to life, especially the ones in the roles of Ian Curtis and Bernard Sumner. Furthermore, the actor who acts Martin Hannett is very convincing in the shameless personality of this extraordinary producer.
Tony Wilson's voice-off is necessary to guide us through the most important stages. So as to give the spectator interest in the film, it can also be a good thing to make Wilson directly speak to the camera to make us share his feelings, his thoughts on Manchester, the music. So long as this idea doesn't overload the movie and I have unfortunately this impression. Winterbottom and Boyce should have restrained these too frequent apparitions.
The screenplay retained the most outstanding moments in the history of Tony Wilson and Factory Records but it doesn't stop it from having neglecting important stages as well. For example, I am sure that the fans of Joy Division would have liked to see the band recording their great disembodied album, "Closer" (1980). Then, in the first part of the work, the "punk" and "new-wave" spirit are well rendered (in one sequence, we see one character taking off from the wall a poster depicting Pink Floyd's album "Dark Side Of The Moon" (no Pink Floyd in 1977!) as well as the festive one in the second part through the Hacienda and ecstasy. But because, the director wanted to dazzle the spectator, at a visual level, it is difficult to fully enjoy this exhausting film. So you are never touched by a movie that is meant to take a nostalgic look at a past time.
This is my opinion about "24 Hour Party People": excellent music but an average movie. If a director wishes to make a film about Alan McGee, the former boss of Creation Records (Oasis and Primal Scream's former record company), I hope he won't do the same mistakes as Michael Winterbottom with this flick.