Review: Immagine in Cornice

The other night, I picked up the Pearl Jam film, Immagine in Cornice. I call this a film because it’s definitely not your standard concert DVD with an entire medley of songs that pack two hours. This film is by Danny Clinch, who is a frequent photographer for Pearl Jam (as well as other big acts like Springsteen).

Upon starting the film, I admired the man’s film style as he goes for abstract shots – like through the legs of a person, or a reflection in a puddle. Essentially, the film tracks Pearl Jam’s five day stint in Italy and gives us both some great performances as well as some behind-the-scenes action, such as what they do in their downtime, how setlists are changed on the fly because of the feel of the crowd, and general band goodness.

At first I didn’t know if I would enjoy this film as I thought I would prefer more of a concert film which captures the entire 3 hour concert, but I was pleasantly surprised that this film played out like U2’s Rattle and Hum (one of the best band films in my opinion) and it’s sense of style never left me disappointed.

The sound was incredible on the big stereo but the visuals, THE VISUALS! I swore I was watching HDTV! They filmed with both Super 8 (hee hee) and Hi-Definition cameras and it made quite the difference. It’s probably the clearest DVD I’ve purchased.

I was disappointed to see that Betterman was cut, and I think Rocking in the Free World was also? Hard to tell…maybe the original performance missed a verse.

Here’s a sense of the great style…during World Wide Suicide, he switches to different performances of the song over the five nights. It’s really fascinating to see the change. He also does this at the end of the film and you see how every night ended. With a microphone dropped, or a guitar flying, or Eddie taking a flying leap off of a speaker stack. Very cool indeed.

I would have to say that this film is now in my Top 3 band films of all time. Hmm…what are my other choices? U2’s Rattle and Hum is definitely there…I’ll have to think about what my third one is.

If you are any sort of Pearl Jam fan, pick this up. You won’t be disappointed (unless all you like about Pearl Jam is the music. In that case, you get about 40 minutes of it instead of 3 hours).