An Evening With Vincent Moon

The walk-up would-be patrons of the Rooftop Cinema were confused. “An Evening with Vincent Moon?” one said dubiously. “But... what movie is that?”

Good question, in the end.

In the midst of the Rooftop Cinema’s 2012 program of cult classics and recent hits was a night of short-form films curated by the French filmmaker Vincent Moon. Moon is something of an underground legend in the music video world, where he’s well-known for his somewhat Dogme-95 cinematic style. Fond of one-take, field-shot and very natural films, he has worked with the likes of The National and Mogwai, but at the same time loves to wander the globe, exploring fresh musical culture and capturing it with his lens.

As the sun went down, Moon played a selection of his favourite songs before officially opening the proceedings with his longer-format documentary An Island, featuring Danish band Efterklang. Introduced in a charmingly arrogant, very French fashion (“I said when we finished making it that it was shit, and I never wanted to see it again. Then, everybody loved it, I guess”), An Island proved to be a surreal, but strangely lovely, piece of work. Watching Efterklang make near-flawless music while riding in a flatbed truck or in the middle of the woods at night served as a welcome reminder of the beauty of musical performance, even in situations where instruments, audiences or professional recording tools are not readily at hand.

There’s something deliberately, beautifully artless in Moon’s filmmaking. A frame lazily zooming out on a blurred sunset can suddenly be filled by a wandering singer, who becomes the focus of the shot seemingly through accident more than design.

The second part of the evening consisted of Moon showing a selection of his music videos, featuring an incredibly diverse range of performers and styles. One video featured Yeasayer leading a sing-a-long at a private party; another showed a group of Indonesian hip-hop artists performing a song in their native tongue (save for one English word: lollipop). From the world famous to people who would barely be known outside their own neighbourhood, Moon has found and filmed them enjoying their most beloved passion.

As an event, An Evening With Vincent Moon perhaps lacked focus. “Curation” would be a strong word for what Moon was doing, which really appeared to be just playing films at random depending on what he felt like watching next. In a strange way, though, it felt reflective of his rootless style of living and filmmaking. Why tie oneself down to a schedule when there is art to be viewed and discussions to be had? His willingness to chat about his work with patrons during drinks breaks was indicative of a genuinely open, conversational attitude.

Field-recorded one-take music videos by an experimental French filmmaker may not be for everyone. However, if they are to be experienced, watching them while lying in a candy-striped lounger with the city lights as a backdrop is surely the way to do it. For anyone interested in alternative styles of filmmaking, Vincent Moon is a name worth knowing, and for anyone who wants to enjoy a beautiful evening of culture under the starts, the Rooftop Cinema is the place to be.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

An Evening With Vincent Moon
Rooftop Cinema
January 18th, 2012-01-23
More information and a full schedule of films: www.rooftopcinema.com.au