What Do You Do For An Encore? - Pulp Film Thread

[eamonn]

Trailer for the new Pulp film has dropped:

PULP: WHAT DO YOU DO FOR AN ENCORE? charts PULP's rise from Sheffield outsiders to Britpop provocateurs. Directed by Garth Jennings and narrated by legendary frontman Jarvis Cocker.
Experience it in cinemas for one night only.
UK – September 18
Canada – September 23
US – September 24

Coming soon to MUBI.


90 minutes duration according to the article here:

https://pitchfork.com/story/watch-the-first-trailer-for-pulps-new-film-what-do-you-do-for-an-encore/#:~:text=Directed%20by%20their%20longtime%20collaborator,also%2Drans%20to%20Britpop%20darlings.

[Pulped]

Yet another thing that practically the entire planet won't be able to see due to the lack of a physical format? Then again, I hope I'm wrong.

[eamonn]

Fingers crossed for a disc release. So much stuff they could put on the extras... all the footage from the 02, more archive clips, band interviews... I want it all!

Not sure if Mubi have form for physical releases?

[Fran]

I'd never heard of Mubi before, but it looks like you can get a 7 day free trial, so it should still be accessible. I don't know if they charge you extra for each film or something, these things seem to try it all on these days, adverts too for the full package.

[lucyduck]

Same here, never heard Mubi before. I guess I will need to sign-up for a free trial to watch the movie ... I 99% won't use it again.
Also, what does it means "one night only"? I am lucky that it will on air in Canada, but what time it will go online and until ...? The movie will never go online or theater after the night? The information is not clear. If Mubi wants to promo themselves by playing Pulp's movie, then they need some details for people who never heard about the service. 

[Fran]

Same here, never heard Mubi before. I guess I will need to sign-up for a free trial to watch the movie ... I 99% won't use it again.
Also, what does it means "one night only"? I am lucky that it will on air in Canada, but what time it will go online and until ...? The movie will never go online or theater after the night? The information is not clear. If Mubi wants to promo themselves by playing Pulp's movie, then they need some details for people who never heard about the service. 

I think the one night only bit only refers to cinema screenings. It would be daft to make a film and not let anyone see it??

[eamonn]

Lol, of course. C'mon Lucky Duck, the film isn't gonna self-destruct at midnight just cos Jarvis turns 63 the next day...

[eamonn]

Looks like an early screening in Islington Sunday August 9th, a few tickets left...
It's billed as a mystery Britpop-band doc so don't blame me if it's the new Oasis film 


https://www.everymancinema.com/film-listing/1000048785-mubi-secret-preview-screening-live-dj/

[VoxPop]

Same here, never heard Mubi before. I guess I will need to sign-up for a free trial to watch the movie ... I 99% won't use it again.
Also, what does it means "one night only"? I am lucky that it will on air in Canada, but what time it will go online and until ...? The movie will never go online or theater after the night? The information is not clear. If Mubi wants to promo themselves by playing Pulp's movie, then they need some details for people who never heard about the service. 

I suspect the 1 night screening in Toronto will be at HotDocs . They also played Life, Death & Supermarkets. I can't imagine Canadian demand expects on a national theatre chain like Cineplex. 

[Fran]

Looks like an early screening in Islington Sunday August 9th, a few tickets left...
It's billed as a mystery Britpop-band doc so don't blame me if it's the new Oasis film 


https://www.everymancinema.com/film-listing/1000048785-mubi-secret-preview-screening-live-dj/

Is this the same film that Eamonn is talking about here?

[VoxPop]

For anyone in Canada, the movie is now listing on Cinplex's site, but no ticket or venue details

[Pip]

No sign of a physical release being announced, but I noticed whilst walking around Fopp yesterday that MUBI do sometimes publish Blu-rays, which gives us some hope.

[eamonn]

The film is only going to contain highlights of the O2 shows and I assume they collected more archive material than will appear in the film so there is extra content galore for a physical disc release.

[eamonn]

No spoilers but... it's really good!

[hawalius1]

Very excited to hear that!

Was there anything special about yesterday's screening - band in attendance, introductions, that sort of thing?

[eamonn]

A 20 minute convo about music docs between two music journalists, including the author of the recent book on Sheffield music Groovy, Laidback and Nasty
A History of Independent Music in Sheffield - Daniel Wray. Haven't read it yet but had a flick through a few weeks ago in Resident Records Brighton and there seemed  to be a fair bit on Pulp.

Each attendee got a tote bag with a cool pink poster of what I thought was the film image but when unrolled, turned out to be a setlist of the O2 performance (night one, I think) - A Sunset has been cut-off, I took the pic after midnight on the train home, I was pulped-out.

[Ian]

I think that is the setlist from night 2 as they played "Party Hard" on night 1.

[hawalius1]

Loving the fonts!

[Sturdy]

Come on! Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers!

[eamonn]

Sure... Ian what are the spoiler tags?

[Ian]

Code Select Expand

[spoiler="Spoiler title"]Spoiler[/spoiler]

will generate...

Spoiler title

Spoiler

I have also added the option to the editor.

[Violin_Thing]

Film was very good!

Launch party been announced - https://dice.fm/event/q2q6kp-star-shaped-x-mubi-brunch-lets-all-meet-up-exclusive-pulp-what-do-you-do-for-an-encore-official-launch-party-12th-sep-between-the-bridges-london-tickets?dice_id=Mab4ac76730a&_branch_match_id=1616069566835835897&utm_source=dice.fm&utm_campaign=event_share&utm_medium=event_share&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXz8nMy9ZLyUxO1UvL1fdNTDJJTDY3Mzc2SLQHCcZnptgiC6rVFaWmpRYVZealxycV5ZcXpxbZOmcU5eemAgBa2wH0UAAAAA%3D%3D

[eamonn]

Don't read this unless you've seen the film or don't mind some spoilers...

Setlist

So, thirteen songs from the O2 gigs are featured in full. In rough order, they are:
1 Spike Island
2 Sorted
3 Disco 2000
4 Grown Ups
5 Feeling Called Love
6 Misshapes
7 Hardcore
8 Sunrise
9 DYRTFT?
10 Something Changed
11 Babies
12 Common People
13 A Sunset

Review and Revelations

The concert is shot really well - multi-angles, the "core four" Pulp having their own close-up cameras. Nice long shots and views of the crowd and their reactions along with impassioned singing-along. Jarvis' staged poses we've see in recent years - for the start of Spike Island when he emerges from the DC cut-out spotlight, his arched back and flailing arms while wailing the final notes of FCL back-lit for effect and his immersion into the sun at the end of Sunrise - all brilliantly choreographed, are now officially preserved for posterity. In a way, it's a shame that the Jarvis move that started the latest reunion in '23, singing the intro of I Spy while emerging from beneath the stage, has not been officially recorded.
I did feel like punching the air after some of the songs - all brilliantly performed by the band with only the very occasional Cocker vocal out-stretch.

So, the rest of the meat of the film - the songs are separated and sometimes teed-up by a whimsical (obvs) piece narrative from Jarvis, from his childhood to Pulp. It's told through old photos, contemporaneous TV adverts (I'll leave those as a surprise but a hint for one of them, think of the lyrics to Razzmatazz), some of the Good Pop Bad Pop pictures both in static and moving form and eventually small snippets from the Pulp-archive.

Most of the archive throughout the film is borrowed from previous releases/Pulp-related docs (the home movies section on the Hits DVD, The Beat Is The Law, No Sleep til Sheffield, Life Death & Safeways etc.) plus assorted TV clips. There isn't much in the way of new Pulp home-movie footage which chimes with Mark Webber's response when I asked him last November whether they had used any of his archive (he said he told them what he had but they hadn't ask to use it at that point).

Jarvis uses the influence of television on him as a kid and beyond to contextualise the story along with his fascination with space and fame. I wouldn't say this grated on me but it might to others. My heart sank a little when I realised early-on that we were set for a "The Story of Jarvis Cocker" but it's not quite that even if he is the obvious main character. All the other members do get their own little momements of mention and archive display, even Russell. The bits about him are arguably the funniest in the film.

In terms of rare archive... there's a brief clip of Jarvis singing Dogs Are Everywhere in a wheelchair at, I think that gig where photos exist - Chesterfield Arts Centre, January 1986. Late in the film there's a clip (WLL era) where a foreign interviewer makes a hilarious, unwitting pun/usage of English to Jarvis and Candida. There are a bunch more of little clips I hadn't seen but most of them will be familiar to us freaks. Sometimes the clips are muted with Jarvis narrating over them. There's an extended crotch-shot of Smackey backstage, if that's your thing.

There's a cool animated bit of film-making consisting of a Pulp member timeline in exercise-book and pencil graphics form, showing everyone who has passed through. Captain Sleep even gets a shout-out along with his own cool cartoon drawing - slumped over a keyboard!

The quality of the footage from the O2 is at odds with the home-made nature of the archive but it makes for an amusing contrast. If it had just been a concert film, I don't think it would bear repeating much so I'm glad they went down this route.

It is another Pulp film that's a bit more of what we're familiar with - live & doc, though not fan-centred or talking-heads at all this time. If they interviewed any fans at the O2 gigs, they don't appear in the film. I guess it's content that could be an extra on a DVD/Blu-Ray if that comes to pass. The missing songs (7 or 8, I think) from the O2 are the obvious "bonus feature". Sadly, I'd be surprised if more archive clips were included on such a release - as they have borrowed most of them from previous Pulp-related films as mentioned above.

Overall, I would give it an 8/10. I enjoyed Life, Death & Supermarkets and I get some people found the interviews with Sheffield natives a bit patronising but I've no doubt the director Florian Habicht had good intentions. We got modern interviews with the rest of Pulp in that film - we don't here and maybe the film suffers from a lack of present-day non-Jarvis Pulp voices. No mention of the new Pulp-five either. There's a beautiful homage to Steve during Something Changed and some tender clips and words on Candida. Russell, as I said earlier gets a nice mention along with that hilarious quip from him while doing his make-up circa His'n'Hers about dressing like a heterosexual. Nothing is said about his departure. Mark and Nick are a little ignored, I felt. The story of how Nick joined the band is told but nothing about Webber's long route to becoming a member.

It's not the story of Pulp and it's not meant to be. But it is another frustrating halfway house of a Pulp film. I think Jarvis is very concious of being an entertainer and not boring the arse off casuals but Pulp's full story, arguably deserves the fulll treatment more than most bands given how unique it was. But the group have said before that they have no interest in a "VH1 Behind The Music" complete story. So I'm not going to criticise the film for not being that. All we were promised was a live concert film so the narrative scenes are in a way, a lovely bonus in themselves.

If I could have changed/added something it would have been to include the O2 performance of either OU or Acrylic Afternoons introduced with a couple of minutes of Jarvis narrating the 1989-'94 gradual breakthrough period. There is plenty of footage to illuminate that special time when the band finally began making waves. And at a total running time of just over 90 minutes, it wouldn't have dragged the arse out of it.

You'll never fully satisfy a Pulp uber-fan, I guess, but this film is as good as I hoped it would be and a really enjoyable viewing.

You'll smile a lot, laugh quite a bit and probably cry at least once near the end. The archive footage of Jarvis with his head on Steve's shoulder while mid-song is so poignant in the context of talking about Steve's death.

I think it'll probably impress non-Pulp fans too, if they have the attention span to give it a go. I can't wait to see it again, actually. Enjoy!

[Sturdy]

Lovely post Eamonn. Thank you. Won't remark on specifics our of respect for  those who'll see it and don't want spoilers but it sounds like a good use of 90 minutes for anyone.

[hawalius1]

Agreed - thanks Eamonn, that's a lovely review. It's good to know some of this before sitting down to watch it!

Bit of a spoiler

Also quite nice to discover that the Live! album is something of a special feature in itself, showcasing five songs that aren't in the film.