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The 23rd Foyle Film Festival has again come up with a "Must See, But May Never Again See" nugget for the discerning music movie fan. Last year I saw the Ian Dury biopic with Andy Serkis, this year a documentary film about The Doors called '". It's already been shown on these shores, at the Belfast Film Festival, so you've absolutely no excuse for not seeing it. I am a fan of the band, although until now I've remained relatively immune to the poetic charms of the singer, Jim Morrison, probably as a reaction to the cult which grows up around any performer who doesn't reach his 28th birthday. It was Robbie Krieger, remember, who wrote "Light My Fire".
"When You're Strange" remains head and shoulders above your usual rock movie in that it's all archive footage, including film of Jim driving through the desert and stopping off here and there, presumably accompanied by a chum with a camera. The fact that both Morrison and keyboard player Ray Manzerak studied film at UCLA must have meant there was a lot of footage around. Onstage, backstage, in the car, on a plane, on a yacht - it's all there. No present day talking heads with neatly gathered thoughts about what happened, just a voiceover by Johnny Depp. Some of the footage you've probably seen before - the band being asked to introduce themselves as they emerge from London airport - and Jim looks lost in thought before he just smiles directly into the camera (yes, like Eric Morecambe). Most of it will come as pure pleasure, including a brilliant scene where Morrison is wandering through the crowd before one of their shows, when they were being supported by The Who, leafing through a programme, and asking how much they were. "A dollar? Can I read it before I buy it?". Forget about the Lizard King persona, the drinking, the beard and the Parisian bath tub. Look in wonder at the great singer of a great band who can't be blamed for the leather trousered copyists who followed him.Ìý