Nothing But the Beat

I attended the première of this at the Rex cinema in Paris last night and 75 minutes later asked myself "what was the point of that?". The whole movie is like the last 10 minutes of most "talking head" documentaries you see on TV (i.e. when the person/subject it's about is summarised by the participants) only it started like that and then continued in the same way. It doesn't really go into much depth (the "death of disco",the rise of House music and his early career are touched upon) but it's far too choppy and seemingly concerned with jumping to the next scene. As a vanity project it works (David seems a nice guy that lots of people like, who (along with his wife) has built up a very successful business and there is some impressive concert footage) but beyond that...I have no idea.

I first saw this on a late night showing on 4Music in the UK and it's not bad but it's not very detailed.

I think the film should have more about the history of his show, as nowadays this history is very hidden and overshadowed by the latest album, although it did show a long-time employee (Chris Willis). However, there were mentions of the gay club he worked at, what music was there, but just mentions. Perhaps this should have been almost like ABBA: The Movie with parts of the tour, a script, a historical part to the movie. But no, it was a cut-down preview to the album that should have a lot more detail. We want to be fascinated by his history. Listening to the current music is another thing we can do later. The film might as well cover other DJs. Perhaps there should be another film about the history of DJs rather than a cut-down film about just one. Plus, a whole hour is not enough, probably the director's hard drive isn't large enough. Hopefully, there will be a film about DJs I will be very interested in. You are recommended to watch it but is more of a promo than a biography so be careful.