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Pulp: A Film About Life, Death, and Supermarkets (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Soda Pictures Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (20th May 2015). |
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The Film
 On December 8th 2012, the reformed band Pulp played their last concert in their hometown of Sheffield, England. In the 2 months leading up to the show, German-born New Zealander filmmaker Florian Habicht made a portrait of the band: singer and lyricist Jarvis Cocker, drummer Nick Banks, keyboardist Candida Doyle, bassist Steve Mackey, and guitarist Mark Webber, as well as a portrait of the city of Sheffield. First, a little history about the band: At the age of 15, frontman Jarvis Cocker started the band “Arabacus Pulp” when he was a high school student in Sheffield. Eventually the band name was shortened to just “Pulp”, and with a few lineup changes 5 years later with Cocker being the only original member, they released their debut album “It” in 1983 on independent Red Rhino Records. Limited to 2000 copies on vinyl, it did not make any chart success. The band left the label and finally released their second album “Freaks” 4 years later in 1987, and their third “Separations” in 1992, both for Fire Records. Neither albums charted nor did any singles from the albums. Things started to turn in 1994, during the start of the Brit-pop movement with bands like Oasis and Blur making a big splash on the music scene worldwide. Pulp’s 1994 major label debut “His ‘N’ Hers” was released by Island Records, and produced some minor singles with “Do You Remember The First Time?” and “Razzmatazz”, as well as a remixed version of the fan-favorite “Babies”. It was lumped together with the Brit-pop movement and proved to be a minor success, but their biggest breakthrough was to come one year later. The end of 1995 saw the release of Pulp’s fifth album “Different Class”, an album which is still frequently labeled as one of the best albums of the year, as well as one of the best albums of the 1990’s. The album produced their best-known songs “Common People” and “Disco 2000”, and all 4 singles from the album charted in the top 10 in the singles charts in the UK. The album debuted at #1 on the UK charts and became their first album to chart in other countries as well. Selling more than a million copies in the UK alone, it remains their biggest seller and most widely acclaimed album critically. 12 years after their first album went completely unnoticed, they were suddenly the biggest “new” band from England. Cocker’s singing style and brilliantly creative and vivid lyrics were embraced by fans and critics alike, placing Pulp as a band quite different from the rest of the Brit-pop movement. But with fame came a price: drug addictions, member changes, and loss of creative energy to name a few. Following up “Different Class” with an equally good, or better album looked impossible. Expectations were incredibly high. 1998 finally saw the eagerly awaited follow up “This Is Hardcore”. It was immediately attacked by feminist groups for the artwork, and the music and lyrics were criticized for being darker and having a very negative tone compared to “Different Class”. Even with the criticism, the album managed to get extremely positive reviews and chart at #1 in the UK, and became their first album to chart in the US. The music video for the extremely unconventional single of the title track “This Is Hardcore” is considered one of the most acclaimed music videos ever made, one that mixes film genres from the past, making homages to 1930’s gangster films, 1940’s films noir, Douglas Sirk films, and Busby Berkeley musicals. 2001 saw the release of their last studio album “We Love Life”, produced by the legendary Scott Walker, an artist that highly inspired Pulp’s music. Although the album was given positive reviews from critics, it underperformed commercially, reaching #6 on the UK charts and none of the singles broke the top 20. The following year, the band announced they were splitting up. In the film, Cocker mentions that he was not satisfied how the band broke up in 2002 with no farewell or having a proper sendoff. The band reformed in 2010 to play live shows, and announced that their December 2012 show at The Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield would be their final show. Sprinkled throughout are not only interviews with the band members but also with the people of Sheffield. Butchers in the meat market, a newspaper salesman, elderly people on the street, and children in their front lawn are all interviewed and they make up some of the best moments in the film. The people talk about their home in Sheffield, what they think of Pulp being cultural icons of the city, and the price of fame. Sheffield has had a diverse music scene over the years, like 80’s hard rock band Def Leppard, acclaimed electronic duo Autechre, and one of the most successful English bands of the 2000’s The Arctic Monkeys all came from the area, and the people interviewed are quite proud of their city. The film is equally about Pulp as it is about Sheffield, which also means there are some gaps that are unfulfilled in the documentary. With the number of past members of the band enough to fill a classroom, none of them were interviewed. Nor were family members of the band or producers. The documentary doesn’t focus much on the negatives either. The years of struggle for the band to hit the bigtime and the struggle the band went through after hitting the bigtime are not discussed. The same with the interviews of the random people in Sheffield, as they have quite a lot of nice things to say about their city, but is Sheffield really that heavenly? Sometimes it feels like the audience is watching a tourist attraction film. The film is really made for the fans. If you are looking for a complete history of the band you will not be getting it here. If you are looking into getting into the band’s music this is not the place to start. The film is document of their “farewell” show and the place that both inspired the band and also became the place the band inspired. Note this is a region B locked Blu-ray disc and will only play on a region B or region free Blu-ray player.
Video
Shot digitally, the 1.85:1 theatrical ratio in AVC MPEG-4 1080p looks spectacular. The concert scenes and the interview scenes look colorful and vivid, crisp and clear. A very good transfer from Soda Pictures.
Audio
The sound is offered in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English LPCM 2.0 stereo. The concert scenes sound great in the 5.1 track and the background music as well. Not just Pulp songs but songs like the “Sean” theme from “Duck, You Sucker” by Ennio Morricone is used. Dialogue also sounds great, but there are a few times when it is hard to decipher what they are saying. Interview scenes with wind hitting microphones have some hard to understand dialogue, and the newspaper man has quite an accent that it’s a bit hard to get. There is one scene with an interview in German and for that scene, there are burned in English subtitles. Besides that, there are no subtitles on the disc.
Extras
For the main Blu-ray there are only start-up trailers: Start-up Trailers (1080p): - "American Interior" - "Seduced and Abandoned" - "Omar" The second disc which is a DVD includes the extras. The DVD is region 2 PAL. Bonus Concert Tracks: - "I Spy" (6:38) - "Help the Aged" (4:32) - "Sheffield Sex City" (8:00) - "Mis-Shapes" (4:56) The bonus concert tracks are full song performances from their final show. In 1.78:1, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo Saskia Cocker Sings "Something Changed" (3:27) Jarvis Cocker’s sister Saskia sings the Pulp song from “Different Class”, with a few lyrical changes. In 1.78:1, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo Extended Band Interviews: - Nick Banks (3:28) - Jarvis Cocker (5:57) - Candida Doyle (2:53) - Steve Mackey (4:17) - Mark Webber (4:14) Interviews with the five band members with material that just didn’t fit into the film. In 1.78:1, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo "Behind the Scenes" featurette (14:29) Through interviews, Cocker and producer Alex Boden talk seeing Habicht’s film “Love Story”, wanting to meet the director for a documentary, breaking down the concept of the film, how they got the interviews with random people on the street, using local dancers and singers, and shooting the final concert. In 1.78:1, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo Extended Sheffield Interviews (9:07) The interviews with the people of Sheffield shown throughout the film get some more screen time. In 1.78:1, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo Theatrical Trailer (1:59) In 2.40:1, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo "Love Story" Trailer (2:54) Florian Habicht’s 2011 film made in New York, which is part documentary / part fiction. In 1.78:1, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, in English and German with burned in German subtitles for the German portions. Good extras as they are, it seems there could have been more. There are only 4 full songs here only in 2.0 stereo, as opposed to the full concert, and the only family member to get screentime in the extras department is Jarvis' sister. Also, since the Blu-ray was encoded on a single-layer Blu-ray, these extras could have been bumped to 1080p and placed on a dual layer Blu-ray without problems.
Packaging
Packaged in a 2-disc Digi-pak case with a slipcover, it looks very sleek. The artwork is based off the cardboard cutouts of the band members used in the "Different Class" artwork. In the case is a postcard with reprinted autographs of the band members.
Overall
Even though the film made it look like this was the absolute end of Pulp, they never announced that they were splitting, but “cruising off into the sunset” and placing a fitting endcap. It should be noted that following the concert on Christmas Day, the band did release especially for the fans a digital download of a new rerecorded “After You” originally from “We Love Life”. Also, in May of 2015, at the venue of Pulp’s first gig, there was an unveiling of a special music heritage plaque for the band, with all the members attending. The documentary is a unique look at the band and the city, and is very recommended for music fans.
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