Frank movie

[technicoloraudio]

I just watched it for the second time. I think I may have enjoyed it more the second time, the first time I might have geeked a little bit, like even though the situation in the movie was super strange and far removed from everything i know to be reality, it was still hitting close to home? i guess...i dunno...the second time though i really enjoyed it and noticed a lot more about how each character is really well developed. and mags gilly all day baby.

[Inconuucl]

I got the sound track on vinyl thanks to Record store day.

[liskeardburns]

This is a great film and hopefully will have turned a few people onto Frank Sidebottom but I fear that ship may have sailed. 5:9:88 is quite a record.

[jrmy]

I need to watch it again and take notes - the writers threw in a lot of story details from other legendary "crazy bandleaders" like Captain Beefheart. The whole bit about the character of the mannequin-fucker was a direct lift of a character described in Frank Zappa's autobiography, down to the mannequin named "Caroline Cuntley." I know that Jon Ronson said they built out the story to make it a bit more archetypical, and that he hoped that the tone was true to Frank's legacy, if not the facts. As I understand it, Chris Seavey (Frank Sidebottom's "secret identity") was comparatively well adjusted when not in character, though he apparently stayed totally in character whenever the mask was on.

[OddKnowledge]

my girlfriend and I watched this and enjoyed it. then we saw the dedication in the credits to Chris Seavey. we gave each other confused looks for a minute (wait... this was based on an actual person?) and then watched videos of Frank Sidebottom on youtube. it was a very strange night for us.

the room that the band wrote their album in looks like it was modeled after the set of Frank's fantastic shed show.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmGTVHBiHEo[/youtube]

[tabbycat]

my back passage catches all the sun.

[penelope tree]

speaking as a brit who survived the 1980s/1990s, i have to say it strikes me as totally bizarre that anyone in the states has even heard of frank sidebottom. he was so small time and strictly northern-student-cult material even at the height of his anti-fame. only in the internet age i suppose. i wonder what it can mean out of time and place, myth-like.

btw, if there are any quotes or referencs in his lyrics/act you want translated, let me know and i will do my best to give them sense. as if they ever had any to begin with.

I'm not sure whether Frank Sidebottom was quite as obscure as you have stated, I remember watching him on national tv as a child!

The main protagonist in the Frank film is completely divorced from the character, history and cultural context of Frank Sidebottom in many respects. The only thing that is really preserved is the mask! Michael Fassbender's Frank is a troubled American outsider artist, essentially, who appears to have been based in the London area (the film was actually largely filmed in and around Dublin). There aren't any northern English characters in the film and the music that Frank's band performs is a form of noise-rock far removed from the work of Frank Sidebottom. The potential audience is probably relatively limited but it would be accessible to anyone with an interest in underground music, DIY culture, outsider art, etc. There's not a lot of films that have really explored that terrain.

I watched Frank with my girlfriend last year and we were the only people in the cinema! I was intrigued by the concept of a film based on Frank Sidebottom and found it more thought provoking than I had anticipated, as I had assumed it would be largely comedic in nature. I did find Domhnall Gleeson's character somewhat irritating and distracting, I think that could have been refined slightly.

[Inconuucl]

My problem with him was entirely in his complete lack of change in the movie, for a second it seem like he did, but as soon as they moved to the US he reverted back to how he was in the beginning, despite spending A FUCKING ENTIRE YEAR AND A BIT with the band. I mean, really?

[tabbycat]

what's the time?

just gone quarter to two.

what time do they close?

6am for about an hour. to mop up and empty the machines.

we've got ages then.

[mathias]

rewatched this recently to introduce someone else to it, and I think it holds up. But I'm not that familiar with the original Frank Sidebottom so I can't speak to that

I feel like the choice to fill in gaps with details of other fringe/outsider artists really made it. It's an amalgam of all those stories, with Frank's head providing the visual variety.

It's also a story about how social media affects us, which reminded me of the (also excellent) Jon Favreau movie Chef.

[Eivind August]

from your description it sounds a bit like 'being john malkovich' meets 'last days (kurt cobain biopic)'.

This is actually not far off.

[penelope tree]

i lived on the south coast of the uk during his main active (mid 80sto early 90s) period and never saw him on any of the big four bbc1/2 itv and channel 4 (channel five didn't exist then). maybe if you were in the granada catchment area up north?
i know you could get an obscure manchester community channel on sky tv in those days if you scrolled through the dregs, so he could have come up on there which would have had national coverage (and ten actual viewers). i only know it existed because i once tuned into it for a local roses gig they broadcast. but that was community tv in the extreme. 'digital' tv in the pejorative sense. handheld camera, a rented van and a pub lunch on expenses for wages. frank never 'crossed over' from student union to beeb/channel 4 like vic reeves big night out, julian clary, et al. but i don't doubt you. he may have slipped onto something like the tube, the word or tfi friday in cameo and i missed it. have never been a big tv watcher. but i think it would have been an exceptional thing. re big night out, does 'the man with the stick's holiday song' remind you of anyone in particular..? (am guessing this is 1990/91ish so entirely contemporary with frank)

I would have been in Surrey at the time, so pretty remote from Frank's primary audience! I've checked online and the show I saw him on was called Remote Control, which was a game show presented by Tony Wilson on Channel 4. Frank Sidebottom was part of the regular cast along with Phil Cornwell and the programme ran for a couple of years circa Madchester.

The Fantastic Shed Show was apparently broadcast in most ITV regions but I don't think I ever saw that.

Channel M came into being much later and Frank S featured quite prominently, but I wouldn't really class that as a national tv channel! It did have some good live music programmes though. .

[blakestree]

I watched this last night and was sorta disappointed. I was hoping for something inspirational, that explored the mind of a fringe artist. What I got was the story of Jon's failure. And, even in that, there wasn't much heart. I didn't hate the film, but enjoyed the first half more. Maggie was the stand out. Rocking her MS-20. I found Fassbender's performance, and the soundtrack, unexceptional.

[tabbycat]

*gestures to magazine*

no, i've read it. thanks.

[penelope tree]

but i stand corrected re the frank tv appearances. and you score bonus points for having even heard of penelope tree (felt connection?).

Yes, I'm a big fan of Lawrence, another unyielding and only fleetingly fashionable artist that served as the inspiration for an entertaining and slightly frustrating film.