Exploring 'Kurt & Courtney'

Corrine Courtney is a 1998 documentary directed by Nick Broomfield that is largely credited with popularizing the conspiracy theory that Courtney Love somehow played a role in Kurt Cobain's death and after it was cancelled. a screening two days before its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival as In addition to his meddling in the production of the film itself, by the time we arrived in Seattle, Cody had heard about it and we had already lost some of our funding. I think MTV folded so it became a different movie, it became a movie about why someone was trying to stop the movie, it got the reputation of being the movie Kourtney doesn't want us to see, the movie that is so raw, no holds barred, no one can see it, she won't let you, just cut that big man the movie that MTV called a parody of rock memories and some kind of grunge this is lumbar puncture and I guess I should give my opinion on all this Courtney Love affair.

I have no loyalty to her at all. I'm not a Courtney anymore. Love apologist I am one for Nick Broomfield, but with conspiracy theories in general, I naturally have an incredibly agnostic point of view. Could it be true? Yes, could it be total? Yes, my life is not validated or improved by any of these theories, being true, not that. It doesn't mean I'm still not interested in these ideas, although I'm just as open to the concept of ancient aliens as I am to the concept of time travel. I don't think so, but it's cool to think about, so my problems aren't outside of my ideology, they don't align with that of the movies, it's because this movie takes an interesting idea and doesn't do anything with it.

Let me break down the Curtin Courtney plot. The first third is Nick Broomfield interviewing random people who knew Kurt. the middle is him chasing down the rabbit hole, Courtney Love's theory of him and the last third is him needing to break up because he ran out of money. Not me, that's the plot of this hour and a half prostate exam called a documentary, see kids. We are a narrative film that is defined primarily by its story and its actors. In the same way, a documentary is only as good as the subject and the people it interviews and the people Nick interviews either doesn't take them seriously or tries to.

I need to sell. You've got something, this is the preliminary proof of the book just to show that it's actually finished. What does it say on the front that Kurt Cobain Beyond Nirvana could get some shine from the sun, so maybe we should shade it a little? or they are very high while being interviewed they think that someone else could have killed him no, I don't know, I think if he didn't, if he wasn't murdered, he was forced to commit suicide now, it's one thing to have a film that is limited by things such as the budget or the powers that intervene in it.

I mean, this was back in the '90s, where we saw a lot of young filmmakers who had no choice but to work within these limitations to tell their story, but I guess Nick's strategy wasn't the movie he can at least turn that in her favor Courtney Love has threatened legal action, so I removed the song. Instead, this song is by Kurt's best friend Dylan and his band, so you clearly had the ability to replace the song and provide an explaining voiceover. Why did you do it when all you needed to do was replace the song and no one would have said anything?

I know the technology for independent artists wasn't what it is today, but when you repeatedly stopped the film to carry out the most insignificant post-production. in front of your movie I was hoping to play the song about a girl, but these stills that Tracy had taken but the music is strictly controlled, yes, and the editing is difficult, this belongs in the DVD commentary, not the movie itself. There's so little to work with in a movie about Courtney Love killing Kurt Cobain that you need to spend time with his friend's music video. We wanted to know more about the cuts in the last days of Dylan Cal, who had bought the gun he killed.

This is pop. promotion for fans of Dylan and this very indie film that not only does he have a cameraman, which is a dream come true for editing, by the way, but he even has conference calls in the middle of the film talking to the film's financier in which it is. in the middle of filming, ok, so who was the right person? Just our internal, you know, the lawyers, the people with problems, make them feel comfortable with you, you know exactly what your angle is on the documentary, just before I get too ahead of myself, I should at least point it out.

The only part of this movie that I found really interesting is a scene where he talks to someone who used to do heroin with both Kurt and Courtney and there's a moment where he asks her why she thinks they were together in the first place, she just said: she's like a little ball of energy like a name counting person, you know, she just gets off on talking as much as she sucks attention from everyone else and he was happy to sit there and know that no one pays attention to him. for him, so I think he enjoyed that there was something about her that he couldn't do to be like a vampire or it's a moment that really made me sit down and rethink the dynamic of her as a couple in a way that's really interesting.

Instead of just saying "well, opposites attract," it ends up revealing more about both of them as individuals and as a couple, but since we're on the topic of couples, it doesn't help that the scene preceding this deals with one of the couples. Courtney and Chico's ex, is he spectacular? How did you guys originally meet in Clinton after we were playing a gig? She came over and just took a drink in my face. Instead he says: who do you think you are David Bowie with all your rock star poses and that Rochas art? green plaid pants, if you ever want to do it, you better take off your green plaid pants and cut the Rod Stewart and the poses and the blood ba-ba-ba-ba started giving us biting comments like who are you, but she did everything. with an English accent so he takes Nick to his basement where he has some memories of his relationship with Courtney this is from the time this is the bad thing about Courtney a lot of this is the courting thing oh she might want this Back here we go, here's how Kourtney will do it with a vocal delay at a Bucks concert locally.

I have this one on the list so funny where she says she becomes friends with Michael Stipe and what she does. She says, "she does it." I mean, you have to give. credit to her for that I love Kourtney, you gotta love Kourtney, no you're not okay, is anyone else bothered by this? Doesn't this seem unethical? I mean, let's be real for a minute, we all know Kourtney. We all know that there is that one person who is crazy for no reason and if you try to explain it to someone, no matter how well you know them, how true to the story you are or how rational you are in your explanation, you would still be dismissed as bitter, insensitive or even shaming when in reality that's exactly how it happened it was always overly dramatic it wasn't sincere it didn't feel I mean considered my wife and I fought back and forth but it's real with Kourtney He was always, you know, the navigator behind Reza, his eyes, he's a little dog.

I need to play today and sleep. We all know Courtney Love, but am I still the only one who thinks it's shit that they're actually going through her personal belongings like books? photos and diary entries that will be used in the film and you can say that it is difficult that she left with him, but no one else sees a serious problem with this and the kindest and gentlest Charlie Manson is still Charlie Manson, so Don't do it to me, Courtney. I don't care if you are Jesus and your lawyers are the twelve disciples, don't do it to me if I have to put on a guitar and go on stage and knock you down I will do it myself because I haven't done it to me. you never betrayed yourself and now you've crossed me you didn't give me what you owed me you stole my career you made me run away from it you'll get yours you'll get yours you'll have to be Frances Farmer or you'll be June Cleaver but I don't care just walk away what such a wonderfully objective view on our subject, this movie is actually much more enjoyable if you imagine a broom-wielding Nick as one of Sacha Baron Cohen's alter egos wincing. comic version of the presenter as if he is a failed journalist and this is the story that is sure to bring him out of the darkness, but each twist leads to something that slowly kills any hope he has left in him, you did something, you dealt with Coutny, yes, she I offered. 50 grand to beat up Kurt Cobain, yeah I was telling you that she got 50 grand to beat up Kurt Cobain and that's the fact that people might think you're not the most reliable witness, well that's it Too bad, you may not be a reliable witness.

I think about that now, yeah, hey, fifty thousand talks a lot, buy me a beer, I could talk a little more, so you might be wondering who this Nick Broomfield is. Believe it or not, the way this film is presented is not only his trademark, but he is actually credited as a pioneer of this exact style. He has directed over 30 films, both narrative and documentary, but is best known for his contributions to the latter and for applying a gonzo journalism aesthetic to his work, being a notable influence on guys like Michael Moore. or Morgan Spurlock, the idea is that instead of going through a series of talking heads, we focus on the theme and our director pursues the story and therefore tries to understand our theme with both stories running simultaneously to give us a most sincere point of view. otherwise, he wouldn't normally be accompanied by a single cameraman and operating his boom microphone to have as small a crew as possible, so scenes that wouldn't normally be important to the film, botched interviews, dead ends of the story are left in for a more raw and unfiltered method, the director essentially becomes an avatar for us as an audience to follow.

Nick is so well known for this that he even uses it to make commercials for Volkswagen. They said they wanted a CD player with a very smooth ejection mechanism to where. It opens and closes exactly, but they don't even play music. I don't know if it was mmm. They smell like coffee, but this is what you know why you've heard of those other guys and not Nick, because for better or for worse. They have a personality Michael Moore whether you love him or hate him he's a person with his own politics and principles you know where you stand with him Morgan Spurlock is entertaining.

I'm fine with following it for a couple of hours because it makes it clear what the end goal is. It's this guy, I get nothing from him and I'm sure you don't want to upstage anyone in your movie, but when you put the focus on yourself to that point and you turn out to be as memorable as a paint sample at Home Depot, you can come. It seems desperate for attention, which isn't a good thing when you're making a movie about the death of an iconic pop culture figure, but if we're going to be fair, I'll admit that on a good day it feels like a movie that through a series of setbacks came down to what we see here and it's something he's now contractually obligated to publish rather than something he's actually proud of, not everything his people do and that's life, but any other day feels like the emptiest cash. grip made of nothing but his own blatant vanity because for someone who has been a filmmaker for over 20 years at this point with so many films under his belt, he comes across as blatantly incompetent, this is a building in Olympia that Kurt used. to film BBS from his house right across the street, so Nick decides to go and then find someone to ask.

I'm sorry, father. I'm making this movie about Kurt Cobain. I heard they used to find rifles in this building. Sorry sir, we called security, what are you allowed to be in the building with a camera? No question turn off the camera please okay we can go to the legendary chamber okay we are okay then we will go no buddy. Don't call ahead like you walked into a building with a boom mic with a headset on and a cameraman directly behind you filming and she asked you if you have an appointment or even a permit to film.

You know a legitimate concern in a state funded place. office and you say: wow! and for any of you big fans or Tupac fans, he actually made a movie for them a few years after this one, which you can at least watch if you can tune out every time he says it to package up the story of Biggie and Tupac, biggie, in fact, this is 2-pack 2-pack 2-pack - 32/- back to back back to back to back to back to back to back life was complicated for an effective conference back to back with Paxman strictly controls his music and has refused to grant us the license - pepper - back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to backcalled himself the dawn to practice back to back the perfect super super super of , I did it I don't have a perspective on the story I was just trying to find my way through it wait what and it was from this hotel in Los Angeles where the Courtney conspiracy theory started hold the teleprompter this is the 40 minute mark we're halfway through your movie and now you've decided to set up a plot for us, which again we didn't need to know.

You're here in voiceover, directly telling your audience that you had no plan, so for 40 minutes we just sat there watching everything. that's apparently pointless and this is the official start of his movie at the halfway point. Wasn't any of this thought of when you were re-watching the footage in the post? Was this movie edited as it went along or are you deliberately stretching it to the bare minimum? a feature film you can cash in on Kurt's name this is you from the lowest rings of hell and you did your best to let us know, so we introduce you to Tom Grant, a former sheriff now private investigator whom Courtney hired to look for Kurt in the days when he disappeared and both he and Courtney's father strongly alleged that she played some role in his death and in the first year ambiguous about how you should feel towards him until he presents some compelling factors about their deteriorating marriage.

I think Courtney used Kurt from the beginning. I think she married him for the sole purpose of advancing her career and getting something. The fact that they were always fighting, they didn't get along. Apparently, Courtney had bought a Lexus and Kurt was very upset because he didn't want to be seen in a big, fancy car. He finally forced Courtney to take him, you know? We were constantly fighting over things like that, which goes back to what Dillon was saying about him being the total opposite, you know, Courtney wanting the mansion. Kurt was embarrassed by the mansion.

Courtney wanted a big, fancy car. Kurt was embarrassed by the big, fancy car. Interesting, well we have To get to the source of this, but Courtney is trying to close the movie, so what should we do right? As for you, you know you want to find Courtney Love and she's holed up with her band in a rehearsal space. I'll be in Hollywood for the next few weeks preparing for the upcoming Hull tour. It would be pretty easy for you to ask him this question, you know? But hey, I mean, we have a specific studio where she is and where you can find her.

I'm the only one who sees a problem with this, our director is conspiring with members of the paparazzi who are like the stalker Otzi, as I like to call them, these people have to sit there, wait until she comes out one morning, they're there for six hours a day. day, oh sorry, stalker Otzi is a world of difference, so the guy we're following employs the help of people calling themselves stalker Roxy to ambush Courtney for an interview and we can always go undercover, you know, don't forget, you know. We could, I can dress like an electrician and overalls and work I felt a little wandering there under the guise of some other reason to be there.

I know they say that the end justifies the means and that is a concept that comes up a lot in journalism especially. but you're no longer chasing a story, you're directly reflecting the corrupt institution that tortured the subject of your film and you're doing it to get to his wife and ask her if she killed him, isn't this something Sacha Baron Cohen would have done? ? made for a joke oh and not only do we get to see them rehearse this can't Courtney do everything she wanted so just be ready because she's going to try to grab that camera the first thing she's going to see is that camera but we're showing the footage of them all over the space rehearsal.

It's nice to listen and I can hear there talking now his cat buying soda trying to work up the courage yeah that soda is so important it's not in the next shot at all and his L making his way to join me but unfortunately the battery sold out, so after Nick finds out that the project has officially pulled the plug, he decides to give it one more chance and have his team confront her at the ACLU gala, except she got enough to finally, okay with LT J or thereabouts, so now I'm the guy on the spot, like I always was last night, so after unsuccessfully trying to interview her himself, Nick goes all out and crashes the gala.

I find it strange decisions by the NZRU to coldly choose to come as a special test tonight in the corner. I saw what you feel. He is the president of the ACLU. You can hear him yelling. This isn't something Sacha Baron Cohen would have done as a joke, but at least we can get there? I ended on a more optimistic note with Kurt's Aunt Mary using Tactile Life as an example, as she went into teaching in schools about drugs and addiction. She introduces herself with a song dedicated to continuing. There is a message of life in this song.

She just plays music. as he did and directs his message to teenagers just as he did to properly mediate his legacy and memory and close the film and it's very much like you and I don't rule out things in our lives and we've been Kurt was one of the things hardest things I've ever been through in my life and I'm still going through them I still cry very hurt and we all go through painful things in our lives it's just part of life no one is exempt from pain I remembered this video that Mary had made me aware of Wow , really wow, that was that, that was something else, Nick, because I mean it, like God forbid, someone has the final say on your movie besides you, you know, I mean a constant transition, even just make a hard cut. to some family video, she reminds you which I don't know what you were trying to compare here, but whatever and do a slow fade in on this shitty blurry image of him, when you had her, you already had a good ending, it was a good ending, yeah, at first you're like, oh god, she's doing that thing where she talked to teenagers with an acoustic guitar, oh no, she's one of those people, but turn it around and you really feel bad for her and we get a genuinely human moment in the middle of all this about him saying this, no, she said no, he said this, we get a moment, just a moment, where someone actually talks about how Kurt affected them. , it affects them today and you're like, yeah, but what about this footage that I had here? him, you had a job, an open job Below and you're ready if letting us know that you didn't have a story to tell halfway through the story isn't you, then not having an ending, it sure was a bad experience.

Great that we managed to get the movie out and so on, but it's not necessarily something I want to revisit and this sums up the real problem with the movie because when it's over, when it's all said and done, you have a lot to say about Courtney. I love you. I especially have a lot to say about Nick, but there's nothing to say about Kurt in one sentence. That's what's wrong here. That's what's really wrong here. The point of sale. The face on the cover. The name that takes up half of the title. The emotional core. intended to propel this Frankenstein 90 minutes of footage that disgraces the cutting room floor it belongs to you don't feel at any point you see him, you hear his voice but his presence is practically absent this is not a movie about Kurt or Courtney this is a movie about Nick Broomfield trying to make a movie, you take as much personality out of Kurt from this movie as you do from a Superman in Man of Steel when you make a documentary willing to show the dead ends and the failed interviews and every step he took.

If you reach it is a dead end, then you have made a documentary without facts and any facts that exist are refuted later, sometimes in the film itself, remember that a part I said seemed interesting, well, it turns out that the girl may not even She didn't even know either of them, yes, she. she keeps appearing in the movie because she apparently has photos of the three of them together that her mother is supposed to send her, but Nick concludes that they never came, unfortunately the photos were never published, so she may have been cajoling him this whole time. . he was fooling us the whole time she really is Marla's singer from this movie her life taught her her lie and even as someone who doesn't believe this Courtney Love, EE it gets so frustrating when you find other documentaries about Kurt because even they call on their own, so Nick met with Tom Grant again before the end of the film to conclusively decide whether Kurt committed suicide or was murdered.

You talk about a man who had 1.52 milligrams of heroin in his system when the body was murdered. found and the fact that that has never happened in any other recorded case that we have been able to find after investigating thousands of cases in various countries around the world, we are talking about evidence that indicates that it would have been impossible for him to collect it. the shotgun now for anyone to continually say well he had a high tolerance level he may have committed suicide you are just d9 and ignore some real basic facts here he may still have managed to upgrade the shotgun well it is possible if Do you think it is possible to stand on a roof and flap your wings on your arms and fly, show me a case where this has happened before.

Let's assume for a second that Kurt Cobain was suicidal. Tell me what difference that makes in light of the actual evidence in this case. It doesn't matter just because the suicidal person doesn't give someone the right to kill them and just because a person can be suicidal, which I don't think they would be, but if they were that doesn't mean the police won't do it. I don't have to do a thorough investigation once his body is found Tom grunts session 1 point 5 2 milligrams of heroin per liter of blood would have incapacitated the cut were discounted by dr.

Colin beer, former director of westminster hospital, in any case, dr. Brewer said it would take between 30 seconds and 1 minute for the heroin to circulate. There was a documentary made around 1997, I think, called Kurt and Courtney. I collaborated with the producer and director of that Nick Room camp. He gave us his color slide of a Patient who balanced easily on one leg and who had taken the equivalent of more than double the amount taken per cut. The problem is that this man had taken methadone, not heroin, and he had swallowed the methadone, and because it is taken orally, it is absorbed much more slowly and takes time to reach the body. blood, so it can take up to an hour or maybe two before it reaches its highest concentrations, all, on the other hand, are injected directly into the vein and are immediately available to the circulation, immediately available to the brain, comparing oral methadone with intravenous heroin, what is the trade term apples? and oranges is much worse than apples and oranges, it could be peaches and asparagus, you are comparing this.

I'm probably surprised that a competent forensic scientist would have made that kind of comparison and what kind of fool you are, how you were, how the trend started to change the dead end on a dock near me waiting time hurry up to the bodyguard I say it man and he's been in a memory I remember I remember yes I remember you don't suck your blood like a peach you talk about be a friend, the dead end is in his legacy Negus, leave me well, I swear that your ass, dog, man, ensure your chance As they leave, your ass, domestic, young, you.