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Step Across the Border

A ninety minute celluloid improvisation

Nicolas Humbert, Werner Penzel

In STEP ACROSS THE BORDER two forms of artistic expression, improvised music and cinema direct, are interrelated. In both forms it is the moment that counts, the intuitive sense for what is happening in a space. Music and film come into existence out of an intense perception of the moment, not from the transformation of a preordained plan. In improvisation the plan is revealed only at the end. One finds it. The other connection concerns the work method: the film team as band. Much as musicians communicate via the music, our work, too, was realized within a very small and flexible team of equals. What mattered was exchange. And movement. Sometimes we started filming in the middle of the night, responding to a new idea that had arisen only minutes before. We had a fundamental feeling for what we wanted to do, for what kind of film this should be. And we followed that feeling. It was all very instinctive...

Do you know a white rabbit who, playing trumpet, circles the world on his flying carpet?

May be you have met him somewhere already, in Zurich, London, Leipzig, Tokyo or New York. That at least was about the route we took and what resulted from it was the black-and-white wink of an eye at the symphonic connection between subways, storms and electric guitars.

An American critic wrote: 'Fred Frith's music makes your jaw drop, your feet dance, and your neighbours move.'

Also starring: several telephones, puddles, scarecrows, saxophones, orchestrated cities and motors.

A music film.

Rock's greatest moment is, well, jazzy

STEP ACROSS THE BORDER the most important mix of music and film since the early '70s

Before MTV unplugged Nirvana or the stage plugged in Tommy, before MuchMusic, or the rest of rock video, before there was such a thing as the "rockumentary" or the sycophantic concert flick - before all that came to pass, the very idea of rock - of popular music of any kind - coupled with something else, caused a stir.

Especially film. Rock and film.

It was the mating of two alien life-forms - no, maybe it was more like cats coupling at midnight; a pretty loud, nasty and memorable business for the listeners as well as, one presumes, for the cats themselves. Renaldo & Clara, with and by Bob Dylan, was the last rock flick that mattered, and that was in the early 70s.

Until STEP ACROSS THE BORDER, that is.

And, not to mince words, it's arguably the greatest sustained bit of popular music on film since Shall We Dance, with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in 1937 - and that includes Gene Kelly's heartbreak final ballet in An American in Paris, Jazz On A Summer's Day or Dylan in Don't Look Back.

No question. As Frith connects primal rock with everything from North African Pop to traditional Japanese percussion music to techno art-band stuff from New York in the late '80s when the film was shot, we're given one enormously imaginative extension of the potential of North American pop music.

This, he shows, is where the roots-connected pop of the 21st century has to go. Or, with this film, it has already gone...

Peter Goddard, New York Times

Nicolas Humbert

2007 LUCIE & MAINTENANT - JOURNAL NOMADE
2005 BROTHER YUSEF
2003 MY EYE YOUR EYE
2003 FRAGMENTS D'ICI
2000 WHY SHOULD I BUY A BED WHEN ALL THAT I WANT IS SLEEP
1998 VAGABONDING IMAGES
1997 NULL SONNE NO POINT
1995 MIDDLE OF THE MOMENT
1990 STEP ACROSS THE BORDER
1989 LANI UND DIE SEINEN
1986 WOLFSGRUB
1985 NEBEL JAGEN

Werner Penzel

Born in 1950. 1966-70 Rock musician. 1971-75 Attends HFF (Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film, München). Extensive travels through North Africa, South and Central America. 1986 Co-founder of film cooperative “Der Andere Blick”. 1986 Founding of Cine Nomad together with Nicolas Humbert. Since 1987 works as independent director, scriptwriter, cameraman and producer.

2007 LUCIE & MAINTENANT - JOURNAL NOMADE
2005 BROTHER YUSEF
2003 MY EYE YOUR EYE
2003 FRAGMENTS D'ICI
2000 WHY SHOULD I BUY A BED WHEN ALL THAT I WANT IS SLEEP
1998 VAGABONDING IMAGES
1997 NULL SONNE NO POINT
1997 ONE LAST GLIMPSE
1995 MIDDLE OF THE MOMENT
1990 STEP ACROSS THE BORDER
1989 LANI UND DIE SEINEN
1985 STERBEN ZU FÜSSEN DER BRÜDER
1981 DEIN KOPF IST EIN SCHLAFENDES AUTO
1980 VAGABUNDEN KARAWANE
1977 BABAJI UND DOKRI MAA

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Step Across the Border

Price: 49.00 CHF
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DVD5
NTSC 4:3
Region 0

Languages: English
Subtitles: Français Deutsch Español Portuguese Japanese

Step Across the Border
CH 1990 123'
Director: Nicolas Humbert, Werner Penzel
Camera: Oscar Salgado
Sound: Jean Vapeur
Editing: Gisela Castronari, Vera Burnus, Nicolas Humbert, Werner Penzel
Music: Fred Frith, Joey Baron, Ciro Battista, Iva Bitova, Tom Cora, Jean Derome, Pavel Fajt, Eitetsu Hayashi, Tim Hodkinson, Arto Lindsay, René Lussier, Haco, Kevin Norton, Bob Ostertag, Zeena Parkins, Lawrence Wright, John Zorn

Keywords
Musik
Welt
Jazz
New York
Dokumentarfilm
Schweiz
Japan
Deutschland
USA
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