The concert given by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett at the Cologne Opera on 14 January 1975 has become a musical legend. With over four million records sold, the ‘Cologne Concert’ is the best-selling solo jazz album and the most successful solo piano album in music history. The concert took place under the most adverse circumstances imaginable. Among other things, Jarrett refused to play on the instrument provided for him. Without the energetic intervention of 18-year-old schoolgirl Vera Brandes, who had organised the performance at the Cologne Opera House, the concert would never have taken place. The feature film ‘Cologne 75’, which premiered at the Berlinale, presents the story of the concert from her perspective and perpetuates the legend.
In ”Cologne Tracks” the French filmmaker Vincent Duceau recounts his fascination with the ‘Cologne Concert’, which Keith Jarrett improvised entirely. To mark Jarrett’s 80th birthday, he sets out with two friends to reconstruct the exact circumstances of the concert. Duceau follows every possible lead, speaking to musicians and experts about what made the concert so special and about Jarrett’s structured form of improvisation. After numerous fruitless attempts, he finally gains access to the construction site of the Cologne Opera House, which has been undergoing renovation for years.
In Cologne, he also meets Vera Brandes, who tells him about the adventurous circumstances under which the concert took place. The search turns into a detective’s quest. Duceau meticulously researches the history of the Bösendorfer grand piano on which Keith Jarrett played back then, and finally finds it in the Cologne Opera’s storeroom. Yet it is not nearly as small as had always been claimed. Nor was it the opera’s musical theme that signalled the start of the concert, but rather the tune of the nearby 4711 Eau de Cologne building, which Jarrett incorporated into his improvisation. Like a police detective reopening a cold case 50 years later, Duceau demystifies the stories surrounding the legendary concert. He does so in a very personal and pleasantly self-deprecating manner.
Another legendary figure is the French footballer Eric Cantona, who is still regarded as one of the best of his generation. Film lovers will recognise him from the Ken Loach film “Looking for Eric”, in which he plays the idol of a postman and Manchester United fan. He appears to the devoted fan like a guardian angel; the latter believes he is seeing him as a perfectly ordinary person, to which the “Football God” replies with his characteristic French accent: “I’m not a man, I’m Cantona!”. A line that sums up Eric Cantona's character rather well.
Even as a young player, he managed to fall out with the French national team manager when the latter failed to select him for an international match. Following further disputes, he wanted to end his football career at the age of 25, but Michel Platini persuaded him to move to England, where he went on to win the league title straight away with Leeds United. The legendary manager Alex Ferguson brought him to Manchester United, where he enjoyed an impressive career in the mid-1990s and led the club to spectacular successes.
For four years, directors David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas followed Eric Cantona. Their film “Cantona” is anything but a typical sports portrait; rather, it is an intimate exploration of an ambivalent personality, characterised by uncontrolled outbursts of anger and great sensitivity. Cantona’s father, who appears in the film alongside his mother, was a healthcare worker and a painter. At the age of 15, Eric left his family and found a surrogate father in Guy Roux, the manager of AJ Auxerre, who nurtured his talent. At Manchester United, it was Ferguson who loyally supported him. After retiring from football, Cantona embarked on a new career as an actor and painter. Perhaps he had always been an uncompromising artist who simply found his means of expression in football.
Canadian filmmaker Kim Ngyuen explores a political myth: an iconic photograph from the Vietnam War, in which AP photographer Eddie Adams captured the moment when South Vietnamese General Loan shot a captured Vietcong soldier during the Tet Offensive. The photograph became a symbol of the brutality of American warfare and that of its allies. Kim Ngyuen, who has Vietnamese roots himself, investigates the stories of two families connected to the photograph. In Saigon, he finds the son and daughter of the murdered Vietcong Captain Lém, who are still suffering from the fact that their father never received a proper funeral. He accompanies them to the spot where their father was shot. They take some earth back to a temple and are finally able to give him a ritual burial.
On the other hand, Kim Ngyuen meets My Lin Hafer, the ex-wife of Officer Vinh, who can be seen in the photograph with General Loan. He repeatedly beat her and once even shot at her. She now lives in the US with her American husband, as does her son Charles. Ngyuen describes “Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom” as “kaleidoscopic”, modelled on Kurosawa’s “Rashomon”. “Maybe it’s a reflection [that] truth will always be relative. [It] will always be in the eye of the beholder, especially for the stories surrounding that photograph.”
Sheffield DocFest is always worth a visit, not only because of the wide range of films on show, but also because of its unpretentious atmosphere, characterised by openness and lively discussions. Incidentally, it’s not unusual to bump into the filmmakers and protagonists in a pub or café and strike up a conversation with them.