Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
Encyclopedia
Scott Walker: 30 Century Man is a 2006
documentary film
about Scott Walker
. The film gets its title from the Scott 3
song "30 Century Man". It is directed
and co-produced
by Stephen Kijak
, with Grant Gee
serving as director of photography. It charts Walker's career in music, with a focus on his songwriting, and features exclusive footage of recording sessions for his most recent album, The Drift
including a memorable sequence in which Walker oversees the recording of the punching of a joint of pork, for the percussion on the song Clara. Rock legend David Bowie
, who often professes to have been inspired by Walker, acted as executive producer of the film. Actor Gale Harold
is one of the associate producers.
The film received its world premiere at the London Film Festival
on 31 October 2006 and debuted internationally at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival
in the Panorama. It was released later in 2007 in cinemas and on DVD in the UK by Verve Pictures and went on to become one of the most critically acclaimed documentaries released there that year. It had its US premiere at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in March 2007. Other film festivals that have screened the film include the Sydney Film Festival
, Tribeca Film Festival
, HotDocs, Melbourne International Film Festival
, Viennale
, Seattle International Film Festival
, and the Hong Kong International Film Festival
.
In addition to Walker himself, interviewees in the film include David Bowie
, Radiohead
, Jarvis Cocker
, Brian Eno
, Damon Albarn
, Marc Almond
, Alison Goldfrapp
, Sting, Dot Allison
, Simon Raymonde
, Richard Hawley
, Rob Ellis, Johnny Marr
, Gavin Friday
, Lulu
, Peter Olliff, Angela Morley
(arranger of Walker's sixties' recordings as Wally Stott), Ute Lemper
, Ed Bicknell
, Evan Parker
, Hector Zazou
, Mo Foster
, Phil Sheppard, and Peter Walsh.
The film is produced by Oscar-winning producer Mia Bays, marking her debut in documentary and feature film production. She was nominated for a 2008 BAFTA award (The Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by a British Writer, Director of Producer in their First Feature Film) for her work on the film.
An edited version of the film was used for the BBC
series Imagine
. It was introduced by Alan Yentob
.
In Early 2008 Madman Films released the film on DVD in Australia and Avalon films released the film on DVD in Spain. Oscilloscope Laboratories, a distribution company founded by Adam Yauch
of Beastie Boys
, acquired the distribution rights in North America after the film's US release was delayed. It began another critically acclaimed theatrical run, this time in select US cities, and was released on DVD in North America in Summer 2009.
2006 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2006...
documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
about Scott Walker
Scott Walker (singer)
Scott Walker, born Noel Scott Engel on January 9, 1943 is an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and the former lead singer of The Walker Brothers. Despite being American born, Walker's chart success has largely come in the United Kingdom, where his first four solo albums...
. The film gets its title from the Scott 3
Scott 3
The original U.S. Smash label vinyl issue omitted "30 Century Man", replacing it with "The Lights Of Cincinnati", a UK non-LP single from the same period...
song "30 Century Man". It is directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and co-produced
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
by Stephen Kijak
Stephen Kijak
-Career:Kijak studied with renowned film scholar and John Cassavetes expert Ray Carney as well as the late Mel Howard at Boston University’s College of Communication. He wrote, directed and produced the feature film Never Met Picasso which starred Margot Kidder, Alexis Arquette and Don McKellar...
, with Grant Gee
Grant Gee
Grant Gee is a film director and cinematographer currently living in Brighton. He was born in Plymouth and studied Geography at St Catherine's College, Oxford....
serving as director of photography. It charts Walker's career in music, with a focus on his songwriting, and features exclusive footage of recording sessions for his most recent album, The Drift
The Drift
- Personnel :* Scott Walker – Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica, Sax, Sound Treatment* Hugh Burns – Guitar* Ian Thomas – Drums* Mark Warman – Keyboards, Orchestration, Conducting, Percussion, Woodwind, Sound Treatment* Philip Sheppard – Orchestration, Conducting, Cello...
including a memorable sequence in which Walker oversees the recording of the punching of a joint of pork, for the percussion on the song Clara. Rock legend David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, who often professes to have been inspired by Walker, acted as executive producer of the film. Actor Gale Harold
Gale Harold
Gale Morgan Harold III is an American actor widely known for his roles on Queer as Folk, Desperate Housewives and Hellcats.-Early life:...
is one of the associate producers.
The film received its world premiere at the London Film Festival
London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is the UK's largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries. The festival, , currently in its 54th year, is run every year in the second half of October under the umbrella of the British Film Institute...
on 31 October 2006 and debuted internationally at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
in the Panorama. It was released later in 2007 in cinemas and on DVD in the UK by Verve Pictures and went on to become one of the most critically acclaimed documentaries released there that year. It had its US premiere at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in March 2007. Other film festivals that have screened the film include the Sydney Film Festival
Sydney Film Festival
The Sydney Film Festival is an annual film festival held in the Australian city of Sydney and is held over 12 days in June. The competitive film festival draws international and local attention, with films being showcased in several venues across the city centre and includes features,...
, Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
, HotDocs, Melbourne International Film Festival
Melbourne International Film Festival
The Melbourne International Film Festival is an acclaimed annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1951, making it one of the oldest in the World....
, Viennale
Viennale
The Vienna International Film Festival, or Viennale, is a film festival taking place every October since 1960 in Vienna, Austria.The average number of visitors is about 75,000. Traditional cinema venues are Gartenbaukino, Urania, Metro-Kino, Filmmuseum and Stadtkino...
, Seattle International Film Festival
Seattle International Film Festival
The Seattle International Film Festival , held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees...
, and the Hong Kong International Film Festival
Hong Kong International Film Festival
The Hong Kong International Film Festival is a platform for filmmakers, film professionals and filmgoers from all over the world to launch and experience new film work. There are seminars, conferences, exhibitions, and parties celebrating the festival community...
.
In addition to Walker himself, interviewees in the film include David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
, Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Branson Cocker is an English musician and frontman for the band Pulp. Through his work with the band, Cocker became a figurehead of the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s. Following Pulp's hiatus Cocker has led a successful solo career...
, Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn is an English singer-songwriter and record producer who has been involved in many high profile projects, coming to prominence as the frontman and primary songwriter of Britpop band Blur...
, Marc Almond
Marc Almond
Marc Almond is an English singer-songwriter and musician, who originally found fame as half of the seminal synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell...
, Alison Goldfrapp
Alison Goldfrapp
Alison Elizabeth Margaret Goldfrapp is an English singer-songwriter and record producer, best known as the lead singer of the electronic music duo Goldfrapp. Goldfrapp has a soprano vocal range.-Early life:...
, Sting, Dot Allison
Dot Allison
Dot Allison is a Scottish singer and songwriter, who has made significant inroads in electronic music circles, most notably as a result of her tenure fronting the band One Dove in the early 1990s...
, Simon Raymonde
Simon Raymonde
Simon Philip Raymonde is an English musician and record producer. He is the son of the late arranger and composer, Ivor Raymonde.-Career:...
, Richard Hawley
Richard Hawley
Richard Hawley is a guitarist, singer-songwriter and producer. After his first band Treebound Story broke up, Hawley found success as a member of Britpop band Longpigs in the 1990s. He later joined the band Pulp, led by his friend Jarvis Cocker...
, Rob Ellis, Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr is an English musician and songwriter. Marr rose to fame in the 1980s as the guitarist in The Smiths, with whom he formed a prolific songwriting partnership with Morrissey. Marr has been a member of Electronic, The The, and Modest Mouse...
, Gavin Friday
Gavin Friday
Gavin Friday is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter.-Career:Gavin was born in Dublin and grew up in Finglas, a neighbourhood located on Dublin's Northside...
, Lulu
Lulu (singer)
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, OBE , best known by her stage name Lulu, is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality who has been successful in the entertainment business from the 1960s through to the present day...
, Peter Olliff, Angela Morley
Angela Morley
Angela Morley was an English composer and conductor. Morley was born in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1924, and played saxophone in a number of dance bands, and in 1944 became a member of Geraldo's band....
(arranger of Walker's sixties' recordings as Wally Stott), Ute Lemper
Ute Lemper
Ute Lemper is a German chanteuse and actress renowned for her interpretation of the work of Kurt Weill.- Biography :Born in Münster, Germany, Ute Lemper was raised in a Roman Catholic family. She joined the punk music group known as the Panama Drive Band at the age of 16...
, Ed Bicknell
Ed Bicknell
Ed Bicknell was on the Hull University entertainments committee, arranging bands for the students, when he first got a taste for the music industry. Moving to London, he worked as a drummer for Jess Conrad and then as a booker for John Sherry Artists, finding work for a number of prog-rock/college...
, Evan Parker
Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
, Hector Zazou
Hector Zazou
Hector Zazou was a prolific French composer and record producer who worked with, produced, and collaborated with an international array of recording artists...
, Mo Foster
Mo Foster
Mo Foster is a British session musician, playing primarily jazz, jazz-fusion and rock bass guitar. He is also a music producer and songwriter/composer. In over 40 years as a musician Foster has played on and produced countless albums, singles, and film soundtracks...
, Phil Sheppard, and Peter Walsh.
The film is produced by Oscar-winning producer Mia Bays, marking her debut in documentary and feature film production. She was nominated for a 2008 BAFTA award (The Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by a British Writer, Director of Producer in their First Feature Film) for her work on the film.
An edited version of the film was used for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
series Imagine
Imagine (TV series)
Imagine is a wide ranging arts series first broadcast on BBC One in 2003, hosted and executive produced by Alan Yentob. Each series usually consists of 4 to 7 episodes, each on a different topic...
. It was introduced by Alan Yentob
Alan Yentob
Alan Yentob is a British television executive and presenter who has worked throughout his career at the BBC.-Early life:...
.
In Early 2008 Madman Films released the film on DVD in Australia and Avalon films released the film on DVD in Spain. Oscilloscope Laboratories, a distribution company founded by Adam Yauch
Adam Yauch
Adam Nathaniel Yauch , , is a founding member of hip hop trio the Beastie Boys. He is frequently known by his stage name, MCA, and other pseudonyms such as Nathanial Hörnblowér.-Early life:...
of Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
, acquired the distribution rights in North America after the film's US release was delayed. It began another critically acclaimed theatrical run, this time in select US cities, and was released on DVD in North America in Summer 2009.
Soundtrack
Music Inspired by the Film Scott Walker: 30 Century Man was released on 26 May 2009 to promote the US release of the film. Instead of a compilation of Walker's material the album was conceived as a tribute album. The album was released on Lakeshore RecordsLakeshore Records
Lakeshore Records is the independent music division of Lakeshore Entertainment . They started out as WILL Records.Will Records were started by Skip Williamson in the early 90s...
- "Duchess" (performed by Peter BroderickPeter BroderickPeter Broderick is an American musician and composer from Carlton, Oregon. He has released solo material under his own name, been a member of Efterklang, and played with several ensembles as a session musician.-Biography:...
) - 3:08 - "Big Louise" (performed by Sally Norvell) - 4:15
- "The World's Strongest Man" (performed by Damon & Naomi) - 3:13
- "Manhattan" (performed by Saint EtienneSaint Etienne (band)Saint Etienne are an English Pop group comprising Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs. They are named after the French football team AS Saint-Étienne.-History:Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs were childhood friends and former music journalists...
) - 4:15 - "The Electrician" (performed by Laurie AndersonLaurie AndersonLaura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American experimental performance artist, composer and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...
) - 4:40 - "The Seventh Seal" (performed by Nicole AtkinsNicole AtkinsNicole Atkins is an American singer-songwriter. She has been compared to Roy Orbison and singers from the Brill Building era.-Early life:...
) - 5:23 - "Montague Terrace (In Blue)" (performed by Dot AllisonDot AllisonDot Allison is a Scottish singer and songwriter, who has made significant inroads in electronic music circles, most notably as a result of her tenure fronting the band One Dove in the early 1990s...
) - 3:24 - "The Bridge" (performed by Bee and FlowerBee and FlowerBee and Flower is a band founded in New York City in 2000 by singer-songwriter, bassist, animator, illustrator, composer and producer Dana Schechter...
) - 2:54 - "Rhymes of Goodbye" (performed by Stephanie DosenStephanie DosenStephanie Dosen is an American singer-songwriter. She was raised in Wisconsin. Her songs have been featured on the soundtracks of Dawson's Creek, NUMB3RS and Party of Five....
) - 4:26 - "It's Raining Today" (performed by Ulrich SchnaussUlrich Schnauss-Biography:Ulrich Schnauss was born in the northern German seaport of Kiel in 1977. He became interested in a range of music: My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Tangerine Dream, Chapterhouse, and early bleep & breakbeat tracks...
) - 4:37 - "A Lover Loves" (performed by JarboeJarboeJarboe is an American singer, songwriter, and keyboardist.Jarboe is a solo artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with the New York City based group Swans. With founder Michael Gira, the duo was the core of Swans until the group broke up in 1998...
) - 3:20 - "Such a Small Love" (performed by Paul Wallfisch and Little AnnieLittle AnnieLittle Annie Bandez is an American singer, songwriter, painter, and stage actor...
) - 4:25
External links
- 30 Century Man - the filmmakers' blog
- Scott Walker: 30 Century Man EPK for 4AD - Scenes from the documentary
- Missing In Action Films Ltd - production company
- Verve Pictures - UK distributor
- Moviehouse Entertainment - international distributor
- club.kingsnake.com: Review of Scott Walker: 30 Century Man; interview with Stephen Kijak
- Empire Magazine: review
- Time Out London: review
- Sight & Sound: review
- Kevchino Interview with Stephen Kijak on Scott Walker: 30 Century Man