Cannes review: “Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble In Mind” by Ethan Coen

For his directorial debut after his brother Joel’s first solo outing Macbeth tragedyEthan Cohen has chosen a similar saga of ruthless ambition and heartbreaking crime, telling the story of the rise and fall of Jerry Lee Lewis and his resurrection again, from a farmer’s son to rock ‘n’ roll idol.

Cohen’s special screenings enter the Cannes Film Festival Jerry Lee Lewis: Problems in the mind Enter the very crowded field of music documentary with an approach that can confuse those who expect a linear narrative and a traditional format of the spoken word. What they get is primarily a first-person memory, using excerpts from the singer’s many years of television interviews, packed with incredible live footage highlighting his incredible diversity, shifting the effort between rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly, blues, blues. -Soul, country-rock and country-blues; Subgenus after subgenus Ace.

The film’s best title comes from an early conversation Lewis had with Sun Records master Sam Phillips while recording various 1950s hits, from “Whole Lotta Shakin ‘Going On” to “Great”. Fireballs. “Obsessed with his love of rock ‘n’ roll, Lewis, who, like his cousin Jimmy Swagart, is a” Christian “rather than a Christian, expresses concern over the ungodly feelings his musical talents reveal in him and asks: How can this be? The devil saves souls? This is a question that has annoyed his peers, especially Johnny Cash (who appears fastest) and Little Richard, but Lewis has probably gone way beyond his stormy Personal life The opening of the film shows a video from a file showing the eyebrows, in which Lewis plays “He even woke me up to say hello.” Ed Sullivan showHe reduced the feeling of the song’s bleeding heart with a demonic and sarcastic performance.

In any discussion of Jerry Lee, the elephant in the room is his 1958 wedding to his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Brown, who was fired by Cohen and his publisher (wife Tricia Cook) just 15 minutes later. Maira later appears in the film as a grown woman, but in the former case the documentary continues to tell not only how the scandal ruined Lewis’s career, but also how she regained the goodwill of the audience without showing any remorse.

The context of American workers’ society plays an important role in this, with the directors forming their vast family network and the less common fact that at the age of 22 Lewis was already married twice, the first at the age of 16. . It’s hard not to be surprised by the occasional laughter Bob Hope’s comment on the subject got when he joked: “Jerry Lee Lewis just became a father, he’s adopted a wife.”

Given the controversy that has plagued Lewis throughout his life, not least the grim death rate among his many wives, problem in mind It’s extraordinarily easy for him, and the blatant material excluded here would easily have been a document of similar length, if not more.

However, dark moments erupt from time to time and, in contrast to a fantastic Cohen, the film fails to reinvent Lewis in the weird 70s as an Andy Williams-style family dancer (the variety of clothes presented here only contrasted with Stanley Nelson Jr.). Miles Davis: The birth of Cool) A clip from a chat show host who now resembles a much older Myra Brown at the time her ex-husband shot a bass player. “But he came back to her, didn’t he?” Add the guest. “She didn’t,” Brown corrects.

While this explains Lewis’ place in the world of rock ‘n’ roll as originally configured, Cohen’s film never applies to him; Elvis Presley is literally a backdrop seen in the explosion of the so-called “quartet of millionaires” formed at Sun Studios, which includes Lewis and Presley with Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. When asked about Presley’s success, Lewis laughed that Elvis was only successful because he had a manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who treated him like a “caged monkey”.

Surprisingly, Lewis has better things to say about Chuck Berry, a perceived rival and the subject of an anecdote not repeated here but seen in a sophisticated biopic. big fireballs When Lee sets the piano on fire and yells, “Keep it up …” Enter problem in mindHe says: “Chuck Berry was the king of rock ‘n’ roll. Quote: Jerry Lee Lewis.

Cohen’s film enters the scene at a pivotal moment and there is quite a bit of criticism over the decision of such a platform. But the price of any discussion of Jerry Lee Lewis is that the truly dark side of him has always bothered him and what problem in mind Doing it deceptively right reminds us that without this very real suffering (Brown calls them “demons”), these incendiary displays could never exist (little Richard Tom Jones’ overwhelming back and forth shows Lewis without him, his usual lavish human slaughter. and wild).

Throughout the film, Lewis’s face is a sardonic mask, with heavy eyes and waxy skin, but becomes surprisingly weak in the film’s code at the end of the gospel session, recorded in 2020. His portrayal of “Amazing Grace” may not be. enough for him. To satisfy loyal fans of him, not to mention saving his mortal soul, but it’s a painful place to say goodbye to a man who may not know the term “projection”, calling everyone a “killer”.