Arcade Fire — Miroir Noir

Miroir Noir

Merge

Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

04/03/2009 2:42pm

Miroir Noir was filmed by LaBlogotheque.org's Vincent Moon, who's known for his Take-Away Shows (just Google it) where he films musical performances in unorthodox environments. It was shot during the tour in support of 2007's Neon Bible.

The whole thing comes off as incredibly disjointed at first because it's anchored by footage that resembles an infomercial and messages people left to a 1-866 number that Arcade Fire set up in advance of Neon Bible's release. There's no narrative, which is confusing before you start to get the hang of it.

Director Vincent Morrisset used techniques that make the film look like old Super 8 vacation footage and religious commercials from the '70s. Audio snippets from The Price Is Right bring back the old school "arty" feel even more, to the point where the whole thing eventually starts to feel like a less druggy film that Godspeed You! Black Emperor might make... if they did things like that.

The performances give you a great sense of how intense the band are on stage. It would have been a mistake for Moon and Morrisset to focus more on the on-the-road hijinx and the recording process at the expense of the live experience. Instead, there's a good sense of balance.

If you can get over the almost over-the-top "artiness" of it all, Mirror Noir is worth watching because it does a good job of conveying what the band members' lives were like on the road and what they're all about in general: Art for art's sake.

Who cares if it's over the top and mildly confusing if it makes sense to the person who made it?