Musical Memories 2
TobiasThe documentary is back in big style. Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” was only the spark that set the movie world on fire – after “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Supersize me” (Morgan Spurlock’s take at programmed food addiction through fast food), it seemed as though anyone with a good topic and a handycam could make it to the big screen. Still, “Rhythm is it!” took the idea to the limit: Could a film about Strawinsky, Ballet, Discipline and some dancing pupils from difficult social backgrounds, which was produced and shot and in Germany but spoken in English most of the time, possibly be of interest to anyone?
It could. Not only did the movie receive both rhapsodic reviews in about every big newspaper as well as the German Film Prize, it made people wait in cues in front of cinemas in want of tickets. It seemed as though the issues dealt with here were right in everybody’s face: Instead of being a documentary about Classical Music, it was about the problems of the pedagogic system, about youths who felt lost in the world, about a hunger for expression and the role of the arts in helping people to find their way in life.
What definitely helped was that directors Thomas Grube and Enrique Sanchez Lansch had two powerful and expressive figure heads to their disposition: Sir Simon Rattle, conductor of the Berlin Philharmonics and renowned Choregrapher Royston Maldoom. Rattle acts as the voice of the project: In several short interview clips, he explains how his personal history as a “strange duck” in school has set him on a path which led him to channelling the music of an entire orchestra. He argues neither from a moral highland, nor from an ivory tower when he purports that it is often those slightly strange students, who are labeled as “uncool” that end up reaching for the stars – and that it should be the responsability of a state’s institutions to make them realise they can acchieve extraordinary things. It is hard imagining a better ambassador for Classical Music than Rattle, even his pretty straightforward claim that we all need music “like the air we breathe” sends shivers down your spine, instead of producing a painful impression.
Still, the leading role belongs to similarly strange duck Royston Maldoom. His is the task of forming a disparate group of disorientated children into a dancing ensemble that will leave the audience breathless. When he first arrives, there is a dire lack of both the necessary discipline and of confidence in themselves. What is there, however, is a willingness to trust him. This is the basis for Maldooms technique: By first creeping into their skin and filling them with the necessary tools they’ll need for the performance, he creates a situation from which he can then withdraw and leave the pupils to handle things on their own. Royston coins the most remarkable quote of the whole movie when he says that “We may try to pretend that discipline is unimportant. But this is not fair to them” To him, it is not only about dancing – it is about finding out who you are and of believing that you can walk your own way in life – after all, the movie’s catch phrase is “You can change your life in a dance class”.
The film follows the same pattern: Starting with Maldoom and his team, the directors slowly but surely withdraw their attention from him and start following three participants, recording their feelings about the project and how it is changing them. Motivations are very different and range from learning to have more confidence in your body (Martin is uncertain about touching people in general), fighting latent laziness (Marie feels there is much more to her than meets the eye) and integrating into society at all (Nigeria’s Olayinka couldn’t even speak German at the time of the shooting). At the beginning, it is hard to see any progress: Even the teachers are having troubles confiding in the somewhat harsh tone of the Choreographers and the group is split between those who dearly want the thing to work and those who had thought of it as an amusement. At about half time, there is a decisive moment, when Maldoom tells them that he will leave the decision, whether they want to make a real change to them– when he comes back into the room, there is finally a seriousness, silence and concentration which allows the children to realize that they are a part of something big and that they can truly “do it” if they only want. Meeting the orchestra and witnessing the music being performed and rehearsed in front of their own eyes makes a similarly strong impression. The different groups from schools all over Berlin are then joined and the final performance becomes a huge success.
The public was red-hot enthusiastic. The Internet Forum on the offical site is still being used by fans and critics alike and when Olayinka was granted an extended stay in Germany (after his four years of leave to remain expired this year), it was headline-news. After the inital blast, however, there has been a lot of criticism, the fascism-claim being only one of them (and the easiest one to dispel). The most important argument has been that “Rhythm is it” only tells the good side of the story and ignores the problems of an increasingly complex world. This is true. But whoever puts forward these points clearly hasn’t understood the movie and its intentions. This film wants to motivate the viewer and listener into going out and changing something, into believing that she or he, too, can make a difference. It wants to present the beauty of dance and the power of Strawinskys music, it wants to go back to a primordial state of experience, which necessarily blends out the intellect. It never claims that everyone who took part in the project ended up rich and happy, nor that starting to take up ballet will change your life – merely that it could. Our society hasn’t actually become more complex, in a highly connected and mulitpolar world, its true nature is only showing more and more. And it is not government programs, labour-market reforms or lavish spening sprees that will change that, but the willingness of individuals to take on the challenge. That is what “Rhythm is it!” is about and it transports its message more convincingly than any intellectual speech or 300-page manifesto that the cultural elite has cooked up. Don’t miss this chance to be swept away completely – you could change your life by watching this movie.
The movie is available as a 1- or 3-disc feature and an English-market version is being prepared.
Homepage: Rhythm is it!