The Past Is a Grotesque Animal
Jun 15, 2014 | IMDB 5.9
77 min Watch NowDocumentary, Music
A personal, accessible look at an artist - Kevin Barnes, frontman of the endlessly versatile indie pop band of Montreal - whose pursuit to make transcendent music at all costs drives him to value art over human relationships. As he struggles with all of those around him, family and bandmates alike, he's forced to reconsider the future of the band, begging the question - is this really worth it?
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
Nova the Film
Pablo Picasso: The Legacy of a Genius
Events in a Cloud Chamber
The Art World's Prankster: Maurizio Cattelan
Blues Brothers 2000
Jesus Christ Saviour
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness
Retying the Knot: The Incredible String Band
We Are Little Zombies
The Legendary Rick Perry and the Art of Dimension 20
John Singer Sargent: Fashion and Swagger
Frances Carroll & 'The Coquettes'
Fubar
The Life and Death of Frida Kahlo
A Sonorous Melody
A Hard Day's Night
Sigrid & Isaac
Ghetto - The Secret Life of the City
Baldiga: Unlocked Heart
Takeda
SIMILAR MOVIES
Nova the Film
IMDB 0 | Mar , 2011
An inspiring 75min DIY documentary film on new art and the young artists behind it. It was all filmed on the heat of live action of the first NOVA Contemporary Culture Festival, July and August 2010 in São Paulo, Brazil.Pablo Picasso: The Legacy of a Genius
IMDB 0 | Jan , 1981
An assessment of the 20th century's best known artist and his vast achievements through the insights and speculations of over a dozen participants. Filmed on the 100th anniversary of Picasso's birth at MoMA, Musée Picasso, Walker Art Center, Museu Picasso Barcelona. Featuring Henry Moore, Anthony Caro, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rosenblum, Clement Greenberg, Roland Penrose and others.Events in a Cloud Chamber
IMDB 0 | Sep , 2016
In 1969, Akbar Padamsee, one of the pioneers of Modern Indian painting, made a visionary 16mm film called Events in a Cloud Chamber. This was one of the only Indian experimental films ever made. The print is now lost and no copies exist. Over 40 years later, filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia worked with Padamsee, now 89 years old, to remake the film.The Art World's Prankster: Maurizio Cattelan
IMDB 0 | Dec , 2016
One of the most provocative and elusive figures in contemporary art finds himself the subject of Maura Axelrod's film. Catapulted to worldwide notoriety in 1999 by The Ninth Hour, a sculpture of Pope John Paul II toppled by a meteorite, Maurizio Cattelan's work has bordered on criminal activity (breaking into a gallery and stealing another artist's work) and regularly defies good taste - Him features Hitler in prayer and sold earlier this year for a whopping £12,000,000. Building his career on evasion, trickery and subversion, Cattelan is perhaps not the most reliable of interviewees, but ex-girlfriends, family members, collectors and dealers build a compelling and intimate portrait of an enigmatic figure. Bold, witty and playful as a Cattelan work itself, is this film really all it seems?Blues Brothers 2000
IMDB 5.3 | Feb , 1998
Finally released from prison, Elwood Blues is once again enlisted by Sister Mary Stigmata in her latest crusade to raise funds for a children's hospital. Hitting the road to re-unite the band and win the big prize at the New Orleans Battle of the Bands, Elwood is pursued cross-country by the cops.Jesus Christ Saviour
IMDB 7.1 | Feb , 2008
Klaus Kinski has perhaps the most ferocious reputation of all screen actors: his volatility was documented to electrifying effect in Werner Herzog’s 1999 portrait My Best Fiend. This documentary provides further fascinating insight into the talent and the tantrums of the great man. Beset by hecklers, Kinski tries to deliver an epic monologue about the life of Christ (with whom he perhaps identifies a little too closely). The performance becomes a stand-off, as Kinski fights for control of the crowd and alters the words to bait his tormentors. Indispensable for Kinski fans, and a riveting introduction for newcomers, this is a unique document, which Variety called ‘a time capsule of societal ideals and personal demons.’The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness
IMDB 7.5 | Nov , 2013
Follows the behind-the-scenes work of Studio Ghibli, focusing on the notable figures Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Toshio Suzuki.Retying the Knot: The Incredible String Band
IMDB 6.7 | Oct , 1997
A profile of the Hippest band of the 60's and 70's as they prepare for a reunion gig.We Are Little Zombies
IMDB 6.5 | Mar , 2019
Their parents are dead. They should be sad, but they can't cry. So they form a kick-ass band. This is the story of four 13-year-olds in search of their emotions.The Legendary Rick Perry and the Art of Dimension 20
IMDB 8 | Dec , 2023
Take an inside look at Rick Perry’s strange and wonderful life as Creative Producer for Dimension 20.John Singer Sargent: Fashion and Swagger
IMDB 9.5 | Apr , 2024
Filmed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Tate Britain, London, the exhibition reveals Sargent’s power to express distinctive personalities, power dynamics and gender identities during this fascinating period of cultural reinvention. Alongside 50 paintings by Sargent sit stunning items of clothing and accessories worn by his subjects, drawing the audience into the artist’s studio. Sargent’s sitters were often wealthy, their clothes costly, but what happens when you turn yourself over to the hands of a great artist? The manufacture of public identity is as controversial and contested today as it was at the turn of the 20th century, but somehow Sargent’s work transcends the social noise and captures an alluring truth with each brush stroke.Frances Carroll & 'The Coquettes'
IMDB 5 | Feb , 1940
Bandleader Frances Carroll leads The Coquettes, an all-female band, in several swing tunes.Fubar
IMDB 6.2 | May , 2002
Terry and Dean are lifelong friends who have grown-up together: shotgunning their first beers, forming their first garage band, and growing the great Canadian mullet known as "hockey hair". Now the lives of these Alberta everymen are brought to the big screen by documentarian Ferral Mitchener in an exploration of the depths of friendship, the fragility of life, growing up gracefully and the art and science of drinking beer like a man.The Life and Death of Frida Kahlo
IMDB 0 | Oct , 2024
A 1975 short documentary that focuses on the events that molded Frida Kahlo's life.A Sonorous Melody
IMDB 0 | Aug , 2023
Growing up as a Deaf individual in Indonesia, Mufi was taught to speak instead of sign. As an adult, now she carves her music career to inspire others to express themselves through sign language.A Hard Day's Night
IMDB 7.4 | Jul , 1964
Capturing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in their electrifying element, 'A Hard Day's Night' is a wildly irreverent journey through this pastiche of a day in the life of The Beatles during 1964. The band have to use all their guile and wit to avoid the pursuing fans and press to reach their scheduled television performance, in spite of Paul's troublemaking grandfather and Ringo's arrest.Sigrid & Isaac
IMDB 0 | Nov , 2006
Documentary about the artists Sigrid Hjertén and Isaac Grünewald.Ghetto - The Secret Life of the City
IMDB 0 | Jan , 1996
Belgrade in the 1990s seen through the eyes of Goran Čavajda 'Čavke', the late drummer of Serbian rock band "Electric Orgasm". Under dictatorship of Slobodan Milošević, his city became one of the worst places to live in Europe, while the country suffered highest inflation rate in its history, accompanied by mass poverty and political isolation. Documentary follows Čavke walking through the Belgrade streets where total chaos and decline of moral values rule. He finds his only shelter underground, where his friends - musicians and artists - live and work invisibly.Baldiga: Unlocked Heart
IMDB 0 | Jan , 2025
Using diary excerpts, photographs and memories from companions, the film paints the portrait of the artist Jürgen Baldiga who sensitively and authentically captured the West Berlin queer scene of the 1980s and early 1990s with his camera.Takeda
IMDB 7 | Oct , 2017
Takeda is a film about the universality of the human being seen thru the eyes of a Japanese painter that has adopted the Mexican culture.