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Jagger rocks Cannes
Mick Jagger rocked the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, bounding from a limousine into the Palais Stephanie for the premiere of the new documentary “Stones in Exile.”
Hundreds of photographers and onlookers blocked the street near the theater, proving once again that rock stars are bigger than movie stars.
The new documentary, directed by Stephen Kijak, details the flight of the Rolling Stones to southern France in 1971, in part to escape the high taxes in Britain.
As everyone knows, the six-month stay at the villa Nellcote in Villefrance-sur-mer led to the creation of one of history’s classic albums, “Exile on Main St.” The documentary details the rowdy recording sessions in the basement of the villa rented by Keith Richards. And as the movie shows, Richards was the guiding force for the musical creation, even though he was drinking and doing drugs almost nonstop.
Jagger, who introduced the film before a packed audience, said that the Rolling Stones were “young, good-looking and stupid” at the time. “Now, we’re just stupid.”
During the stay in France, Jagger married Bianca in St. Tropez, and footage of that event is included. Also prominent are various other musicians who joined the Stones, including saxophonist Bobby Keys, who drawls some of the funniest lines about scantily clad women, drinking and the lifestyle of rockers.
All of the recordings took place in the basement of Nellcote, which was actually a series of rooms, none of them suitable for jam sessions. Technical problems proliferated. Lights went out. Gear malfunctioned. And the Stones, who worked 12-hour stretches, were so strung out after recording sessions that an intruder was able to enter the mansion and steal several guitars as well as Keys’ sax, without being noticed.
The movie is fairly linear, with various musicians and iconic director Martin Scorsese talking about the importance of the album on rock music. The same people close the movie with their reflections.
In between, we get to see never-released footage of the recording sessions as well as details about the private lives of the group. We meet Fat Jacques, the chef at the villa. And we see details of the use of drugs and alcohol. But somehow it all led to a creative explosion, a blend of rock, blues and country music.
After the screening, Jagger described the album as a “scrawny, gutsy piece of work” that wasn’t immediately embraced by critics. But he said that critics need time to digest a new album, and that the acclaim eventually came. Part of the acceptance was spurred by the arena tours that the Stones did after the album was released in 1972, he said.
Jagger was asked about the Stones’ rivalry with the Beatles at the time, but he rightly pointed out that the two groups weren’t really all that similar. The Beatles did big concerts, but they were briefer affairs than those of the Stones, and those concerts didn’t continue in the 70s.
Keith Richards, meanwhile, has one of the best lines in the film. “Mick is rock. And I am roll.”
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