[MellySingsDoom]

(reviews continued)

"Step Across The Border" (1990, dir. Nicholas Humbert, Werner Penzel) - a documentary about multi-instrumentalist and composer Fred Frith (he of Henry Cow fame), which was initially a direct-to-VHS release, but has subsequently received a whole bunch of cinema screenings worldwide. This monochrome-filmed documentary follows a week in the life of Frith, who was working in Japan at the time, but which contains other location footage (NYC, Germany etc).

"Step Across The Border" of course covers Frith's work, both past and then-ongoing, but it also follows the life of a musician working on the margins in general, with a lot of candid, insightful moments. Highlights for me include Fred and a friend of his discussing life in general at an outside Tokyo eatery, Frith forgetting the melody line to one of his own tunes (and getting all embarrassed about it), and some trademark Frith musings/ramblings, ending on a "sorry, I've forgotten what the question was!" note.

On the musical side, we see Frith rehearsing his then-current ensemble - clearly Fred is not one for po-faced "auteur" business - and him playing live in a whole number of places. The documentary also shows a whole bunch of people he's worked with in the past, including the late Tom Cora and (the brilliant) Iva Bittova. Arto Lindsay pops up rehearsing with the Frith ensemble, and comes across as a genuinely decent and self-deprecating guy. Archive audio clips include many tunes from Frith's solo and collaborative works (including the ever-entertaining "Same Old Me"), and there's plenty of talk about what Frith had in plan for the future.

Although this is a b/w film, it is really effective I think, and the audio on this DVD version is near-flawless. As a feature length documentary, it in no way outstays its welcome at all (hell, I could have watched a five-hour version of this), and the directors I feel have got a good grasp as where Frith is coming from as a human being, as well as a musician. And for those who fear that this all sounds like a "male muso bores only" zone, I watched this last round mine with my most recent ex, and she ended up dancing around to some of the tunes! So worry ye not, this is a documentary that anyone with an interest with how a musician engages with his music and the world in general would be able to appreciate. Highest possible recommendation all round.