Boxed and Delivered
A Skin, A Night, French filmmaker Vincent Moons feature-length chronicle of a few weeks in the life of The National, is not a prototypical rockumentary. You wont find a narrative arc that begins with strife, builds to a triumphant climax and ends with a final shot of a band happily basking in its success. Instead, Moon (aka Mathieu Saura) offers an abstract, impressionistic view of one of Brooklyns most celebrated bands of the moment.
This approach is true to form for the video artist behind La Blogotheques The Take-Away Shows, a brilliant series of dream-like videos depicting indie musicians performing impromptu, usually on the streets of Paris. In A Skin, A Night, Moons handheld camerawork, with its grainy texture, constantly shifting perspective and emphasis on the interplay between light and shadow, fittingly evokes The Nationals melancholy, brooding style. Early on in the film, Matt Berninger, the quintets baritone-voiced lead singer, assesses Moons role as filmmaker: Youre in a weird position of power. You just stand there and hold this thing. And youre capturing people saying nonsense, he says. Its like a gun Theres something aiming at them thats capturing them, which could be embarrassing.
And though a sense of unease is palpable (especially in the numerous close-ups of Berninger looking pensive) and a feeling of foreboding pervades the film, the members of The National sound anything but ridiculous. During the period in 2006 that Moon filmed them in the studio (located in Bridgeport, Conn.) and at live shows in England, they already had been working arduously for six months on what would become their widely acclaimed fourth full-length disc Boxer (though they, of course, didnt know how successful it would be at the time). And the collective feeling that theyre struggling to meet a deadline and under the gun comes through. I think he captured the anxiety and dread, Bryan Devendorf, The Nationals drummer, says of Moon and the film. Devendorf is in the midst of preparing for the groups massive international tour that includes a slew of opening slots for Modest Mouse and R.E.M. We hadnt written everything before going into the studio and we were afraid we wouldnt finish.
Moon employs a cinema verité technique, portraying the unglamorous, mundane moments of music making. The film contains candid scenes of the band members waiting to load in for a show and the tedium of sound check; and the theyre back at the studio, working laboriously to record and negotiating the direction of various songs. The little live footage that Moon incorporates was shot from unusual angles, often with the musicians backlit, which meshes with his understated portrayal of The National. Throughout A Skin, A Night, Moon intersperses images of the band with incidental footage, from long shots of subway rides to views of the Manhattan skyline, which serve as a counterpoint to their travels away from home.
A Skin, A Night will be released May 20 on DVD, packaged with The Virginia EP, a collection of B-sides, live tracks and rarities. Boxers success upon its release last year is, to some degree, the climax that isnt shown in the DVD. But that happy ending wouldnt quite fit with Moons style, however much the band appreciates the unexpected turn of events that made all the worry shown in A Skin, A Night worthwhile.
In retrospect, it all seems very humorous, Devendorf says. All that validation that the artist seeks we were rewarded for our hard work.