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\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPaul Thomas Anderson\u2019s Cameron Winter Concert Film Acquired by Janus Films and Criterion<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
It is the gift of perspective that Anderson and his crew offer to this stationary performance that makes the film throb with a kind of urgency that can be so hard to capture in music documentaries. As the camera crew had permission to film from all angles, the film itself never settles for just one presentation. It gives the doc a novelty and edge because even if you were one of the lucky few to see Winter live, even if you were in the very front, there is no way you can see it from the perspective Anderson shows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
His camera might zoom in with affection and precision on Winter\u2019s face while he sings \u201cLove Takes Miles,\u201d to the point where you can see his tufts of hair quiver, or it might shift focus to the upper rafters, looking at Winter from afar as if he\u2019s a target that needs to be taken out by a sniper.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can feel Anderson and his crew being led by curiosity that, by default, will not stay still. They seem to view Winter\u2019s stationary performance (he only gets up from the piano occasionally to stretch or drink water) as a creative challenge to unlock its dynamism. Depending on how a particular song might be lit, the team also shifts focus in ways that emphasize Winter\u2019s isolation on stage but also his role in the larger audience collective. It can feel like the cinematic equivalent of a campfire, with Winter\u2019s soulful tunes being the hearth that keeps us warm amidst the \u201ccarnivals of pain<\/a> in life.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Anderson\u2019s film is focused and thoughtful, but also a little dangerous in its unpredictability within the concert film structure, which lends the movie its alluring power.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It reminded me in many ways of what I appreciate about liturgical faith traditions. Liturgies, from their call-and-response dynamics to the recitation of common prayer, on the surface can seem limiting. Yet it is within that straitjacket, within the rehearsal of order, that the divine can work. This film models, in its own alchemical way, that very act of taking a concert and exploring the multitudes of experience within it. The film\u2019s close-ups on Winter, where he\u2019s often hunched over the piano as if he\u2019s praying, feeling like he\u2019s performing for an audience of one, speak further to this idea that what we\u2019re witnessing is someone coming to terms in real time with who they are as an artist and creative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The other beauty of liturgy is the call to participate; there\u2019s a role for people in the service, and \u201cCameron Winter at Carnegie Hall\u201d is at its best when it reminds us that the act of listening to good music is not a passive experience of consumption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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