It’s not often you get the chance to see the ins and outs of the evolution of your favourite band. Particularly if that band isn’t U2 or Metallica. All the more reason to be thankful to Kerthy Fix and Gail O’Hara, who spent ten years following Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields, and have made something really rather special.
Seeing him on screen is similar to picking up a copy of a beloved book and suddenly finding it illustrated. Bang, there goes the carefully constructed image you’ve built up in your mind over the years (put together from album art, the occasional interview and – mostly- song lyrics), replaced by… well, reality.
So what exactly is that reality?
Well, reality is a pretty fluid concept, and every viewer will take something different from the film, but the film certainly offers us a good starting point, even giving us a look inside Stephin’s former NYC apartment - aka the ‘apartment of dreams’, with books and CDs covering the walls, cupboards filled with every imaginable instrument, dolls, plants, recording equipment and of course Stephin’s dog Irvin. I particularly enjoyed seeing scribbled notes of song ideas, lists and thoughts. It’s truly fascinating to see the earliest seeds of an executed idea, particularly executed ideas you’ve long since fallen in love with. It’s a bit like seeing the very first exchanges between you and a loved one.
The film does a good job at showing the story of The Magnetic Fields; the venues they played in the early days (and the sheer oddness of hearing the Magnetic Fields announced by a radio DJ in the same way as he might announce Green Day or the Black Eyed Peas), some truly wonderful live footage, an explanation of the difference between the sound of the band on record and in concert, how the band came together (The story of how John Woo joined the band is a particularly funny one), and of course inter-band relationships.
As for the latter, I don’t think many fans will be surprised to discover that Stephin IS The Magnetic Fields. The other (core) members (Sam Davol and John Woo) are peripheral at best, while Claudia is a different story altogether. Bubbly and sweet, in many ways she is Stephin’s opposite, the white to his black, the Jacob to his Smoky, and the person who seemingly keeps Stephin balanced (and his maudlin tendencies in check?). The extent to which this is indeed the case is of course debatable (and after all, what the hell do I know?), and the film doesn’t answer it (how, indeed, could it?). What we do see however is that this relationship is by far the most important in the band, it’s very core; celloist Sam Davol, for example notes (I must admit to my surprise. I suppose we all like to think of our favourite bands as tight groups of friends) “I love Stephin, but I’m not friends with him”, continuing “but I am very intimate with his music“.
This simple statement probably tells us a lot about the enigma that is Stephin.
We are presented with (brief and sometimes rather vague) opinions about Stephin by, among others, Peter Gabriel, Sarah Silverman, and Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket and occasional accordion player in The Magnetic Fields).
While some of these people know Stephin, few seem to actually be friends with Stephin, and leave us little (or none) the wiser about our subject.
Merritt strikes me as a (hyper)intelligent, rather antisocial man with a very straightforward approach to things (and people) who, we are told, “doesn’t suffer fools lightly”. The latter quite possibly precludes getting close to all too many people, and explains the difficulty not just in us getting to know him, but anyone for that matter. What we also see in the film, and anyone familiar with his music will of course already know this, is Stephin’s wry sense of humour (Stephin is probably not a huge ‘LOL’ user). Explaining his enjoyment of smoking at gas stations, Stephin dryly notes that “it’s also a favourite way of annoying Germans”. Or, talking about a favourite stuffed animal, he tells us ”This was knitted for me by my great grandmother before she went blind and deaf and started wacking out at everyone with a cane“, his eyes unable to resist a tiny sparkle.
The film ends when Stephin decides to leave New York for Los Angeles, mostly to work on film soundtracks; “not being in the film world is like being mute“, Stephin explains, ”I feel like I’m not involved in the conversation“. It’s also a sad moment in the film, mostly because it’s hard not to see it as a breakup of sorts between Stephin and Claudia, who, though not lovers, are obviously close - or, as Stephin puts it, “As other people go, she’s ok“, which seems to be about as vocal as Stephin can be about his feeling towards a friend. This emotion, it seems, is saved for his music.
Strange Powers official website
Go here for info on upcoming screenings
The Magnetic Fields – Strange Powers
Stephin Merritt – The Man Of A Million Faces
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