Plank, Conny - The Potential Of Noise DVD
SKU
21-CLO0991
“Conny Plank died when his son Stephan was only thirteen years old. The opening stages of this music documentary about the pioneering music producer, directed by Stephan with Reto Caduff, see Stephan embarking on a journey to discover more about his father. The footage, of differing cities and modes of transportation is underscored by one of Plank’s earliest and most seminal productions, ‘Hallogallo’ by Neu!. The footage conveys visually the cinematic feeling of motion, urbanity, and the modern that is conjured in sound by the music that Plank made his name bringing to life in the studio. Alongside Neu!, Plank produced early works by Kraftwerk and Harmonia before spreading his wings and becoming the producer and engineer of choice for pop behemoths such as Devo, the Eurythmics, Ultravox, Scorpions, and many more. Most of who feature in the film eulogising about Plank’s work.
The film is packed with insight into Plank’s successes and abilities to coax classic after classic out of those he collaborated with, but this is not the film’s central concern. Stephan’s journey to meet those who worked with his father before and after he was born is the central plot and motif of the film as the audience follows him seeking to reconnect with the memory and spirit of a man who, it becomes increasingly clear, achieved success at the expense of those closest to him.
Like Donal Foreman’s exquisite The Image You Missed, currently playing film festivals, The Potential of Noise is a conversation between a son and a father. Where Foreman’s film is also a conversation between two filmmakers, one of the joys of Stephan Plank’s filmic journey is that Stephan isn’t a filmmaker by trade and as a result there’s a raw honesty to the film that makes it especially moving. When interviewing author David Stubbs, who wrote the brilliant book Future Days: Krautrock And The Building Of Modern Germany, Plank shifts awkwardly and fidgets almost constantly. There’s no media training or documentary prowess in his interview style and the film is all the more rewarding for that.”-The Quietus
- Format TypeNTSC
- Region CodingAll Region
- LabelCleopatra
- UPC889466099199