[Gerrystumbaugh]

"A Bookshelf on Top Of The Sky"......

I have mixed feelings. Anyone else see this?

[atsonicpark]

Yeah, it's terrible.

[atsonicpark]

Here's my review from a few years ago, on imdb:

As a huge fan of John Zorn's music, I was excited to see this documentary; John Zorn is known as being somewhat shrouded in mystery, which clashes with his prolific musical output. This duality is perhaps what drives his music; from soft classical music to insane jazz freakouts and almost everything in between, Zorn holds nothing back in his mixing palette for making music that is wonderfully unique and beautiful (even in its ugliest moments).

However, just because Zorn doesn't hold back on his music, that doesn't mean the director of this documentary shouldn't show some reserve every now and then. Obviously, the director is a big fan of Zorn and this admiration shows through in nearly every scene... however, the focus of the film eventually becomes the director herself! This film isn't so much about Zorn's life or his working methods but more about the woman trying to get an interview with Zorn and failing to do so, so she mixes herself discussing topics with old footage of Zorn. She also uses artsy-fartsy editing techniques that don't help the film move along at all, and at one point she actually CRIES on camera. Really, half-way through the film, you start to forget it's even a Zorn biopic! While all this sounds very negative, the footage of Zorn IS awesome. Obviously it's not as exciting now in the age of youtube when you can view Zorn-related clips for hours on end, maybe even for days! So, I've rated this rather highly just from all the great footage of Zorn working -- as far as the documentary itself, it doesn't shed any new light into the man himself, and the documentary has almost no flow to it whatsoever. Just a very poor -- but lovingly-made -- documentary that's worth a watch for fans only... but you definitely won't walk away satisfied.

5/10

[fugazifan]

thats exactly how i felt, tht it was about her not him. had she been a more interesting person and director that might have worked, but it kind of felt like a vanity project

[Gerrystumbaugh]

agreed, more or less. I actually quite enjoyed how she put together the interview footage with him....and the live footage was awesome.....but yeah, too much director, not enough musicians. Wish she would have interviewed Dave Douglas, Patton, Eye, Ribot, etc......

[atsonicpark]

she probably doesn't even know who any of those people are.

[narlus]

_The Lost String_ is about Ribot and very much worth seeing.