Anton Corbijn

The faces that Anton Corbijn photographs are familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of popular culture. Rock stars and divas, actors and supermodels, Corbijn's subjects are not only accustomed to being photographed, their images have reached iconic status. But something happens when a celebrity faces Corbijn's camera. It isn't that this groundbreaking photographer imbues his subjects with some artificially imposed mythology. Rather, he allows each person's own mythology to speak for and show more against itself: whether it' s the famous photo of David Bowie descending Christ-like from a cross; Luciano Pavarotti with the scowl and wild eyes of a heavy metal rocker; Courtney Love emerging from the ocean like Venus on a wave; or Christy Turlington crouching vulnerably on a treacherous bridge. Corbijn' s easy relationship with the famous' from Michael Stipe and Bono to Salman Rushdie and Danny DeVito' offers him access to decidedly un-glamorous attitudes and poses not often seen in celebrity photos. Yet Corbijn never denies the star power of his subjects. Dazzling and alluring, imaginative and provocative, Corbijn' s pictures are a paean to the artistic skills and visions that have made his subjects as famous as they are beloved. show less

Anton Corbijn initiated a new era in portrait photography for the rock and pop music scene with his atmospheric, often melancholy images. Here is a photographer who travels the world, tirelessly seeking to capture its idols in quiet moments and catch a trace of their essential being behind all the fame and glamour.
Taken primarily in black and white with a hand-held camera and without auxiliary lighting, most of Corbijn's photographs are shot in those quiet moments between performances. show more Beyond the reach of the glaring spotlights, on the dark side of the star cult - literally and metaphorically - Corbijn finds what interests him more than gesture, image or glamour: the unusual degree of privacy and closeness that turns his portraits into genuine character studies.
Corbijn has now moved beyond the boundaries of music photography and Star Trak reads like a visual encyclopedia of the icons of our culture, gathering together outstanding personalities from the worlds of film, literature, rock music and fashion. He visits film directors Wim Wenders, David Lynch, and Martin Scorsese, actors Johnny Depp, Gerard Depardieu and Jodie Foster, and alongside the older rebels - like Mick Jagger and Leonard Cohen - he includes the enfants terribles of the Eighties and Nineties - Kurt Cobain, Billy Idol, and Slash. Corbijn couples the excesses of William S. Burroughs with the beauty of supermodels Naomi and Christy, and brings Salman Rushdie and Bono together in front of the camera. show less

Somebody wants to kill an assassin/gun-maker.

The action is great. And the acting: there are a lot of scenes with no dialog where you know exactly what the protagonist is thinking. And when you don't know, you want to. A lot of the rest of it isn't nearly as interesting as it likes to think it is (although the direction is so cool and Spaghetti Western-y that you might not notice). And of course it has one of the best posters ever.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: A
Pacing: show more B
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: A
Acting: A
Music: B

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 3.2/4 show less

D (Bad).

An emotionally distant man in a famous shitty band is emotionally distant. Good acting. Corny, cliched writing that thinks its deep. It feels exploitative. And it's an exercise in misery. Based on my experiences with biopics, I can only imagine this would be even harder to watch if I cared about Joy Division.

(Apr. 2024)