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Amazon.co.uk Review
Kurt & Courtney, despite the title, is not really a film about the late Nirvana singer and his wife. Rather, in the gonzo style familiar from other Broomfield productions (Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam, Biggie & Tupac), it's a film about making a film about the late Nirvana singer and his wife. The approach is initially engaging, as Broomfield's self-conscious haplessness is a refreshing change from the infallible omniscience that documentary presenters usually seek to project. But by the end it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that Broomfield is hamming it up somewhat to distract attention from his failure to produce anything substantial.
Broomfield sets out to delve into the persistent rumours that Cobain's death was not suicide, but murder possibly arranged with Love's connivance. By way of investigation, he speaks to people who claim, with wildly varying levels of plausibility, acquaintance with Cobain and Love. Some are interesting, particularly Love's arrestingly unpleasant father, who believes that his daughter killed her husband, and Kurt's charmingly guileless aunt. Too many of the rest are stoned, stupid or palpably insane, and Broomfield ends up little the wiser for speaking to any of them. Between interviews, Broomfield tries to manufacture tension with a series of heavy but never-quite-substantiated hints that Love is pulling strings to hamper his progress. The final confrontation between filmmaker and subject is one of the most colossal anti-climaxes ever caught on tape. --Andrew Mueller
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This dvd focuses on the death and events surrounding the death of kurt cobain. Kurt cobain was lead singer of nirvana, the biggest band of the nineties. Cobain spoke for a generation and that is why he was catapulted to cult status as soon as smells like teen spirit was released. He was a proper musician, a tortured genius who defined the statement 'rock star' by singing about things that people all around the world could relate to. In april 1994 kurt cobain was found dead in his greenhouse, he had taken his own life by shooting himself in the head with a shotgun. The news of cobains death spread like wildfire and millions of people gathered to pay tribute to him. With his suicide came murder theories suggesting that someone that talented would not want to kill themselves. This dvd questions the murder theories and brings them to the surface. In one paticular part of the film a man named 'el duce' (lead singer in the mentors) states that courtney love offered him $50,000 to kill kurt. Many people beleive that courtney killed kurt because she was jealous of him or because she wanted his money(by the time of his death cobain was worth well over $100,000,000). Watch this movie it will make you think twice!
Format:DVD
Kurt & Courtney is a 1998 documentary by Nick Broomfield with much potential but delivers little as it inanely consists mostly of hit & hope interviews, non-expositional dialogue, crooked media control & far out conspiracy theories bordering on the ridiculous.
Its opening is intriging as Cobain's origins are explored, delving from a music obsessed toddler to a troubled childhood in a broken home & how sleeping under a bridge was immortalised in 'Something In The Way'. Unfortunately, the main focus is on Courtney Love rather than Kurt & in an ironic parallel, it spirals out of control.
Granted Bloomfield is up against all sorts of licensing, legal & funding issues in the making of the documentary and makes no secret of it, but that does not excuse interviews being wayward, off-target, so much so even Bloomfield himself appears to get frustrated at times.
Love's estranged father reveals mostly an irrelevant battle of wills with his estranged daughter degenerating into blather at times, Kurt's best friend & their child's nanny offer little insight with their reluctant half answers for apparent fear of Courtney and a private detective is convinced Cobain was either murdered by Love or at least ordered a hit on him, based purely on conjecture.
The mark of a good filmmaker is to nail your source material & evolve it into something informative, provocative & leaves you asking for more but Broomfield fails in this regard as his delivery suggests an apparent inability to get answers to the tough questions, without interviewees going off on a tangent and by the end, his publicly questioning the ACLU's (an organisation that promotes Freedom of Speech) choice of Courtney Love as a guest speaker feels like a cheap shot as that stage, so does the entire documentary. This isn't a balanced view of Kurt & Courtney, but mostly a crack at Mrs. Cobain in the worst possible light which doesn't look, sound or feel objective.
So if you're looking for real insight & a well documented exploration of the life of Kurt Cobain & all who were integrally part of it including Love, then read `Heavier Then Heaven' by Charles S Cross.
Granted that publication had Love's blessing where Nick Bloomfield had no such luxury, but that does not excuse this documentary being devoid of direction, intrigue or credibility and as such, should be avoided.
Its opening is intriging as Cobain's origins are explored, delving from a music obsessed toddler to a troubled childhood in a broken home & how sleeping under a bridge was immortalised in 'Something In The Way'. Unfortunately, the main focus is on Courtney Love rather than Kurt & in an ironic parallel, it spirals out of control.
Granted Bloomfield is up against all sorts of licensing, legal & funding issues in the making of the documentary and makes no secret of it, but that does not excuse interviews being wayward, off-target, so much so even Bloomfield himself appears to get frustrated at times.
Love's estranged father reveals mostly an irrelevant battle of wills with his estranged daughter degenerating into blather at times, Kurt's best friend & their child's nanny offer little insight with their reluctant half answers for apparent fear of Courtney and a private detective is convinced Cobain was either murdered by Love or at least ordered a hit on him, based purely on conjecture.
The mark of a good filmmaker is to nail your source material & evolve it into something informative, provocative & leaves you asking for more but Broomfield fails in this regard as his delivery suggests an apparent inability to get answers to the tough questions, without interviewees going off on a tangent and by the end, his publicly questioning the ACLU's (an organisation that promotes Freedom of Speech) choice of Courtney Love as a guest speaker feels like a cheap shot as that stage, so does the entire documentary. This isn't a balanced view of Kurt & Courtney, but mostly a crack at Mrs. Cobain in the worst possible light which doesn't look, sound or feel objective.
So if you're looking for real insight & a well documented exploration of the life of Kurt Cobain & all who were integrally part of it including Love, then read `Heavier Then Heaven' by Charles S Cross.
Granted that publication had Love's blessing where Nick Bloomfield had no such luxury, but that does not excuse this documentary being devoid of direction, intrigue or credibility and as such, should be avoided.
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
this is more the story of censorship, financing, coercion of a journalist than of kurt & courtney. starts out with investigating kurt's death and trying to get courtney to do an interview but ends up via threats to funding, legal action etc as being about journalistic censorship which although very worthwhile and interesting it's not what the title suggests and not why i bought the dvd. having read the books who killed kurt cobain and love & death of an icon (by halperin) i was interested in seeing broomfield's (the dvd's journalist) interviews with the people mentioned in these books. it's easy to see how the conspiracy theories came about and how frustrated halperin and his writing partner must have been with all these incredulious witnesses. broomfield doesn't help matters by not being more probing - showing his bias perhaps, and also the diffuculty in making a film in which no-one will give straight answers. there is a very brief unauthorised interview with courtney towards the end but not enough to warrant still calling the film kurt and courtney. perhaps it should have been called something like - kurt and courtney, a lot of people who knew them would like to say something; one journalist's experience of this.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Who killed Kurt Cobain?
One of the biggest conspiracy theories in rock'n'roll involves the death of Kurt Cobain. Was it really suicide, or did someone murder him? Read more
Published 24 months ago by E. A Solinas
dated and hollow
this documentary really doesn't stand the test of time very well at all, and now i have read the far far far superior biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2009 by Alex Bailey
The Posh & Becks of Grunge
A decent tribute to soullmates Courtney and her late husband. This is a bit dated but at the time of their rise to stardom they were the hottest ticket in town.
Published on 28 Dec 2007 by The Critic
The legend can only be marred by suspicion
A very strange documentary about the death of Kurt Cobain. Is it a suicide as announced or is it a murder as suspected and asserted by several people and is Courtney the origin of... Read more
Published on 30 April 2007 by Jacques COULARDEAU
Dylan Carlson
I recommend this for fans of Earth (Dylan Carlson) as Nick Broomfield kindly used his music & a snipit from Earth's promo video for Talahassee. Read more
Published on 12 May 2004 by Trevsey
Kurt and Cool Broomfield
If Broomfield was any more laid back, he'd be horizontal! Here's someone who can make a documentary without raising his blood pressure, and the effect this has on his interviewees... Read more
Published on 4 Mar 2004 by Gergis
Superbly revealing
Kurt and Courtney, the revealing history of both of their lives; the way they came together, their lives together and Kurt's death. Read more
Published on 14 Feb 2004
Much ado about nothing
This is a documentary that generated a lot of publicty and controversy when it was released, looking at it 6 years on its hard to undrstand why. Read more
Published on 17 Jun 2003 by "paulcarmarthen"
Kurt and Courtney-Sarah's review
I really liked Kurt and Courtney.It gave a very good debate on who killed Kurt Cobain if it were murder. Read more
Published on 30 May 2003 by "sugarbabydoll15"
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