Folk rock balladeer Paul Kelly has written over 350 songs and released 22 albums; as such, I suspect I am one of the six people in Australia who doesn’t really know much of his music, and even less about the man himself.
This, I’d like to think, is exactly what music documentaries are for.
Paul Kelly: Stories of Me sets out to paint a picture of the man behind the guitar, charting his career, musical influences, politics and family life. Director Ian Darling has used a self-admittedly ‘non-linear narrative’ to bring together over 50 interviews, archival footage, concert and recording studio material, and even Kelly’s original lyrics sheets into an auditory and visual tribute to an Australian songwriting legend. Unfortunately, it starts from the premise that its viewers already know and love Paul Kelly and his music, and falls down somewhat if you don’t.
Paul Kelly: Stories of Me attempts to chart the inner life of an artist who, self-confessedly, keeps his cards close to his chest. Without the luxury of a detailed personal narrative, it has to rely on a sort of serial-killer/20-to-1 format, looking for clues in school report cards, talking to friends and relatives, and repeatedly showing the same snippets of home videos. Some points – such as Kelly’s long-term heroin addiction and his Indigenous activism – are surprisingly under-explored. Others, such as Kelly’s literary bent, family history and musical influences, are lavishly detailed. In an interesting departure, Darling has subtitled Kelly’s songs with their original handwritten lyrics sheets, which is quite successful, and a definite improvement on the rest of the film’s excitable use of novelty fonts.
The brief picture this film paints of the pub rock scenes in Australia in the 1980s is by far its most interesting aspect. Archival footage of Kelly playing on top of the Nylex sign in Richmond, at the Hopetoun Hotel in Sydney, and in Salamanca Place in Hobart are absolutely fascinating. The history of Kelly’s family and childhood is also interesting, although – like Kelly’s music – it tends somewhat to the sentimental, not least the film’s opening: an imagined re-staging of Kelly’s Nona singing ‘Si, Mi Chiamano Mimi’ in a cane-field.
I didn’t know much about Paul Kelly before seeing this film, and oddly, I feel I don’t know much about him now. This film expects its hints at aspects of Kelly’s life and oeuvre to fill its viewers with a sudden sense of warm recognition, and every set of opening chords and on-screen lyrics to tap into some deep vein of memory. Lacking that memory washed a great deal of the interest out of the film: one could be forgiven for thinking this was a jumbled film about a folk singer who took a fairly unremarkable route to fame, who isn’t a figure of astonishing personal interest, and whose music is quite repetitive when heard en masse.
‘You’ll all have your own story with Paul,’ said Darling after the screening. ‘The first song you heard, how you came by him.’ If you have your own story with Paul, you’ll enjoy this film. If not, perhaps give it a miss until you do.
Rating: 4 stars if you like Paul Kelly’s music, 2½ stars if you don’t
Paul Kelly: Stories of Me
Director: Ian Darling
Australia, 2012, 100 mins
Rated M
Distributed by Madman Entertainment
In limited national release
Sydney & Hobart from 25 October
Perth from 1 November
Canberra from 2 November
Melbourne & Adelaide from 8 November
Brisbane from 23 November
Additional details at www.paulkellythemovie.com.au
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