Le réalisateur Dick Carruthers s'exprimait à Londres avant la toute première projection de presse de "Celebration Day", le 21 septembre dernier - la VF suit la VO.
Dick Carruthers about « Celebration Day » - London, September 21st 2012
(Transcription: Naiko J. Franklin for HARD FORCE - all rights reserved)
“I’ve been asked to give you a brief introduction, with the emphasis on brief, which is never my style. So I’ll try.
A little about the film… In 2003, I did have the great pleasure of putting the “Led Zeppelin” DVD together. One of the great difficulties or frustrations that the band felt, and I felt, was not having all of the footage that really would do them justice. So we had to find quite a lot of ways of doing that with footage that we had. Actually, I think we did achieve it, but the point is that, at various points in time, I do remember saying to them: “Look I know this is all we’ve got. I really wish I was there and we had an awful lot of cameras and we shot you in the way that we do, these days, to really do you justice.” Little did I know that the opportunity would present itself in 2007.
It’s a bit awkward to talk about it today, because it has been a bit of a well-kept secret for about a year and a half. Because it never was definitely going to come out as a film. That’s the other thing I wanted to share with you. It was very important to the band, once they’d agreed to do the show, that it was all about what was going to happen on the night: you had to be there. The point of view of the band was very much: you haveto see it. And everything I was asked to do – I was asked to direct the show, for the big screen – was about what would happen on the screen, that night. It was all geared for the screen: the way we shot the footage, the way we framed it. By the way, how many people here actually saw the show?
(About half the audience raise their hand.)
Wow! Quite a lot of people saw the show, so you know what I’m talking about. So it was all geared towards that. And the band was very conscious of wanting a big screen. They wanted lots of effects. They encouraged me into using a lot of effects. So I was all geared towards that, aesthetically. I think at one point, as you are about to see in “Black Dog”, Robert Plant said to me : “Can you do an effect where we’re just black? In silhouette, on black!” And I thought about it and I said: “Yeah, we can do that!”
At some point, it became an obvious thing to record it – very much with an emphasis NOT on making it into a film. As I said, it was all about the night. And we didn’t know what was going to happen on the night, never mind what was going to happen after the night. But we decided to record it and Harvey asked me what we would need to do that. So we just added a few cameras and put a few Super 8 cameras into the crowd. No cranes: the band made it very clear that they didn’t want those.
This concert was a piece of history, we recorded it, it was fantastic and it made such a great statement, for them to come together and play with such force, and power, and conviction. An incredible musicianship, as you’ll see: there’s a lot of close-ups, so it ended up quite intimate. But I’ll let you be the judge of that. There’s a lot of communication between them. There’s a lot of humor and fun, up there, that we managed to capture, I hope you’ll agree.
Only several years later, we looked at the footage we had and everybody thought: “You know what, we should put this out.” But it was never definitely going to be put out. So I’m really thrilled that it is, I’m sure you all are and I think that ZEPPELIN fans all around the world will be.
I wanted to leave you with a thought: when we were discussing what might make a good cover for this film, I suggested we used the picture of a Hadron Collider. It was a good idea… that was binned in the end, but when you’ve got that many fundamental forces of nature that come together, you get a very big “bang!” And you’re about to watch that now. So… enjoy!”
Dick Carruthers à propos de « Celebration Day » – Londres, le 21 septembre 2012
(Traduction : Naiko J. Franklin pour HARD FORCE - tous droits réservés)
« On m’a demandé de vous présenter une brève introduction, on a insisté sur bref, bien que ce ne soit pas mon style. Mais je vais essayer.
(La moitié du public environ lève le doigt.)
Wow ! Ca fait pas mal de gens, alors vous comprenez ce que je raconte. On s’était équipé pour ça. Et le groupe savait qu’il voulait un grand écran. Ils voulaient beaucoup d’effets spéciaux et m’ont encouragé à les utiliser. Alors je me suis préparé pour ça, esthétiquement. Je crois me souvenir qu’à un moment, comme vous allez le voir sur « Black Dog », Robert Plant m’a dit : « Est-ce que tu pourrais faire un truc où on serait tout noirs ? Des silhouettes, sur fond noir ! » Alors j’y ai pensé et j’ai répondu : « Ouaip, on peut faire ça. »
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| La fameuse silhouette sur fond noir... |
A un moment, il est devenu évident qu’il fallait enregistrer ça – même s’il n’était absolument PAS question d’en faire un film. Comme je l’ai dit, tous les efforts étaient concentrés sur la soirée. Et nous ne savions pas ce qu’il allait arriver ce soir-là, moins encore ce qu’il allait arriver après cette soirée. Mais on a décidé d’enregistrer et Harvey m’a demandé ce qu’il faudrait pour faire ça. Alors on a ajouté quelques caméras et disposé quelques Super 8 dans le public. Pas de grue : le groupe avait très clairement dit qu’il n’en voulait pas.
Pour réserver, c’est là : "Je veux y aller !"
(Nota : j’aurais souhaité pouvoir vous présenter l’épisode 2 de la conférence de presse avant la sortie du film, mais la forte actualité de cet automne ne m’aura pas permis de le faire. Toutefois, je crois que le second épisode pourra bénéficier d’un petit peu de recul et des enseignements des conférences de presse qui ont eu lieu depuis, à New York, notamment – donc stay tuned, as always…)
