Cameron's Winter at Carnegie Hall Review: Paul Thomas Anderson's Concert Film Captures the Grandeur and Intimacy of an Esoteric Event - London Film Festival

Music videos are every writer's favorite, and Paul Thomas Anderson is no exception. But where the likes of Martin Scorsese like to go big when they make a full-on concert film, PTA goes in the opposite direction. Jonathan Demme is inevitably a big influence here, but Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to the 1984 documentary Talking Heads. What sounds like his wonderful 1985 ad for New Order's The Perfect Kiss is perhaps the only reason Powell and Pressberger and MTV can be mentioned in the same breath.

Although Winter's esoteric music is an acquired taste, PTA's film - co-produced by Benny Safdie - offers a wonderful sense of occasion. Carnegie Hall holds more than 3,000 people, but this performance film brings to life the old adage about feeling alone in a crowd. Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall creates the grandeur and intimacy of the event by using warm 35mm color to capture the vintage, almost music hall atmosphere of the venue. In stark contrast to the crowded crowd scenes of, say, Oasis's recent film, PTA portrays the audience as both a vague mass and a trail of highly concentrated individuals, each experiencing their own kind of connection with a musician who doesn't speak to them or even turn to them. Related News Ava DuVernay Shares The Origins Behind Her Documentary '14' at Buzzy London Film Festival Debut News James Gray Says 'Two Lovers' Was His First Breakthrough: 'I Don't Care Too Much About The Movies I've Made Before'

Winter, the 24-year-old lead singer of a New York rock group called the Geese, is an admirer of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, which is clear from the start. With the odd nod to Nick Cave's Fire and Brimstone at its most religious, the show is just one man and a grand piano, which was kind of a shock to a woman sitting three rows from the front at his second London Film Festival performance (he left after the second song had barely begun). The stark simplicity of the sound, given the expansive, almost classical nature of the songs, makes the film surprisingly hard to follow at times – are we watching an entire set, or just one long song cycle? - and if it wasn't for the conscious cheering of an informed audience, it would be difficult to tell where one song ends and the next begins. Watch on Deadline

Like its subject, the PTA doesn't really seem to care whether you're enjoying yourself or not. Much like Winter's songs — which include songs like "Names Are Donuts on the Sea" — much of Cameron's Winter At Carnegie Hall is about interpretation. The camera always finds ways around the artist, sometimes examining him with the forensic disinterest of a doctor, up close and in his face like a adoring fan. Winter remains slippery and impenetrable throughout, and when he does his only showmanship — pretending to leave the stage after 30 minutes — it's hard to tell if it's a joke or the start of a panic attack that thankfully subsides.

The show and soundtrack, which runs just over an hour, are bookended by scenes of concertgoers filling and then emptying the room. What happens in between is an interesting interrogation of the highly personal nature of art, how it happens and the ripple effect it creates in a room full of like-minded people. But is it good? If that's your main criteria, Cameron Winter At Carnegie Hall is not for you.

Title: Cameron Winter At Carnegie Hall Festival: London, New York Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Distributor: Mubi Duration: 1 hour and 11 minutes

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