Montage of Heck is an awe-inspiring musical declaration, as is the title of a documentary based on the life of Kurt Cobain, which will be sheltered by HBO starting from 2015. Its director, Brett Morgen, promises to deliver a more ‘’humanistic portrait’’ of the regretted artist than any other former attempt by various filmmakers. All the skeptics and non-believers should know from the begging that Montage of Heck is the first fully authorized documentary of Nirvana’s front man and as a great argument, we have numerous members of his family collaborating for the fulfillment of the project, first in line being his daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, tagged as executive producer.
Although not related by blood with Cobain, Brett Morgen seems to be related to the Nirvana icon on a spiritual level, as his devotion to the project is both restless and heartfelt. The director revealed that he has been working on the project for about eight years, gathering material and speaking to the family of the singer. Mister Morgan proves to attach a great ideal to the story, that of reviving Kurt to the world as a multifaceted artist, not solely as a man of sound or picture: “One thing that will really surprise people in the film is that while we all know about him as a musician and visual artist, we’ll be showing his Super-8 movies, his spoken word poetry and autobiography, his sculptures, his photography and his sound design pieces”. The director furthermore confessed to Variety that the complex and varied artistic output of Kurt had unfortunately been left untouched by the public’s eye so far: “He worked in just about every medium. These pieces show a world view that no one has seen, and all this material has been sitting in storage boxes for all these years. I’m thrilled we’re going to be able to share it with the world”.
There appears to be a large number of people connected with the creation of the documentary as one of the most credible and accurate Kurt Cobain based productions. The already mentioned Frances Bean Cobain took the highest level of involvement from the part of the family, joined by the aid given by Cobain’s ex-wife Courtney Love and his mother, Wendy O’Connor. In addition to such terms, Brett Morgen is remembered as director and writer of 2012’s Crossfire Hurricane, revolving around the legendary band The Rolling Stones, documentary which was, indeed, a great catch.
Morgen also draws a thin, yet scarcely known line between the interviewed or televised Nirvana front man and Kurt Cobain, the wholehearted, artistic and human-like grudge star: ‘’After going through the archives I could barely recognize the guy in the context of the images of him that have been disseminated by the mainstream media (…) “The way Kurt expressed himself in interviews was a pale reflection of who he really was’’. Consequently, the dead at 27 Cobain was depicted in strong and heart-chosen words: ‘’His warmth, his humor, his creativity was stifled in those interactions”.
The documentary draws its name from a bizarre mix-tape belonging to Kurt Cobain and shaped approximately in 1988.