Music docos/biopics are, it seems, the flavour in favour once more. And a Good Thing that is, too.

I still haven't seen one to rival this, though -- "The Blues According To Lightnin Hopkins", a spectacularly well-shot film made by a Les Blank in the summer of 1967. It was screened by C4 once back in 1985 or thereabouts -- I managed to quickly stuff a VHS in the machine shortly after it began and played that recording for years afterwards. It's long since disappeared, of course.

It's stunning stuff. The first of the above clips is referred to by the filmmaker himself...

"I had asked him to tell me what the blues meant to him. He picked up his guitar and started to sing... earlier that evening his wife had left him after a nasty argument that caused her cousin to attempt to shoot Lightnin’. While the song was being sung, the cousin was lurking outside the apartment door with a loaded pistol. Lightnin’ also had a large loaded gun stuck down the front of his pants. Hardly a situation in which to delve into an academic and linear exploration of the nature of truth and the blues, but I came away feeling I knew a lot more about it than before."

You can buy DVD copies directly from Les Blank's website these days, but I still haven't got round to placing an order. I'll do it now.

PS> Just noticed two clips from it used in the official "Oil City Confidential" trailer. Julien Temple also a fan?