A docu film that shares the same underground prestige as Todd Haynes’ Superstar and has been called one of the best documents on Rock & Roll by Jim Jarmusch may finally be making a premiere this year, almost 38 years or so after the fact. Photographer Robert Frank’s cinéma vérité styled Cocksucker Blues was a docu on the Rolling Stone’s 1972 American tour which never saw the light of day because the band perhaps thought it too honest of a portrait to be released (the camera does not lie), but in today’s world comes across as trivial rock star antics.
The French magazine is claiming that the film will be dusted off for a Cannes Film Festival premiere, and Mick Jagger & co. will be part of the festivities much like U2 did a couple of years back (Bono had a concert on the red carpet steps of the Palais). If this does occur, we can expect Johnny Depp (The Rum Diary) to party like it was 1972.
UPDATE: I ran into this report, we won’t be seeing the full version but just a very small sample added to a whole other docu film. Here is the February report from THR. They mention that it’ll only be “Ten minutes of “CB” are being included officially in a 30-minute documentary that the Stones will release in May. The other 20 minutes comprise 10 minutes of a film that was released but few saw called “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones” (out of print and unavailable since 1974) and 10 more minutes of a new full-length doc called “Stones in Exile,” made by director Stephen Kijack. That latter title will also be released as a full-length doc at the same time in a format still to be determined.
And all of this comes along with a new full-length version of the album “Exile on Main Street,” which will now have 10 extra tracks in addition to “Tumbling Dice,” “Happy,” “Sister Morphine” and all the classic songs we already know from the original.
The Wiki entry details that “a court order which forbids it from being shown unless the director is physically present. This ruling stems from the conflict that arose when the band, who had commissioned the film, decided that its content was inappropriate and didn’t want it shown. The director felt otherwise and thus the ruling.”
