"Kurt and Courtney" documentary premieres amid controversy
Courtney Love, Courtney
Harrison dated Rozz Rezabek,
the singer of a popular Portland
punk band. An aspiring
chanteuse even then, Harison
drafted up a list of the things she
needed to do in order to get
famous and gave it to Rezabek.
Among the more obvious listings,
like "Gig a lot locally" were
After reading from the list, Rezabek rails about
Harrison's less-than-stellar performances in bed
and how she single-handedly destroyed his
burgeoning career
afternoon? No. It's actually one of the many stabs
at Courtney Love found in Nick Broomfield's
controversial new film, Kurt and Courtney. The film
--removed from this year's Sundace Film
Festival after Love threatened to sue for
defamation of character and non-clearance of
music rights-- premiered Friday at the Roxie
Theater in San Fransisco amid faxes and phone
calls from Love's laweyers. If Love continues to
wield her considerable media power against the
film, however, Broomfield faces a serious
challenge in bringing the film to a national
audience.
film's more reliable interview subjects-- although
that's not saying much. Aside from Kurt Cobain's
ex-girlfriend Tracy Miranda and his aunt Mary, who
plays tapes of a two-year-old Cobain singing the
Beatles "Yesterday," the hodgepodge of fringe
characters who offer opinions of Love's heroin
use, her purported involvement in a Cobain
murder conspiracy, and her role in Cobain's
general demise hardly compromises a witness dream
team
outlandish accusations aside ( most of which are
charged by Love's own father, who attented
Friday's screening(, a picture of Love as a
manipulative, power hungry harpy emerges -- not
so much via the character descriptions offered, but
through scenes depicting Love's attempts to stop
the making of this film
someone from Love's camp -- possibly Courtney
herself -- reportedly contacted the president of
MTV to complain. Since Broomfield's film was
being financed by the cable network Showtime
( owned by Viacom, which also owns MTV), the film
posits that Love was able to use her hefty musical
clout to force Showtime to withdraw funding (In the
end, Broomfield was able to finish the film with
assistance from the BBC and private investors).
Here lies the film's subtle thesis: In today's
increasingly consolidated corporate world, it's far
too easy to suppress artistic projects that are
perceived to conflict with a corporate asset. And
Showtime isn't the only establishment entity shown
to be bending under Love's will; in one of the film's
highlights, Broomfield is thrown out of an ACLU
dinner after he questions why the organization
chose Love as its featured speaker when she has
physically threathened journalists for years.
flawed. By interviewing only people whose
credibility -- and in many cases sobriety -- is
suspect, Broomfield hardly presents a defensible
character portrait. But allowing Courtney Love to tell her own story through countless nefarious episodes and litigious attempts to protect her current status as Versace Tamagotchi, the film is a
fascinating voyeuristic success
ERIC HELLWEG