Imcage Courtesy of HBOKurt Cobain: Montage of Heck will be released in theaters today, August 7 after premiering on HBO earlier this year. Director Brett Morgen wanted to bring the film to the big screen because he believes that Kurt Cobain's personal demos, which make up the film's sound design, are best suited to being heard in a movie theater.
"The sound effects library in Montage of Heck was created by Kurt Cobain," Morgen tells ABC Radio. "We unearthed almost all of our sound effects through these cassettes, these 200 hours of audio that I listened to that I was given by the family. We gave that to the sound designers, and we built the sound design, and it's immersive, and it swirls around you. It is not secondary to the plot, it is the plot, it is telling you what the film is about."
For the theatrical version of Montage of Heck, Morgen included a new Cobain demo that wasn't in the televised cut of the film. The track will be featured in a companion album, which will be released in November.
"It's one of Kurt's happier songs," Morgen says. "It reminds me of lemonade on a hot summer day, that's how I describe it. It's got a sort of Beach Boys vibe to it."
The new song is the only change Morgen made to Montage of Heck for its theatrical release. If he could, the only other change Morgen would make make to the film is to create more time to include Dave Grohl's interview in the film. Morgen spoke to the Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman for Montage of Heck, but he didn't have enough time to cut in the interview.
"I'm the only person who knows what Dave's interview was, and I can tell you that the film is not missing anything. And that's no disrespect to Dave, that just means that some one else had covered those beats," Morgen tells ABC Radio. "However, I think that it's become a distraction, and so for no other reason than that, I would've liked to have done it, but it is what it is, man."
"I would never disrespect Dave and cut him into the film at this point and put it on the DVD, like it's a DVD extra," he adds. "Dave's way too important."
In addition to Cobain's personal demos and archives, Montage of Heck is rich in Nirvana imagery, including the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video. To score the scenes about the famous video, Morgen used an eerie children's chorus version of the track, which he believed telegraphed the tragedy that would come.
"The way the original video's cut, the crowd is asked to participate with the band and dance with them on stage," Morgen explains. "But in the dailies, what I saw was the way that culminated was the crowd literally devours the band, they disappear. Kurt's riding on their hands, and then suddenly he's gone. And so I saw it more as a funeral dirge, as something rather prophetic."
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