Review of Kurt Cobain: About a Son (2007) by Rubia — 10 May 2012

You want a part of me.

Well, I'm not selling cheap.

No, I'm not selling cheap*.

Between December 1992 and March 1993, the music journalist Michael Azerrad interviewed Kurt Cobain for his book Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, published by Doubleday. Almost all the 25 hours of audio taped interviews took place between midnight and dawn at Kurt´s house in Seattle, Washington. One year after the last of these interviews, Kurt committed suicide. Years later, Azerrad meets the director AJ Schnack and the idea of the movie comes in.

Shot in the three cities where Kurt lived, Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle, and not featuring any Nirvana song or image of him until the very end, Kurt Cobain About a Son is something between a documentary and an (auto)biography where we see an honest (self)portrait of Kurt. At least, as honest as it can be. The use of random images and other music artists works when trying to give importance to what Kurt is saying, when trying to show the person instead of the icon. Gus Van Sant´s Last Days, that focus on the icon (Kurt´s sun glasses, wearing a dress, etc) and use the silence to try to get into Kurt´s mind/world, works, but as a portrait of the character as we know it.

Childhood, father´s absence, adolescence, art, musical identity, depression, fame, life. It is an interesting view on the construction of a real character and on trying to discover the real person. Kurt wanted to be famous, but didn´t expect to become a "fucking cartoon character".

People do not deserve to know about my life private now. (...) The thing that I've always, that I've never understood, is the classic reaction to someone who complains that's in the limelight is like "well, you know, you made your bed, now you have to sleep in it. That's what everyone expects. You're public domain now, and everyone has the right to know everything about you." (...) I don´t agree with people saying: "everyone has a right to know." I have the right to change that perception. I have the right to change people´s way of thinking of celebrities. It should be changed. It should be different. They should be treated as human beings and respected (in their private issues).

*Celebrity Skin, by Hole. In the movie Kurt talks a lot about fame and its consequences, about the pressure over him and Courtney Love.

Updated: I left the movie playing while working on other things. I prefer to listen to it than watching it. It was like Kurt was in my room, talking directly with me.