The first trailer for Montage of Heck, a documentary film about the life of Kurt Cobain, has been released online.
Back in 2007, Oscar-nominated director Brett Morgen was approached by Cobain’s widow Courtney Love, to discuss the idea of a documentary about her late husband’s life.
Since his death, many documentaries have been made about Cobain, but this is the first to be made with the cooperation of his family.
Morgen’s team was given access to the entirety of Cobain’s personal and family archives. So the documentary consists of a mixture of footage, some of which has never been seen before, from various Nirvana performances, unreleased home movies, recordings, artwork, photography, journals, demos and songbooks.
Incorporated into the live-action interviews and footage, are some animated scenes, created by Stefan Nadelman and Hisko Hulsing. This particular aspect of the film was something Morgen always wanted to include, to aid the telling of Cobain’s story.
The strange title of the documentary, Montage of Heck, takes its name from a musical collage Cobain created with a 4-track cassette recorder in 1998. It features sounds from Cobain’s extensive and bizarre record collection, alongside clips of Nirvana demos and manipulated recordings of the radio.
The trailer gives us a glimpse of what to expect from the documentary. It begins with home videos of Cobain’s childhood, showing him as innocent and carefree. It quickly surpasses this to reveal his teenage years full of angst and anger, with interviews from friends and family discussing his erratic behaviour.
By the end, we see Cobain fighting against the Rock n Roll lifestyle, striving to gain normalcy for a life set apart from music with his wife and daughter.
Watch the trailer here:
Cobain and Courtney Love’s only child, Frances Bean, who features midway through the trailer, is attached to the project as executive producer.
Her significant role in the film allegedly caused tension between her and Love, resulting in an ugly public feud causing Francis Bean to obtain a restraining order against her mother.
However, at the premiere of Montage of Heck at the Sundance Film Festival in January, the pair was pictured sharing a hug and walking down the red carpet together.
Despite Love missing the South by Southwest premiere in Austin on 18th March, she continues to support the documentary on her Twitter page, retweeting reviews and mentions. The musician has been very busy lately, landing guest roles in ABC’s Revenge and Fox’s Empire.
Thus far, the documentary has gained widespread positive reviews. Rolling Stone described Montage of Heck as “the most intimate rock doc ever” along with noting that Cobain is shown “not [as] a spokesman for a generation,” but as “a human being, and a husband, and a father.”
Cobain: Montage of Heck will be released in cinemas on April 10 2015.