ELVIS COSTELLO: MYSTERY DANCE

ELVIS COSTELLO: MYSTERY DANCE, the first-ever documentary portrait of one of the greatest musicians and songwriters of our time. Made with Costello’s full participation and access to his family archive, Mark Kidel’s film will be shown on BBC 4: the feature-length version on Saturday 9 November at 11.45pm and the hour-long version on Friday 8 November at 9pm, when it will be followed by a repeat of Later Presents…Elvis Costello at 10pm. In the film, Elvis Costello talks of his family background, musical influences and early career. The film, rich in photographic and video archive, focuses as well on his collaborations with Burt Bacharach, Allen Toussaint, Paul McCartney, the Brodsky Quartet and Emmylou Harris. A key sequence features extracts from three acoustic demos of songs co-written with fellow Scouser Paul McCartney, none of which have been released or heard publicly before.

ELVIS COSTELLO, ONE OF THE UK’S MOST INTELLIGENT SONGWRITERS, TELLS THE STORY OF HIS MUSICAL INFLUENCES AND DARING COLLABORATIONS

A musically-rich and intimate portrait of Elvis Costello, one of Britain’s most original and consistent songwriters, featuring a treasure-trove of archive, lengthy interviews with the man himself and illuminating contributions from Nick Lowe, Mark Ellen, Paul McCartney, Allen Toussaint, Emmylou Harris, Steve Nieve, T-Bone Burnett, the Brodskys, and others. The film features as well unreleased demos Elvis made with McCartney. Costello reveals himself to be a man of wide-ranging musical tastes as well as an endearingly generous and modest person.

 
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CREDITS

Written, directed and produced by Mark Kidel

Camera by Mark Kidel and Olivier Guéneau

Edited by Andrew Findlay

Calliope Media, Les Films d’ici, ARTE France, BBC

2013

Running Time: 90 mins

 

“MARK KIDEL’S FILM WAS A DEFTLY CONSTRUCTED TRIP THROUGH A RESTLESS, SHAPE-SHIFTING CAREER”

-Daily Telegraph