DVD BLU RAY & TV
DEPECHE MODE
SPIRITSINTHEFOREST
SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
Essex electro-rockers perform; fans testify. By Stephen Dalton
A superior twist on the standard promotional concert film, Depeche Mode's latest big-screen feature was shot around two shows they played at the massive outdoor Waldbühne arena in Berlin in July 2018, the closing nights of their Global Spirit tour. The director is regular collaborator Anton Corbijn, the Dutch master who has handled almost all the band’s photos, videos, album artwork and tour visuals for over three decades.Like an old married couple, theis a cut above the norm. Self-consciously paying homage to , the landmark 1989 DM tour film directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, Corbijn intertwines live clips from Berlin with capsule biographies of six globally scattered superfans. “This is more than just the story of that show”, the credits claim. “This is the story of six special fans in the crowd.”In what must surely be a first for a rock doc, opens in a high-rise tower block in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. The first fan snapshot is Indra, a 22-year-old tour guide who taught herself English by listening to Depeche lyrics. Next Corbijn jumps to Bogota in Colombia, where middle-aged divorcee Dicken reveals how he stayed close to his Miami-based kids by forming a novelty DM covers band with them. Meanwhile in Romania, Cristian recalls the group’s bootlegged album tapes circulating like underground samizdat during the Communist era.In southern France, Carine discusses her history of depression following a car crash at 25 that left her with total amnesia. The only thing she could remember after her accident were Depeche Mode lyrics. Los Angeles mother Liz discusses her experiences of racism growing up as a mixed-heritage DM fan, and how their doomy music proved oddly comforting during her recent breast cancer treatment. And Daniel, a Berlin-based Brazilian exile, credits the band for helping his struggles with family, religion and sexuality.carefully balances screen time between fans and band; the former dominate at first while gradually allowing the music to take centre stage. Corbijn doesn’t interview band members, but their performance acquires extra emotional force thanks to these heartfelt accounts of personal connection.The concert clips are excellent, partly thanks to Corbijn’s sharp visual skills, but chiefly because Dave Gahan remains such a wired, magnetic, camp rock star even after four decades onstage. Sporting the oily pencil moustache of an ageing ballroom gigolo, the 56-year-old singer pirouettes, twerks, goose-steps and windmills his freakishly long arms like some bizarre mash-up of Mick Jagger, Michael Hutchence and Basil Fawlty.Extended and expanded into stadium-rave anthems, Mode classics like “Never Let Me Down Again”, “Enjoy The Silence” and “Personal Jesus” prove to be reliably huge singalongs, while a luminous, contemplative cover of Bowie's “Heroes” sounds better here than the sluggish version the band performed in London. is a highlight of a package that also includes a live album across two CDs and , a straight concert film. It’s a classy addition to the Mode canon, offering even sceptics and agnostics an insight into why these unlikely post-punk superstar survivors have inspired such deep faith and devotion from such a diverse global congregation.
