Product Details

• Actors: Cat Power
• Directors: Mark Borthwick
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Matador Records
• DVD Release Date: October 26, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0003JAJ9U
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #118,378 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

SPEAKING FOR TREES - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not All Experiments Work...., November 7, 2004

By 

kinojay33 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Speaking For Trees: A Film By Mark Borthwick (DVD)

...and this is one of them. I'm a Cat Power fan & an experimental filmmaker, so I like to think I have a pretty high tolerance for avant-garde antics. This film was an interesting concept, but certainly not an original one by any means--the sticker on the disk itself mentions correlations to Warhol (Michael Snow also comes to mind).

I can appreciate the "anti-music video/anti-rock doc" approach (bad video, long enough angle that you can't see Chan's face, crickets chirping, etc), but the novelty wears off after ten minutes. Michael Snow could pull off the long take because there was eventually a climactic pay-off; Warhol pulled it off because he was the first (and, well, he was Warhol).

Bortwick is an excellent still photographer; it's a shame he can't translate that to motion pictures.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Private concert, bad film-making, December 11, 2004

By 

Brian Garcia - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Speaking For Trees: A Film By Mark Borthwick (DVD)

The sheer joy of basically having Chan play a 2 hour concert to an audience of you is profound to any fan of hers (the other 99% of the world will think it is boring and go watch TV). So stated, the film making is bad. It could at the very least be more "dynamic" - following her around instead of remaining static. I realize this may be hard to accomplish, but it would breath some life into it. As is, I watch a half hour of it while trying to fall asleep. A few closer shots of Chan would also be nice.

Some of the "experimental" cinematic effects are just plain bad, like the playing with the brightness and contrast. It just adds nothing, and it isn't in synch with the music/singing.

The sound mixing is also bad. Guitar needs to come down some, vocals up some. While it is usually hard to understand what Chan is singing under perfect studio conditions, all I could pick out was something vaguely resembling her songs.

Her voice is her power, let it speak.

Still, the 2 hour content and the CD make it a very worthwhile investment for a serious Cat Power fan, and reasonably priced.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not so good, November 26, 2004

By 

dredfish "dredfish" (My basement in Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Speaking For Trees: A Film By Mark Borthwick (DVD)

I love Cat Power, but this CD/DVD is a real disappointment. The music is okay, but the video is awful. The whole "Chan in nature" thing falls flat. It looks like they filmed it in the parking lot of a city park. Probably the worst are the three "music videos." If Mark Borthwick is an artist I'm sure he'll be a starving one. His filmmaking style is sadly lacking. Anybody, and I mean anybody, with a video camera could come up with something more compelling than this drivel.

Two stars because the music is marginally enjoyable. 0 stars for the video. Blech.