Product Details

• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Subtitles: German, English, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, French
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Studio: PID
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000INAWKM
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #179,805 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

PAL/Region 2. This 90 minute retrospective/documentary film was co-produced with Channel 4 and features guest interviews with Robbie Williams, Jake Shears and Bruce eber, amongst others. Also features four bonus videos taken from their Fundamental album plus television performances including 'Numb', 'What Have I Done To Deserve This?', 'I'm With Stupid' and more. Parlophone. 2006.**Please note that you will need an all region code player to view DVD content.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Legends in Pop, December 1, 2006

By	PendieFan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pet Shop Boys: Life in Pop (DVD)

Quite simply, THE definitive documentary spaning the Pet Shop Boys 20 plus year career. This DVD consists of interviews of the boys, both individually and together, footage of perfomances from throughout their career, and some celebrity and music insider commentary on various aspects concerning the PSB. Of particular interest is how gragarious Chris Lowe is during his individual interview, but how he retreats to his more stoic, silent personality when he joins Neil for the interview. Also addressed, the decline of the Pet Shop Boys career in the United States. The music industry is held to account for not playing their records (which is true) because of the sudden surge in popularity of grunge rock (thanks to Nirvana). Also held responsible is the American music buying public, who are not known for being the most tolerant of people "who don't fit in, who follow their instincts and are told they sin". Their loss. No other band or group has ever been able to make me feel as many different emotions while listening to their music as the PSB (and sometimes many emotions within the same song). The Pet Shop Boys are a duo who have been consistently underrated, but maybe not so much anymore. As time goes on, more and more people realize the depth of their songwriting, the poignance of their lyrics, and their innate ability to consistently supply great and addictive pop "hooks". This DVD examines the PSB's career in an honest, sometimes critical, but mostly complimentary way. And why not? They deserve it! Highly recommmended and a must have for any Pet Shop Boys fan (and playable in US DVD players by the way).

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars for hardcore fans!, December 1, 2006

By	Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: LIFE IN POP (PAL/REGION 2) (DVD)

This work is for hardcore Petheads, not for music lovers vaguely curious about the duo. It picks up where "PopArt" left off because it includes the five videos made after that release. If you want to hear 2.5 hours of the Boys and their musician-fans analyze and praise them, then this is for you.

The Boys are like the Penn and Teller of music where Chris is the mute one. However, he is the first to speak on this DVD. In fact, they say his silence is an act and that he can be chatty. He has that Junior Vasquez or Frankie Knuckles in him where he's a rainbow DJ that wants to get the party started. Chris is butcher than Neil. Neil reasserts his opera/theater vibe that relates him to Cole Porter or Noel Coward. If you love Neil's urbane, polished speech and mannerisms, then he gives it to you in droves here.

I do have to warn people that this work is gushy. Some people wouldn't be able to handle so much praise of the Boys. Some interviewees call Neil's voice "angelic" and "memorable," but critics have called it nasally and whiny before. However, that may be the style of musicians' documentaries. I have seen works on David Bowie and They Might Be Giants that were equally sycophantic. I don't know nothing about no band called Keane, but I loved, just loved, being able to stare at Timothy Rice-Oxley's cleft chin!

Capriciously, 45 minutes into the work, Neil first speaks the word "gay," but then he moves on. This is in contrast to how "camp" was translated as "gay" in the Spanish subtitles, so the word "gay" comes up a lot. While this work does interview people of all sexualities, there are many gay and bisexual people here (Dusty Springfield, Bruce Weber, possibly the Scissor Sisters gay, and I'll include Liza since her mother's death may have spurred the Stonewall Riots). Chris says, "I hated losing at dominoes, but my mate would dance when he won." He doesn't come out and address rumors that his "mate" was his late, Latino lover. As awesome as it is that the Boys are out, it still seems odd how they want to sweep gayness under the rug.

The interviewees admit that the Boys are not as big in the US as they are in Europe, and they imply that homophobia may be one cause. Given this, some American viewers may be left in the dark. "Being Boring" wasn't a single here, so American viewers may lose focus when the interviewees discuss it. Their "Closer to Heaven" musical never ran in the US, as far as I know. I loved that this is one of few documentaries that had foreign language subtitles. Still, since the disc is geared to a European audience, I'm surprised it didn't have German subtitles.

As a Pethead of color, I love how dedicated the Boys are to multiculturalism. There are always people of color in their videos and concerts, even though the UK is not as racially diverse as the US. The Boys are also heavily influenced by Black and Latino musical styles. Surprisingly, no people of color are interviewed in this work. I am sure this was an accident, but it stands out to those who have an eye for it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable and sincere documentary, April 19, 2007

By	John S (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pet Shop Boys: Life in Pop (DVD)

Usually I have no patience for documenaries but I enjoyed watching this one, maybe because the content is so relevant - the band, after all, is still making fantastic music. As if to prove that, the DVD bonus features include recent videos along some old rare TV perfomances. One can think the Pet Shop Boys have issued enough DVDs and interviews, but this is actually their first complete biographic documentary which traces their career from school days to Potemkin's premiere.

The narration goes through candid interviews or rather edited monologues of Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant filmed together and separately (watch Lowe walking on the gloomy beach in his hometown, Tennant's silhouette as London is fading away in the twilight behind the window). It's quite intriguing to see them talk about the essence of their distinctive image, music and career nuances. The timeline is supported, throughout the film, by extracts of their videos and various TV footage. Plus, as usually, you have a little variety of guests: Brandon Flowers of The Killers, Robbie Williams, Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters, Trevor Horn and others.

The only inconsistency I find is that after the Behaviour era the documentary speeds up its pace and Bilingual, Nighlife (especially) and Release periods are covered quite superficially.

In a way the DVD audiovisually duplicates 'Pet Shop Boys Catalogue', a massive book by Chris Heath.