Rolling Stones - Shine a Light

Singer Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood, as well as drummer Charlie Watts have been 'rolling' for a fifth decade. To know what it is like to see Rolling Stones in the close proximity, watch the Shine a Light concert movie by U.S. director Martin Scorsese. The premiere night was scheduled for Wednesday, 16 July, in Prague. There were Gebrüder Weiss logos all round the hall, and the orange was also used for the decoration of the cosy cafe, which hosted the subsequent buffet supper. Gebrüder Weiss is the general partner of the distribution of this movie in the Czech Republic.

Introduction
Guests are already coming, to be the first in the Czech Republic to see the film. The cafe is full, and everybody is just waiting for the moment when they are allowed to enter the newly renovated cinema hall, which looks more like a theatre. In a short while, everybody is sitting and the moderator Martin Moravec opens the show with a brief look at the band's history, which is full of scandals. Then he thanks the general partner and invites Mr. Heinz Senger-Weiss, Member of the company's Board of Directors to the stage. Heinz Senger Weiss can say his opening word. He is talking about more than 500 year old tradition of GW in connection to almost 50 years of existence of ”Stones”. He is talking also about the customers´ satisfaction as the ”Stones” have been satisfying their fans and about the team. Mr. Pavel Bém, Mayor of the Capital of Prague, also wishes the film good luck then. The film is subsequently christened with champagne and then the opening credits of the movie appear.

Face as an artefact
Scorsese shot his movie during two evenings of 2006 in New York's Bacon Theater, a historical hall with a patina similar to Prague's Lucerna. 
Bacon Theater's intimacy was preferred over capturing the atmosphere of a mega concert like that held in 2006 in Copacabana, Brazil, for more than one million people. Cameras will whiz and distract the audience and the lighting will throw too much heat on the stage, Jagger expresses doubt about Scorsese's plan. "We cannot burn Mick Jagger," Scorsese decides in response.
A moment before Richards and Wood touch the strings for the first time, Scorsese's concern about whether he will receive the set list for the Stones' performance also disappears. But can we even learn anything new about this band now? The answer is in the camera views, which are monitoring the events on the stage without rapid cuts.

Who stubbed Keith's cigarette?
Shine a Light is a work of men of the same generation. Scorsese was born a year before Jagger and Richards, and a year after Watts. He shot his first short film in 1963, when Rolling Stones released their debut single, and the director says that the "Stones" music also accompanied the creation of his famous movies.
Scorsese spiced up Shine a Light with interludes of a 1964 interview with young Jagger. "How long do I think we'll keep playing? I think we're pretty well set up for at least another year," young Jagger predicts the band's future. "Can you picture yourself at age 60 doing what you do now?" "Oh easily, yeah?" replies a young man, who must consider the idea of the age of sixty a good joke. A cut to Jagger's boyish frame, running about the stage at the age of sixty-three, his tendons, wrinkles, slender hips, wide lips and circus gestures of a wild rocker.
The concert goes on at ease, with only one question still unanswered: What's happened to the cigarette that Richards failed to stub and spat onto the stage instead?

We invited customers to the Stones and a duck feast
Lucerna's capacity is 400 people. Almost half of that capacity was available to our company and, being the general partner, we could choose. We used the capacity to invite our customers. The entrance to the cinema leads through a cosy art-nouveau cafe in a passage, where a great duck buffet supper, animated with orange candles, was held after the projection. The atmosphere was complemented with a film on the Gebrüder Weiss branch office in the Czech Republic, we had the film created particularly for this occasion, and it was shown in the cafe several times.

The closing credits
What to say in conclusion? The event was definitely successful; not only Stones and rock fans but also the others, who could appreciate the endurance and vigour of the members of this, still playing legend, liked the film. The movie is currently shown in all larger and, hopefully, also some smaller cinemas.