Pulp: a Film about Life, Death & Supermarkets 2014

An infectious merging of mutually delighted spirits, Florian Habicht’s collaboration with Jarvis Cocker fixes the triumphant 2012 concert billed as UK pop rock band Pulp’s last ever within a loving portrait of the town where it all began. Applying the gregarious curiosity that’s served him so well in the hot pools of Ngawha (Kaikohe Demolition) and on the streets of Manhattan (Love Story), Habicht accosts resolutely down-to-earth Sheffielders with questions about love, life and the meaning of Jarvis. He draws equally arresting testimony from band members, visiting fans, Jarvis’ mum and the man himself. Rousing concert footage is supplemented with unlikely performances from locals who’ve made the Pulp repertoire resoundingly their own. Cocker’s knack for keeping it real, for drawing from regular experience and feeding back into it, is the film’s effortlessly realised QED. If you ever had your head invaded for days on end by Pulp’s ‘Common People’, prepare to have it reoccupied, this time with a portrait gallery for company. If you haven’t, there could hardly be a more irresistible invitation to join the party. — BG

“More than just a concert film, Pulp evokes the live-music experience as a fantastic collective dream seen through the dual perspectives of both audience and band all at once… Filmmaker Florian Habicht gets us lost in the moment as much as in the music. Forget fame and fortune – they’re fleeting. After all is said and sung, it isn’t the sexy front man or the whiff of youth that keeps us dreaming, it’s the tunes.” — Angie Driscoll, Hot Docs 2014

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