Die Dokumentation "The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town" feierte ihre Weltpremiere am 14. September 2010 auf dem “Toronto International Film Festival”. Bruce Springsteen war ebenfalls anwesend und plauderte anlässlich einer Gala in der “Roy Thomson Hall” mit dem amerikanischen Schauspieler Edward Norton.
  


  

Bruce Springsteen und das Toronto International Film Festival:
  
Bruce Springsteen visits the Festival for the world premiere of The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town – playing separately as a Gala. The documentary explores the creative process of his pivotal 1978 album, where his focus shifts from youth to adulthood. Interviewed in the film, Springsteen often reaches for cinematic comparisons to describe his songs. That sparked the idea to invite him for a longer conversation about the interplay between music and film. Springsteen graciously accepted our invitation to be interviewed on stage by the actor Ed Norton for this Mavericks dialogue.

Where the conversation will go is anyone’s guess. But it prompts us to consider how much Springsteen’s music and American filmmaking have exchanged. From Springsteen’s descriptive lyrics, we can conjure scenes in our head of “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” or “Hungry Heart” or “Atlantic City.” Sean Penn has credited the song “Highway Patrolman” as inspiration for his first film The Indian Runner. Springsteen has contributed unforgettable title songs to films such as The Wrestler, Dead Man Walking, and Philadelphia,for which he won an Academy Award® for best original song. Springsteen even made a cameo appearance in the movie High Fidelity, offering love advice to Jon Cusack’s character in a dream sequence.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Springsteen could easily rest on his laurels. Yet in recent years, he has shown no signs of slowing down; in fact, quite the opposite. His song “The Rising” became a touchstone to commemorate September 11, 2001 and he memorably performed “Working on a Dream” for Barack Obama’s campaign. When Springsteen was honored last year at the Kennedy Center, his fellow New Jersey native Jon Stewart said in tribute, “I didn’t understand his music for a long time, until I began to yearn. Until I began to question the things that I was making and doing in my own life. Until I realized that it wasn’t just about the joyful parade on stage and the theatrics. It was about stories of lives that could be changed.” 
 

Videos:


  

Die Dokumentation:
  
The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town takes us into the studio with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band for the recording of their pivotal album. Grammy Award® and Emmy Award®-winning filmmaker Thom Zimny has gained access to extensive, never-before-seen footage shot between 1976 and 1978, capturing home rehearsals and recording sessions that allow us to hear songs in their earliest stages. For those uninitiated to Springsteen, the film unlocks the door to a rich musical world. For fans, it’s a trip to paradise.

New interviews with Springsteen and the band – who all recall the period in rich, vivid detail – bring fresh perspective to the archival footage. Prior to recording Darkness, the band had experienced a worldwide hit with the album Born to Run, which was musically influenced by Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound production technique. Everyone, including fellow band members, expected Springsteen to follow that seminal celebration of youth with something similar, but Springsteen became enmeshed in a lawsuit with former management that halted recording for two years. By the time the case was settled, Springsteen – now teamed with new producer Jon Landau – had found fresh storytelling inspiration in country and western icons like Hank Williams, while also gravitating towards the new, stripped-down sounds of punk. In songs like “Factory” and “Racing in the Street,” he explored new themes about reckoning with the adult world and the compromises it demanded.

For the Darkness album, Springsteen filled notebooks with lyrics for more than seventy songs. The period was so fertile that his unused ideas turned into winning singles for Patti Smith (“Because the Night”) and The Pointer Sisters (“Fire”).

Centering on Springsteen’s creativity and the challenges that he and the band overcame, this rock and roll drama reveals the camaraderie of a band wholly dedicated to their music. Cinematic imagery has always been prominent in Springsteen’s songs; now he comes full circle as the centrepiece of this enormously enjoyable film.
 
TV Premiere:
  
"The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge" lief am 7. Oktober 2010 im amerikanischen Kabelprogramm HBO. 

Pressestimmen:

  • "An incisive anatomy of an album that was painstakingly recorded...thrilling...a vivid portrait...beautifully shaped." —Variety

  • "Priceless footage" —Rolling Stone

  • "It's time-capsule stuff, scenes of another world...It may be the story of "Darkness," but in the end, "The Promise" shines a light." —New York Daily News

  • "A fascinating, in-depth look...love every minute...one of the best docs about creativity in a long while" —Hollywood Reporter

  • "Five Stars" —Los Angeles Times
      

Mitwirkende / Informationen:
  
Cast: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Producer: Thom Zimny
Executive Producer: Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, Barbara Carr
Cinematographer: William Rexer
Editor: Thom Zimny
Sound: Brad Bergbom
Production Company: Thrill Hill Productions 

Country: USA
Year: 2010
Language: English
Producer: Thom Zimny
Executive Producer: Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, Barbara Carr
Runtime: 85 Minutes
 

Der Regisseur:
  
Thom Zimny is a Grammy® and Emmy® Award-winning filmmaker who has been a visual collaborator and personal archivist with Bruce Springsteen for ten years. Zimny first teamed with Springsteen in 2001 for the Live in New York City HBO special and DVD, which earned him an Emmy Award. Zimny subsequently earned Grammy Awards for best long form music video as the producer and director of the feature documentary Wings for Wheels: The Making of “Born To Run” (05). He directed and edited the music video for the Golden Globe-winning song The Wrestler and directed the documentary Working On A Dream: A Superbowl Journal. The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town (10) is his latest feature documentary.
 
Thom Zimnys Zusammenarbeit mit Bruce Springsteen:
  
  • 2010
    Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - London Calling - Live in Hyde Park - mehr Infos
      
  • 2005
    Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 - mehr Infos
    Wings for Wheels: The Making of "Born to Run" -
    mehr Infos
      
  • 2003
    Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Live in Barcelona - mehr Infos
    Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (MTV Konzert aus Barcelona) -
    mehr Infos
      
  • 2001
    Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Live in New York City - mehr Infos
      

Quellen:
"
Toronto International Film Festival"
"
Columbia Records"
Frank Stefanko (Bilder)