Backbeat

Hamburg, 1960. A young band from Liverpool plays hours a night in clubs off the Reeperbahn. Their bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe, is really a painter; music comes second, and what keeps him in the group is his bond with John Lennon. Then he meets the German photographer Astrid Kirchherr and chooses to stay. The band goes back to Liverpool without him. The film is not telling a Beatles story but the story of a friendship lost. Lennon's anger is explained here by jealousy rather than wit, and the unresolved thing between the two men is the centre of the picture. Iain Softley wrote and directed, his first feature. Stephen Dorff plays Sutcliffe, Sheryl Lee plays Kirchherr, Ian Hart plays Lennon. Gary Bakewell is McCartney and Chris O'Neill is Harrison. No Beatles recording is heard in the film. Instead the rock and roll of the period was re-recorded by a band assembled from nineties musicians: Dave Grohl, Thurston Moore, Mike Mills, Dave Pirner and Henry Rollins. It opened the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated at the BAFTAs for best British film. Who it is for: anyone curious about the pre-fame Hamburg years and about music biopics. Who it is not for: anyone expecting Beatles songs. Kirchherr also gets less from the script than the character deserves.