• Cinema Guild

Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa spent years making this meditative movie about the music of French actress/singer Jeanne Balibar (the IMDb lists 2009 as the year of release). In the liner notes, he confesses, "The idea of making a film that revolved around music scared me a little," but he proves himself a natural.

Then again, music has always played a significant role in his filmography. Hence, the use of The The, Wire, and Gang of Four at key points. Then there’s Bassoe’s declaration in 1994's Casa de Lava: "Music is a bitch. I worship her."

Costa started shooting Ne Chien Range ("Change Nothing") before making 2006’s Colossal Youth, and picked up the thread afterward. In both cases, he shot in black and white, but because he has no interest in artificial light, most scenes are shrouded in darkness, which fits the alto's nocturnal style, but may frustrate those expecting a more conventional profile (at times, you can't see her at all).

As with Marlene Dietrich and Nico, two possible influences, Balibar isn't the most expressive vocalist, but Costa gravitates toward languid types, like Ventura, the real-life figure who glides through Lisbon's low-income quarters in Youth.

There's no narration or forced storyline, but rather a series of rehearsals and performances, in which Balibar sings, smokes, and works things out with her band, such that Costa elevates the creative process over the finished work. The same is true of his Straub-Huillet documentary, Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie?

Early on in the proceedings, Balibar suggests, "We should really try to bring out the silences," which sounds like a description of the director's style. He also incorporates a voice lesson in which she receives instruction on Offenbach's La Périchole from an unseen coach. Though her ensemble includes bass, drums, and keyboards, her voice and the guitar of Rodolphe Burger always take center stage, resulting is a slow-motion mélange of jazz, chanson, and trip-hop.

Special features on the new DVD include additional performances, musical sketches, promotional spots, and the static short The End of a Love Affair.

As with the minimalist works of Andy Warhol—especially Screen Tests and The Velvet Underground and Nico—Ne Chien Range isn't for the ADD set, but fans of left-field French pop, David Lynch, and chiaroscuro musical portraits like Let's Get Lost, Bruce Weber's love-letter to Chet Baker, will surely find it of interest.