The Voodoo Lounge: Love Songs; Shine a Light

There are some marvelous moments of Keith Richards here, flashing a blissful, private smile during “She Was Hot” and singing a beautifully craggy rendition (reportedly at Scorsese’s urging) of “You Got the Silver.” But like most Stones documentaries — and Stones concerts — Shine a Light quickly becomes the Mick Show, with Jagger, 63 when the film was shot, strutting his coquettish strut and wriggling his Saint Vitus exultations to electrifying effect. What was once the restless, carnal physicality of a rebel youth now seems a voodoo dance against the ravages of time and old age.

In the music-video era, concert films themselves have become something of an endangered species, but in making Shine a Light for the biggest screens around, Scorsese has at once revitalized the genre and set a new standard for it. It is, I suspect, the Stones movie that will be remembered, along with Gimme Shelter, as something of a definitive record — one for capturing the band in their prime, the other for capturing them in a golden, late-autumn glow. It’s one of the ones Scorsese will be remembered for too. He may have finally won his long-coveted Oscar for The Departed — a highly enjoyable piece of pulp that only occasionally flirted with greatness — but Shine a Light is close to a masterpiece.

IFC Films and Red Envelope Entertainment

Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?

Kevin Mazur

They've got the silver.

Related Content

• The Best Concerts to See in Los Angeles This Weekend
  May 3, 2013
• We Lurked Outside the Rolling Stones' Rehearsals in Burbank
  May 2, 2013
• Rolling Stones - The Echoplex - April 27, 2013
  April 28, 2013
• Rolling Stones - Staples Center - May 3, 2013 (With Photos and Set List)
  May 4, 2013
• Music Picks: Shuggie Otis, The Rolling Stones, Juvenile
  April 25, 2013

More About

• Christophe Honore
• The Rolling Stones
• Martin Scorsese
• Jean-Luc Godard
• Mick Jagger

LOVE SONGS (LES CHANSONS D’AMOUR) | Written and directed by CHRISTOPHE HONORÉ | Produced by PAULO BRANCO | Released by IFC Films and Red Envelope Entertainment | Music Hall

SHINE A LIGHT | Directed by MARTIN SCORSESE | Produced by VICTORIA PEARMAN, MICHAEL COHL, ZANE WEINER and STEVE BING | Released by Paramount Classics | Selected theaters

 * In earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Scorsese played a TV director in Quiz Show. He played a director in The King of Comedy.