This Friday, the highest rock band in history returns to the big screen with “Spinal Tap II: The end continues. “A sequel to 1984 Classic Mockumentary”This is spinal crane““ Spinal Tap II ”reunites the director Rob Reiner With the role of the first film (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer), who share writing and produce points with Reiner on a story about how Spinal Tap is reunited after decades apart for a last farewell concert.
Fans have been asked for a sequel for several years, but it was not something Reiner took seriously.
“We never wanted to make a sequel,” Reiner told IndieWire about an upcoming episode of Filmmakers Toolkit Podcast. “We felt we had done it, it was done.” Even after the Reiner and the role regained control of the original film and its underlying material thanks to a mood that was submitted by Shearer, they were still not sure if a sequel was a good idea.
“We met and said Nah, we’ve done it. The bar is too high. We don’t want to do that.”
But gradually the idea became to see what the band had done during the intermediate years irresistible, especially when Reiner talked to their old cohorts and remembered how fun they had collaborated. “It’s fun when you are with people who are like-minded and see the world in a similar way,” he said, leaving that the actors have always loved playing music together-they continued to perform and tour as spinal tap for decades after the original film’s release.
However, when they gathered for “Spinal Tap II”, it had 15 years since they played together, just like the band in the film. That prerequisite was enough to get Reiner going, although the film lacked the personal engine in a movie like “Misery” (which was about Reiner’s own frustrations on how his industry saw him) or “Stand by Me” (who took advantage of his relationship with his father).
“Because a satire is not an extension of my life,” Reiner said, but after reflection he found a parallel. “Oddly enough, I was always one of four guys on different points in my life. In high school it was me and Albert Brooks and Larry Bishop and Richard Dreyfuss. So the idea of being one of four always felt comfortable.”
Reiner essentially followed the same method as the first film, where he tried to recreate the circumstances of a documentary as close as possible; While he and the actors mapped a structure, the entire dialogue was improvised, and no one was expected to hit marks or follow a fixed plan. “I would say to the camera,” you can’t make a mistake, “Reiner said.” If you see the other guy in the shot, it’s good. Don’t feel you have to get out of the way, just shoot what’s going on. Just follow your instincts. “
Since making the original film, Reiner made an excellent “real” documentary of his own, the HBO movie “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life.” Still, he said that the experience did not really inform about his attitude to “Spinal Tap II”, as the entire film is supposed to be made from the perspective of the fictional Marty Dibeli, a director Reiner played in the first movie as a riff on Martin Scorsese staff on the screen in “The Last Waltz.” Dibergi has returned for “Spinal Tap II”, and so has his behind the camera.
“I have to filter everything through what Marty Dibeli would do,” Reiner said. “It’s not necessarily what I would do. My feeling was that Marty has not grown so much, just as the band has not grown emotionally or musically. Marty has different tools for now he has digital cameras, but it’s not like he suddenly became a genius about filmmaking.”
While the overall style has not changed, the technology made Reiner move faster and catch improvisation on the move easier than when he shot on celluloid in 1984. “You don’t have to put a new stomach every ten minutes,” he said. “You have a chip that lasts an hour, and I had two cameras instead of one.” Reiner would usually say to his crew to start rolling even before the actors arrived, just so they could catch their entrances and pick up all the fun that can happen.
The original “Spinal Tap” began Reiner’s Career as a feature movie director, and no one – including reiner himself – would have predicted from that modest comedy that he would go on to direct everything from sweeping prestige dramas (“a few good but,” (“The Princess Bride”) To Horror (“Misery”) and Romantic Comedy (“When Harry Met Sally …”). Despite all that experience, Reiner said that when he returned to the world of the spine, it felt exactly the same as it had in 1984.
“It’s like being with friends you haven’t seen in a long time,” Reiner said. “You pick up right where you left off. It’s like working with fantastic jazz musicians, you don’t have to tell them what to do. They hear the beat, they hear the drums and they just fall in. That’s how it was with us- that’s like no time went by.”
“Spinal Tap II: The End continues” opens in theaters on September 12 from Bleecker Street. To make sure you don’t miss Rob Reinerupcoming episodes of filmmaker Tolkkit, subscribe to the podcast on AppleThe SpotifyOr your favorite podcast platform.
