All the concert docs I have covered featured some staged sequences - Sign O’ The Times plays like a full-on musical, with musical numbers linked by a story.
It features live concert footage, but it is bracketed by vignettes featuring Prince becoming infatuated with a dancer called Cat (Catherine Glover).
Based mostly around the track-list from the same name, with a few tracks from other periods of his career (‘Housequake’ and ‘Little Red Corvette’), Sign O’ The Times is significant because it is the one directed by the artist himself.
It can be a little scrappy - there are some dirty edits in some of the live footage which are understandable - but it also manages some remarkable transitions, moving between live performance and staged sequences which turn the stage into a more fantastical space, where the music shatters any separation between live concert and the dreamlike artifice of a cinematic musical. I particularly enjoyed the camera going through Cat’s bedroom window out onto the stage.
The backdrop of sleazy neon signs and looming buildings is striking, and feels like foreshadowing for Prince’s involvement with Batman the year after this film’s release.
Despite the amazing musicians and the sheer scope of the stage setting, Prince’s knowing, teasing presence is the main attraction. There is something mischievous about the way he leads the viewer through the film.
Under-seen for years, it took Prince’s tragic passing a decade ago for the film to be rediscovered by a wider audience.
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