Frank But Not As We Know Him

Rating: 7/10 (3 November 2018)

Frank is a 2014 film directed by Lenny Abrahamson, produced by David Barron, Ed Guiney and Stevie Lee and written by Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan. Starring Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy, and François Civil. Frank is a story told through the eyes of Jon, a young keyboard player, portrayed by the affable Domhnall Gleeson, who becomes immersed in the world of a papier-mâché-headed musician Frank - Michael Fassbender - and a supporting cast of equally weird band members: Maggie Gyllenhaal who plays Clara, the quirky and highly temperamental Theremin player, as well as Don, Baraque and Nana. The film is very loosely based on Jon Ronson's own experience of playing keyboard in Frank Sidebottom's Cor Blimey Big Band. I say loosely based; I expected this film to be a biography of Sidebottom. I should have known better. For these that are uninitiated, he was the creation of former one-hit wonder, Chris Sievey (1955-2010), an aspiring pop star who had enjoyed brief success in the 70s as part of the band The Freshies and their catchy hit 'I'm In Love With The Girl On The Manchester Virgin Megastore Checkout Desk'. In essence, 'Frank' was a quasi-cartoon character with a giant papier mâché head, who was still living with his Mum and staying with his Auntie at the seaside in Blackpool at the age of thirty-five. A larger than life creation, half-tormented and half-supported by cardboard characters, Frank would sing cover versions of songs on a plinkety-plonk Bontempi keyboard. The main lyrics would always be changed to accommodate his home town of Timperley, such as Bruce Springsteen's Born in Timperley; the Kinks's Timperley Sunset and Eddie Cochran's Timperley Blues. Frank's use of song lyrics was one of a kind. Only he could think of rhyming visa with pepperoni pizza and lama with Bananarama. Act I of Frank follows the band to an isolated cabin in Ireland as they prepare to record their debut album. Spurred on by a tiny whiff of success, they are then invited to a music festival to perform in Austin, Texas. The plot appears simplistic, in that the central character goes on a journey of discovery over who Frank is, but the themes explored in the film are anything but. Jon the character and Jon Ronson are both obsessed with the change which occurs when Frank puts the head on and assumes the character of 'Frank'. For much of the film we only see Frank with his head on. This leads to some great comic moments such as seeing Frank shower with a plastic bag on his head, Frank describing his facial expressions out loud and Frank boxing and being interviewed at the South by Southwest Music Festival. Chris Sievey was ahead of his time. He predated the ethics of Punk by starting his own label in 1974 and he produced the first ever multi-media single in 1983 by incorporating a ZX Spectrum game. We see this in the film, when he devises his own system of music notation and pushes the boundaries over what can be used as an instrument.
The one anecdote in the film, which does have a grain of truth, is how Ronson ended up playing in Frank's band. Sidebottom was booked to play at London Poly and his usual keyboard player was indisposed. He asked Ronson, the ENTS officer, if he knew how to play the chords, C, D, E, to which Ronson replied that yes, he did. So began his long and somewhat surreal stint in Frank's band. I met Jon Ronson many times in the late eighties when my mate used to stalk his band, The Man from Del Monte. A gentle soul with a kind of ethereal quality about him, he always struck me as being one of life's great thinkers, something that is evident throughout the film. The idea had come from his frustration that the genius behind Frank Sidebottom seemed to delight in producing childlike nonsense. Whenever the chance came along for real fame and exposure, Chris Sievey would self-destruct. One such example is when Frank was asked to support the band Bros in 1989 and ended up being booed off stage as no one understood the irony of his music. Ronson remained mystified by this and wanted to write a film based on the premise that there are some people who are just too 'fantastically strange' to make it in the mainstream. He wanted to touch upon elements from other performers such as Captain Beefheart and Daniel Johnston. Ronson must have known that a straight-forward biopic would have run the risk that the audience simply would not 'get' Frank Sidebottom and his childlike simplicity. This was the reason that Frank's television career bombed, as for some inexplicable reason, his humour did not translate to the small screen. Furthermore, Ronson felt aggrieved that Frank had nurtured so much genuine talent of artists such as Mark Radcliffe, Chris Evans and Caroline Aherne. These people had risen to the stratospheres of success, whilst Frank Sidebottom remained very much rooted in the mediocre; doing small gigs and pub pop quizzes. This film proved more of a chance for Ronson to vocalise his frustrations out loud rather than a straight forward biopic. He had discussed the idea with Chris Sievey prior to his premature death in 2010 and received his blessing. I spent a considerable time during my student days, following Frank Sidebottom around the Northern circuit. I was one of the few, who met him once without his head on, when he was Chris Sievey. "You're Frank Sidebottom" I teased him, "I can tell it's you by the voice and the mannerisms." "Frank Sidebottom?" He questioned. "Who's he? I know nothing about a Frank Sidebottom. I'm Chris. I'm just here with my mates." He then proceeded to delight in playing this charade for a good twenty minutes, blurring the lines of reality, that Frank was a real person. His parting shot to me had been to tell me to try and stand at the front of the hall by the stage. It was one of the best nights of my life, as Frank sang Fireball XL5 to me. My mate and I also once bumped into him in a chip shop on the Wirral before a gig, when he was Frank Sidebottom. He'd gone in the chippy to buy some chips, still with the head on and stood chatting away to us as though it was the most normal thing in the world to wear a giant head - and attempt to eat a bag of chips! It was the pretence that Chris loved most about being Frank and it is this element that Ronson brings in repeatedly throughout the film. The insightful, first-person voiceover allows the
audience to wonder with Jon, 'What goes on inside that head...?' Similarly, one starts to contemplate if Frank is different without his head and what has prompted him to mask his true persona? Perhaps it is only in wearing a mask that one can truly express oneself: thus, in deception lies the truth? For Chris Sievey, it was all part of the game of being Frank Sidebottom and the comedy of maintaining the charade. Yet in the film, these questions are only answered in the light of mental illness and such details are presented as irrelevant to the fact that these characters are also outsiders to society. That is what makes a true genius: being an outsider and dealing with the underlying difficulties this presents. To me, this film is more Jon Ronson than Frank Sidebottom. It is Jon Ronson's gift to Chris Sievey. Frank's view of life was childlike. Much of that is lost in the film because its need to incorporate elements of mental health issues. I wanted more of the simplicity, of humour that Frank encapsulated; the jokes about Queen's Freddie Mer-curie, the ending of every song with, 'You know it is, it really is.", his wicked put-downs to his puppet nemesis Little Frank, the puns on language and the obsession with being in 'showbusiness' but it just wasn't there. At times the film appeared far too serious to be linked to Frank Sidebottom. I almost wanted the real Frank to enter the stage and declare in one of his well-used catch-phrases, "Can't we have a few laughs? Have a bit of light-heartedness." Therefore, when judged from the point of view of a Frank Sidebottom fan, sadly, it doesn't work. Yet, judging from the point of view of a film lover, it is a gentle and at times poignant and thoughtful movie. It could have become quite farcical or slapstick, but the director, Lenny Abrahamson is experienced in blending comedy and pathos and turns the film more into a modern fairy-tale or fable, in a way that recalls Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, and even to an extent in its treatment of outsiders, Truffaut's Antoinelle Doinel films or Guillermo del Toro's, The Shape of Water. I didn't come out of seeing this movie laughing out loud in the way that I used to laugh during and after a Frank Sidebottom gig. I came out feeling moved by the story and understanding more the reasons why Chris Sievey never gained the acclaim that he richly deserved in his all too brief a lifetime. If this film makes more people discover the unadulterated joy that was Frank Sidebottom's comedy then so much the better. A documentary, 'Being Frank - the Chris Sievey Story' has recently been shown at the BFI London Film Festival and a Manchester premier is scheduled for next year. These two films should be shown side by side as a tribute to Frank Sidebottom because they enable us to understand the man and his creation more and as Frank himself would have concluded, "You know they do. They really do.