Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "Guardian"


It is over 10 years since Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain committed suicide, the phenomenal reaction to which took a generation of middle-aged media professionals by surprise and laid a foundation for the extraordinary 1990s taste for public grief and risk-free empathy that came to full flower with Princess Diana's death. (The title of Nick Hornby's novel About a Boy, set around the Cobain mourning period, was a twist on Nirvana's About a Girl; for the movie version, Kurt's death became Di's.) Any choked-up sentiment is, however, utterly banished by Gus Van Sant's subtly gripping portrait of Cobain's final days and hours, a brilliant film to be set alongside Don DeLillo's novel of rock'n'roll alienation, Great Jones Street.
In Last Days, Cobain has been notionally fictionalised into a troubled everystar called Blake, played by Michael Pitt, and this is perhaps partly the result of widow Courtney Love's eternal vigilance and legal hyper-alertness to any implied criticism of her own behaviour. At any rate, it doesn't diminish the power of this deeply impressive movie, every bit as compelling as Elephant, Van Sant's brilliant recreation of the Columbine high school massacre. Long, all-but-silent sequences show the star's torpid melancholy and desperate loneliness, roaming restlessly around his shambolic mansion and its vast woodland estate like a wounded animal slowly bleeding to death. He has clearly not eaten or slept for days, is deeply depressed, estranged from his family and the rest of the band, and surrounded only by random musicians and hangers-on who are crashing in various bedrooms.
A subtly terrifying atmosphere accumulates in the spaces opened up by the haunting camerawork of Harris Savides, whose distinctive still-photography aesthetic is shown to its most commanding effect when Kurt/Blake, in his windcheater and sunglasses, shows up semi-incognito at a local gig.
Van Sant succeeds in projecting Cobain's private unhappiness out into this affectless landscape and creates an utterly plausible spiritual endgame. It is captivating and even thrilling to watch Kurt make his grim, pain-wracked progress to the cliff's edge.


accumulate- akumulować się, gromadzić się
at any rate- w każdym razie
banish- wygnać, wypędzać
captivate- oczarowywać, fascynować
choked-up- duszący, zatykający, dławiący
commanding- przewodzący, imponujący
compelling- nieodparty; pociągający, istotny
diminish- zmniejszać się
empathy- empatia
endgame- finał (np. w grze)
estranged (from)- odseparowany (od)
eternal- wieczny, odwieczny
fictionalise- fikcjonalizować, przekształcac w fikcję
flower- rozkwit
gig- koncert
grief- żal, żałość
grim- ponury, groźny
grip- uciskać, chwytać
haunting- pozostający w pamięci
hyper-alertness- super-czujność
implied- ukryty, dorozumiany
mourning- żałoba, opłakiwanie
notionally- hipotetycznie
pain-wracked- wyczerpany bólem, zbolały
period- okres
plausible- prawdopodobny
random- przypadkowy
roam- włóczyć się, wędrować
shambolic- chaotyczny, źle zorganizowany
succeed in- odnieść sukces
torpid- apatyczny, nieruchawy
twist- zwrot
utterly- całkowicie, zupełnie
vigilance- czujność
windcheater- kurtka wiatrówka

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