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Kurt & Courtney (1998)

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77 comments in total

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10 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Biased, yes, but solid and never boring, 14 March 2001
Author: Hotoil

Is it objective? No. Is it informative? Yes. Is is accurate? Only as accurate as those talked to. Is it an interesting film? Without a doubt.

This should have been called "Trying To Make 'Kurt & Courtney", because he never succeeds in making a decent look at their relationship but rather an intriguing look at his struggle to get the whole thing off the ground. He ran into a lot of trouble via Courtney Love and of course threw in his feelings toward her quite obviously in the film.

Fans of Kurt may respect it, fans of Courtney are likely to despise it. I admit I am more a fan of Kurt than I could ever be of Courtney, he just seems a hell of a lot more real to me and she has scared me, long before this film made, with all the image make-overs and lame self-promoting publicity stunts. So I had no problem watching her get ripped into in this documentary. But a warning to hardcore HOLE fans, you may get extremely frustrated!

Like it or hate it, it won't bore you!

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10 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Smells like rivalry, 9 July 2003

Author: Shazzer30 from Florida, USA

I heard somewhere that Courtney Love tried like the dickens to get this little documentary banned. If there is no truth to it, why would she care so much? Makes you think...

Nick Bloomfield interviews people a courtroom wouldn't consider reliable witnesses- El Duce, for one- a singer who was one bizarre addict himself. He claims Love offered him $50,000 to kill Cobain. Looking at this guy, you automatically rely on his testimony like your local weather report. Still, it is very interesting that weeks after this interview, El Duce was found dead on the railroad tracks by his home. An investigor who was at Cobain's "suicide" scene claims Cobain had way too much heroin in his system to be coherent enough to pull a trigger on himself with any accuracy. Cobain's Aunt claims the whole conspiracy theory is a load of bunk, and she feels Kurt had suicidal tendencies as well as addictions. Yet most of the people interviewed agree that Courtney was a vindictive slag, jealous of Cobain's success and tried to hitch her wagon to Nirvana's rising star (memories of Courtney and Kurt on the cover of the now defunked "Sassy" magazine, with Courtney trying to portray herself has the Nancy Spungen of the '90's comes to mind). I've never been a big Love or "Hole" fan, mainly because I don't think Love is that talented a musician or singer. I feel she has what they call "delusions of grandure", which is why this documentary, for as shaky as the evidence presented is, makes me wonder if it isn't the naked truth.

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10 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
You'll be on the edge of your seat...., 18 September 1999

Author: John Seal from Oakland CA

....waiting to see if Ms Courtney punches out director/interviewer Nick Broomfield. Whether or not there is any truth to the vague rumours that the Queen of Grunge killed the King, Kurt and Courtney is a riveting exercise in docu-propaganda. Broomfield doesn't do a good job of hiding his disdain for Courtney, but neither does anyone else on screen. Father Hank Harrison hates her, ex boyfriends hate her, Kurt's friends think she was the master manipulator...and El Duce (killed one short month after the interview in this film by a passing freight train!!) says she offered him money to kill Kurt. Why? Who knows. The only well adjusted person in this film is Kurt's aunt, and she thinks it was suicide.

Whatever your personal feelings, this is a fascinating film.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Let It Go!, 23 June 2005

Author: Andrew Liggins from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This was an excellent film, however, as usual, we have people pointing the finger immediately at Courtney Love. Let it go! The film proved to me, if anything, that Courtney wasn't responsible, since both Nick and Kurt's Aunt. Mary both arrived at the conclusion that the conspiracy theories weren't true. If the Police, or FBI, or whatever, believed Courtney was reponsible, she would have been tried, and prosecuted accordingly years ago. This idea that she paid the authorities off is ridiculous! The film also shows one of Kurt's best friends, Dylan Carlson, saying that if he thought Courtney, or anyone, was responsible for Kurt's death, he would have them killed years before the movie was released. That's Kurt's best friend, and his own Aunt who don't believe there was any conspiracy surrounding Kurt's death. People who were obsessed by Kurt don't want to believe that he killed himself, and that's the only reason why people blame Courtney. Let it go, and let Kurt rest in peace.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
A sad loss that no murder will repair, 30 April 2007

Author: Dr Jacques COULARDEAU from Olliergues, France

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

A very strange documentary about the death of Kurt Cobain. Is it a suicide as announced or is it a murder as suspected and asserted by several people and is Courtney the origin of this murder? Quite a few question that are not that easy to answer and actually the documentary does not get to no answer, no final answer and it is maybe better like that. What would it bring into the picture if these hypotheses were true? Nothing. The loss of Kurt Cobain will not be repaired by a police investigation and then a trial. No matter how strange this death was one thing seems to be sure: Kurt Cobain was being pushed into some extreme depression by the castrating and controlling obsession of his wife Courtney. She did get a huge profit out of this death but that could have been a good motivation but it is in no way a proof or a piece of hard evidence. So let's cry and lament and let's hope what Kurt Cobain left behind will be stronger than the loss of his future.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Kurt & Courtney, 23 March 2007

Author: anton_hartl from Ried im Innkreis, Austria

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"How did Kurt Cobain really die?" asks the cover of my DVD swanky. The reality does look like this: After the 90 minutes of this documentary, you won't be more suited to answer this question, because everything you get to see are conspiracy theories, brought up by people who I would not consider as being very trustworthy. Many of the interview partners were obviously under the influence of drugs or had personal feuds with Courtney Love in the past (father, ex-boyfriend). When at the end director Nick Broomfield goes on the stage of an award ceremony for freedom of the press to denounce Courtney (with a probably justifiable accusation), I only saw the completion of his way of self-satisfaction and whining about Courtney. And: Am I the only one who finds it a little bit funny that Broomfield acts, as if he wants to make an even reappraising of Cobain's death? But: The film has at least a certain level of entertainment value.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
OPEN YOUR EYES, 26 November 2002
Author: Nihilist_23 from MI

Kurt & Courtney, I initially thought, was going to be about the two careers of these musicians and ultimately Kurt's untimely death. I obviously got something much different - I had read about what he talks about in the movie already but it was nice to see more light shed on it.

This documentary was made by a courageous man who almost got his film banned by Courtney Love, was physically pulled off a stage at a film festival and had the film cut short before a live audience, and has been mocked as a ridiculous conspiracy theorist. But realize he is hardly the first person to come up with any of this - he is presenting information that is already out there and bringing it to the big screen. Whether or not you choose to pursue more information about this case is up to you, but his purpose is well served in this documentary - to make you question what you were told given the facts. Broomfield isn't a radical or have a grudge against Courtney Love, and that is important to know before watching this.

Nobody is asking viewers to agree with him, but to disagree with his will to explore the facts beyond what the police ruled on this case is just not being open-minded because this is a legitimate documentary that, believe it or not, is based on FACTS. His bias may show a little, but that bias is only based on the fact that the information he has is incriminating and he believes in the information he presents. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in Kurt Cobain or Courtney Love, no matter what you believe about them or Kurt's death.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
This?, 19 November 2002

Author: Origami from Chicago, USA

This, THIS utter piece of junk, slapped together and lacking anything close to coherence, this was supposed to blow the lid off of some conspiracy about Cobain's death? I cannot believe anybody gives credence to something this lacking in any evidence, real interviews, or some semblance of anything above tabloid schlock. Okay, actually, tabloids do much better work.

Here's what they've dug up.

- family members who don't like Courtney (and who she doesn't like), who haven't seen her in years, using Courtney's fame to aggrandize themselves and make a lot of baseless charges. Both her father and stepfather think she killed Kurt; of course, neither has spoken to her in a decade. Her stepdad actually pulls a poem out that she wrote when she was maybe 14 and says that it's proof that even then she was going to kill a rich husband.

- friends and supposed friends who tell self-conflicting stories about Kurt being suicidal, Kurt not being suicidal, Courtney being a harpy, Courtney being a good partner for Kurt.

- The infamous El Duce (of the Mentors) interview, where he does back up his claim that Courtney offered him $50,000 to kill Kurt. His specifics aren't anything more than what could be pulled from any newspaper story on Kurt. His death shortly thereafter looks less like a Courtney-orchestrated hit than the inevitable death of a doomed nihilist (see G.G. Allin).

- Paparrazzi who are supposed to be so smooth and jump Courtney to ask her questions, but who are so inept that the battery on their camera runs out while they film themselves buying soda outside her studio. Then they catch her at the ACLU dinner and ask her wimpy little questions about her new record and get all giggly, and are too "overwhelmed at the moment" to ask her any questions of importance.

- The private investigator hired by Courtney to "find" Curt who now believes that she had him killed, but who has nothing supporting his claim, only vaguely polished reasons why Curt could not possibly have been able to kill himself. Which are then easily refuted.

- Numerous interviews with either stoned or simply stupid acquaintances whose concept of answering an open-ended question is by saying, "Yeah................yeah man, I think so." The surprise final interview with the Cobains' nanny is scintillating: we learn she had to leave because she hated it up there; that Kurt was a loving father, but Courtney wouldn't let him love Francis Bean as much as he wanted; that Curt seemed really unhappy and wanted to get away. That's it, that's the big insight from someone who was on the inside. Wow, brilliant work there.

In the end the movie makes no claims at all, which is for the best since there's really nothing but a lot of 3rd hand chatter and noise. The filmmaker asks no real questions, does no real research, does no real editing and makes no real claims. The musical choices are bland, drab, and perfectly fit the endless blank-wall pallor of the film (except the live bands add a little flavor). The only real info is very clear evidence that Courtney is probably a relentless bitch that few people probably liked before she got rich and that nobody likes now, although many people fear her. Then again, is that really news to anybody? The movie is more about the attempts to stop the movie from being made, but given what he accomplished while he was working Courtney need not have feared it so much. I understand that he lost financial backing, but even if he had a million dollars it doesn't look like he was capable of using it to get any any information justifying the expense. There's not one interview with Nirvana, no people who knew the couple at the end of his life (well, nobody who can speak in more than vague, spaced out phrases), no ex-handlers, no Evan Dando, no Eric, no nothing. Since I'm an information junkie I have never before actually said "yeah, pull the funding on that documentary," but there's a first time for everything.

Someone in an earlier review said they couldn't understand why Nick Broomfield's work is unavailable in the US. Well, I think I can answer that question.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Fascinating documentary, much underrated, 11 September 2002

Author: rich_jc

I am amazed at the overall negativity and ridicule in the reviews of this documentary. It deserves so much more praise than that.

Being a huge Nirvana fan, I never believed the "nutcase" murder theories until I saw Kurt & Courtney. Then I found out about her family, her friends, her former employees, among others all pointing the finger at Courtney. Everything from the psychotic teenage scribblings declaring her future plans to use her lover and then kill him, right down to amazingly coincidental and mysterious death of El Duce shortly after the Nick Bromfield interview - this is fascinating stuff. If that wasn't enough as it is, we get a good insight into the surroundings Kurt grew up in, his friends, and his former lovers. The only things this really lacks is a much needed interview with Courtney (which she declined).

8/10

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent documentary!, 24 December 2001

Author: Nobody-27 from California

Not being particularly interested in either Kurt or Courtney, I was surprised how director Nick Broomfield managed to attract me to his film. His unique style gets us involved with the story that no one really knows where it's going. Not even the director himself. This may prove frustrating to those who have become accustomed to polished and hollywoodized type of film making, or those who are looking for a clear "angle". To me however, it was a wonderful gallery of many slices of real life: from director's own challenges to one of the best documentary film endings I've ever seen.

Hats off to Nick Broomfield for his uncompromising style and bravery.

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