Moog

(c) AJMalouin 2006
(Rating: 5 by Al)
(2003/USA. Directed by Hans Fjellestad.) (1 hr. 12. Not rated.)

We doubt you’ll have the opportunity to view this documentary at the suburban multiplex but if you do, jump at it. It’s a film about Robert Moog, the inventor of the synthesizer. It doesn’t matter whether you care a whit about synthesizer music when you go in. You will when you come out. “Moog” was shot in London, New York, Tokyo, and at Robert Moog’s Ashville, North Carolina, home. It shows Robert Moog as a thoughtful, playful engineer who sorta stumbled into the synthesizer business. Moog is shown on-camera in his North-Carolina organic garden, in travels to cities and sound studios around the world, and then puttering around the place at home. “Moog” features Moog (wouldn’t you guess it?) pondering the interactions between music and machines, often in ways that are mystical. The film is a well-done exposition of, among many, many other things, how the Moog Synthesizer came to be. Its opening credits include the most beautiful shots you’ll ever see of transistors, circuit boards and whatever that other electronic stuff is. If you care about the music, “Moog” also features performances by DJ Spooky, Keith Emerson, Stereolab, Rick Wakeman, Bernie Worrell and others.