Dave Chappelle’s Block Party

MAKING a film of a concert is not as easy as it seems. You can t just point a camera at the stage and let it happen, you need to work hard to transfer the action from three dimensions to two. That s why the best concert films have usually been made by to

MAKING a film of a concert is not as easy as it seems.

You can't just point a camera at the stage and let it happen, you need to work hard to transfer the action from three dimensions to two. That's why the best concert films have usually been made by top name directors, such as Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz or Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense.

The point is proved again with Dave Chappelle's Block Party, directed by Michel Gondry, fresh from the success of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

It follows the American comedian Chappelle as he organises a free music and comedy show in downtown Brooklyn in 2004.

Rather than keep things chronological, Gondry cuts between the preparations and the concert itself, as we see Chappelle going around his hometown in Ohio giving out tickets (including to an entire marching band), before cutting back to the stage or seeing the stars relaxing.

Chappelle's good-natured if foul-mouthed comedy goes well with the largely hip-hop musical line up, which includes Kanye West, Mos Def, Erykah Badu and The Fugees, performing together again for the first time in seven years.

A terrific film for fans of either the music or the comedian but still well worth watching for everybody else.