About the rise and fall of a great British dance act.
Who killed the KLF? through Rick Schoutinga on September 20, 2023 Rated A 7 / 10.
The KLF dance show doesn’t ring a bell right away, introducing their most famous songs doesn’t help much. The music by British duo Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty is fun and sounds like experimental dance from the 90s. It suddenly appeared in the late 1980s, and was forgotten just as quickly three years later.
Who killed the KLF? It seems to tell the entire story of the men, focusing on their downfall. As a trick, they managed to burn a million pounds before disappearing into the darkness.
“About something you knew nothing about and didn’t know you wanted to know about.”
Band names fly around your head and the exact meaning of the current abbreviation never becomes clear. It is the suspicion that men spread: opposing everything, and ignoring norms, at the same time “Are they part of something that’s just happening?”. Drummond and Cauty draw KLF ideas from, among other things, the satirical religion Discordianism and the science fiction books The Illuminatus. Nothing exists, everything is possible.
Always doing everything by the book doesn’t make anything interesting, and Drummond and Cauti are well aware of this, although their work often feels like improvisation and going against the grain, so it will stand out anyway. And it works. They do not think but immediately do what they think without discussing the consequences. KLF falls somewhere between refreshing and stupid.
Are they musicians, artists, or outsiders who want to do everything differently? Anyway, who killed the KLF? An entertaining film, a documentary about something you knew nothing about and didn’t know you wanted to know.
05-10-2023 in Dutch cinemas
