Dieu, Diable & Rock'n'Roll
From the fundamentalist crusades of the 1950s to Christian metal, sixty years of a merciless battle between rock and religion. From its birth, rock shook up Christian morality. Its African-American origins and frenzied rhythm make devotees bristle. In the South of the United States, fundamentalists go on a crusade, but book burnings, bans and, later, "parental advisory" stickers do not prevent rock from attracting more and more followers. They much prefer its festive high masses to those of the churches. A moment of mystical communion, the rock concert borrows its codes from religion. After their deaths, grieving fans even raised altars to Elvis Presley and Lemmy of Motorhead. The devil sells at the same time, and musicians decide, since they are accused of collusion with Satan, to make a pact with him. This results in black metal. This subgenre of heavy metal became known in the 1990s thanks to a dangerously radical Norwegian scene (murders, church fires), before happily converting to marketing. The diabolical panoply indeed proves profitable. But today, the Christian religion has begun a vast movement to recover musical styles, metal included. It is not uncommon to see young haired men dressed all in black chanting in a hoarse voice a pious "Blessed be Your Name." From processions of Elvis fans to an improbable metal church, this documentary with delightful archives, where colorful specialists and repentant bad boys prowl (such as Pierre Favre, ex-member of the Bouchers Boys who became a volunteer at a catholic help group), retraces with the required sardonic humor the thunderous fight between religion and rock, two forces which ended up canceling each other out.
- Runtime
- 52m
- Released
- 2017
Details
Release year: 2017
Storyline
From the fundamentalist crusades of the 1950s to Christian metal, sixty years of a merciless battle between rock and religion. From its birth, rock shook up Christian morality. Its African-American origins and frenzied rhythm make devotees bristle. In the South of the United States, fundamentalists go on a crusade, but book burnings, bans and, later, "parental advisory" stickers do not prevent rock from attracting more and more followers. They much prefer its festive high masses to those of the churches. A moment of mystical communion, the rock concert borrows its codes from religion. After their deaths, grieving fans even raised altars to Elvis Presley and Lemmy of Motorhead. The devil sells at the same time, and musicians decide, since they are accused of collusion with Satan, to make a pact with him. This results in black metal. This subgenre of heavy metal became known in the 1990s thanks to a dangerously radical Norwegian scene (murders, church fires), before happily converting to marketing. The diabolical panoply indeed proves profitable. But today, the Christian religion has begun a vast movement to recover musical styles, metal included. It is not uncommon to see young haired men dressed all in black chanting in a hoarse voice a pious "Blessed be Your Name." From processions of Elvis fans to an improbable metal church, this documentary with delightful archives, where colorful specialists and repentant bad boys prowl (such as Pierre Favre, ex-member of the Bouchers Boys who became a volunteer at a catholic help group), retraces with the required sardonic humor the thunderous fight between religion and rock, two forces which ended up canceling each other out.
Top credits
- Ian Anderson — Self
- Ben Barbaud — Self
- Hugues Barrière — Self
- Jonathan Enns — Self