Bring on the Night (1989)

Rockumentary, directed by Michael Apted, about the making of Sting's first solo album Dream of the Blue Turtles. I'd seen this one before, many years ago, but revisited it again recently.

As you might expect, great music from one of the most talented pop stars, as well as a nice insight into his artistic process, especially with the unusual band he had assembled. Most of the band members were black jazz musicians from America and Sting, an English lad, brought them together to make a pop music album. I thought it was funny that Sting was so concerned about the success of this endeavor, which he and other members for the group mention more than once during the film. The musicians were some of the most renowned in their field and, coming off his former band's most successful album (Synchronicity by The Police), it was a little hard to believe that he would have such trepidations about the success of this project.

There was a nice parallel with the birth of his son and the birth of this group and its first performance in France, which built in a layer of complexity in what would otherwise be simply the making of a successful pop album. The music, highlighting composition of the songs, the band practicing and live performance, is excellent and, if you haven't seen this side of Sting, take a look.