Scorsese and The Stones Illuminate Shine A Light

These gents rarely give interviews. So, when they decide to do a press conference en masse, every film and music journalist in New York--and from around the globe, for that matter--is pounding on Paramount Pictures' PR office door, requesting credentials.

New York's Palace Hotel's conference room is packed with critics, gossips and celebrity watchers. Scorsese-Jagger-Richards-Watts-Wood approach the dais, and there's a palpable buzz of anticipation, a veritable current of electricity in the air.

The discussion illuminates Shine A Light, Scorsese's glowing new documentary (yes, it's much more than a one-dimensional concert film) recording the Rolling Stones' benefit birthday bash for Bill Clinton at New York's Beacon Theater.

Marty and Mick do most of the talking and, affable as their chatter is, you sense there've been tensions during the making of the film--not that they don't like and hugely admire each other, it's just that they are, after all, two Titans, and each is quite clearly used to having his creative say and way.

But they really do manage to get on with the show and the film is amazing: You see the iconic Stones as you've never seen them before, you see Scorsese at the helm and you see how a documentary of this cinematic caliber is created with sixteen or seventeen cameras in constant play. It's fascinating, every last frame of it.

Shine A Light opens theatrically on April 4, playing on IMAX and regular screens. Opt for IMAX if there's one near you. Meanwhile, read my (edited) transcript of the standing-room-only press conference.