Steve Rose 

Lost in France review – 90s indie musicians relive a forgotten high

Scottish record label Chemikal Underground takes members of Mogwai and Franz Ferdinand to France to reminisce about a 1997 festival. One for the fans
  
  

How to get high in 2017 … Lost in France.
Nostalgia trip … Lost in France. Photograph: film company handout

A good music documentary can get you excited about an artist or scene you’ve never heard of, but this one, on Glasgow indie label Chemikal Underground, assumes you’re already a convert, and probably a middle-aged bloke. Even if you are, you might feel slightly deflated by this subdued nostalgia trip, which returns the label’s key figures (chiefly, members of the Delgados and Mogwai, plus Alex Kapranos, latterly of Franz Ferdinand) to the French town of Mauron, where they played an apparently seminal festival in 1997. “Apparently” because there’s virtually no record of the original event. Instead, we get six musicians reminiscing about the 90s glory days before playing a low-key gig in a cafe. The musicians are talented, thoughtful and charming, and their story says plenty about the decline of the music industry. But it feels like we’re getting the comedown without having had the high. They’d have been better off staying in Glasgow.

 

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